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From Prophetic to Prosaic
16 November 2004Last June, the National Association of Evangelicals' draft of new political guidelines for Christian civic engagement was rumored to be groundbreaking document that foretold a radical evangelical shift to the left. A closer reading of the draft made this interpretation seem far-fetched: the old culture war issues would still trump the more "progressive" Christian concerns lauded by the press. J. Shawn Landres, of Religion and Society, takes the examination a step farther, breaking down the differences between the draft version and the document finally released this October. In his scrupulous evaluation of the language changes, additions and deletions, Landres finds that what could have been seen as "prophetic" or bold about the draft document -- especially regarding the NAE's economic platform -- has been made "prosaic," tamed into standard rhetoric, by the time the guidelines were finally released. Required reading for the "defining moral values" debate.
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