Evangelical Battles at the NAE

The board of the National Association of Evangelicals turned back an attempt to restrict evangelical moral issues to matters of the bedroom -- abortion, gay marriage, and sexual abstinence. They also refused to censure or fire Richard Cizik. All of this is good news, but the battle is not over.

Stephanie Simon offers an important take on the NAE meeting in her front page LA Times story this morning. She also reports that Focus on the Family spokesman, Tom Minnery, has accepted a challenge to debate Jim Wallis on this matter. Minnery said that Jim Dobson was too busy writing a child rearing book to take up the matter himself. Consider:

[Randy Balmer, religion professor at Barnard College, Columbia University] says he senses an unstoppable momentum for the new generation of social-justice evangelicals. But though he criticizes the traditionalists for "moral myopia," he's not willing to write them off yet.

Dobson and his allies still wield considerable clout; their radio shows, newsletters and e-mail alerts reach millions of conservative Christians."They're still very powerful," Balmer said. "And they're not giving up."

The battles will continue as long as the old guard has muscle to use, but younger Evangelicals are starting to see the light!