I suspect that many gay haters of the far right will go to their graves desiring to see LGBT Americans denigrated and kept as second class citizens - just as many old time segregation for ever supporters in decades past. I likewise suspect that history will view them less than kindly. Newsweek has a story on one former high level evangelical leader, Richard Cizik (pictured at left), who seems to want to chart a different course that includes the concept of recognition of same sex relationship even if he'd not yet willing to use the word "marriage." For his willingness to rethink issues, Cizik has been and continues to be condemned by the Neanderthal elements* of the Christian Right. Here are some story highlights:*
Richard Cizik remembers it this way: he had just come home from a week in Australia and was about to jet off to Paris when he sat down on Dec. 2, 2008 for his post-election interview with NPR’s Terry Gross. She opened by asking him who he voted for, and though he demurred, he offered a big hint. "In the Virginia primary, I voted for Barack Obama," he said.
*
A few minutes later, she asked the question that would cost Cizik his job: "Have you changed on gay marriage?" "I'm shifting," Cizik answered, truthfully, "I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say I believe in civil unions."
*
Even as polls continued to show a younger generation of Christians who were more accepting than their parents of homosexuality and gay marriage, the men who were running the old-school religious right remained completely and unequivocally opposed—and the NAE [National Association of Evangelicals], an association of tens of thousands of churches, had always been positioned squarely within that flank. But for some time Cizik had been distancing himself from the old-timers, promoting global warming and environmentalism as Christian causes and supporting government-funded contraception as a way to reduce teen pregnancy. Religious-right stalwarts had long been calling out Cizik as insufficiently orthodox, but until now the NAE had his back.
*
After a year of keeping a low profile, Cizik is "making a comeback," as he puts it. This week he announces the formation of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, a group devoted to developing Christian responses to global and political issues such as environmentalism, nuclear disarmament, human rights, and dialogue with the Muslim world. Cizik's partners in this effort are David Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University who has written extensively on torture, and Steven D. Martin, a pastor and filmmaker. For years, Cizik has been saying that the evangelical right needs to reframe its politics, to walk away from divisive name calling and find common ground with opponents, even on hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage.
*
The partnership gives Cizik a platform from which to speak openly. In his old job, "I wasn't allowed to say what I was thinking if it didn't support every jot and tittle of NAE policy," he says. Now, "I don't have to worry about the kinds of accountability that I had before." . . . Younger evangelicals are concerned with a broader range of issues than their parents, especially environmentalism and the developing world, but they are more conservative on abortion.) In any case, Cizik shrugs these criticisms off. "I am, at heart, a centrist evangelical. I am more pro-life than [Sojourners founder] Jim Wallis is, actually. I am what we should be—that is, post-ideological. We are to be about healing, not division. We are not to be subservient to ideology, but above it."
Richard Cizik remembers it this way: he had just come home from a week in Australia and was about to jet off to Paris when he sat down on Dec. 2, 2008 for his post-election interview with NPR’s Terry Gross. She opened by asking him who he voted for, and though he demurred, he offered a big hint. "In the Virginia primary, I voted for Barack Obama," he said.
*
A few minutes later, she asked the question that would cost Cizik his job: "Have you changed on gay marriage?" "I'm shifting," Cizik answered, truthfully, "I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say I believe in civil unions."
*
Even as polls continued to show a younger generation of Christians who were more accepting than their parents of homosexuality and gay marriage, the men who were running the old-school religious right remained completely and unequivocally opposed—and the NAE [National Association of Evangelicals], an association of tens of thousands of churches, had always been positioned squarely within that flank. But for some time Cizik had been distancing himself from the old-timers, promoting global warming and environmentalism as Christian causes and supporting government-funded contraception as a way to reduce teen pregnancy. Religious-right stalwarts had long been calling out Cizik as insufficiently orthodox, but until now the NAE had his back.
*
After a year of keeping a low profile, Cizik is "making a comeback," as he puts it. This week he announces the formation of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, a group devoted to developing Christian responses to global and political issues such as environmentalism, nuclear disarmament, human rights, and dialogue with the Muslim world. Cizik's partners in this effort are David Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University who has written extensively on torture, and Steven D. Martin, a pastor and filmmaker. For years, Cizik has been saying that the evangelical right needs to reframe its politics, to walk away from divisive name calling and find common ground with opponents, even on hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage.
*
The partnership gives Cizik a platform from which to speak openly. In his old job, "I wasn't allowed to say what I was thinking if it didn't support every jot and tittle of NAE policy," he says. Now, "I don't have to worry about the kinds of accountability that I had before." . . . Younger evangelicals are concerned with a broader range of issues than their parents, especially environmentalism and the developing world, but they are more conservative on abortion.) In any case, Cizik shrugs these criticisms off. "I am, at heart, a centrist evangelical. I am more pro-life than [Sojourners founder] Jim Wallis is, actually. I am what we should be—that is, post-ideological. We are to be about healing, not division. We are not to be subservient to ideology, but above it."
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