Posted on March 22, 2006
Evangelical Christians, for some time now, have been synonymous with conservative political leanings. The Republican Party has established a block of seemingly unwavering supporters founded significantly on ascribing to certain Christian beliefs. It has been constructed in such a way as to make American Christianity inseparable from the Republican Party by placing specific issues, such as pro-life causes and the protection of marriage, higher on the moral barometer than others.
Yet with the rising importance of creation care and social justice advocacy, there is reason to believe that Christians are not willing to be bound to this handful of issues. We seem to be on the precipice of a potential breakdown of the conservative block.
The Rev. Rich Cizik, the National Association of Evangelicals’ vice president for governmental affairs, is currently under fire from evangelical bigwigs for subscribing to a platform that not only champions a pro-life stance, but a focus on human rights, poverty and environmental care. Cizik, a self-proclaimed Republican supporter, is asking that evangelicals “return to being people who are known for our love and care for our fellow human beings and the earth.” Cizik’s progressive thinking is leading him into the tension between the demands of evangelical politics and the honoring of personal convictions.
His views, however, have not come without opposition. On March 1, a team of 25 evangelical leaders — including James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Gary Bauer of the Coalition for America — wrote the NAE a letter of formal grievance against Cizik’s policies and ideologies. Their fundamental claim is that the “divisive and dangerous” Cizik is “using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children.”
Such bold statements, which serve to limit the bounds of our moral compasses, have enraged Christian believers across the nation. What Dobson and the rest of his allies seem to be missing is that issues such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the current genocide taking place in Darfur, the continuing of the sex slave trade by way of human trafficking and the existence of starvation and extreme poverty are issues of serious moral concern to countless evangelicals, but are being ignored by their evangelical leaders.
Such an audacious and limited response on the part of Dobson has only served to further fracture evangelical Christian solidarity that was, at one point, so steadfastly conservative. The Rev. Jim Wallis, author of “God’s Politics: Why the Right gets it Wrong, and the Left Doesn’t Get It,” has challenged Dobson’s letter by essentially inviting him to a debate over where the great moral issues lie, and how Dobson may be misrepresenting our generation. “What are the great moral issues of our time for evangelical Christians?” Wallis asked, “You’re right, a new generation is embracing a wider and deeper agenda than you want them to. I think that is a very good thing. You think it is a bad thing, and want to get people fired for raising broader issues than those connected by sexual morality.”
Whether or not the debate between the conservative evangelical Dobson and the progressive evangelical Wallis occurs, the nation can be assured that there is change happening within the conservative Christian block, and many evangelicals are not letting men like Falwell, Bauer and Dobson be their political mouthpieces anymore.
Rebecca Parker is a sophomore justice studies major.
