Associated Baptist Press - 2/12/2008

Associated Baptist Press

February 12, 2008 (8-18)

IN THIS ISSUE:

Polls, authors say white evangelicals embracing political independence
CBF council approves budget, reports revenue shortfalls at February meeting
Dobson backs Huckabee after Romney bows out
Texas’ Church Under the Tree reaches disenfranchised youth

Polls, authors say white evangelicals
embracing political independence

By Robert Marus

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A raft of recent polls and books suggest that the evangelical vote may be turning -- or returning -- to a more even distribution between the Republican and Democratic parties.

A Zogby International poll released Feb. 11 showed that about one-third of white evangelicals who voted in two Super Tuesday states voted in the Democratic primaries.

The poll -- of 400 voters from each political party in Missouri and Tennessee -- was taken by phone Feb. 5 and 6, immediately following those states’ primaries. In the Show-Me State, 34 percent of self-identified white evangelicals voted Democratic, while 29 percent of their Volunteer State peers did.

Extrapolating from overall voter numbers, “that’s 160,000 people in Missouri; that’s 182,000 people in Tennessee,” said Robert Jones, a religion-and-politics consultant for Faith in Public Life and the Center for American Progress, in a conference call with reporters. The two organizations commissioned the poll in response to Christian leaders who criticized the media consortium conducting the most widely used exit-poll data. In every primary and caucus so far, the consortium has neglected to ask Democratic primary voters if they are evangelicals but asked that question of voters in all Republican contests.

“The media is operating with an outdated script, and the experience I’m having on the road confirms the data,” said Jim Wallis, founder of the Sojourners/Call to Renewal movement. The Christian group fights poverty and war. He said that in recent speaking engagements at evangelical college and seminary campuses around the country he has seen far more enthusiasm for Democratic candidates than he has in years.

In 2000 and 2004, white evangelicals voted for President Bush by about a 3-to-1 margin.

“I would say that all the data, the Barna data, the Pew data, this data, shows that evangelicals are leaving the Religious Right in droves, and the Religious Right is being replaced by Jesus, and that’s progress,” Wallis said. He referred to another recent survey -- from evangelical pollster George Barna -- that showed 40 percent of born-again voters said they will vote for the Democratic presidential in November while only 29 percent plan to vote for the Republican. The remainder remain undecided or said they would vote for a third-party candidate.

However, Wallis added, “That does not mean that people are moving from being partisan Republicans to being partisan on the other side.” White evangelicals -- after years of close identification with GOP politics -- are going to be more independent, Wallis said. And that’s a good thing for both politics and religion.

“People of faith shouldn’t be in any party’s political pocket or candidate’s but evaluate whoever by our moral compass,” he said.

Polls show that more than a third of white evangelicals voted for Bush’s Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, in the 1992 and 1996 elections. Asked if the new polls didn’t mark a turning point so much as a return to pre-Bush dynamics, Wallis said evidence he has seen among younger evangelicals shows disenchantment not only with the Republican Party but also with the issues that have defined conservative evangelical leaders in recent elections: abortion and homosexuality.

Instead, he said, even younger evangelicals who previously were committed to Religious Right organizations are defecting because they are as concerned with issues like global warming, poverty and the Iraq war as with saving unborn children.

“There are still these old white men that are standing in the river and they have their arms up in the air and they’re saying, ‘Stop, stop! There are only two moral-values issues,’” Wallis said. “And the water is rushing right past them, including their own young people.”

A variety of recent books by Christian journalists and scholars also notes the seeming trend of evangelical Christians away from the political agenda that has defined them in the public’s eye. Later on Feb. 11, panelists discussed Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne’s new contribution to the genre, Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics after the Religious Right.

Dionne said conservative Christians are merely rediscovering Scripture’s call to concern themselves with multiple issues. “The end of the Religious Right does not signal a decline in evangelical Christianity,” he said. “On the contrary, it is a sign I believe … of a new reformation among Christians, who are disentangling their great movement from a political machine.”

He continued, “Linking religion too closely to the fortunes of one political party or one leader or one group of leaders is always a mistake.”

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Read more:

Obama, in South Carolina win, shows cross-religious appeal (1/28)

CBF council approves budget, reports
revenue shortfalls at February meeting

By Hannah Elliott

ATLANTA (ABP) -– Leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship approved a $16.5 million budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year and heard of budget shortfalls during the CBF Coordinating Council’s Feb. 7-8 meeting in Decatur, Ga.

