While the vice president talked about the importance of prayer and the moment he accepted Jesus Christ as his savior, Greear noted that the Southern Baptists’ identity should not be intertwined with a conservative or Republican ideology.<\/p>\n
“There are certain things on the Republican platform that Republicans have championed that evangelical Christians have identified [with]. However, we need to decouple the identity of the church from particular political platforms about which there can be disagreement,” he told Morning Edition host Rachel Martin.<\/p>\n
Asked about those Christians who have sought to distance themselves from that political identity by shedding the “evangelical” label, Greear urges caution.<\/p>\n
“What we need is not a change in label, what we need is a change of heart, a change in values,” he says.<\/p>\n
Evangelicals, he says, have “got to be committed to living out the faith and listening to criticism, even from people on the outside.”<\/p>\n