"Evangelical Manifesto" calls for reform

Eighty evangelical leaders are signing an "Evangelical Manifesto" that rebukes both liberal and conservative evangelicals for diminishing the Gospel to fight the culture wars, becoming "'useful idiots' for one political party or another." It encourages political engagement, but it says evangelicals have sometimes spoken "truth without love" and it calls on evangelicals to "reform our own behavior."

The document is embargoed until Wednesday, so most of the discussion centers on who is involved in writing and signing the manifesto.

Warner Todd Huston calls the manifesto "another attempt by the political left to undermine the devotion of Christians to the political right," and asks why the project "studiously excluded so many prominent conservative Christians."

Warren Cole Smith says the document has both virtues and flaws, but he also questions the list of people who either haven't signed or say they weren't included in the process: Gary Bauer, Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, Focus on the Family's James Dobson, Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land, Michael Farris, and Concerned Women for America's Wendy Wright.

But FundamentaList's Sarah Posner points out that it's unlikely that some of the most dedicated culture warriors would want to sign a document clearly criticizing some of their tactics: "The list of names Smith claims were excluded represents the generals who issue the orders to the foot soldiers in the religious right's politicized culture war."

The list of participants isn't easily boxed, either. Rick Warren is a Southern Baptist pastor who is hard to categorize politically. For instance, some religious right leaders criticized him for inviting Barack Obama to speak at his church's annual AIDS conference, but Democrats criticized him for inviting four Republicans and only one Democrat to speak at the same conference.

Several others -- at least the few whose names are public -- aren't primarily political figures. Os Guinness is an academic and author. So are Richard Mouw, the president of Fuller Theological Seminary, and Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School.