April 5 1999

ARTICLE TOOLS

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In 1738, evangelist George Whitefield preached a sermon entitled, "The Almost Christian." He contrasted "almost Christians" with "altogether Christians," and berated the former for their ignorance of the faith, their servile fear of being counted odd by others, and their love of money and creature comforts.

"Tell them of the necessity of mortification, fasting and self-denial," the legendary orator thundered, "and it is as difficult for them to hear as if you were to bid them cut off a right hand or pluck out a right eye."

Two hundred sixty-one years later, Christians are having less difficulty hearing the call to mortification, fasting, and self-denial. Many in North America are suddenly rediscovering these disciplines and counting it all joy. Rather than grudging the occasional missed meal, they are eagerly gathering by the tens of thousands to engage in corporate fasting and prayer. And they are buying books on fasting by the hundreds of thousands. And all because they long for revival in a land where Christian culture has been squeezed to the margins and where the mirage of Christian political influence has twice evaporated in recent memory.

Is this burgeoning movement a mere retreat from politics out of disappointment in its meager payback? Seeking God's face so earnestly can be a healthy response to that disappointment—but only if its adherents do not withdraw from the important grassroots work of local involvement in school boards and city councils nor from the vital national work of advocating legislation that facilitates justice. The leaders of this five-year-old movement seem to realize two important truths: that it is God who empowers both personal and societal change, and that if we wish to be part of that ...