October 28 1996

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Although the fledgling Call to Renewal organization skirts endorsement of political candidates, the religious movement is not shy about positioning itself on the issues.

At a mid-September weekend conference that drew 550 people seven weeks before the election, Call to Renewal refocused its attention on two areas:

—Being an alternative forum for Christians uncomfortable with both the Religious Right and the secular Left.

—Searching for civil and nonpartisan solutions to national problems such as racism, violence, poverty, the breakup of the family, the well-being of children, and environmental degradation.

The organization, which formed last year, is composed of evangelicals, mainline Protestants, African Americans, and Roman Catholics. The Call in part aspires to function as a voice of conscience as public opinion takes shape on national legislation.

Jim Wallis, Sojourners magazine editor and a Call to Renewal founder, said at a press briefing that the Call "will have the spirit of a movement and the organization of a network," using as its model the black civil-rights movement. Call to Renewal's leaders say too many Christians let their politics shape their theology rather than the other way around.

The Call is not going to get involved in "precinct organizing and party politics," Wallis said. "We don't want to be a power bloc in either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party."

PRO-LIFE CONSISTENCY: The Christian Coalition, which has had a defining impact upon the Republican Party in the 1990s, came under repeated criticism, especially from Tony Campolo, author and Eastern College sociologist.

"When they say they're pro-life, many of us, if not most of us, would say, 'We're pro-life, too,' " Campolo said in a ...