‘Bring Me The Head Of Rich Cizik!’: Religious Right Demands Ouster Of NAE Official

[Ian David]

Some people have a lot of nerve.

Recently, a group of Religious Right leaders wrote to the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and demanded that a top Washington staff member be fired because they don’t like his stand on global climate change.

The signers of the letter, including James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association, insisted that the Rev. Rich Cizik be handed a pink slip. But here’s the rub: None of their groups are members of the NAE.

The NAE is an umbrella organization of 60 denominations and dozens of organizations with an evangelical slant. Dobson, Perkins, Wildmon and the other whiners could have joined but have not. Yet they still are trying to claim the right to direct the NAE’s hiring policies. It’s breath-taking.

To its credit, the NAE’s leadership does not seem inclined to listen to the bully brigade.

“We would normally look to our own constituency – and not to those who have chosen not to be members of the NAE – for counsel,” Leith Anderson, NAE interim president, told Religion News Service.

Why is the Religious Right so eager to take out Cizik, who directs the NAE’s Washington office? His big sin, according to the Religious Right honchos, is that he has dared to speak out against global climate change. Cizik believes that Christians have an religious obligation to care for the planet. While Cizik has been careful to note that the NAE does not take a stand on climate change, he has argued that the issue should be of concern to evangelicals.

More:
http://blog.au.org/2007/03/08/bring-me-the-head-of-rich-cizik-religious-right-demands-ouster-of-nae-official/



Jerry Falwell does not hold a degree in science, and it shows. He believes the earth is 6,000 years old and that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.

[kestrel91316]

1. Teeheehee. I like this person:

“We would normally look to our own constituency – and not to those who have chosen not to be members of the NAE – for counsel,” Leith Anderson, NAE interim president, told Religion News Service.