McChurch Swinging to Center

Scholar Foresees Major Shift to Evangelical Center

The evangelical center is attracting more people and emerging as an influential voice of faith witness in American politics, contends an evangelical scholar in his new book.

Wed, Mar. 12, 2008 Posted: 09:01:22 AM EST

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WASHINGTON – The evangelical center is attracting more people and emerging as an influential voice of faith witness in American politics, says an evangelical scholar in his new book.

Dr. David P. Gushee, author of The Future of Faith in American Politics: The Public Witness of the Evangelical Center, along with a panel of prominent evangelical leaders affirmed Tuesday what political pundits and pollsters have for some time observed – the rise of a new breed of evangelicals that is different from the “old guards” of the Christian right.

“I am arguing in this book that over the last two decades an evangelical center, representing at least 30 percent of evangelicals and growing quickly, has been emerging,” Gushee said at a first-of-its-kind panel discussion about the evangelical center.

“I suggest in the book that there is visible movement toward the center from both the right and the left, that many black and Hispanic evangelicals are best classified as centrist, and that there is a marked shift toward the center among younger evangelicals.”

Evangelical Centrists are characterized by their commitment to core theological teachings in the Bible; refusal to be aligned with any political parties; combination of moral and policy concerns of both the right (abortion and marriage) and the left (poverty and war); bridging leaders from both the right and left for practical solutions to problems; and adoption of a more civil tone in relating to both Christians and non-Christians in conversation, according to Gushee.

Among the list of evangelical centrists are the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC); the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE); Ron Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action; David Neff, executive editor of Christianity Today; and megachurch pastors Rick Warren and Joel Hunter.

Furthermore, most leaders in Christian higher education and many individuals and groups in the evangelical relief and development community are evangelical centrists, according to Gushee.

“I don’t think anything will be, in the long run, more significant in American politics than the shift you see evident here today,” said NAE’s Cizik. “In terms of the shift that is occurring, I describe it as a slow moving earthquake. It is slow moving at times so you don’t see the consequences, but you will feel it.

“Those of you who observe the evangelical movement or are part of it need to understand it,” said Cizik, who wrote the forward to Gushee’s book.

The NAE leader who has been championing creation care at the ire of Christian right leaders said Tuesday that evangelical centrists such as himself are “re-visioning” the movement and attempting to “recast” what they are called to do.

He also said the religious right “missed” the big picture by only seeing part of it and predicted the next issue that evangelicals will tackle is peacemaking in the “broadest of sense.”

“The strategy is completely different, it is moving from a zero sum game politics – where someone else has to lose in order for us to win – to a common good vision,” Cizik said.

NHCLC’s Rodriguez echoed the sentiments of the shift towards the evangelical center:

“The future of evangelicalism in America is brown and it is center,” he declared. “It is not right or left.”

Rodriguez, who has been highly courted by presidential candidates trying to reach Hispanic evangelicals, said that historically white evangelicals have focused on the issues of marriage and life, or “righteousness and piety” issues. Meanwhile, African-American evangelicals concentrate on social justice issues such as health care, education, and poverty.

“And you have brown evangelicals and they really want to reconcile and they don’t want to be either, or – but be right here in the middle,” Rodriguez said. “There’s a platform of both righteousness and justice…It’s life, it’s marriage, but it’s healthcare, it’s education, and the issue of poverty.”

He added that there is a generational shift and an ethnic shift that will lead to an evangelical center emerging as the majority in the next five to 15 years – “and if Latinos continue to grow by the grace of God, maybe even sooner,” Rodriguez joked, drawing laughter from the audience.

Gushee noted earlier in the discussion that evangelical centrists would consider voting for Sens. Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, but abortion “more than any other issue” still poses a problem for gaining their vote.

Evangelical centrists support a comprehensive view of Christian right agendas such as sanctity of life, which they see as going beyond abortion to include torture, poverty, racism, war, and environmental degradation.

“If a Democratic presidential candidate proposed a serious demand-side plan to reduce abortion by half over the next eight years, and invested real political capital in the effort, it would make a significant difference for centrist evangelicals,” the author said.

Gushee is part of the group of evangelical leaders that launched last year the “Come Let Us Reason Together” initiative, in which evangelicals and progressives seek to end the culture war between the two groups and find common ground on polarizing issues such as abortion, gay rights, and the role of religion in public life.

Michelle A. Vu
Christian Post Reporter

God Now a Democrat? Party Switcher!

Author sees “God Strategy” at work in U.S. politics

March 11th, 2008, filed by Ed Stoddard

DALLAS - In America, church and state may be separate but the distinction between religion and politics has become increasingly blurred over the past couple of decades.

