| Campolo, the Call to Renewal & American Politics |
|
by Ingrid Schlueter and Rev. Wayne Sedlak
Previous Page: Tony Campolo & Political Power |
On May 23,1995 a group of self-proclaimed evangelicals called a news conference. They said they had had enough of politics as usual and stepped forward claiming to have a new vision for transcending Left and Right. Over one hundred Christian leaders from "a diversity of traditions"1 signed a document called the Cry for Renewal. The group, calling itself, Call to Renewal, was formed as a response to the "Religious Right". Tony Campolo was an enthusiastic participant in getting "The Call" off the ground. The Cry for Renewal Statement that he signed, however, would seem to contradict his concerns about the separation of church and state. It reads: "The question is not whether religious faith should make a political contribution, but how. If religious values are to influence the public square, as we believe they should, they ought to make our political discourse more honest, moral, civil, and spiritually sensitive, especially to those without the voice and power to be fairly represented." Later in the document it reads, "We challenge any political litmus test that distorts the independent moral conscience that faith can bring to politics. We are dismayed by those who would undermine the integrity of religious conviction that does not conform to a narrow ideological agenda." (emphasis added) Whose "narrow ideological agenda" are they talking about? "Call" leaders apparently answered that question when they allowed Coordinating Committee member Tony Campolo to represent Call to Renewal at the Summit on Ethics and Meaning. In his speech to the assembled Marxists, homosexual activists, abortion rights defenders, feminist theologians and New Age disciples, Dr. Campolo made it very clear: members of the "Religious Right" need not apply. He referred to the worldview of the "Religious Right" as "neither biblical nor Christian."2 Despite flowery phrases like "forging new coalitions of Christian conscience across the land", the Cry for Renewal statement is an attack on Christian conservatives that utilizes the same tactics the Left has always used. Professor Ronald Nash, author of the 1996 book Why the Left is Not Right notes the hypocrisy of those like Dr. Campolo who claim that they are opposed to the "dangerous liaison of religion with political power" by the Religious Right. "According to Mark Tooley of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, an observer at the conference, (Call to Renewal) the vast majority of participants were well-known partisans of politically liberal causes, including a surprisingly large number of people thought to be anti-evangelical."3 Tony Campolo was just one of a number of evangelicals to sign on to the Cry for Renewal document. Some well known names include; Steve Haynor, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship; Karen and David Mains, Chapel of the Air Ministries; J.I. Packer, theologian (he also endorsed Campolo's Wake Up America! by Zondervan); Ted Engstrom, World Vision; and Phillip Yancey, Christianity Today. These names are posted next to those Professor Ron Nash calls, "militantly evangelical". Some of the clearly non-evangelical names on the list are Marion Wright Edelman, Children's Defense Fund; Dr. James Forbes, Riverside Church; Joan Brown Campbell, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches; Mary Dennis, Maryknoll Justice and Peace; Roman Catholic J. Bryan Hehir; the Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, President of the United Church of Christ denomination and the Rt. Reverend Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal Church.4 Jim Wallis put it this way: "The media ask what we are for. What we are for is healing this nation. Lesser-of-two-evils politics is no longer an option."5 Just where conservative Christians and their deeply held convictions fit into Wallis' vision for healing the nation was not made clear. |
