Born Again Evangelicalism?

Richard Cizik was on NPR's "Fresh Air" yesterday to talk about religion and politics. The last time he was on the show, his comments led to him losing his job at the National Association of Evangelicals. This time, he offered some good comments about the need for evangelicals to distance themselves from being part of a specific partisan ideology or movement. He argued:

Evangelicalism is [seen] today by what it's against, not what it's for. And we're trying to say, we're for these things. And among those is this command to first and foremost follow Jesus--not the Republican Party or Rush Limbaugh or anyone else, but to follow what the Gospel says.

He added:

Most important, [we need to become] independent of partisanship and ideology rather than subservient to partisanship and ideology. ... Evangelicalism [has] become so subservient to an ideology and to a political party that it needs, as I say, to be born again.

Amen! His turn of the phrase "born again" is particularly good--it is time for the movement to be born again to focus once again on helping people become born again.