DR. JACK R. VAN ENS, AUTHOR

CREATIVE GROWTH INC.

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E-mail: vanensfam@juno.com

Web site: www.thelivinghistory.com

EVANGELICAL MANIFESTO REJECTS IDENTIFYING WITH REPUBLICANS

A wimp doesn't dare issue a manifesto. The strong declaration a manifesto delivers isn't for the faint at heart. Those who pen a manifesto don't hedge, sound tentative, or offer hunches. A manifesto rings with conviction. It asserts what an author claims is unequivocally true.

In "An Evangelical Manifesto" released on May 7 th, 2008 evangelical power-brokers severed the chummy relationship their conservative ranks forged with the Republican Party over the past quarter century. In a 19-page declaration, usually too long and rambling for a clear, concise manifesto, evangelical leaders admitted it was a mistake to chose one political party as their favorite. "That way faith loses its independence, the church becomes a 'regime at prayer,'" confessed the authors. The government coddles organized religion to further its political aims, with the president and his officers worshipping in cathedrals where they offer right-sounding religious rhetoric.

Christianity shouldn't align with a particular political persuasion, the Manifesto declares. "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, particular ideology, economic system, or nationality," states the declaration.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ loses authenticity when politics domesticates it.

High-profile conservative Christian leaders worked with a nine-member steering committee to refine the Manifesto's text. 95 heads of Christian organizations initially signed the document. Included is my former college philosophy professor-now president of Fuller Theological Seminary-Richard Mouw. He signed the statement with other well-known leaders such as Jack Hayford, president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel; Leith Anderson, National Association of Evangelicals president; and, Max Lucado, mega church preacher in San Antonio TX who writes best-selling devotional literature.

Missing from the signatories are Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Richard Land, who heads the Southern Baptist public policy council. Both men push agendas within their organizations that jibe with the Republican Party's platform. They protect a cozy relationship with the GOP.

"The Evangelical soul is not for sale," the Manifesto reports on page 15. But the prime reason the Manifesto exists is because the evangelical witness has been compromised. The Republican Party has bought its soul.

The Manifesto would be more apropos if it had been issued when the evangelical empire appeared invincible prior to 2006. Now that the evangelical witness has lost its steam in Washington, it's easier to make a break with the Republican Party. Such a divorce prior to 2006 would have demanded action of heroic prophetic proportion. Moreover, releasing such a Manifesto then would have caused major splits in evangelical ranks.

Since 2006, the evangelical influence has waned because large segments of the population, particularly among its voting youth, have left the Republican Party. Commenting on the Pew Research Center's study "How Young People View Their Lives," David Kinnaman in his book UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity...and Why It Matters offers the following bleak assessment of youth turning their backs on the Republican Party. They reject its religious cant and hypocrisy.

" Young Adults are less likely than preceding generations to start their political explorations as Republicans. As people get older, they usually become more politically conservative. Yet the up-and-coming generation is less likely to rally around Republican and politically conservative banners than were people the same age just twenty years ago. Among young adults under age twenty-six, connection to the Republican Party is at its lowest point in two decades."

What prompts this exodus? The Pew Research Center reports in 2001 55 percent of white evangelicals ages 18-29 were Republican. By 2007, a dip in devotees became a landslide of defections as only 40 percent of the youth selected the elephant as a preferred political mascot over the donkey. Energetic voting youth are sick of Republicans aligned with evangelicals who have disregarded the biblical teaching when campaigning to "speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle and show perfect courtesy toward everyone"-including opponents ( Titus 3:2).

Even an insider like George W. Bush's former chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson, has chastised his evangelical community for equating the Gospel's demands with the Republican Party's agenda. Speaking to the 2008 Christian Student Leadership Conference, Gerson stated how Christ leaps beyond any governmental agenda or political preference. Christ critiques them all. A political bloc like the Republican Party, which exudes supercilious religiosity to win evangelical votes, shouldn't try to hi-jack the Christian faith. Christ doesn't cow-tow to any political preference.