Blog from the Capital

The statement by a group of evangelical leaders I wrote about earlier this week has been released today and is online.

Maybe because of the Baptist tradition to resist a creed, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the very idea of *a manifesto* of evangelicals. But if nothing else - and there is plenty there for me to personally disagree with - it's nice to see a group questioning the wisdom of a close association between religion and politics.

Christians from both sides of the political spectrum, left as well as right, have made the mistake of politicizing faith; and it would be no improvement to respond to a weakening of the religious right with a rejuvenation of the religious left. Whichever side it comes from, a politicized faith is faithless, foolish, and disastrous for the church – and disastrous first and foremost for Christian reasons rather than constitutional reasons.

Called to an allegiance higher than party, ideology, and nationality, we Evangelicals see it our duty to engage with politics, but our equal duty never to be completely equated with any party, partisan ideology, economic system, or nationality.
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Let it be known unequivocally that we are committed to religious liberty for people of all faiths, including the right to convert to or from the Christian faith. We are firmly opposed to the imposition of theocracy on our pluralistic society. We are also concerned about the illiberalism of politically correct attacks on evangelism. We have no desire to coerce anyone or to impose on anyone beliefs and behavior that we have not persuaded them to adopt freely, and that we do no not demonstrate in our own lives, above all by love.
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[W]e utterly deplore the dangerous alliance between church and state, and the oppression that was its dark fruit. We Evangelicals trace our heritage, not to Constantine, but to the very different stance of Jesus of Nazareth.

The Interfaith Alliance's Welton Gaddy released a statement that included this:

I appreciate the tone of this document, especially the call to remove religion from politics, though it does not and should not remove the right of people of faith to voice their concerns on issues of national importance. We will have to wait and see what, if any, impact this document has on the Religious Right.

Americans United's Joesph Conn has some concerns here.