Dan Giloff of US News and World Report interviews David Gushee about the kind of person progressive evangelicals would like to see replace Richard Cizik as chief lobbyist of the National Association of Evangelicals. An extract:
How much pressure is there on the National Association of Evangelicals from the Christian right to replace Cizik with someone more ideologically aligned with its agenda?
I’m sure those pressures are there. I think Leith [NAE President Leith Anderson] and the executive committee are going to take their time and let the furor over this die down. I personally think they need to find somebody who can promote all seven of the policy commitments in the NAE’s Health of Our Nation statement. There’s one on sanctity of life and one on climate change and one on poverty. There are always pressures from the right that the two fundamental issues of our time should be abortion and homosexuality. I think there will be pressure to hire somebody to make those the top priority.
I can tell you from some feedback that if the NAE makes the mistake of rolling back to the classic Christian right agenda, they would lose support of a lot of people who are currently happy to be working with them.
See also Christianity Today: What Cizik’s Resignation Means for Creation Care