Associated Baptist Press - 1/15/2009

Associated Baptist Press
January 15, 2009 · (09-8)

David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer

In this issue
Liberals, evangelicals call for common agenda on abortion, sexuality (904 words)
Ecumenical groups says stimulus package should include the poor (530 words)
Surve: Protestants no more loyal to denomination than toothpaste brand (568 words)

---

Liberals, evangelicals call for common agenda on abortion, sexuality
By Bob Allen (904 words)

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- Progressive and evangelical leaders have joined together to propose shared policy solutions on issues that have long divided left and right in the so-called culture wars.

Two years ago Third Way, a non-profit think tank that supports equality for gays and reproductive choice for women, joined forces with Faith in Public Life, a coalition seeking to broaden the evangelical social agenda beyond issues of abortion and homosexuality. The two groups began discussing how to "change the culture wars into culture discussion," said Rachel Laser, culture program director at Third Way.

On Jan. 15 the two groups rolled out a consensus governing agenda aimed at reducing abortion by addressing the reasons women choose to abort. It also attempts to balance protecting the rights of gays and lesbians in the workplace with allowing religious employers to discriminate in hiring on the basis of their religious beliefs.

"The culture wars have been characterized by vilifying those who differ from us on provocative issues and treating them as traitors and threats," said Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, in Florida and one-time president-elect of the Christian Coalition. "I believe we can end those wars by thinking of our differences as ways we can learn from each other and advance without compromising core values."

After a telephone conference call with reporters, the activists planned to meet with President-elect Obama's transition team and members of Congress about what Laser described as "a roadmap for how to put and end to the culture wars."

The joint agenda calls for reducing the number of abortions through policies like comprehensive sex education that includes teaching abstinence, improved access to contraception for low-income women, expanded healthcare for pregnant women and new families, and encouraging adoption.

It supports policies making it illegal to fire or refuse to hire or promote employees based on their sexual orientation, with "a clear exemption" for faith-based employers.

The shared agenda also opposes torture and calls for comprehensive immigration reform that secures America's borders while providing a path to earned citizenship. The immigration proposal also calls for a guest-worker program and for keeping the families of undocumented workers together.

Robert Jones of Third Way called it "a genuinely new path for the country." For evangelicals, he said, it "heralds the arrival of a second wave of the evangelical center." The first wave, he explained, was comprised of evangelicals who called for the broadening their brethren's moral agenda beyond issues of abortion and homosexuality. The second wave involves "re-engaging with these important and difficult issues with new eyes and ears."

David Gushee, an ethics professor at Mercer University and a regular columnist for Associated Baptist Press, said the four issues "may seem to represent quite different or even unrelated concerns," but at the core of all is "concern for human dignity."

"Human dignity is just another way of saying that each human being is to be treated with the respect that they deserve as objects of God's infinite and merciful love," Gushee said.

Recently the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention announced a defensive agenda for the Obama administration -- opposing the Freedom of Choice Act relaxing restrictions on abortion, fighting legislation like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that it says would "normalize" homosexuality, and opposing adding sexual orientation and gender identity to categories protected under federal hate-crimes legislation.

Jonathan Merritt, spokesman for an ad hoc group calling itself the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative, said he is proud of his denomination's "unwavering stance" on moral issues, but Southern Baptists must also live out other faith tenets like compassion, charity and respect for human rights.

"We should maintain our convictions on those matters where conscience demands that we part ways," Merritt said. "However, we must accept the promise that people of mutual goodwill can find shared values and goals. For far too long, we have allowed the common good to be sacrificed on the altar of our disagreements."

Merritt said he supports making abortion illegal -- but, in the meantime, wants to reduce the number of abortions.

"It is easy to call one's self pro-life," Merritt said. "The difficult thing is to put feet to our faith and begin working with real people in real communities -- to see that faith made tangible, and lives saved."

Gushee acknowledged that some evangelicals might view employment rights for gays and lesbians as controversial, but he supports protections for sexual minorities "because denying someone a job in a secular workplace due to their sexual orientation violates human dignity and serves no public purpose."

Laser said the two groups still disagree on many issues, but discussion focused only on finding specific and concrete solutions where they could find common ground.

Early on, she said, even many in her own organization thought the compromise effort would fail. "We're very proud of how far we've come in our governing agenda," she said.

"This governing agenda is a beginning and not an end," she added. "There will be much more in the future."

Merritt, the son of former Southern Baptist Convention president James Merritt, said he counts himself among the generation of younger evangelicals who have "turned away from self-serving partisanship" and seek "a rapid infusion of civility and grace into a political culture where faith has often produced divisiveness."

"I support this agenda because I am a Southern Baptist," Merritt said, "not in spite of that fact."

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

---

Ecumenical group says stimulus package should include the poor
By Robert Marus (530 words)

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- The nation's most broadly ecumenical Christian group is urging the new administration of President-elect Obama to include help for the poor in any economic-stimulus package.

