Lynchburg "Revival" Felt Like Partisan Rally

An event held near Liberty University was more of a liberal partisan rally to condemn evangelicals rather than inviting people to know salvation in Christ, claims an evangelical author who attended the event hoping to find unity.

Shane Claiborne and the group Red Letter Christians spearheaded what was called “The Lynchburg Revival" last weekend at E.C. Glass High School auditorium, which drew around 200 people, according to reports.

Speakers included well-known progressive figures like Tony Campolo and William Barber, and several musicians and artists. While asserting an ideologically neutral "Kingdom" theology, for months event organizers presented the revival as an event that would show the contrast between their faith and the "toxic" brand of evangelicalism….Chelsen Vicari, evangelical program director at the Institute on Religion & Democracy in Washington, D.C., [said] that she went to the Lynchburg, Virginia, event hoping it would live up to its name but was disappointed.…"I hoped that we would hear preachers share the Gospel, to witness lost souls find salvation, and see lives transformed. But what I witnessed was more of a rally intended to stir a partisan base rather than a Holy Ghost revival," she said. Growing up she and her family would fast and pray for revival, emphasizing that the main focus was that many would come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord.

The opening prayer at the Lynchburg revival informed the entire agenda for the weekend, Vicari recounted. The prayer consisted heavily of condemnations of all kinds of violence rather than petitioning God…."Instead, we just heard a lot of broad brushstrokes against unrestrained military. And that was really difficult to hear as a wife of a veteran who is proud of her husband's service to the country and knows the personal sacrifice of what that service entailed."

One of the musicians featured at the revival, Micah Bournes, recounted during a spoken word segment that he has told military servicemen that he "is not grateful for your service," Vicari recalled. Bournes explained that he regards fallen soldiers as "victims, not heroes" and suggested Christians "fight evil with poetry," a line which earned him a standing ovation.

Author and LBGT activist Brandan Robertson proclaimed at the event that LGBT Christians "are already the church" and did "not need to wait to be included." He urged fellow LGBT individuals to exhibit grace and truth "even when the church still has a hard time acknowledging our existence."

Robertson also co-led a seminar titled "LGBTQ+ Christians and Their Allies." Vicari was unable to attend, she wrote, but a friend who did reported that he was shocked to hear a young woman get up and defend polyamorous relationships during the Q&A. Others in the room nodded approvingly and "Mhmmed" as she spoke.

Speaker after speaker called out conservative Christians for their silence and inaction on certain issues, alleging they were collaborators with evil, a frustrated Vicari explained.

"And I could not help but wonder if I would hear similar rebukes of Progressive Christians for their silence on abortion or the plight of persecuted Christians overseas," given their so-called Kingdom perspective, she said.

"We have heard so often lately these critiques of evangelicals who walk in lockstep with a political candidate or party whose platform is counter to biblical values. But the Lynchburg revival proved to me that evangelicals who are liberal politically fall into the same trap they accuse conservative Christians [of falling into]," she said. "It was discouraging but [it was] also eye-opening.”

(Showalter, "'Lynchburg Revival' Felt Like 'Partisan Rally,' Dishonored Military, Says Evangelical Author,” ChristianPost online, April 12, 2018).