The council’s finance committee reported that, as of the end of January 2008, CBF’s revenue had reached only 89 percent of its projected 2007-2008 budget. Meanwhile, expenditures by the end of calendar year 2007 reached 91 percent of the projected budget. January expenditures are still being processed, said CBF spokesman Lance Wallace, although the term’s total expenditures will probably parallel last year’s figures.

“Obviously, I think they were hoping for 100 percent, and we’re behind on revenues. But we are containing costs, keeping it down near 90 percent,” Wallace said.

December, January and February tend to be CBF’s most active months for revenue, he added.

“We’ll know better after this three-month period as to where we stand on revenue. It’s hard for us to draw any conclusions until we get past February.”

CBF supporters who attend the group’s General Assembly, scheduled for June in Memphis, Tenn., will give final approval to the budget.

CBF moderator Harriett Harral said that while CBF leaders are “being practical” about spending, they continue to “leverage every resource we have, and that’s dollars of course as well as everything else.”

They’re able to do more work than the dollar figure would seem to imply, she said, especially considering that designated funds for specific projects and money given to regional CBF partners are not included in the 16-million figure.

“There are a lot of different ways to look at the finances, and one of the things that has become clear to me is that we are blessed in some ways that we don’t acknowledge, in a way,” she said.

Harral said that instead of dwelling on the group’s financial situation, she left the meeting thinking about “how wonderful it is to get to be a part of” the fellowship. There was a lot of excitement among council members because of the recent Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant meeting, she added.

In his coordinator’s report, CBF executive coordinator Daniel Vestal discussed the covenant celebration, held in Atlanta the previous week.

“It had more of the feel of a revival,” Vestal said of the celebration. “There were several times when I literally sat in my chair and wept. The New Baptist Covenant was a gift. A gift of the people who gave money to make it happen, the people who gave leadership, the people who gave their gifts of preaching, teaching, music, platform leaders and volunteers. And most of all, God gave us a gift.”

The convocation highlighted efforts to reach across dividing lines to partner with others -- and that’s one of the things CBF has done well throughout its history, Harral said.

Mercer University President Bill Underwood addressed the CBF group at lunch and similarly acknowledged the contributions of CBF in the overall success of the meeting.

“The Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant could not have been a moving event for thousands of people like it was without the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,” Underwood said.

Former President Jimmy Carter – one of the main organizers behind the historic gathering -- has invited leaders of participating organizations to meet at the Carter Center March 12 to discuss possible follow-up ministries.

Both Vestal and Harral will attend the March meeting.

Other items discussed at the Coordinating Council meeting include:

-- Emmanuel McCall, CBF’s past moderator, said the nominating committee has selected an individual to serve as the next moderator-elect, but that person has not yet accepted the nomination. The council will vote on the nomination by mail later this spring, he said. The general assembly gives final approval to new officers.

-- Jack Glasglow, CBF’s moderator-elect, provided a report on the group’s involvement with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The Coordinating Council endorsed the goals for global poverty reduction at its October meeting, and Glasglow said the U.N. has been notified of the endorsement.

Glasglow has worked with CBF staff to compile an inventory of Fellowship-sponsored ministries around the world that do work to meet the goals. As of Feb. 4, the inventory included 102 projects, representing the ministries of 67 CBF field personnel.

“Being the presence of Christ to the most neglected means being involved in the things the U.N. goals address,” Glasglow said. “We are doing this not because the U.N. is leading us, but because Christ is leading us, and it is important to partner with others in this work.”

-- On recommendation of the legal committee, the council formally established the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship 403(b) Retirement Plan.

-- CBF has begun the partnership-application process for the Micah Challenge, a global campaign to mobilize Christians to end poverty.

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-- Patricia Heys of CBF Communications contributed to this article.

Dobson backs Huckabee
after Romney bows out

By Robert Marus

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (ABP) -- In a move unprecedented for him, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson has endorsed a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

In a statement released Feb. 7, Dobson backed former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee for the GOP nomination over his only remaining significant rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

“My decision comes in the wake of my statement on [Feb. 5] that I could not vote for Sen. John McCain, even if he goes on to win the Republican nomination. His record on the institution of the family and other conservative issues makes his candidacy a matter of conscience and concern for me,” Dobson said.

Dobson said at the time that McCain’s then-chief rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, was more acceptable on social issues -- even though Romney is Mormon and held moderate positions on abortion and gay rights prior to launching his presidential run.

But Romney’s Feb. 7 withdrawal from the race, following a disappointing showing in the Feb. 5 “Super Tuesday” primaries, left Dobson with only one remotely viable choice in the GOP race, he said.

