Progressive Evangelicals Look to Reshape Political Image

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An evangelical group that wants to reshape the movement's political reputation for being focused on opposing abortion and same-sex marriage is hoping that a series of meetings stressing its roots in women's suffrage and abolition will help it break out of the mold.

The stated goal of the first three-day "justice revival," one of several to be held around the country, is to tackle poverty in the city through a collaboration with Big Brothers Big Sisters.

But the broader idea is to energize the relatively small liberal end of the evangelical spectrum by linking religious faith with social action as earlier American social movements did, its planners say. Among the areas to be explored by participants are access to health care, immigration, global warming and the war in Iraq.

"I have been very deeply moved by the history of these great awakenings in our national life, where there was a revival of faith that led to big change in our society," said Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners/Call to Renewal.

The Washington, D.C.-based group will hold the event April 16-18 in Columbus, with 30 of the city's largest evangelical churches, representing 10,000 Christians.

"A whole generation of young evangelicals believes that Jesus would probably care more about the 30,000 children who died again today — as they did yesterday and they will tomorrow — from preventable disease than he would about passing a gay-marriage amendment in Ohio," Wallis said.

The group's leaders seek to reverse the public perception that all evangelicals are conservative Republicans whose top social priorities are opposing abortion and gay marriage.

White evangelicals comprise about one-third of the Republican Party.

"Our message is evangelicals aren't going to be in the pocket of any party anymore, and they're going to evaluate all candidates by their own moral compass," Wallis said. "This revival is entirely nonpartisan.

"It's about faith and it's about issues, it's not about Barack (Obama) and Hillary (Rodham Clinton) and John McCain," he said, referring to the contenders for Democrats' presidential nomination and the Republicans' presumptive nominee.

Sojourners/Call to Renewal has been trying for years to make its voice heard.

But it has been boosted recently by growing recognition within the Democratic Party of the importance of faith. In January, former President Jimmy Carter led a meeting of thousands of Baptists, including Southern Baptists who had distanced themselves from their conservative denomination, who pledged to work together on social justice, as well as faith concerns.

"We can disagree on the death penalty, we can disagree on homosexuality, we can disagree on the status of women and still bind our hearts together in a common, united, generous, friendly, loving commitment," Carter said.

Recent surveys have found that younger evangelicals are less tied to the GOP than their parents have been, even while remaining deeply opposed to abortion. They are especially concerned about environmental protection, leading many conservative Christians to reassess their views on the issue. A group of Southern Baptist leaders issued a statement March 10 saying the denomination had been "too timid" on environmental issues and has a biblical duty to stop global warming.

Wallis' detractors say he is trying to steer religious conservatives to the Democratic Party — launching the effort in Columbus, the capital of a state that swung the presidency to George Bush in 2004 by a just 2 percent margin. Bush's Ohio victory was attributed largely to turnout among religious conservatives mobilized by a proposed gay marriage ban that appeared on that year's ballot.

"I think this is part of a concerted effort to try to reach out to the values voters and take them away from the pro-life candidates," said Denise Mackura, executive director of the Chicago-based Thomas More Society public interest law firm, which opposes abortion. "It's an effort to say ... go ahead and vote for Barack or whoever because there are these other issues, to convince people not to base their vote on the right-to-life issue."

But Wallis and other activists say many Christians don't need persuading.

"Lots of people feel that the evangelical label has been taken captive by a very narrow political program," said the Rev. Rich Nathan, senior pastor at The Vineyard Church of Columbus, which is hosting the revival. "Folks don't feel that that represents them. Many of the so-called evangelical leaders are saying, we didn't elect these people, they don't represent us. How did they become our spokespeople? How did this narrow agenda become our agenda?"

Besides Wallis, other evangelical leaders, including Marsha Ford, have begun to tout a more bipartisan political view, said Warren Smith, editor and publisher of the Evangelical Press News and other Christian news publications.

"There are still many millions of religious conservatives who believe that abortion and the sanctity of the family are two of the most important political issues of our day," he said. "And we can talk about other things, but at the end of the day those issues are likely going to keep these religious voters from ever pulling the lever for the Democratic party."

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.