U.S. evangelicals call for step back from politics
07 May 2008 18:02:50 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Ed Stoddard
DALLAS, May 7 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. evangelical leaders called on
Wednesday for a
pullback from party politics so that followers would not become "useful
idiots" exploited for
partisan gain.
One in four U.S. adults count themselves as evangelical Protestants,
giving them serious clout
in a country where religion and politics often mix. Conservative
evangelicals have become a key
support base for the Republican Party.
But the movement has had growing pains and the statement issued on
Wednesday, called an
"Evangelical Manifesto," is the latest sign of emerging fractures as some
activists seek to
broaden its agenda beyond hot-button social issues such as opposition to
abortion and gay rights.
"Christians from both sides of the political spectrum, left as well as
right, have made the
mistake of politicizing faith," the manifesto declares.
"That way faith loses its independence, the church becomes 'the regime at
prayer,' Christians
become 'useful idiots' for one political party or another, and the
Christian faith becomes an
ideology in its purest form," it said.
The manifesto was signed by leading and mostly centrist evangelicals such
as Leith Anderson,
president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals;
Mark Bailey, president
of the Dallas Theological Seminary; and evangelical academic and author
David Gushee.
Many of the more than 70 signatories have been critical in the past of
evangelical partisan
involvement which was seen as the crucial element behind U.S. President
George W. Bush's
re-election victory in 2004.
Leading figures on the conservative "Religious Right" such as Tony
Perkins, president of the
Family Research Council, did not sign the document and his office said he
had not been asked to
sign it.
LIMITED POLITICAL IMPACT
Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center,
said of the
statement: "It's a sign of maturation of the evangelical movement ... It's
an important
theological document but it will have limited political influence because
it is making a
essentially a theological argument."
The document also highlights divisions that have been there for a while as
some leading
evangelicals attempt to redirect the movement's considerable energies
toward areas such as
action on global poverty and climate change.
Polls show growing numbers of evangelicals receptive to a wider social
agenda and Democratic
presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been
attempting to woo them in a
bid to peel some away from the Republican camp ahead of the November
election showdown with
John McCain.
But analysts say most are still center-right politically and polls
consistently show most
remain opposed to abortion rights. They are also deeply committed to their
faith.
"We have a big umbrella called evangelicalism which is theological in
nature. We are called to
be followers of Jesus Christ and men and women of the book," said John
Huffman, a pastor and
chairman of the board of Christianity Today.
Huffman, who helped draft the document, told Reuters by telephone that the
group wanted to
bring back "civility of discourse in the public square." (Editing by
Michael Conlon and
Mohammad Zargham)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N07482581.htm
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