“1.2 billion people today try to survive on $1.00 a day. The Bible says God and his people are on the side of the poor, but incredibly rich American Christians give less and less as their incomes go up and up. What’s wrong about this picture,” says the “pull-no-punches,” founder of Evangelicals for Social Action, Dr. Ron Sider. The Christian activist, who has been a thorn in the ethical side of the evangelical world for decades, will be the featured speaker at Hardin-Simmons University Chapel on Tuesday, Oct 16 beginning at 9:30 a.m. The talk, “Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Ending the Scandal of Global Poverty,” Is open to the public.

Dr. Ron Sider

Dr. Sider feels the scandalous failure of Christians to “live what we preach” is at the heart of the matter, “In poll after poll by Gallup and Barna, we see that evangelicals live just like the rest of the world. Contrast that with what the New Testament says about what happens when people come to living faith in Christ. There is supposed to be a radical transformation in the power of the Holy Spirit. The disconnect between our biblical beliefs and our practice is just, I think, heart-rending.”

Dr. Sider doesn’t consider himself a radical. He takes pot shots from both the left and the right. But, few dispute that his message is uncomfortable no matter how he presents it. He applies evangelical morality – sin and repentance and the need for transformed lives – to the unfamiliar subject of politics and economics. If he moralizes about sex, no evangelical will ever object; but when he moralizes about wealth, well, it upsets people.

When asked how evangelicals can dig their way out of this morass he says, “We need to rethink our theology. We need to ask, ‘Are we really Biblical?’ Cheap grace is right at the core of the problem. Cheap grace results when we reduce the gospel to forgiveness of sins only; when we limit salvation to personal fire insurance against hell; when we misunderstand persons as primarily souls; when we at best grasp only half of what the Bible says about sin; when we embrace the individualism and materialism and relativism of our current culture.”

Dr. Sider attended the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, and received a BA in European history. After graduating from Yale with a Master of Divinity and Ph.D. in History, he accepted a position teaching at Messiah College, in its newly opened campus in the inner city of Philadelphia. He credits the racism, poverty, and evangelical indifference he observed first-hand with the inspiration for his first book, Rich Christians in the Age of Hunger. The book sold over 350,000 copies in three printings and is hailed as one of the most influential books in religion in the twentieth century by Christianity Today.

He has written over 22 books and over 100 articles in both religious and secular magazines on a variety of topics including the importance of caring for creation as a part of biblical discipleship. In addition to his work with the Evangelicals for Social Action, he is a founding board member of the National religious Partnership for the environment. He is also professor of Theology, Holistic Ministry and Public Policy and Director of the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy at Palmer Theological Seminary at Eastern University, in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.