On my top ten list of “Stimulating, Challenging Speakers/Writers” I have heard/read, Tony Campolo is the seventh as listed chronically by year of birth. Through the years, I had the privilege of hearing him speak on two or three occasions and chatting with him briefly. With deep appreciation, I am posting this article today on the 90th anniversary of his birth.
Anthony Campolo Jr. was born 90 years ago today on February 25, 1935 (three and a half years, minus ten days, before I was born). His parents were Italian Americans in Philadelphia. Tony went to Eastern College, Eastern Baptist (now Palmer) Theological Seminary, and Temple University in that city, obtaining a Ph.D. degree at the latter in 1968.**
Wikipedia correctly notes that Campolo was a sociologist, Baptist pastor, author, and public speaker. I have long felt an affinity with him for those, as well as other, reasons. I was a sociology major in college, and he and I were ordained as Baptist pastors in the same year (1957). I am also an author and have been a public speaker, but to a considerably less degree than Campolo. And the positive influence I have had on others is minuscule compared to his.
It was with sadness that I heard on November 19 of last year that Campolo had died.
In his more than three dozen books, Campolo focused on Christ’s teachings about uplifting those in poverty, anti-war views, protection of those suffering, and lessons on wealth inequality. In 2007, he and Shane Claiborne (one of his former students) co-founded Red Letter Christians, a movement focusing on Jesus’ stated views regarding social justice.
In a Nov. 20, 2024, article, Jim Wallis states that Campolo was “a great preacher but was, above all, an evangelist who proclaimed ‘good news to the poor,’ just as Jesus did when he launched his mission at Nazareth.” Later in that piece, Wallis refers to Campolo as “an evangelist to evangelicals.”
In addition to Claiborne, another of Campolo’s many students who are carrying on his work is Bryan Stevenson (b. 1959), of whom I posted a blog article (see here).
Here are some of my favorite quotes of Campolo:
“Jesus refers to the poor over and over again. There are 2,000 verses of Scripture that call upon us to respond to the needs of the poor. And yet, I find that when Christians talked about values in this last election that was not on the agenda, that was not a concern. If you were to get the voter guide of the Christian Coalition, that does not rate. They talk more about tax cuts for people who are wealthy than they do about helping poor people who are in desperate straits.
“Putting religion and politics together is like mixing ice cream with horse manure. It doesn’t hurt the horse manure; it ruins the ice cream. And I think that this merger of church and state has done great harm to religion.” (2006)
“The gospel is not about… pie-in-the-sky when they die. … It is imperative that the up and coming generation recognize that the biblical Jesus was committed to the realization of a new social order in this world. … Becoming a Christian, therefore, is a call to social action.”
Campolo, known also for his sense of humor, also is said to have spoken these tongue-in-cheek words: “I’ve always been skeptical of those television healers who are bald. If I had that gift, that’d be the first thing I’d fix.”
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** My younger daughter also acquired a Ph.D. at Temple U. (in 2000).
The View from This Seat (supplementary blog) 
I was pleased to receive several comments this morning on this blog post. The first was a short one from a local friend who was born before a few years before Campolo:
“Morning, Leroy. Campolo’s work is never out of date.”
Here are cvomments from Truett Bakerr in California. He is a retired Christian minister who was born about the same time as Campolo or a bit before:
“Thanks for the delightful and inspiring blog on Dr. Compolo. I’ve always admired him but know little about his background. Your article was helpful.”
Virginia Belk, who was a college classmate of June and me and who has long lived in New Mexico, writes,
“I agree whole heartedly that mixing religion and politics has done great harm to religion; further more, it violates the freedoms defined in the constitution. If Jesus had been an ordinary human and had stayed in his grave, by now, he’d certainly be rolling over in that grave! I think Jesus is very saddened by the state of affairs in our nation and in the nation of his earthly birth.
“One of the last financial contributions I made was to renew my membership in the organization dedicated to preserving the separation of church and state. (Speaking of financial status, despite the recent raise in Social Security, that income seems to deplete more rapidly than ever before!) I continue to be alarmed, saddened, frustrated by the headlines in the on-line newspaper that I read each day!
“Alarmed at the crass, inhumane, irresponsible trend in the policies being implemented.
“Saddened by the human suffering being imposed on an increasing number of humans.
“Frustrated that I can think of nothing positive that I can do beyond ‘preaching to the choir!'”
Frank Shope, who also lives in New Mexico, shares these comments:
“Like others, Dr. Campolo had significant impact on my life. As a college student he helped shape my thinking toward the world. At times he reminded me of what it is to follow Christ and set aside more than one temptation.”
Here are comments from Charles Kiker in Texas:
“I’m among the relatively few still living who was born before Tony (11/25/1933). I met him at a conference somewhere several years ago, and then saw him at another later. And he remembered my name! Peace and Justice advocates lost a good friend. Let us keep on keeping on!
My brief interaction with Tony Campolo years ago led me to take a second look at his message: I think it was one of the first helpful challenges I had to my conservative evangelical thinking. Now I’m about to use one of the great quotes you used here (“The gospel is not about… pie-in-the-sky when they die”) with two atheist friends who are texting me about how resurrection/heaven is all Christians care about.
Most memorable for me was listening to Campolo once in an address say in so many words love and power move in opposite directions. Only God can hold both in perfect balance and even he showed his greatest love in the weakness of the cross.
Yesterday afternoon, I also received the following substantial comments from David Fulk, a local friend who was one of my students at William Jewell College when I taught there one year in the 1980s.
“Thanks for this remembrance. I think Campolo was really underappreciated in most Baptist circles, particularly during the SBC controversy. He was liked among churches that went to the Alliance or eventually to CBF, but even there he took some getting used to. Most Christians (and this was true of me when I first heard him) in the Midwest had never really been confronted with helping those in poverty, even though, we’d talk about them in Sunday School or hear about them in a sermon.
“The first time I heard him was as a Jewell student in the 80s. He was rolling along about what Jesus taught about those in poverty and what we’re to do about it. He was getting fired up, lips wet with saliva, eyes squinting shut, pleading for what they needed and telling us that it’s up to Jesus’s followers to do be part of the solution. And then he said it. ‘And most of you don’t give a shit about them, because in this moment you’re more upset that I said “shit” than you are about the plight of those Jesus told us to help.’
“I’ve never forgotten his ability to hit us where it hurt. In that way, I believe he was prophetic. I wish I could have heard him more.”