No apologies- Biblical perspectives on world events

Please read part 2 above first

Here's more:

We believe it is our calling to be good stewards of all God has entrusted to our care so that it may be passed on to generations yet to be born. We call for a more complete understanding of discipleship that applies faith with integrity to every calling and sphere of life, the secular as well as the spiritual, and the physical as well as the religious; and that thinks wider than politics in contributing to the arts, the sciences, the media, and the creation of culture in all its variety. Above all, we remind ourselves that if we would recommend the Good News of Jesus to others, we must first be shaped by that Good News ourselves, and thus ourselves be Evangelicals and Evangelical.
Christians from both sides of the political spectrum, left as well as right, have made the mistake of politicizing faith; and it would be no improvement to respond to a weakening of the religious right with a rejuvenation of the religious left. Whichever side it comes from, a politicized faith is faithless, foolish, and disastrous for the church – and disastrous first and foremost for Christian reasons rather than constitutional reasons. Called to an allegiance higher than party, ideology, and nationality, we Evangelicals see it our duty to engage with politics, but our equal duty never to be completely equated with any party, partisan ideology, economic system, or nationality. In our scales, spiritual, moral, and social power are as important as political power, what is right outweighs what is popular, just as principle outweighs party, truth matters more than team-playing, and conscience more than power and survival.

Again, it is not that we demand to vote one way or the other- but for most Bible believing Christians, our values and beliefs are more in line with those of the republican party.  Personally, if there were more strong Bible believing Christians who were strong on pro life, pro marriage stances- I'm sure many Bible believing Christians would vote for them- against non Christian republicans.

It goes on:

We repudiate on one side the partisans of a sacred public square, those who for religious, historical, or cultural reasons would continue to give a preferred place in public life to one religion which in almost all most current cases would be the Christian faith, but could equally be another faith. In a society as religiously diverse as America today, no one faith should be normative for the entire society, yet there should be room for the free expression of faith in the public square. Let it be known unequivocally that we are committed to religious liberty for people of all faiths, including the right to convert to or from the Christian faith. We are firmly opposed to the imposition of theocracy on our pluralistic society. We are also concerned about the illiberalism of politically correct attacks on evangelism. We have no desire to coerce anyone or to impose on anyone beliefs and behavior that we have not persuaded them to adopt freely, and that we do no not demonstrate in our own lives, above all by love.

Bible believing Christians have never wanted to make America a theocracy- that's a popular argument from those who don't believe in the Christian faith.  What we would appreciate though, is to keep the historical correct view of this country rather than the politically correct revisions of the way this country came about.  Yes- we are a diverse nation- but- America has always been a Christian nation- one founded on Biblical principals, and because of this- that Christianity is a way of freedom of worship, people of every other religious thought, belief and view have been able to freely worship here.  Now that they have had such religious freedoms- it isn't right to eradicate the Christian heritage in order that non Christians can feel included.

Ok- Here's the last bit:

There are two additional concerns we address to the attention of our fellow-citizens. On the one hand, we are especially troubled by the fact that a generation of culture warring, reinforced by understandable reactions to religious extremism around the world, is creating a powerful backlash against all religion in public life among many educated people. If this were to harden and become an American equivalent of the long-held European animosity toward religion in the public life, the result would be disastrous for the American republic and a severe constriction of liberty for people of all faiths. We therefore warn of the striking intolerance evident among the new atheists, and call on all citizens of goodwill and believers of all faiths and none to join with us in working for a civil public square and the restoration of a tough-minded civility that isin the interests of all. On the other hand, we are also troubled by the fact that the advance of globalization and the emergence of a global public square finds no matching vision of how we are to live freely, justly, and peacefully with our deepest differences on the global stage. As the recent Muslim protests and riots over perceived insults to their faith demonstrate, the Internet era has created a world in which everyone can listen to what we say even when we are not intentionally speaking to everyone. The challenges of living with our deepest differences are intensified in the age of global technologies such as the World Wide Web.
We are not uncritical of unrestrained voluntarism and rampant individualism, but we utterly deplore the dangerous alliance between church and state, and the oppression that was its dark fruit. We Evangelicals trace our heritage, not to Constantine, but to the very different stance of Jesus of Nazareth. While some of us are pacifists and others are advocates of just war, we all believe that Jesus’ Good News of justice for the whole world was promoted, not by a conqueror’s power and sword, but by a suffering servant emptied of power and ready to die for the ends he came to achieve. Unlike some other religious believers, we do not see insults and attacks on our faith as offensive and blasphemous in a manner to be defended by law, but as part of the cost of our discipleship that we are to bear without complaint or victim-playing. On the other hand, we repudiate all who believe that different values are simply relative to different cultures, and who therefore refuse to allow anyone to judge anyone else or any other culture. More tolerant sounding at first, this position leads directly to the evils of complacency; for in a world of such evils as genocide, slavery, female oppression, and assaults on the unborn, there are rights that require defending, evils that must be resisted, and interventions into the affairs of others that are morally justifiable.

Well, that's about  it. You can read the whole manifesto for yourselves here. 

In conclusion, this manifesto sounds reasonable, but again, I have to warn those who are seeking acceptance from the world- Christianity is a very divisive belief- in that Jesus is the only way, and many people take issue with that.  If one is to be accepted by other beliefs and views we will lose our uniqueness which is in Jesus Christ- who warned that His true followers would some day be hated because of Him.  I agree with the above statement that we are not to turn this into victim playing- on the contrary- I look forward to the day that someone persecutes me because of my belief- that way I know I am truly following in His foot steps.  My thoughts are these though-
When you attempt to embrace every group of people, each faith, each philosophy, world view and create special classes within society- there will always be one group who ends up being sacrificed for the "greater good".  When you try and please everyone- no one is satisfied.  I wrote about not compromising the Christian faith before- and  Barbara made this profound and insightful comment- "By the time all these groups made enough concessions to one another's beliefs to actually get along and have peace, no one would believe in anything they once believed in. "
My point exactly. 
There are many of us who use the term evangelical- but like so many terms in Christian language which have been twisted and made into "whatever works for you" view- the best explanation I have seen to dateof what Evangelicals are and what they stand for is found in Dave Jeffers Book- Understanding Evangelicals, a Guide to Jesusland.  It is an excellent book, and highly recommended by me. 
I think though- that I will forgo any title, and call myself a Bible Believing follower of Jesus Christ.  At least that way, people will know just what and in Whom I believe and live for.

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• #1 Comment from bhbner2him 
  5/11/08 9:25 PM | Permalink

  I do love the last couple of sentences you posted here of their paper.  Tolerance has almost a nasty taste in my mouth since it's meaning has been so twisted as to imply you should not only not hinder or harm,  but should embrace and celebrate things you find abhorant.  
  
  As for me, my manafesto, my creed is simply the blood of Jesus applied to me!
  And "I believe that the Bible has God for its author, salvation for its end, and Truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter."
  
  Barbara
  http://journals.aol.com/bhbner2him/LifeFaithinCaneyhead/