The National Association of Evangelicals is leading its member churches into the political wilderness.That's the lead-in to a compelling article written by Karla Dial for Focus on the Family's CitizenLink. The piece details how dramatically has been the leftist tilt of NAE with folks like Richard Cizik, the NAE's outlandish vice president of government affairs and chief spokesperson for the organization, leading the way.
I have pointed out Cizik's and the NAE's irresponsibility before (see this post from last November) but things are just getting worse.
As Dial describes in her article, it is particularly Cizik's naive zealotry on the issue of global warming that has put both he and the organization at odds with their constituency. For despite the majority of evangelicals being unconvinced of the "Al Gorish arguments" eaten up by the mainstream media and other liberals, Cizik has made those very arguments (scientifically unsound as they are) into key planks of his neo-evangelical agenda.
As Dial describes, But Cizik staked out new territory on the topic in early April, when he spoke at a daylong global-warming conference sponsored by Newsweek magazine. Not content to merely repeat his mantra about global warming being "a moral and spiritual issue," he dropped a major political bombshell.
"The National Association of Evangelicals," he declared, "has every intention of making [global-warming legislation] a litmus test for evangelical support."
His remarks shocked fellow evangelicals. "That is an outrage," said Bill Saunders, senior fellow for bioethics at the Family Research Council (FRC). "The litmus test should be the destruction of human beings and the undermining of marriage. Nothing else reaches that level."
But aside from Cizik's enthrallment with global warming, he may be disturbingly concerned with being avant garde in other ways as well. For instance, Dial records Cizik's response to Fast Company magazine in 2006 in which he called those who resist his message "the old guard" that is "reaching up to grasp its authority back, like a horror movie where a hand comes out of the grave" — the "old guard," in this case, being evangelical ministries such as FRC, Focus on the Family and the American Family Association.
And, of course, more disturbing than the over-the-top political correctness of Cizik himself is that the NAE has yet to discipline him for his irresponsible remarks or even rein him in.
Therefore, if you are a member of the NAE or even just a Christian who realizes how dangerous it can be when the MSM have "liberal evangelicals" in leadership that they can point to and quote in order to steer a news story their way, please contact the NAE and ask them to remove Richard Cizik from his vice-presidency and to insure that the NAE makes a return to theological orthodoxy and priority.
The contact info is:
National Association of Evangelicals
c/o President Leith Anderson
PO Box 23269
Washington, DC 20026
202-789-1011
president@nae.net
