Prominent
evangelicals urged Christian conservatives Wednesday to
support ''an expansion of our concerns beyond
single-issue politics,'' angering some leaders on the
religious right who have been closely allied with the
Republican Party.
In a 19-page
document called ''An Evangelical Manifesto,'' more than 70
theologians, pastors, and others said faith and politics
have been too closely mixed. They warned against
Christians adopting any one political view.
''That way faith
loses its independence, Christians become 'useful
idiots' for one political party or another, and the
Christian faith becomes an ideology,'' they wrote.
Many veteran
Christian activists on the right side of the political
spectrum do not support the declaration.
James Dobson,
founder of the conservative Christian group Focus on the
Family, reviewed the document and was invited to sign it but
did not, said Gary Schneeberger, a spokesman for
Dobson. Dobson consulted the group's board of
directors -- a common practice -- and the board agreed
he shouldn't sign ''due to myriad concerns about the
effort,'' Schneeberger said.
''One of the
things that disappointed Dr. Dobson was that when the
manifesto was initially circulated, no African-American
pastors or theologians were on the invite list,''
Schneeberger said. ''His thinking was, 'How can this
purport to represent the voice of evangelicals when
people so vital to who we are as a movement are excluded
from involvement?'''
He would not
discuss any other of Dobson's concerns.
The Reverend John
Huffman, pastor of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, a
megachurch in Pasadena, Calif., acknowledged the effort
lacks participation from African-Americans and women.
But he said the initial signers are merely a beginning
and ''anyone can sign on if this resonates with
them.''
Richard Land,
head of the public policy arm of the conservative Southern
Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant group in the
country, said he was not asked to sign the document.
The Southern Baptists routinely receive video
greetings from President Bush at their annual meetings.
Janice Shaw
Crouse, director of the Concerned Women for America's
Beverly LaHaye Institute, said the manifesto was
''blurring the distinctions between liberal and
conservative'' and would confuse Christian voters
about the issues that are most important: opposition to
abortion and gay marriage.
Jerry Newcombe, a
senior producer of the conservative Christian TV show
The Coral Ridge Hour, said the manifesto creates
a ''straw man'' by portraying some evangelicals as
intolerant and seeking to create a theocracy.
''Part of the
whole point they were making was that we need to be more
civil in our dialogue. I agree. But I guess the question is,
who is being uncivil here?'' Newcombe said. He said
atheists ''really want to shut down voices on the
other side.''
Conservative
Christians make up about one third of GOP members, but
polls have found that younger evangelicals are less tied to
the party than their parents and are seeking a broader
agenda, that includes fighting poverty, racism, and
global warming.
Separate polls
have found that many non-Christians have negative views of
today's Christians, saying they are too judgmental and
political.
''Our problem is
not mislabeling by the press or rebranding because we
have a bad image,'' said Os Guiness, an evangelical scholar
and a drafter of the document, which was released in
Washington. ''The problem is reality. Much of
evangelicalism is not evangelical.''
Among the
drafters and preliminary supporters of the manifesto are
Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in
California; Samuel Rodriguez, president of the
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Jim
Wallis, founder and editor of Sojourners Magazine;
and Frank Wright, president of the National Religious
Broadcasters.
The manifesto has
been in development for a few years, and organizers
insisted they did not time the release for the presidential
election. John McCain, the presumptive Republican
nominee for president, has been struggling to win over
evangelicals.
John Green,
senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public
Life, said the document held a message for both major
parties.
''Republicans
need to realize that evangelicals care about a lot of
things,'' Green said, ''The message to Democrats is similar:
Don't ignore us. If you pursue the right issues and
have the right platform, there are many evangelicals
who will consider voting for you.''
The document says
liberals share the blame for mingling politics and
religion, but most sharply condemns evangelicals, saying
many of their problems ''are those of our own
making.''
The declaration
seeks ''an expansion of our concern beyond single-issue
politics, such as abortion and marriage.'' It also condemns
anti-intellectualism among fundamentalists and the ''pose as
victims'' that many U.S. evangelicals adopt.
Evangelicals need
a new tone in expressing their views, the document
says. The culture war has become a ''holy war'' with a
''dangerous incubation of conflicts, hatreds, and
lawsuits.'' (Rachel Zoll, AP)
