Dear Friend and Reader,<\/p>\n
AS SOMEONE WHO lives in evangelical-land and who has a few friends who tread in the murky waters of the Christian publishing industry, I can answer that question with an insider\u0432\u0402\u2122s absolute \u0432\u0402\u045ayes, sister.\u0432\u0402\u045c But splitting how? And along what lines? And for what purpose? Those answers will become more obvious in the next decade, as Generation Dobson cedes its influence to Generation Emergent<\/a>. In recent years younger evangelicals have been demanding a greater voice in their churches. But what they value and how they intend to pursue those values is at odds with the dominant, older evangelical culture.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, NPR’s Terri Gross looked at the \u0432\u0402\u045afuture of the religious right<\/a>.\u0432\u0402\u045c With her usual candor and intelligence, Gross interviewed Richard Cizik, the lead lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals, on NPR\u0432\u0402\u2122s Fresh Air<\/em>. In it Cizik talks about the generational split within the evangelical movement, and suggests that, because of the influence of younger evangelicals, he is reconsidering his ideas about gay marriage and environmentalism.<\/p>\n Who is this younger generation? Astrologically, they might be considered Generation Pluto in Libra (born 1972-1984) and Generation Pluto in Scorpio (born 1984-1996). These cohorts are pegged to bring about changes in relationship models (Libra) and redefine our concepts of sexuality (Scorpio).<\/p>\n Walk into your average white suburban evangelical community and you\u0432\u0402\u2122re bound to see these folks. They\u0432\u0402\u2122re easy to pick out in (mostly) white suburban churches: amid a sea of standard business casual uniforms, they\u0432\u0402\u2122re the the ones with the tattoos and the pierced noses. Outside of surburbia, the predominately urban Emergent church movement is composed almost entirely of young evangelicals whose church services are counter (evangelical) cultural in structure and content, sometimes resembling what could only be described by outsiders as group raves. (Substitute the Holy Spirit for acid, and you’ve got a decent picture of what they’re after.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Many recent reports about the \u0432\u0402\u045aObama Generation\u0432\u0402\u045c have focused on this age range, citing their social and political split from older voters, specifically the younger generation\u0432\u0402\u2122s indifference to race and sexual orientation as political deal-breakers. While younger evangelicals may still hold strong pro-life views, Cizik\u0432\u0402\u2122s interview suggests the youngest voters within the fold are more alike on environmental and social concerns with others of their age range outside the church. And this means they’re more likely to consider changes to marriage laws.<\/p>\n If you\u0432\u0402\u2122re looking for Cizik to make a conversion statement that would satisfy most of the GLBT community, you\u0432\u0402\u2122ll be disappointed. But if you\u0432\u0402\u2122re willing to consider the idea that James Dobson doesn\u0432\u0402\u2122t dictate the votes of every evangelical, you may find Cizik interesting. A short, intelligent interview, and a must-listen for anyone concerned about the future of the evangelical movement in America and it\u0432\u0402\u2122s influence on social and environmental legislation. Said one listener: \u0432\u0402\u045aI truly appreciate what I heard in this interview because it gives me hope that the consciousness of younger members of the evangelical coalition are evolving.\u0432\u0402\u045c Other listeners weren\u0432\u0402\u2122t so convinced.<\/p>\n Gross follows Cizik with an interview of Stephen Walman, the founder and editor of beliefnet.com<\/a>, who gives some excellent context and analysis of these recent patterns of change (as well as what’s not changing) within the evangelical culture.<\/p>\n Yours & truly,<\/p>\n Shanna Philipson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Friend and Reader, AS SOMEONE WHO lives in evangelical-land and who has a few friends who tread in the murky waters of the Christian publishing industry, I can answer that question with an insider\u0432\u0402\u2122s absolute \u0432\u0402\u045ayes, sister.\u0432\u0402\u045c But splitting how? And along what lines? And for what purpose? Those answers will become more obvious … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1,583,526,392,16],"tags":[36,703,1795,52,702,35,436],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}