Leaders of Christian Churches Together in the USA met with journalists, members of Congress and the Obama transition team Jan. 15 in Washington to implore them not to let the new economic concerns of the middle and upper classes crowd out the ongoing travails of the nation's poorest citizens.

It is typical of political leaders to focus on the middle class, and we too care about the middle class," Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, said at a press conference announcing the push. "However, it is our religious responsibility to make sure the poor -- who are so close to the heart of God -- are not left out and left behind in this severe economic crisis. They are already in crisis, so we don't recall Jesus saying, 'I was in the middle class and I lost my 401(K).'"

Wes Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America, said he was part of a similar group that discussed poverty issues eight years ago with then-incoming President Bush and his transition team.

"Eight years have passed, much has changed," he said. "Poverty in many parts of the world has seen some such reduction, as in Africa. But in the United States, four million people more have fallen into poverty."

Formed in 2005, Christian Churches Together includes diverse mainline Protestant, African-American Protestant, evangelical and Pentecostal Protestant, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox denominations, as well as parachurch organizations.

The American Baptist Churches USA, National Baptist Convention USA, National Baptist Convention of America and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship all belong to CCT. Other Baptist groups -- including the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Progressive National Baptist Convention -- are either considering or in the process of joining.

William Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, told reporters one of the broad Christian principles giving the group common ground was God's concern for the poor.

"We really can't be true to the integrity of our calling and our Christ without addressing the issue of poverty," he said. "Because, as our theological statement says, he was rich, but became poor for our sake."

The leaders said the organization does not advocate specific policy proposals, but agreed on the principle of including poverty-reduction provisions in the stimulus package.

Some denominations and organizations within CCT, however, have offered specific policy proposals.

For example, the Christian anti-poverty group Bread For the World is asking Congress and Obama to include provisions boosting benefit levels for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) by 15 percent for the next two years. They are also asking for a significant funding boost for fiscal year 2009 for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition-subsidy program, as well as a boost in federal funding for food banks.

Other member organizations in CCT have advocated strongly for an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, which the House of Representatives passed Jan. 14. The program provides federally subsidized health insurance to children whose families can't afford it.

Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.

---

Survey: Protestants no more loyal to denomination than toothpaste brand
By Bob Allen (568 words)

PHOENIX (ABP) -- Protestants in the United States are about as loyal to their brand of toothpaste as their denomination, according to one research firm.

A new poll by Ellison Research asked churchgoers who attend worship services at least once a month the denomination of the church they most often attend. Instead of broad terms like Baptist or Methodist, the survey asked for specific denominational brands, like "Southern Baptist" or "Free Will Baptist." Researchers then asked respondents what role that denomination would play if they had to find a new church.

Just 16 percent of Protestants surveyed said they are exclusively loyal to one denomination, while half (51 percent) preferred one denomination but would be open to another. By comparison, 22 percent of Protestants said they would use only one brand of toothpaste and 42 percent indicated a preference for one brand while being open to others.

Similar levels of brand loyalty exist for bathroom tissue (19 percent would consider only one brand and 40 percent had a preferred brand), pain reliever (16 percent and 42 percent, respectively) and soft drinks (14 percent and 56 percent).

Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, said religious denominations face what most companies face in trying to develop brand loyalty -- consumers with many different options who may not perceive strong differences among them.

"Church denominations certainly are not the same as hotels or soft drinks, but some of the same rules apply," Sellers said. "The brands that develop stronger loyalty tend to do a better job of differentiating themselves from other brands and demonstrating key elements of the brand very clearly."

Bill Leonard, dean of the divinity school at Wake Forest University, called the research a "bizarre, yet telling illustration" of what scholars have known for decades.

"Fewer religious Americans think of their primary religious identity in terms of a denominational identity," Leonard said. "Loyalty to local congregations as the primary source of religious identity seems to be increasingly normative."

He added, "Many folks can switch denominations as readily as toothpaste, I suspect."

Six in 10 active Catholics said they would attend only one denomination, but researchers said the gap between Protestants and Catholics on the issue might be due less to brand loyalty than the number of choices. Unlike Catholics, Protestants in the United States can choose from many denominational groups similar in doctrine and practice.

People who worship at non-denominational churches show higher loyalty to remaining non-denominational than other Protestants show to their mother church. Twenty-nine percent of current non-denominational worshipers said they would attend only a non-denominational church, while 32 percent said they had a preference but would consider joining a church affiliated with a denomination.

Evangelicals were a little more sectarian than Protestants in general. Nineteen percent said they would consider only one denomination, 50 percent have a preference but wouldn't rule out a different choice, and 11 percent said they don't really pay attention to the denomination when they consider what church to attend.

Overall, 11 percent of Americans said they have a small number of denominations they would consider, with no particular preference among them. Another 6 percent said they had no particular preference, but there are some denominations they would avoid. Nine percent said the denomination doesn't matter.

Ellison said denominational leaders "face many of the same challenges as do the leaders of brands such as Coke, Chevrolet, or Home Depot" in attracting worshipers.

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.