Journeys toward evangelical moderation

There are a raft of biographical narratives describing departures from the religious right. Here are two: Craig Weidman and Richard Cizik.

I’m still struggling with my own personal political theology, and it continues to be a work in process. What I’m finding is that faithfulness to Christ has little to do with whom I vote for, which party (if any) I belong to, or what cultural issues I’m against. Faithfulness to Christ is most primarily worked out at the ground level of personal engagement in my neighborhood and community, with my family, and among the motivations and attitude of my own heart with respect to the impact of the issues of our day on people individually and society as a whole. –Weidman

That’s why the evangelical church in America is in big trouble. It has lost its center: the Gospel. It is a movement that has been captured by conservative politics and treats that message as more important than the Gospel. It will do anything, literally anything, to maintain the conservative status quo. Throw anyone overboard. Avoid taking a stand on controversial topics, such as climate change. Even refuse to confront racism, Islamophobia, or antigay bigotry. No matter the heresy, or bad judgment, organizations such as the National Association of Evangelicals will choose to walk away from a controversy before they will confront the major figures of the Religious Right. –Cizik