Liberal and conservative evangelicals set aside their political differences Wednesday to urge that President Bush do more to end the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The Rev. Jim Wallis, head of the liberal Sojourners/Call to Renewal, an evangelical social justice movement, and the Rev. Richard Land, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, are among the leaders of the Evangelicals for Darfur campaign.
"I believe the president does care deeply about this," said Land, a longtime Bush family supporter. "I see this as helping strengthen the president's hand and enable the president to do what's in his heart to do."
The White House press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Religious groups from many faiths have been lobbying world leaders to help the Sudanese since rebel groups rose up against the Khartoum government in early 2003. More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced since then, escalating the situation into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
But Wallis said world attention to the region has been sporadic, and evangelical leaders think time is running out to prevent what many consider government-backed genocide. The Sudanese government is accused of letting the Janjaweed militia of Arab nomads commit atrocities against villagers.
"Until we resolve this, we can't stop talking about it," Wallis said.
The U.N. wants to send 20,000 U.N. troops to Darfur to replace an ill-equipped and understaffed African Union force that has not been able to quell the violence. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir argued that U.N. forces would start a "re-colonization" of Africa.
Evangelical leaders said they are not calling for U.S. military intervention, but instead want the U.S. to use its authority as a world leader to get a multinational force into the country.
The campaign includes print newspaper ads, a letter-writing campaign to Bush and other activities. Among the supporters are some of the top names in the evangelical movement: the Revs. Ted Haggard and Rich Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals; the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; and the Rev. Geoff Tunnicliffe of the World Evangelical Alliance.
Leaders are asking to meet with Bush to discuss their concerns.
Cizik said in the midst of the fight against terror, the administration may be reluctant to "upset a Muslim capital, who will then call in other extremists to fight the Crusader West." The Khartoum government is predominantly Muslim. Some American Muslim leaders have dismissed evangelical lobbying on Sudan as anti-Islam.
Land said Bush has not been more forceful because of a lack of popular support for action in his administration and Congress, concern that the nation can't make another overseas commitment and the "lack of sufficient demand from the American people that something be done."
Land rejected any suggestion that the White House is ignoring evangelicals on Sudan.
Former Bush aide David Kuo has just released a book in which he claims that evangelicals were embraced for political gain at the White House, but were derided privately as "nuts."
Said Land: "I have no doubt about the president's commitment to this issue."
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