Celebrate diversity

The Inquirer has jumped on the trying-to-understand-those-kooky-evangelical-Christians bandwagon, running a series of stories over the past few weeks on various aspects of modern evangelicalism.

Yesterday’s paper, though, had two pretty good stories higlighting the often underreported diversity of political views among evangelicals. They emphasized the concerns many have beyond the usual triad of abortion, gay marriage and “judicial activism,” such as poverty, sex trafficking and global warming.

This piece on Colordao Springs megachurch pastor Ted Haggard focuses on the ways in which these are not your fathers evangelicals. Even among conservatives, people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are less and less representative.

Another article looks at the diversity of political views among evangelicals, with quotes from the ususal suspects like Ron Sider and Tony Campolo. Also note the interesting sidebar graph showing the breakdown of religious affiliations and their corresponding political identifications.