he quotes you highlight are classic leftist Christian language – oh we are so inclusive – whilst they proceed to exclude anyone they disagree with! its the way Regent functioned for the 4 years I was there! i

I can’t see how the document is “left leaning.” In fact, the document says “it would be no improvement to respond to a weakening of the religious right with a rejuvenation of the religious left.” Do you see something I don’t in the document? It seems that the writers went out of their way to avoid the perception that they were left-leaning.

I’m also not aware of the signatories as a group being particularly leftist. Do you know something I don’t?

I took the word “politicization” directly from the manifesto, but I didn’t realize until your comment that the authors should have been more clear about what they were criticizing. I meant by “politicization” exactly what you said: interpreting the political life of Christians somewhere along the spectrum of right to left. In other words, I meant what politics seems to be limited to in the 21st-century U.S. It seems that the authors of the manifesto mean the same thing, but it would be nice if they came out and said so. I’m inclined to give them a break: after all, they’re already trying to save the word “evangelical.” Trying to save the word “politics” as well would be too large a task for a 20-page document.

But you are right: in the classical sense, Christian faith is certainly political. It deals with human affairs, and how to organize life together.

To my mind the problem is not so much “politicization” of the faith, but trying to interpolate the political life of faithful Christians somewhere along the given spectrum from right to left. The faith is undoubtedly political: loving your neighbor (and insisting that he/she ought to do the same) is something like a scheme for a polis. Too many evangelicals (and me among them) have failed to imagine Christian “politics” as something other than arguments about state-craft.

The message of the gospel is not that the Republicans are right, but that God provides salvation to everyone who believes.

This is an important point that needs to be made right now.