Die Entkehrung von Bart Campolo

THE NEW YORK TIME MAGAZIN erzählt, wie Bart Campolo, Sohn der Revisionisten Tony und Peggy Campolo, seinen christlichen Glauben verloren hat und Prediger des Atheismus geworden ist.

Though Marty, his wife, had long entertained doubts about Christianity, Campolo had always done his job and, in his words, “brought her back.” But the truth was, he had been breaking up with God for a long time. “When I took off on the bicycle that day,” Campolo says, “the supernaturalism in my faith was dialed so far down you could barely notice it.” It had been years since he made God or Jesus or the resurrection the centerpiece of the frequent fellowship dinners he and Marty hosted. Talk instead was always about love and friendship. In 2004, he performed a wedding for two close lesbian friends, and in 2006, he began teaching that everybody could be saved, that nobody would go to hell. To evangelicals, he already sounded more like a Unitarian Universalist than like any of them.

Now, after his near-death experience, his wife told him — more bluntly than she ever had — what she thought was going on. “You know,” Marty said, “I think you ought to stop being a professional Christian, since you don’t believe in God, and you don’t believe in heaven, and you don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead three days after dying — and neither do I.” He knew that she was right, and he began telling friends that he was a “post-Christian.” They treated him like an obviously gay man coming out of the closet. “People were like, ‘Yeah, we’ve known this a long time,’ ” he says. “ ‚Why did it take you so long to figure it out?’ ”

For Campolo, admitting that he had totally lost his faith was oddly comforting — he could stop living a lie — but also confusing. He loved talking to people, caring for them, helping them. He loved everything about Christian ministry except the Christianity. Now that he had crossed the bridge to apostasy, he needed a new vocation.

Ed Stetzer hatte die atheistische Berufung von Bart Campolo schon 2014 für CHRISTIANITY TODAY kommentiert und gab christlichen Eltern den Rat, rechtzeitig die Fragen der eigenen Kinder zu beantworten.

Ich bin nicht die nationale Figur, die Tony Campolo ist, aber meine Kinder sind ebenfalls im Rampenlicht, weil ich selbst zu einem gewissen Grad im Rampenlicht stehe. Und wenn du ein Pfarrer bist, so stehen auch deine Kinder in der Öffentlichkeit. Es reich aus, ein Christ zu sein, damit deine Kinder in gewisser Hinsicht im Rampenlicht stehen.

Beantworte die harten Frage deiner Kinder, mache deine Familie zu Jüngern, und erkenne schließlich demütig an, dass deine Kinder eines Tages ihre eigenen Entscheidungen über den Glauben treffen können und treffen werden.

VD: WH

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