Wealth & Money Quote by Tony Campolo

Campolo is doing something tricky: he’s chastising his own side without lighting the match that usually comes with intra-faith critique. The sentence is engineered like a careful pastoral cough. “We’ve got to ask ourselves” spreads responsibility across a collective, turning an accusation into a communal examen. It’s not “they are manipulating,” it’s “we should consider whether.” That rhetorical hedge isn’t cowardice; it’s strategy. It lets him raise a taboo charge while keeping the door open for listeners who’d otherwise shut down.

The parenthetical stumble - “I hate to bring this up” - is the tell. He signals that the topic is uncomfortable not because it’s impolite, but because it threatens group solidarity and institutional legitimacy. Campolo is a clergyman accusing “certain religious leaders” of fundraising through emotional reflex: “pushing hot buttons.” The phrase borrows from marketing and political consulting, smuggling a secular critique into sacred territory. He’s reframing some religious appeals as stimulus-response economics: fear, guilt, outrage, end-times panic, persecution narratives, all converted into donations.

The subtext is less about money than authority. If leaders are activating congregants’ anxieties to raise funds, faith becomes a transaction and believers become targets. Campolo’s tone stays measured because he’s speaking from inside the house; he can’t just torch “religious leaders” in general without undermining pastoral trust. So he narrows it to “certain,” keeps the language procedural (“ask ourselves”), and still manages to land the punch: spiritual leadership shouldn’t need psychological pressure tactics to keep the lights on.