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The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is no longer the organization it was only a few years ago. Its Washington office has been trending green. Risk Policy Report wrote on October 25 that NAE had been planning soon to release a policy statement on global warming that would call for mandatory greenhouse gas controls. There is now more reason to hope that reason and NAE traditional values – rather than unproven science -- will win the day. NAE President, the Reverend Ted Haggard, commented in March 2005 to Laurie Goodstein, a reporter for THE NEW YORK TIMES: “The question is,...

Evangelical leader says voting for a Mormon not a problem Politics over religion: He says Romney's faith not a barrier to his presidential bid By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Tribune The Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said Friday he would have no problem voting for a Mormon for U.S. president. "We rejected an Evangelical [Harriet Meiers] for the Supreme Court and accepted a Catholic [Samuel Alito]," said Haggard, who was in Salt Lake City to address the annual convention of Religion Newswriters Association. "It's a question of competence." Evangelical Christians...

The Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said Friday he would have no problem voting for a Mormon for U.S. president. "We rejected an Evangelical [Harriet Meiers] for the Supreme Court and accepted a Catholic [Samuel Alito]," said Haggard, who was in Salt Lake City to address the Religion Newswriters Association's annual convention. "It's a question of competence." Evangelical Christians are more interested "in good government," than in religious affiliation, the founder and senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., said. As the leader of the influential National Association of Evangelicals, which has...

Academics finding common cause with left-wing activists are not a new story, particularly since they are frequently the same people. But their effort to influence Evangelical Christians suggests a new twist on an old cliché: If you can’t beat them, subvert them. “For America’s evangelicals, reclaiming the faith would produce a social and political ethic rather different from the one propagated by the religious right,” Professor Randall Balmer writes in the June 23rd Chronicle of Higher Education supplement, The Chronicle Review. “Care for the earth and for God’s creation provides a good place to start, building on the growing evangelical...

Evangelicals are joining hands with mainline Christians, Catholics, and Muslims once again to help shape government policies, this time in the area of torture. Wednesday, Jun. 14, 2006 Posted: 5:06:24PM EST Evangelicals are joining hands with mainline Christians, Catholics, and Muslims once again to help shape government policies, this time in the area of torture. Some 27 religious leaders, including Saddleback Church's Rick Warren and the National Association of Evangelicals' president Ted Haggard, have signed onto a statement urging the United States to "abolish torture now - without exceptions." The statement, published today in newspapers nationwide, marks the official launch...

ON THE RELIGIOUS LEFT, the great hope these days is that the Religious Right is melting down over Global Warming. Liberal evangelical activist Jim Wallis rejoiced about the crack-up in a recent column, claiming that "the Religious Right is losing control" thanks to environmentalist evangelicals. Wallis, head of "Sojourners" and author of God's Politics: Why the American Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Just Does Not Get It, is predicting a "sea change" among evangelicals since the Religious Right has "now lost control of the environmental issue."The reason for Wallis's optimism is the newly-created Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI), endorsed...

The National Association of Evangelicals said yesterday that it has been unable to reach a consensus on global climate change and will not take a stand on the issue, disappointing environmentalists who had hoped that evangelical Christians would prod the Bush administration to soften its position on global warming. Over the past four years a growing number of evangelical groups have embraced environmental causes, urging Christians to engage in "Creation care" and campaigning against gas-guzzling SUVs with advertisements asking, "What would Jesus drive?" In October 2004 the Rev. Ted Haggard of Colorado Springs, called the environment "a values issue." But...

What does the Bible say about global warming? Some evangelical Christian leaders hope to answer that question next year with a statement on climate change that could lend moral authority and political power to a smaller number of environmentalists pushing the issue. It's a sign that U.S. evangelicals are flexing political muscles strengthened in battles over domestic issues such as abortion, gay rights and school prayer on a broader array of topics, from human rights and religious freedom to global poverty and AIDS — issues on which they've already scored legislative victories in Washington. The climate change statement, being crafted...

Jews and Evangelicals explore the boundaries of their relationship at New York conference. At the end of his presentation last week in a panel titled "Christian America?" Rev. Richard Cizik, an Evangelical lobbyist in Washington, was confronted with an unexpected question: Does he believe Jews go to heaven? Caught off guard, Cizik, who is vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals, said his practice was to "do my best to avoid answering that question because it leads us to a place where we don't necessarily need to go." The question — prompted by the 2002 declaration...

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is no longer the organization it was only a few years ago. Its Washington office has been trending green. Risk Policy Report wrote on October 25 that NAE had been planning soon to release a policy statement on global warming that would call for mandatory greenhouse gas controls. There is now more reason to hope that reason and NAE traditional values – rather than unproven science – will win the day. NAE president, the Reverend Ted Haggard, commented in March 2005 to Laurie Goodstein, a reporter for the New York Times: "The question is,...

