Richard Cizik: A Thinking Evangelical

Yes, I realize that fundamentalist evangelical Christians and serious thought are usually an oxymoron. To be a far right fundamentalist, the first requirement typically is to surrender independent thought and embrace the mental equivalent of a lobotomy. Only the allegedly "inerrant" Bible needs be to consulted and then among this crowd one can shut down their brain and drift into a mental suspended animation. Or at least that is the message from most of the Christianist "mega Church" pastors - that and put plenty of money in the collection plate. For a while, Richard Cizik (at right) seemed to fit that model and as a Washington lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals for nearly 30 years, he should have known that intelligent thought was something utterly forbidden by his evangelical brethren. But, he made the mistake of stating his true thoughts in an interview with NPR that led to his expulsion. His heresy? He said that he voted for Barack Obama in the Virginia primary and that he now supported civil unions for same sex couples. As Newsweek Magazine reports, after his exile, Cizik is making a comeback and challenging evangelicals who worship ignorance and fear having to make an independent decision for themselves. Here are some story highlights:
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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.
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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."
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Cizik says he represents a tradition of evangelicalism going back to the beginning of the 20th century—to Francis Schaeffer and Carl Henry, evangelicals who were strictly orthodox, but advocated a broad engagement with the world. "I'm not some upstart who's trying to conjure up a new vision," he says. "This goes back a long way."
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He reiterates his support for civil unions this way: "Is it possible to deny due process and equal protection to those people whose personal lifestyle I disagree with?" And then, our meeting over, he goes off to see his new friends at the Open Society Institute, the group funded by George Soros—who is, as everybody knows, a billionaire and a liberal.