This shift from a more loving heritage has largely been caused by the rise in evangelical political power of recent decades. In an attempt to achieve a noble vision \u201d\u201d defend the unborn, apply a moral grid to government policy, assure religious liberty \u201d\u201d loving, patriotic Christians soon found themselves becoming the religious base of the hard-right wing of U.S. politics. Quickly defined by what they were against rather than the good they hoped to do, evangelicals became increasingly identified as a people of faith-based rage, as haters in the name of Christ. They became more Rush Limbaugh than Billy Graham, more Ayn Rand than the Apostle Paul. They became the Republican Party at prayer.<\/p>\n
Now, though, as the 2008 presidential election nears, a new evangelical is emerging. Though he stands on the shoulders of the faithful who have come before, he approaches politics with a new caution, with a new prophetic distance. He has seen the excesses, felt the betrayals, understood the deceptions. He is no longer willing to see either party as the Party of God, to regard either as though it has descended unblemished from heaven. He recognizes that both are flawed, yet that both contend for policies near to the social mandate of Scripture \u201d\u201d on the left the care for the poor, the cause of the stranger in the land and the plea for social justice, and on the right the defense of the unborn and the protection of the traditional family.<\/p>\n
This new evangelical seeks to be more biblical than narrowly political and serves both parties by refusing to align exclusively with any party.<\/p>\n