A document and declaration signed by 80 evangelical leaders has hit the press this week. You can find the full text on the web at this link: http://www.evangelicalmanifesto.com/media/manifesto.htm
A summary excerpt:
“We wish to stand clear from positions in public life that are confused with Evangelicalism.
We repudiate two equal and opposite errors into which many Christians have fallen recently:
First to privatize faith, applying it to the personal realm only, falsely divorces the spiritual from the secular, and causes faith to become “publicly irrelevant.”
The other error is to use faith to express political points that have lost touch with biblical truth. Christians become “useful idiots” for one political party or another. Christian beliefs are used as weapons for political interests.
Christians from both sides of the political spectrum, left as well as right, have made the mistake of politicizing faith; a politicized faith is faithless, foolish, and disastrous for the church - and disastrous first and foremost for Christian reasons rather than constitutional reasons.
Called to an allegiance higher than party, and nationality, we Evangelicals see it our duty to engage with politics, but never to be completely equated with any party or nationality. In our scales what is right outweighs what is popular, just as principle outweighs party, truth matters more than team-playing, and conscience more than power and survival.
The politicization of faith is never a sign of strength but of weakness. The saying is wise: “The first thing to say about politics is that politics is not the first thing.”
The Evangelical soul is not for sale. It has already been bought at an infinite price.”
More summaries about the Evangelical Manifesto