NAE

WASHINGTON – Unlike in the United States, there is little controversy among evangelicals around the world on whether climate change is real, said an evangelical representative at a press briefing on Capitol Hill.

“They know it is real,” said Deborah Fikes, executive advisor of the World Evangelical Alliance – a global alliance of churches in 128 nations and over 100 international organizations. But in the United States, many evangelicals deny climate change is real because they are “self-absorbed” and “lack [the] spiritual will” to change their lifestyle to help solve a problem that is life threatening, she said.

Fikes was a member of the delegation of evangelical leaders and leading climate scientists that briefed top White House advisors and U.S. Senate offices Tuesday about climate change. The self-described odd partners urged lawmakers to put aside their differences, as they had, and quickly act to address the climate change problem. more >>

Groups for and against immigration reform continue to butt heads over the recent stance taken by the National Association of Evangelicals, which last month expressed their support for reform that includes more compassionate treatment of undocumented immigrants.

America’s Voice, which supports humane comprehensive immigration reform, blasted leaders of NumbersUSA for encouraging its evangelical members to “hammer” their denominations with complaints against the NAE’s new immigration resolution.

In a Nov. 2 article in the Congressional Quarterly, Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, said that “about a third of our members are evangelicals” and “they immediately started hammering their denominations” after being informed of NAE’s stance. more >>

President Obama may get a shot at ushering in a new era of bipartisanship in Washington as he had promised with the largest evangelical body in the country having recently stated its support for immigration reform, including a pathway for 12 million illegal U.S. immigrants to become citizens.

When President George W. Bush was trying to pass immigration reform in 2007, the National Association of Evangelicals – which claims to represent 30 million U.S. evangelicals – abstained from taking an official position on the issue.

Now, two years later, the NAE has taken a firm and very public stance in support of comprehensive immigration reform. Top NAE leaders earlier this month even testified before the U.S. Senate in support of an earned pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. more >>

Leaders of the National Association of Evangelicals have issued several clarifications on the group’s stance on immigration reform in the days since it released its resolution on the issue.

Over the past week, various groups – Christians as well as secular – have criticized the NAE’s decision to take a strong stance in favor of undocumented immigrants already in the country. Among the criticisms are that the evangelical body is supporting amnesty for those that break the law and that the group is becoming more liberal.

“NAE is adopting the sad trajectory of the National Council of Churches, speaking to detailed political issues beyond its traditional moral purview and the consensus of its constituency,” decried Mark Tooley, president of the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy. more >>

The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, spoke to The Christian Post last week during the Evangelical Leaders Forum.

The following are excerpts from the interview:

CP: You keep a pretty low-profile considering you’re the head of an organization that represents 30-million members. What is your philosophy on leadership, especially Christian leadership? more >>