| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="WebPreferences" |
|---|
-- GideonHart - 2 Apr 2008 | | | On May 7th a group of evangelical Christian leaders released a document entitled “An Evangelical Manifesto," described by its writers as “an open declaration of who Evangelicals are and what they stand for.” The LA Times described the Manifesto as “urging separation of religious beliefs and politics” and stated that it told evangelicals that they “err when they use their religious beliefs for political purposes.” A Reuters article characterized the Manifesto as a call to evangelicals to “step back from politics,” and an article on UPI stated the Manifesto was an attempt to “remove the term ‘evangelical’ from the realm of politics.” In my opinion these articles, and others like them, have not understood the Manifesto’s position on the proper relationship between politics and faith for evangelicals. | |
<
< | I think much of the confusion stems from the third section of the Manifesto, where it reads, “The other error, made both by the religious left and the religious right in recent decades, is to politicize faith, using faith to express essentially political points that have lost touch with biblical truth,” and later, where it reads, “Christians on both sides of the political spectrum…have made the mistake of politicizing the faith…a politicized faith is faithless, foolish, and disastrous for the church” (15). When read alone, these lines do seem to suggest that the authors of the Manifesto are encouraging evangelicals to retreat from politics. However, that interpretation is difficult to sustain when those sections are placed in context. Rather than being a plea for evangelicals to retreat from politics or to insulate politics from religion, the Manifesto actually seems to encourage evangelicals to remain involved in politics, and to make their religious convictions part of their political identity. The document is cautioning against not involvement in politics, but against involvement in partisan politics. Additionally, the Manifesto calls for the creation of a “civil public forum,” because, I believe, the Manifesto’s authors worry that the growing hostility towards religion’s role in politics will sever religion and politics in America. The document is not attempting to separate religion and politics, but rather, is encouraging behavior among evangelicals that will allow them to continue to publicly make political decisions based on religion. | >
> | I think much of the confusion stems from the third section of the Manifesto, where it reads, “The other error, made both by the religious left and the religious right in recent decades, is to politicize faith, using faith to express essentially political points that have lost touch with biblical truth,” and later, where it reads, “Christians on both sides of the political spectrum…have made the mistake of politicizing the faith…a politicized faith is faithless, foolish, and disastrous for the church” (15). When read alone, these lines do seem to suggest that the authors of the Manifesto are encouraging evangelicals to retreat from politics. However, that interpretation is difficult to sustain when those sections are placed in context. Rather than being a plea for evangelicals to retreat from politics or to insulate politics from religion, the Manifesto actually seems to encourage evangelicals to remain involved in politics, and to make their religious convictions part of their political identity. The document is cautioning against not involvement in politics, but against involvement in partisan politics. Additionally, the Manifesto calls for the creation of a “civil public square,” because, I believe, the Manifesto’s authors worry that the growing hostility towards religion’s role in politics will sever religion and politics in America. The document is not attempting to separate religion and politics, but rather, is encouraging behavior among evangelicals that will allow them to continue to publicly make political decisions based on religion. | | | A Retreat from Partisan Politics |
|