Originally published on the CGS blog on October 12, 2007.
I didn’t notice until just now, but apparently Ban-Ki Moon was invited to speak at a dinner meeting hosted by the National Evangelical Association. Rev. Rich Cizik extended the invitation. Dana Milbank at the Washington Post caught it and Josh Weissburg at the Switchblog brought it to my attention.
Rev. Cizik is a thoughtful man who understands he is in a very difficult position. In urging action on climate change, torture, poverty, and international cooperation, he feels he is on solid religious ground. At the same time, though, folks like Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Jerry Falwell have done their best to make his political situation uncomfortable. I’m staunchly opposed to much of the evangelical agenda, but Rev. Cizik and his constituents are becoming key, constructive players on some important international issues. They are welcome allies.
Here’s his extremely ambitious proclamation, taken from the NAE press release:
“Evangelicals are the ‘new internationalists’ with a record of legislative successes and expect to shape U.S. foreign policy in ways unimaginable even a year ago. What remains to be seen is whether we’ll rise to the challenge of partnership being articulated by our brothers and sisters in the Global South.”
This, of course, is all going down as some other evangelical leaders are calling out the Secretary-General as the Antichrist. Here’s hoping Rev. Cizik and the ‘new internationalists’ can deliver.
