A minority of evangelical elites are getting away with issuing these left-leaning statements in part because there is little polling available on evangelicals to challenge them. Most polling organizations that conduct surveys on religion, such as the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, are on the left and have an agenda.

Evangelicals are known for taking conservative political positions, which is reflected in public opinion polls. But over the past few years several organizations and leaders claiming to represent them have issued a series of faddish, publicity-seeking public statements pronouncing left-leaning positions on political issues.

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is one of the worst offenders, along with a few pastors of mega-churches. Notably, a majority of the most well-known and respected evangelical leaders have not gone along with these declarations.

The NAE represents 45,000 churches from 40 evangelical Protestant denominations (Editor’s Note: Including CRC, EPC, and PCA) Ironically, the NAE was originally founded in 1942 to counter the more liberal Federal Council of Churches of Christ (precursor to the National Council of Churches).

The evangelical elites started to drift to the left on global warming in 2006. 86 evangelical leaders, including mega-church Pastor Rick Warren, signed the grandstanding “Evangelical Climate Initiative,” demanding that federal legislation be passed mandating a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. However, the names of prominent respected evangelical leaders like Franklin Graham and Jay Sekulow were conspicuously missing.

Several longtime evangelical leaders including James Dobson, Chuck Colson and the late Dr. James Kennedy responded with a statement of their own declaring, “Global warming is not a consensus issue” and asked the NAE not to take a position.

The following year, Dobson became so disturbed by NAE Vice-President Reverend Richard Cizik’s “relentless campaigning” against global warming that he essentially demanded his resignation. American Family Association Chairman Don Wildmon, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and 22 other nationally renowned evangelical leaders signed the letter.

NAE president Leith Anderson responded by praising Cizik’s activism. Cizik eventually resigned from his position with NAE in 2008 after expressing support for civil unions. In 2009, many prominent evangelicals pushed back and signed “An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming,” which disputes that global warming is manmade.

The evangelical elites’ position on global warming stands in stark contrast to evangelicals generally. Only 33% of evangelicals consider global warming a major issue, compared to 55% of non-evangelicals. Church-level Protestant leadership is equally skeptical of global warming. According to a survey by Lifeway Research, 60% of Protestant pastors don’t believe in manmade global warming. 41% – up from 27% in 2008 – “strongly disagree” that man is causing global warming and an additional 19% “somewhat disagree.” Only 23% “strongly agree” and 13% “somewhat agree.”

Evangelical pastors disagree even more. 68% of evangelical pastors “strongly disagree” or “somewhat disagree” that man causes global warming. Only 14% strongly agree that global warming is real and manmade.

The NAE issued a declaration in 2007 opposing enhanced interrogation techniques. It renounced “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” However, polling reveals that 54% of those who attend church at least once weekly – generally evangelicals – believe that enhanced interrogation techniques are often or sometimes justifiable.

Evangelicals demonstrate higher levels of support for combating terrorism than the rest of the population due to their affinity for Israel. So it was equally aberrant when the NAE issued a statement in November practically calling for nuclear disarmament. NAE leadership wrote in an editorial, “We question the acceptability of nuclear weapons as part of a just national defense.”

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[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]