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Ergun Caner, president of the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, said the manifesto is “like coming out to a Pittsburgh Steelers game wearing a Cleveland Browns jersey. It’s a document that has great intentions but will never happen.”
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It’s a document that a group of Christian leaders hope can rally evangelicals and ease political polarization.
But Liberty University officials feel parts of a recently released, 20-page “Evangelical Manifesto” undercuts the political activism and voice in modern culture that founder Jerry Falwell spent his life advocating.
A committee of nine pastors, seminary deans and writers from across the country released the manifesto earlier this month. Its intent is to reaffirm, and redefine, evangelicals’ identity and public involvement.
“That word evangelical has taken on increasingly political connections,” said David Neff, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today and a committee member. “That’s not what we’re about. Our identity is promoting faith in Jesus Christ and all that goes with that.”
A section that has drawn particular ire from Liberty officials states that neither the religious right nor religious left should “politicize faith.” In that case, Christians become “useful idiots” for one political party or another, it states, and beliefs become weapons for political interests.
Ergun Caner, president of the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, said the manifesto “muddies the water” when it comes to being an evangelical.
Caner, a former Muslim who converted in 1982, defines the term as “pro-life, pro-family” and having solely Christian beliefs.
“To me, it’s like coming out to a Pittsburgh Steelers game wearing a Cleveland Browns jersey,” Caner said of the manifesto. “It’s a document that has great intentions but will never happen.”
Caner said he wasn’t happy to learn his name was listed as a charter signatory to the manifesto when it was unveiled May 7 in Washington D.C. The committee contacted him to review the document’s language, he said, but he never gave consent to include his signature.
Neff said it was an oversight that Caner’s name had been included and it has since been removed.
Caner said Falwell was also listed as having signed it, though Neff said he was not aware of that and the manifesto’s Web site does not list Falwell as a signatory.
Jerry Falwell Jr., chancellor of Liberty University, said his father would never sign anything that would discourage political involvement.
“Anyone who knew Dad knew that’s not what he believed,” Falwell said.
The manifesto, which Neff admits is a self-critical look at evangelicals, stresses reforming behavior and pushing for more denominational unity.
Neff said there also must be a different approach in engaging in the public square, like trying to decrease political polarization.
“We don’t feel like it’s our task to further that polarization,” Neff said. “If anything, we should bridge people.”
The manifesto also calls for a need to go beyond “single-issue” politics such as abortion and marriage to fight against racism, corruption, poverty and illiteracy.
Caner said he does not disagree with the manifesto as a whole, but called the section addressing political activism “spineless” and a “group hug approach to Christianity.”
He said in a written statement that he does not apologize for stances the university has taken for decades.
“We believe Christianity has been pushed out of the public square,” Caner wrote. “We are not owned by any political party, but we will stand with and for candidates that are for our values and against those values that we see as unbiblical.”
Neff said reaction to the manifesto so far has been “mixed.” There was no intent, he said, to impact the upcoming presidential election by swaying evangelical voters who played a part in electing President Bush to two terms.
Falwell said there always have been people in both parties who call themselves evangelicals, but the turnout in recent elections for the pro-life, pro-family candidate has been reassuring.
He said he predicts the same kind of turnout in this year’s election.
“It’s a little harder for evangelicals to get excited about John McCain than it was for Bush,” Falwell said. “But when it comes to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, he’s better than the given alternatives.”
Neff said the evangelical term has been around for centuries, but was revived in the 1940s by the ministry of Billy Graham. He personally defines an evangelical as someone who has converted, has Christian and Bible-centered beliefs and participates in social activism based on compassion.
Nearly 29 percent of the United States population consider themselves evangelical, according to the 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, a publication of the Census Bureau.
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Reader Reactions
1.) I agree with many that the actions of alot of Christians are uneducated and abhorrent.
however…haha
2.) LU is anti Prosperity Theology/ Health n Wealth Gospel ( they teach against benny hinn, mike murdock, kenneth copeland, and oral roberts ect..ect.
3.) If any church actually told a congregation who to vote for, they would lose their tax exempt status..so I don’t understand that straw man. However, a npo, can argue for beliefs or values; and in certain election years some canidates are easier to choose for certain npo’s than others. (should NOW be criticized b/c they would seem to endorse hillary?)
I agree with whoever said that we should vote issues, values,beliefs, and not party lines. George Washington made a comment to the extent that if the parties became the power over the issues instead of the power that brought forth the issues, then America would be in trouble (esentially he saw a problem with strict partisianship)
4.) Finally just because Bush was popular among evanglicals, don’t get uptight. I recall he was elected by 51%, his approval rating is around half that (seems to indicate people can admit mistakes). Furthermore, his approval rating at the end of 2001 was near 80%; so please don’t exagerrate the issue.
That is also what Reagan thought when he said “Tear down this wall.“ And he was right.
You mean the Christ that ran the money changers out of the temple with a whip?
I started to write a response to the LU reaction to this wonderful evangelical manifesto that says what many Christians have been trying to say for the past two decades (plus) after the fundamentalists put Reagan (“I don’t go to church. I don’t have time”) in office as their “moral mentor.“
But . . . Punto has said it all, and I applaud your perfectly aligned prose in both substance and form. Well said.
