With antipoverty call, evangelicals seek new tone
Respond to concerns on negative image
WASHINGTON -- Concerned that the nation's incendiary culture wars have taken a toll on their image, Christian conservatives are joining liberals in calling for more government spending to combat global poverty and are urging fellow evangelicals to remember that their primary calling is personal ministry, not politics.
The National Association of Evangelicals -- a conservative group mostly known for its opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage -- joined other religious leaders meeting in London last week to urge those attending the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Scotland to dramatically increase aid and trade benefits to impoverished nations.
''We are lending our voice to this cause in a way we've never before done," said the Rev. Richard Cizik, the group's vice president of government affairs.
That call was made just days after the Southern Baptist Convention agreed to end a boycott of
''Southern Baptists seem to have been known in recent years for what we're against," said James T. Draper Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Convention's publishing arm. ''The perception is that we are mean and negative."
Evangelicals, whether liberal or conservative, have always been deeply involved in poverty and relief work, as well as human rights, both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, Christian conservatives' opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage show no signs of changing. Religious-right groups will figure prominently in the upcoming battle over a nominee to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is retiring from the Supreme Court.
But even as Christian conservatives enjoy unprecedented political influence -- with deep ties to Republican leaders on Capitol Hill and a soul mate in the Oval Office -- many leaders fear there is a widening perception that they are a harsh, and resented, presence in American public life.
''I'm deeply concerned that evangelicals put too much of a priority on the political and not enough on the spiritual, and I think it is a complete error to allow that sort of image to arise in the public's eye," said Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
At the same time, conservative involvement gives liberal antipoverty groups a new avenue of political access: Top officials of the 30-million-member National Association of Evangelicals have close ties to the White House and aren't shy about lobbying the president on behalf of their causes.
''There's no question that their involvement opens a new door for us," said the Rev. Ron Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action, which combines an antiabortion stance with peace and social justice issues.
Last week, the National Association of Evangelicals played a key role at a White House meeting in which liberal and conservative religious leaders urged the administration to devote billions more in aid to Africa. President Bush agreed to substantially increase such aid.
Last fall, the association produced a document it described as ''historic," urging members to pursue a ''biblically balanced agenda" of civic engagement. ''Justice for the poor" was included alongside sanctity of life and marriage, with the note that ''God measures societies by how they treat people at the bottom."
Even after they were credited with electoral successes in 2004, Christian conservative leaders ''have been stung by the criticism toward them, that they weren't doing politics on the whole gospel, but only on part of it," said John C. Green, a University of Akron political science professor who has written books on religion and politics.
A March poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press indicates that 34 percent of Americans hold an ''unfavorable" view of Christian conservatives, compared with 29 percent in 2002. (Forty-one percent rated Christian conservatives favorably.)
The poll was taken at a time when the nation was divided over the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died March 31 after her husband succeeded in having her feeding tube disconnected.
Many church leaders worry that their take-no-prisoners approach to the culture wars is turning off potential new members. ''If you're condemning people to hell you're not going to get many converts," Green said.
The shift in tone is producing some unlikely bedfellows. A new TV commercial features U2 singer Bono and liberal actors such as Brad Pitt, Ellen DeGeneres, Susan Sarandon, Holly Hunter, and George Clooney making the case that the United States should fight global AIDS and poverty by dedicating 1 percent of the nation's budget to the cause. Two-thirds of the way through, a surprise visage appears: TV evangelical Pat Robertson, a fixture on the political right, arguing that ''Americans have an unprecedented opportunity."
The Southern Baptists' baptism initiative partly grew out of concerns that the denomination was becoming too identified with controversial political issues instead of personal ministry.
Southern Baptists, the nation's largest non-Catholic denomination, have been at the forefront of the Christian right since the convention's takeover by staunch conservatives in the 1980s. The 11,000 ''messengers" who attended the annual meeting at a Nashville arena were overwhelmingly white and the leadership mostly men. In the past, the convention has made headlines with its stands against women as ministers and in favor of wives submitting to their husbands.
A chart in the exhibition hall listed abortion and homosexuality first in its ''top 10 issues facing today's church," and Bush, speaking via video, drew standing ovations when he pledged to defend the family and marriage. A resolution was passed encouraging churches to investigate the impact of the ''homosexual agenda" in public schools.
But concern about image played into a decision to drop the Southern Baptists' eight-year-old boycott of Disney, which the group criticized over movies it said ''promoted infidelity" and special days offered at Disney theme parks for gay and lesbian visitors. Leaders cited the company's publication of Bible guides and the impending departure of Disney chief Michael Eisner, their chief foe.
Separately, a proposal to boycott Carnival Cruise Lines for sponsoring an annual gay cruise was tabled by the convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