“The remaining candidate for whom I could vote is Gov. Huckabee. His unwavering positions on the social issues, notably the institution of marriage, the importance of faith and the sanctity of human life, resonate deeply with me and with many others. That is why I will support Gov. Huckabee through the remaining primaries and will vote for him in the general election if he should get the nomination.”

Dobson has never endorsed a candidate in a presidential primary before. While federal tax laws do not allow non-profit organizations like Focus on the Family to endorse political parties or candidates, Dobson said he is making his endorsement as a “private citizen” and not as the head of Focus on the Family. The statement was distributed under the aegis of the organization’s CitizenLink e-newsletter.

Dobson and other conservative evangelical leaders have had an uneasy relationship with McCain. The Arizona senator has generally voted conservatively on social issues and has a strongly anti-abortion-rights voting record. However, he supports federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, which Dobson and others consider tantamount to abortion.

McCain also opposed President Bush’s attempt to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage, calling it a states’-rights issue. McCain had supported a similar amendment on the state level in Arizona.

Dobson and other religious conservatives have further criticized McCain for his sponsorship of a campaign-finance law they say restricts the ability of anti-abortion-rights groups to influence elections.

Many of Huckabee’s fellow evangelicals, however, have also been reluctant to get behind the former Baptist pastor’s campaign. Some distrust Huckabee’s populist economic rhetoric and his willingness to raise taxes while he was governor of Arkansas. Others worry about his ability to beat the Democratic nominee in the general election.

Dobson’s endorsement gives Huckabee an obvious boost, but the former governor faces an uphill battle against McCain, who has more money and nominating delegates than he does.

Michael Cromartie, vice president of the evangelical Ethics and Public Policy Center, criticized Dobson’s pledge not to vote for McCain -- all but certain to be the GOP nominee -- in November. He told Christianity Today that evangelicals sitting out this election will assure the White House to one of the two top Democratic contenders -- Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

"Dr. Dobson should know that John McCain would certainly appoint better justices to the [Supreme] Court than either Obama or Clinton," Cromartie said. "Politics is about making choices between relative goods and lesser evils and not about having perfect choices. It's a wasted vote on Dr. Dobson's part. It's irresponsible on his part to give that kind of leadership."

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Read more:

Huckabee, McCain, Dems left as Romney drops out of race (2/7)

After Super Tuesday, parties, religious voters still divided (2/6)

Huckabee’s role in SBC conflict presaged political balancing act (1/15)

Texas’ Church Under the Tree
reaches disenfranchised youth

By Loni Fancher

ROCKWALL, Texas (ABP) -- Commitment is the key to a fruitful ministry, Ron Evans says. He should know. He is the pastor of a church that literally meets under a tree.

On any given Sunday afternoon, people of all ages -- ranging from wealthy families to homeless youths -- gather in Haggard Park in Plano, Texas, for Church Under the Tree.

“They come here because they’ve been to a church or they’ve met church people,” Evans said. “And when they came in all dressed in black with tattoos and piercing[s], no one would talk to them, and no one acted like they cared about them. But they come here because we did.”

The group has become a church of its own, but Church Under the Tree has members who never would darken the doorstep of a traditional house of worship.

It all started after Evans, then-youth pastor at Brown Street Baptist Fellowship in nearby Wylie, Texas, started spending time in Haggard Park. The park is a place where teenagers from all over the Dallas area hang out together. Many of them come from broken homes, battle drug problems and are sexually active.

Later that summer, Evans and his three teenage daughters took a guitar, a Bible and their Labrador puppy with them to the park. They worked their way through the crowd, claimed a picnic table and began singing, hoping to draw people into conversation. In the end, the puppy was the draw.

Evans and his family put down the guitar and spent the next six weeks building relationships with people. That’s how the church developed.

“You’ve got to get in their heart,” Evans said. “You’ve got to become their friend. It’s relationship ministry, and that’s all it is.”

Now the original group hangs out every Friday night, but they also meet more formally on Sunday afternoons. They gather for lunch and transition into a time of prayer and preaching. In the beginning, attendance was lackluster at best. These days, Evans said, on a typical Sunday dozens of young people will gather in the park for worship.

Evans and his group have challenged the Church Under the Tree family to seek depth in their faith. The group shares a prayer journal they call “The Book of Life,” which is passed around each Sunday for people to share prayer requests or what God is teaching them. Evans scans it into his computer and e-mails a file of the updated pages to supporters each week.

Small groups have started meeting on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings, and Evans said he hopes similar groups will multiply throughout the Dallas area.

“One-hundred-percent commitment to the students and to God’s Word -- that’s the only combination that accomplishes anything,” he said.

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