Caner’s photo looks like he’s mad at the world. Why am I not surprised?
Falwell is responsible for the the current state of affairs in America. His lunacy gave us the neocons and the subsequent loss of our Constitutional rights— including the loss of habeas corpus—and the destruction of America. He put these corporate traitors in power. Thank you, Mr. Falwell, traitor to America.
This is why religion must be separate from politics: �We believe Christianity has been pushed out of the public square,� Caner wrote. �We are not owned by any political party, but we will stand with and for candidates that are for our values and against those values that we see as unbiblical.�
This statement by Caner is one in many steps toward a theocracy desired by evangelicals. Here is what is wrong with it.
1. There are over 30-thousand “Christian” denominations in which interpretations of the bible vary. When Canner states, “unbiblical”, to which interpretation does he refer?
2. This is why Caner, LU and the Falwell clan do not support the manifesto. Neff states that evangelicals “participate[s] in social activism based on compassion.“ Far too many of today’s “Christians” have little or no compassion for the non-Christian. In fact, it is both sad and ironic that so many loud, and narcissistic so-called Christians in the US today act about as much like Christ as Hitler, Hussein, or Bin Laden. They lay the worst of human traits on their god: hate, envy, prejudice, scorn, and self-righteousness.
Disagree with me? Just look at some of the messages on the signs in front of churches and businesses in the Lynchburg area or on the bumper stickers of cars in the area. They use fear to market their brand of religion. There is little love or compassion for anyone not like themselves. It is no surprise then that LU disavows the manifesto. It is gentle like Christ.
Sorry [Reality Check], people in Lynchburg used to be silence and submissive to TRBC. They were afraid to speak out and expose the fools for who they (you) really are. We’re speaking out now and you fundies are freaking out because you don’t know how to take it. You were winning in the past, but now the tide has turned, so get ready for your defeat. Don’t worry, as long as there is stupidity, you will still have a congregation. When America stops dumbing-down the people in this country, then is the time fundies to worry.
These LU and Falwell haters are really becoming venomous. I am encouraged by that. It means we are winning!!
DennisZ, I agree with your statement “too many people claim to be followers of [Christ] but are a dumb as a rock when it comes to picking a president or someone elected.“ I especially agree with your comment “Don�t vote for the party.“ The idea of looking to “what and how Christ told us to live” is especially worthy of consideration.
However, the tricky part comes with the next statements about how to vote. In an attempt to understand, I find myself wondering if you intentionally front-loaded your argument to lead up to your last statement in the post (“Use it or lose it, America still has time to turn around not a lot, but I hope and pray [that] God will give us one more chance before He turns us [over] to our enemies”).
We have been living with the effects of a presidential administration that has used secrecy and deceit and lies, that has issued more signing statements to allow him to disregard the law than have all the other presidents combined, that has systematically dismantled a number of protections under constitutional law, that has brought us as a nation into an ill-advised war that is draining our economy, that has authorized the use of torture while denying such, that has in an act of ill-conceived war killed and maimed men and women and children both born and unborn, that has established and sought protection for its political cronies, that continues to obstruct bipartisan legislation, that clearly misleads the media and public when asked direct questions, that demonizes world powers that does not agree with him, etc., etc., etc.
Using the Bible as a voting tool is a double edged sword. Solomon had many wives, as did David (who even killed to get one of them). Several leaders drank, caroused, lied, taxed, waged war, amassed personal riches, and so forth. The NT enjoins believers to submit to those who rule, which was a genuinely mixed bag for those living under several of the Herods and Caesars, and later under Hitlers and Mussolinis.
While Jesus never addressed homosexuality, many want to make that a litmus test. As jarring as it will sound, Jesus never addressed “selling out the U.S.“ either, but some want to turn that into some standard (on that, it’s interesting to look at how cozy Bush is with Saudi Arabia, considering where the 9/11 attackers were from.) Jesus did address divorce, which many want to ignore. Jesus also addressed lying, caring for the poor, considering carefully whom is one’s neighbor, giving alms, religious misdeeds, turning one’s cheek, all of which many ignore.
The problem is not with voting with how Christ told us to live, it’s with how those who claim to follow him have sometimes so narrowed what his concerns and message were as to render then unrecognizable. Even Gandhi noted that “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.“ Granted, he is not the ultimate authority on Christianity, but he does have a point to be considered.
Why is it that too many people claim to be followers of christ but are a dumb as a rock when it comes to picking a president or someone elected. Don’t vote for the party, vote in line with how well the persons life lines up with what and how Christ told us to live. You don’t vote for thoes who lie, steal, go along with killing unborn children, it’s not that hard, when someone wants to sell out the U.S. to our so called friends you don’t vote for them. We have 300 million people in america and these 3 are the best we can come up with to run for president, we need Gods’ hel, so pray that God will give us the president we need not what we deserve. We as christians not need a nother paper telling us how to live. We have Gods’ word it called the Bible.
Use it or lose it, America still has time to turn around not a lot, but I hope and pray the God will give us one more chance before He turns us ove to our enemies.
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