Someone has asked for my response to “An Evangelical Manifesto” which you can read at www.anevangelicalmanifesto.com. This statement of evangelical identity and public commitment was published before my blog began, so I have never publicly commented on it (that I recall).
If you decide to read it, I recommend you begin with “An Introduction” and then read “An Executive Summary.” The manifesto itself is quite long. But I think the summary will draw you (assuming you’re interested in evangelicalism) into reading the whole manifesto.
It was written by a steering committee composed of Timothy George (Dean, Beeson Divinity School), Os Guiness (Author/Social Critic), John Huffman (Pastor, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Chair of Christianity Today, Int’l), Richard Mouw (President, Fuller Theological Seminary), Jesse Miranda (Founder and Director, Miranda Center for Hispanic Leadership, Vanguard University), David Neff (Vice President and Editor in Chief, Christianity Today Media Group), Richard Ohman (Businessman), and Larry Ross (President, Larry A. Ross Communications). Perhaps others contributed to it; I don’t know anything about it’s authorship other than the names of the steering committee members. I suspect some of them were most active in its actual wording.
The Introduction says that “An Evangelical Manifesto is an open declaration of who Evangelicals are and what they stand for.” It does not claim to speak for all evangelicals but to all evangelicals (and others).
Over the next few days I will be responding to the Manifesto. I am not sure yet how many blog posts that will include, but I plan to begin tomorrow.
The steering committee includes some weighty evangelical spokesmen (too bad there were no women on it). Someone recently asked me here who I would consider “living prototypes” of evangelicalism. If I made such a list, it would certainly includes some of these steering committee members. (I don’t know them all.)
So, as a person who actively participates in defining and describing “evangelical” and “evangelicalism,” I am interested in expressing my opinions about this Manifesto. But you will need to read it in order to evaluate my responses as to their fairness.
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