In the just published book “The God Strategy: How Religion Became A Political Weapon In America,” authors David Domke and Kevin Coe chart the rise of religiosity in American politics and discuss its implications. They do so by, among other things, comparing the religious language used in presidential addresses, party platforms and other political discourse over the decades.

This includes some imaginative charts such as one that gives the total word count for faith and family in the Republican and Democratic Party platforms from 1932 to 2004. (The Republicans were a bit behind at one time but since 1980 have soared ahead in this count).

Domke, who is a professor of communication at the University of Washington in Seattle, spoke to Reuters about the “God Strategy” which he says has been used with effect by Democratic presidents like Bill Clinton as well as the Republican George W. Bush.

Q: Can you imagine a party or presidential candidate who could be successful today without employing the “God Strategy?”
A: My answer is no. The reality is that in American presidential politics not willing to publicly emphasize your faith will mean you will not be a serious candidate on either side of the partisan aisle.

Q: How do you see the God Strategy playing out this November?
A: It really is interesting. About six months ago when I looked at the six major candidates from the two major parties, for the first time in decades the Democrats were better situated for a fusion of religion and politics. If you looked at the frontrunners for the Democrats, Clinton, Edwards and Obama, all three of them had been … out publicly putting faith into their issue positions. Clinton had talked about her Methodist upbringing, Edwards had talked about it in terms of poverty, and Obama had talked about it in terms of God in the public arena. All three of them had been much more vocal than any of the major Republican candidates at that time, Huckabee wasn’t really on the radar screen. But when you looked at Giuliani, McCain, possibly Thompson, the reality was that it appeared that the folks on the Republican side were going to be less comfortable with all of this. Now you have McCain who is not very comfortable talking about his faith but will do it. I think we will see some more of that from him. He’ll do it as needed and that will work for him if Clinton is the nominee for the Democrats. If it’s Obama then I think Obama has the higher ground on religion and politics.

Q: You say in your book that the God Strategy in some ways threatens the democratic vitality of the nation? Can you elaborate?
A: In many respects the fusion of religion and politics is absolutely contrary to what the founders desired for the country. They fled religious sectarian violence, religious persecution and they set out build a new place where God would be part of the equation but there wouldn’t be a state, a national religion. And that was unprecedented …

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Will the Last Theocrat Please Stand!

Role of religion in politics debated

Friday, Mar 07, 2008 - 07:59 AM

BY JEFF E. SCHAPIRO

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

God knows, religion has found its way into the 2008 presidential race.

In a debate last night on religion in politics and government, a scholar, two activists and a cleric said competing views of faith are coloring the campaign to succeed President Bush, who is among the most openly devout presidents since Jimmy Carter a generation ago.

Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., and a proponent of religious activism in public life, said "faith will be the spoiler" and will determine who wins the presidency.

However, Jackson said any "discussion of faith and its content is not meant to X people out." Rather, he said, it is a means by which voters come to understand candidates.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said religion is already prominent in the campaign, and because of that candidates are being judged not by their records but how religion might affect their policies.

"I don't want a theocracy, even if it's by a democratic vote," Lynn said.

* * *

Jackson, Lynn, Nixon White House aide-turned-prisons ministries advocate Charles W. Colson and Jacques D. Berlinerblau, professor of Jewish civilization at Georgetown University, appeared at a debate sponsored by the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, who on Tuesday dropped out of the race with U.S. Sen. John McCain for the Republican nomination, is a Baptist minister. Another one-time candidate, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, was called on to explain his Mormon faith.

Among Democrats, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York have publicly discussed how faith guides their lives.

The debate -- recorded at the Jefferson Hotel for broadcast on public television stations across the country -- is the latest in a series, which the center's executive director, former Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, described as a "response to public dismay over what passes for public discussion" of often-volatile issues.

Colson, who served seven months in prison after pleading guilty to Watergate crimes, said the absence in the current campaign of religious-oriented political organizations, akin to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, "is a sign that Christianity in the political movement is growing up."

But Berlinerblau said those who mix religion and politics overlook a tradition of avoiding that mixture. As evidence of what he described as a "clear, apolitical strain" among religious figures, Berlinerblau cited remarks by Falwell in 1964 that a pastor's place is behind the pulpit.

The moderator, Newsweek editor at large Evan Thomas, opened the debate by suggesting that religion is at the "heart of the culture wars" that divide the nation.

Previous debates focused on the Iraq war and privacy issues. Future topics include health care and immigration.

The Miller Center's National Discussion and Debate Series is underwritten by philanthropists Frederic W. Scott and Anne R. Worrell. Sponsors of the Richmond event include the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Check inRich.com or TimesDispatch.com later today to see a video of the debate. Keyword: video.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at jschapiro@timesdispatch.com.