WASHINGTON (ABP) — A unique coalition of liberals and conservative evangelicals announced Oct. 10 that they are trying to bring about a cease-fire in the most contentious battles of the so-called “culture wars.”
The question is, can they get both sides' generals to sign off on the treaty?
“We are going to go back to our respective communities and tell them to stop using the other side for political gain,” said Rachel Laser, director of the culture program for the progressive policy group Third Way. “Imagine a Washington where we speak with each other and not at each other.”
Laser — who has worked for abortion-rights groups in the past — introduced a group of evangelical leaders at a press conference announcing the project, titled “Come Let Us Reason Together.” Sponsored by Third Way and Faith in Public Life, the effort began with a paper outlining reasons why both sides believe they can have civil conversations — and perhaps even cooperate — on social issues as controversial as abortion and homosexuality.
“I'm here today because I believe that the Christian faith teaches a spirit of openness to human beings,” said David Gushee, an Associated Baptist Press columnist and professor at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology. “I'm here because I believe that we have a biblical mandate to move toward reconciliation and to recognize the common humanity of all people.”
The paper asserts that the time is ripe for those on opposing sides in the culture wars to begin respectful dialogue on some of the very issues that started the wars in the first place. Its authors contend that polls suggest white evangelicals are not as monolithically or dogmatically conservative on social issues as media-driven stereotypes suggest. The paper also says that a rising generation of evangelical leadership has shown a willingness to rethink the methods of the Religious Right.
“Throughout my professional career, I've sought to build coalitions and consensus, as I believe that's how lasting efforts are achieved,” said Joe Battaglia, who owns a prominent firm that represents Christian artists and communicators. “In the past, unfortunately, some of my fellow evangelicals and members of both parties … have used each other as commodities and pawns in their political chess games to win votes. We've cursed the darkness for too long; now it's time to light a candle.”
The five contentious issues the paper focuses on are the role of religion in public life, gay rights, abortion, research using human embryos, and strengthening families.
— On religion in public life, the paper's authors said liberals and conservatives can agree that there is a proper way for politicians and other public leaders to express their faith — a way respects both of the First Amendment's principles of protecting individuals' religious freedom and preventing government from endorsing a religion.
— On gay rights, the statement said both sides can agree to affirm “the human dignity of gay and lesbian people,” while at the same time asserting that no gay-rights legislation should infringe on the freedom of religious leaders or groups to espouse or express their beliefs about human sexuality.
— On abortion, both sides agree to work together to reduce the numbers of abortion in real terms, by preventing unwanted pregnancies and providing support to pregnant mothers who might otherwise choose abortion.
— On embryonic research, both sides can support legislation to ban the commoditization of human embryos as well as banning reproductive human cloning, while agreeing to disagree on the ethics of whether embryos are actual human beings.
— Finally, both groups agree that they have common ground in protecting children from pornography and sexual predators as well as strengthening families by supporting fatherhood initiatives.
While conservative evangelicals and liberals have shown an increasing tendency to work together on areas where they agree — such as promoting religious freedom abroad or combating AIDS, poverty and human trafficking — there have been few efforts to find common ground on the issues that most divide the two groups.
Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, another supporter of the effort, acknowledged to reporters that some leaders of the old-guard Christian right will be too entrenched in the culture wars to stop fighting them.
“What we have seen is that the already-established Religious Right is going to stay pretty focused on a narrow group of issues — which, by the way, all of us would agree with,” he said. “So, we don't look for any conversions here. We don't look for anything different coming from the Family Research Council. But we do want to be a voice that is an alternative. But unless you have an alternative voice, that is the default for conservative Christians.”
Liberals may have the same problem in getting their own leaders and advocacy groups to forego their suspicion of conservative Christians.
The authors acknowledged that will remain hard work — for both sides.
“In order for this paper to bear more fruit, both progressives and evangelicals will need to continue the hard work of reasoning together,” the authors concluded. “We do not conclude that these conversations will be easy or that the paper's proposals in themselves will resolve all the real disagreements and tensions on cultural issues. But we believe that the gap need not be as wide and the mistrust need not run as deep.”
Besides Gushee, several Baptist leaders are among the document's supporters. They include sociologist Tony Campolo, church-state experts Brent Walker and Melissa Rogers, and historian Buddy Shurden.
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