A Lament from the South

This stern word to North American Christians from our evangelical sisters and brothers in Latin America poses the perennial - and ultimate - question: Are we Christians who happen to be Americans or Americans who happen to be Christians? As biblical and sociological scholars, both of whom affirm their debt to this country, C. René Padilla and Lindy Scott tellingly point out in this powerful little book that our very souls depend on the answer to that question. Who are we Christians in this country today? And what is the Christian church here?

The authors paint a disturbing picture - more in sorrow than in anger, I believe - around the subject of U.S. church people’s response to the Iraq war in particular and to our country’s imperial policies in general. Beginning with an extensive listing of Latin American evangelicals’ ringing condemnation of President Bush’s intention to invade Iraq, the book calls into serious question U.S. foreign policies, economic aggression, militaristic impulses, and the very way of life in the United States.