Theologian and founder of Evangelicals for Social Action Ron Sider recently spoke at the Micah Summit Event in New York City where he discussed the impact of Catholics and Evangelicals working together for social reform. The renowned author spoke during the event's Shaping Up for the Public Square segment on Monday afternoon where he highlighted the similar views of both Christian groups when it comes to social political issues and discussed some negative aspects between both parties' relations in the past.
"For most of the time [relations between Catholics and Evangelicals] have been awful," said Sider to the crowd. "If you think back 50 years ago we were calling each other dreadful names. We've made enormous progress on that, especially now in the U.S. because of finding each other on issues of abortion and marriage. I think it's important that we continue the dialogue discovering each other on common ground on social political issues where there's enormous overlap." He also touched on their theological commonality and how that could be an advantage to them working together to solve some of the world's issues. "Both Catholics and evangelicals believe that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That the carpenter from Nazareth is true God and true man. His life, death and resurrection are the way to salvation for all people. That he rose bodily from the dead on the third day. That the Bible is God's unique special revelation fully authoritative. Catholics add some foot notes about tradition that are important but what I just said is common ground. And that Christ will return at some point," Sider told The Christian Post. "That's an awful lot of common ground. And I'd like to focus more on the common ground, as we continue to talk about the areas we disagree theologically."
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