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One Body, Many Political Views On Thursday, October 3, a six-member panel participated in a forum seeking to address the question, "How Would Jesus Vote?" The nearly two-and-a-half hour evening discussion was co-sponsored by Advance Church of Silver Spring, MD, and the Skinner Leadership Institute (SLI). The forum was held in Washington, DC, and was moderated by Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, President of SLI.
The six speakers represented a variety of Christian churches and denominations. They were: the Rev. Bruce Clark, pastor of Advance Church and forum organizer; the Rev. Richard Cizik, Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE); Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Bowie, MD; the Rev. Jeff Carr, Chief Operating Officer of Sojourners and Call to Renewal; Mrs. Janet Parshall, host of Janet Parshall's America, a nationally-syndicated radio talk show on the Salem Radio Network; and the Hon. Walter Fauntroy, former congressman and current pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, DC.
The first part of the forum focused on prepared questions read to the panelists by Dr. Williams-Skinner. These questions ranged from broader concerns (e.g., "Is it possible for a person to be a Christian and not be involved in social justice?") to specific issues (e.g., "How do we defeat terrorism … without the kind of preemptive war we find in Iraq?"). They were addressed to the panel as a whole. The second part of the forum focused on answering questions from the audience. For time's sake, each of these questions was assigned to one panelist, although occasionally other panelists responded as well.
No single answer could be found to the questions raised by the forum. On each topic, the panelists displayed quite different viewpoints. Moreover, sometimes their political differences revealed sharp theological differences.
The War in Iraq
Cizik took a very different tack by pointing out the need to elect leaders who understand religion. He contended that the current conflict on the religious end is not one of Christianity vs. Islam, but one of divisions within Islam itself. He also related how some believe that evangelicals' eschatology influenced the Bush administration to start the war. Cizik responded, "It wasn't the evangelicals who pushed [the war in Iraq] so much as the neocons," and argued that President Bush was motivated by concern for America as opposed to eschatology. Cizik stressed his support for the President even while admitting to disappointment at the lack of planning that went into the war.
Moral Issues
Carr argued that Christians need a broad sense of values representative of the Gospel. He criticized evangelicals for placing so much attention on a small number of issues and allegedly having little concern for other issues, including the recent Mark Foley affair.
In contrast, Parshall contended that marriage and abortion are fundamental moral issues. She lamented the Democratic Party's ignorance or rejection of evangelical successes, such as the lower prison recidivism rates for those who have gone through Christian rehabilitation programs.
Cizik said that evangelicals tend to put new issues on their radar screens only when their leaders speak out on issues. To get evangelicals involved, there must be a movement at the leadership level.
Fauntroy cautioned listeners to judge people not on their words, but their actions. He noted that you don't have to be an evangelical to know that pressures on the family affect society.
Population Control and the Environment
(A recent paper by IRD President James Tonkowich and Acton Institute fellow Jay Richards noted that the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) against global warming received major funding from the Hewlett Foundation, which links its support for environmental causes to its promotion of unrestricted abortion and other population control measures. Tonkowich and Richards warned that this funding relationship "inadvertently gives cover to population control and pro-abortion causes that evangelicals have historically opposed." They quoted Cizik as having told a World Bank audience: "We [evangelicals] need to confront population control and we can-we're not Roman Catholics after all—but it's too hot to handle now.")
The NAE leader emphatically stated that his views on this issue have been on record and have not changed. He opposes abortion as a means of population control and rejects the notion that people are the problem, as some environmentalists believe.
In apparent explanation of his remarks to the World Bank audience, Cizik called for greater discussion among evangelicals about population issues, particularly those relating to contraception. "[Some] of us … thought that there was always a population control method called contraception," he explained. While some evangelicals oppose the use of contraception, Cizik himself does not share those reservations. He asserted that in the Third World, contraception is viewed "as a means [by which] to overcome fertility issues." Solutions to this issue are difficult to find, Cizik said, but evangelicals should engage the population control lobby: "If you believe as I believe, that population is not the problem, [then] the question we have to address, it seems to me, is this: Are some contraceptive programs being used in ways we would not agree with as evangelicals?"
Like Cizik, Fauntroy admitted that he didn't have a solution to the population control issue. He admitted that it is easier to know what is not an option for Christians (e.g., abortion, perhaps contraception) than what is an option.
Carr argued that the environment is today's "moon shot" issue. He worried, however, that it may get overlooked by Christians.
Religion and Politics
Jackson asserted that there were many people on the left who wouldn't have a platform were it not for the work that the Moral Majority and other conservative Christian groups had done several decades ago. He asked all in attendance to pray for the Democratic Party to change its course on homosexual issues, and to pray for the Republican Party to be delivered from its "mercenary orientation."
Government and Social Justice
Each panelist expressed misgivings regarding social justice issues at various points in the evening:
A United Stand?
Fauntroy saw one issue as paramount: Christians need to focus on the poor, "the least of these." The United States should stop "wasting money" on other programs, he insisted. Fauntroy seemed to see those non-poverty programs as unrelated to the Christian's main calling: to show a sacrificial love for one's neighbor.
Others disagreed. Parshall again emphasized the apostle Paul's words concerning government's purpose in defending law-abiding citizens against evildoers who would harm them. Jackson declared that Christians need to be concerned with everything the Bible says and emphasized Christian understandings of righteousness and justice. Cizik called for greater participation by Christians in the political realm.
Even with the diverse views represented on the panel, all the panelists could agree on at least one thing: even while there would always be a diversity of opinions regarding how Jesus would vote, Christians should be knowledgeable of current issues and vote based upon that understanding. |