In their long and frustrated efforts pushing Congress to pass legislation on global warming, environmentalists are gaining a new ally. With increasing vigor, evangelical groups that are part of the base of conservative support for leading Republicans are campaigning for laws that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which scientists have linked with global warming. In the latest effort, the National Association of Evangelicals, a nonprofit organization that includes 45,000 churches serving 30 million people across the country, is circulating among its leaders the draft of a policy statement that would encourage lawmakers to pass legislation creating mandatory controls for carbon...

A senior representative of America's evangelical Christians is to make an attempt to set up a meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The Rev Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, wants to distance American Christians from the remarks of a tele-evangelist. Pat Robertson earlier this week called for Mr Chavez to be assassinated. The US State Department called his remarks "inappropriate" and Mr Robertson later apologised for them. Mr Haggard says he wants to meet Mr Chavez face to face and apologise for Mr Robertson's remarks. He also wants to secure assurances about the safety of American...

Environmentalists are blaming US President George Bush and his friends in the energy industry for wrecking a G8 deal on global warming before he has even boarded the plane to the summit in Gleneagles. Coming from his usual critics, this is unlikely to trouble the president as he heads for the summit, but he faces growing pressure to give greater priority to the environment from one of his most loyal domestic constituencies: the religious right. Evangelical Christians form a crucial plank in Mr Bush's formidable political base (he is an evangelical himself) and care for the environment is becoming an...

WASHINGTON — The nation's main coalition of evangelical Christian churches is under internal pressure to adopt a Middle East policy for the first time, and observers expect the group to emerge more centrist and moderate than its current image. In recent weeks, key members of the National Association of Evangelicals, a loose federation of 52 denominations with 30 million followers, have been pushing for an internal process that would culminate with an official position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those behind the push favor a resolution that would, in addition to strongly supporting Israel and its well-being, recognize the rights of...

A core group of influential evangelical leaders has put its considerable political power behind a cause that has barely registered on the evangelical agenda, fighting global warming. These church leaders, scientists, writers and heads of international aid agencies argue that global warming is an urgent threat, a cause of poverty and a Christian issue because the Bible mandates stewardship of God's creation. The Rev. Rich Cizik, vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals and a significant voice in the debate, said, "I don't think God is going to ask us how he created the earth, but...

President Reagan's Speech before the National Association of Evangelicals -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- President Reagan addressed the annual convention in Orlando, Florida on March 8, 1983. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reverend Clergy all, Senator Hawkins, distinguished members of the Florida congressional delegation, and all of you: I can't tell you how you have warmed my heart with your welcome. I'm delighted to be here today. Those of you in the National Association of Evangelicals are known for you spiritual and humanitarian work. And I would be especially remiss if I didn't discharge right now one personal debt of gratitude. Thank you for your prayers. Nancy and...

A top official of the National Association of Evangelicals told reporters gathered at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary that the Moral Majority, a 1980s political movement dominated by Christian conservatives, was ''an aberration and a regrettable one at that," even though it drew evangelicals into the political process, because the organization was ''fatally flawed by a hubris that made the movement condescending and more than a bit judgmental." ''The Moral Majority lacked a servant heart of Christ born out of humility and compassion for a fallen humanity," said the official, Robert Wenz, who is vice president of national ministries for the National...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)—More than three-fourths of Protestant clergy believe the separation of church and state in the United States has gone too far, according to research released by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Ellison Research, a full-service marketing research firm in Phoenix which conducted the research for the July/August issue of LifeWay’s Facts & Trends magazine, reported that 78 percent of Protestant clergy say "the separation of church and state in the U.S. has gone too far, or in ways it was never intended to go" best reflects their personal position. Ellison described the research as reflecting...

How the Evangelicals and Catholics Joined Forces By LAURIE GOODSTEIN Published: May 30, 2004 N 1960, the last time a Roman Catholic ran for president on the Democratic ticket, evangelical Protestant leaders warned their flocks that electing John F. Kennedy would be like handing the Oval Office to the Antichrist. So deep was the antipathy toward Catholics that the president of the National Association of Evangelicals sent a distressed letter to pastors saying: "Public opinion is changing in favor of the church of Rome. We dare not sit idly by - voiceless and voteless." The Rev. Billy Graham's magazine Christianity...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Shortly before and after President Bush signed the ban on partial-birth abortions Wednesday, two groups of pro-life advocates met with him privately in the Oval Office. They tell of a man who strongly and openly supports the pro-life cause and does so because of a deeply felt Christian faith. Chuck Colson, who founded a national prison ministry, met with President Bush before the bill signing event. "We had a wonderful conversation, celebrating one of the most significant days of his presidency and a great day for all who believe in the sanctity of life," Colson said....