Evangelical leaders decry politicization of their faith

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.

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.

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.

Conservative Christians comprise 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 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.