February 14, 2005
Moderate Evangelicals Preach Their Own Politics
by Stevenson Swanson
Chicago Tribune
When it comes to politics, evangelical Christians don't all sing from the same choir book.
Abortion, same-sex marriage and stem cell research may be the issues most commonly associated with evangelical voters, but moderate and liberal evangelicals are mounting an effort to make their voices heard on subjects not normally associated with their movement, including poverty, the war in Iraq and the environment.
White evangelical Protestants voted overwhelmingly for President Bush last year, but, illustrating the broader spectrum of thought within the group, 76 leaders of evangelical colleges, seminaries and ministries recently asked him to do something about what they called the nation's "unacceptably high" rates of hunger and poverty and the high numbers of Americans who lack health insurance.
"I think it's really important to break up the old stereotypes," said Rev. Jim Wallis, an evangelical whose new book, "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It," has drawn attention to evangelicals' political diversity. "There is a progressive religious option, and that is encouraging to people of faith who are tired of the control of this issue by the right."
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