Tony Campolo

A Powerful and Controversial Speaker

Dr. Anthony “Tony” Campolo is known for having a strong impact on audiences, giving messages are peppered with challenging quotes. In one address he said, “When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this: When you die, will you be happy when everybody else is crying?” His speaking style is edgy and controversial. Some of his listeners find him inspiring, but others find him infuriating. A few conservative Christians have gone so far as to call him a heretic.
Tony Campolo encourages Christians to live passionately, filled by the power and love of Christ. He calls Christians to put their faith into practice because, he says, “love must show itself in service.” He writes, “The spirit-filled person, the heart that is on fire, the person who is sensitive, becomes intensely concerned about [social] issues, not just in abstract justice terms, but in very concrete, relational terms. He or she feels the pain of these people, and finds that their suffering is intolerable.”

Advisor to the President
For the duration of the Clinton presidency, Campolo has been thrust into the national spotlight for his role as an advisor to the President. Campolo meets with Clinton once a month to, in his words, “Sit and talk, and go where the conversation leads.” But he is quick to add, “We certainly have talked about [the poor] in very, very specific ways.” His meetings with the President have allowed him to bring the influence of the gospel to national social policy.

Dr. Campolo, the Academic
Campolo attended Eastern College in Pennsylvania, where he is now both a professor of Sociology and director of the Urban Studies department. Previously he spent 10 years on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. He did his graduate work at Temple University. He is also the founder and president of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, an organization involved in creating educational, medical and economic development programs in America and various third world countries. His extensive speaking schedule keeps him constantly on the run. He makes over three-hundred addresses every year all over the globe. He is a best-selling author with 25 books on Christian living to his credit. These include such lively titles as, Twenty Hot Potatoes Christians Are Afraid to Touch, The Kingdom of God is a Party, and Everything You've Heard is Wrong. His weekly television program, "Hashing it Out," is carried by Odyssey cable into 22 million homes. This program, featuring Campolo and preacher Steve Brown, discusses politics and examines how Christians, whether Democrat or Republican, can use the Bible as a tool to understand current political and social issues.
Dr. Campolo is an associate pastor at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia. He lives nearby in St. Davids, Pennsylvania with his wife, Margaret. They have two grown children, Lisa and Bart.

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