Who Speaks for Evangelicals on Gay Rights?

Over the past week, with discussions about repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and condemning Uganda's anti-gay law at a fever pitch, a gaggle of evangelical leaders have been coming out of the woodwork to reiterate a faith-based opposition to homosexuality. Perhaps they feel threatened by how much attention gay rights is getting in the media. Or perhaps even within their own church, they know that anti-gay sentiment is fading like a proverbial flower.

Who speaks for evangelicals these days? Is it the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer? Fischer, who looks like the product of an "If They Mated" game with James Brolin and Pat Robertson, barked this week that the United States should return to the days of 1962, and make sure that every state in the country criminalizes sodomy.

"Laws not only curb dangerous and risky behavior, they keep such behavior from being normalized, sanctioned and endorsed by the rest of society, and as such render an enormous benefit to a healthy culture," Fischer writes. He then orders us all back into a time where gay folks could be jailed, and people of color had to drink from separate water fountains. Does he speak for evangelicals?

Or maybe it's Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council who speaks for evangelicals. Sprigg went on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews this week, and said that homosexuality should also be criminalized in this country. "I think there should be a place in this country for criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior," Sprigg said.

Or maybe it's Andrew Wommack, an American evangelical pastor in Uganda, who wears the moniker of spokesperson for evangelicals. Wommack went on record this week supporting efforts in Uganda to pass laws that would institute the death penalty for certain LGBT folks, and send many others to jail for life. For Wommack, it comes down to a belief that homosexuality causes disease.

"This bill is aimed the actions of people that are endangering the lives of innocent people," said Wommack. "I am so proud of this nation for standing up for something they believe in regardless of the threats that have come from around the World."

Three men. Three similar positions on gay rights. But do they represent the common consensus among the evangelical movement?

Not really. In fact, if you listen to Richard Cizik, the former head of the National Association of Evangelicals, it's clear that as these leaders and pastors age and cement their homophobia, they are becoming more and more isolated from evangelicals who largely believe that when it comes to social issues, there are just more important battles to be fought than condemning gay people.

Cizik has a new organization launching this week, the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, which is looking to build a space for evangelicals on a range of social issues. Consider it a little less fire and brimstone, and a little more building bridges and dialogue between groups that might not see eye to eye on everything, but want to make the world a better place anyway.

"We are to be about healing, not division. We are not to be subservient to ideology, but above it," said Cizik. Sheesh, talk about setting a different tone!

Is Cizik the next Bishop Eugene Robinson? No, of course not. He's still not quite there on gay marriage (he prefers civil unions), and he's certainly got a different vision of women's rights than many a progressive. But is he and the sentiments behind his new organization the future of the evangelical movement?

One can only hope. Polls consistently show that younger evangelicals in particular are sick and tired of condemning, and remain far more accepting of LGBT people than the old white dudes pulling the strings at the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, or with Wommack's ministry in Uganda.

Photo credit: littledan77