{"id":608,"date":"2008-04-11T15:32:19","date_gmt":"2008-04-11T15:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2008\/04\/evangelical-leaders-endorse-ra.php"},"modified":"2008-04-11T15:32:19","modified_gmt":"2008-04-11T15:32:19","slug":"evangelical-leaders-endorse-ra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/04\/evangelical-leaders-endorse-ra","title":{"rendered":"Evangelical Leaders Endorse Race ‘Reconciliation Referendum’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adelle M. Banks
\nReligion News Service<\/strong>
\n(RNS) Several prominent evangelical leaders have endorsed “A Reconciliation Referendum” that says Sen. Barack Obama’s recent address on race did not go far enough, and pushes church leaders to speak up more about the need to address racism.
\n“Opinion leaders in the national media praised the speech as courageous, but the notion that simply more talk is needed will no longer suffice,” the statement said.
\n“While politicians like Barack Obama and the national media wring their hands over a problem that has persisted in this country nearly 400 years, they offer no solutions to the problem.”
\nThe statement was presented to Christian leaders at a recent meeting in Montgomery, Ala., hosted by “The Call,” a multidenominational movement focused on reconciliation and revival. More than 350 people have now endorsed the statement, which aims to achieve racial reconciliation within the next decade.
\nAmong the signatories are Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship; the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Bishop Harry Jackson, founder of the High Impact Leadership Coalition; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; and Alveda King, an anti-abortion activist and niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
\nThe statement said the controversy about remarks by Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, demonstrates the church needs to do more to address race relations — including prayer, interracial evangelism and addressing poverty.
\n“The failure of good Christian people to provide a clear and convincing example of racial unity within the church has contributed to the divide between the races in the nation and it only appears to be widening,” the statement says.
\n“We must recognize that racism is not just a social problem in America; it is also a spiritual problem.”
\nCopyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service (RNS) Several prominent evangelical leaders have endorsed “A Reconciliation Referendum” that says Sen. Barack Obama’s recent address on race did not go far enough, and pushes church leaders to speak up more about the need to address racism. “Opinion leaders in the national media praised the speech as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nEvangelical Leaders Endorse Race 'Reconciliation Referendum'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/04\/evangelical-leaders-endorse-ra\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evangelical Leaders Endorse Race 'Reconciliation Referendum'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service (RNS) Several prominent evangelical leaders have endorsed “A Reconciliation Referendum” that says Sen. 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Banks Religion News Service (RNS) Several prominent evangelical leaders have endorsed “A Reconciliation Referendum” that says Sen. Barack Obama’s recent address on race did not go far enough, and pushes church leaders to speak up more about the need to address racism. “Opinion leaders in the national media praised the speech as…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/04\/evangelical-leaders-endorse-ra","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2008-04-11T15:32:19+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/04\/evangelical-leaders-endorse-ra","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/04\/evangelical-leaders-endorse-ra","name":"Evangelical Leaders Endorse Race 'Reconciliation Referendum'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-04-11T15:32:19+00:00","dateModified":"2008-04-11T15:32:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/04\/evangelical-leaders-endorse-ra#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/04\/evangelical-leaders-endorse-ra"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/04\/evangelical-leaders-endorse-ra#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Evangelical Leaders Endorse Race ‘Reconciliation Referendum’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. 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