George Soros’ New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good

I have stumbled across something of interest…George Soros now has an outreach to “Evangelicals”. This has caught my attention.

On the website, the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, they have selected their language to appeal to the uneducated evangelical. Just read through their top principles:

The following are important principles, issues, and causes we are pursuing in the name of Jesus Christ.

* We stand against human degradation and for the human rights of all people, especially the rights of the most vulnerable and despised. We are working for human rights in areas such as torture, the conditions in our prisons, immigration, and religious freedom.
* We stand against war and for peacemaking. We are committed to peacemaking efforts between the world’s major religious traditions and especially in the Middle East, where tensions remain high. We are working toward nuclear disarmament and a world without nuclear weapons.
* We stand against the devaluing of human life and for a society in which no woman feels that abortion is her only choice. We are involved in creative efforts to prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women, improve our adoption laws and practices, and change cultural attitudes and practices—all with the primary goal of reducing the number of abortions in our country.
* We stand against environmental denialism and for God’s endangered creation. We are deeply involved in efforts to address major environmental challenges facing our world, including climate change, species loss, and green energy.
* We stand against needless human suffering due to lack of health care and for human health. We are involved in efforts to expand health care access in the United States and around the world and to reduce the current threats to human health already present due to the growing toxicity of the environment that we are polluting.
* We stand against the collapse of marriage and for stronger family life. We are involved in efforts to strengthen the fading institution of marriage and thereby protecting and enhancing the well-being of children. We do not believe that denigrating the dignity and denying the human rights of gays and lesbians is a legitimate part of a “pro-family” Christian agenda, and will work to reform Christian attitudes and treatment of lesbian and gay people.
* We stand against poverty and economic injustice and for dignified and decent economic conditions for all. We seek to be involved in creative efforts to build a more fair and humane economic order here and around the world.
* We stand against tyranny and for democracy, justice, and the rule of law. We are involved in efforts to protect and strengthen the culture of American democracy, the unique legacy of religious liberty in this land, and the always fragile rule of law. We look for ways to support indigenous efforts to advance democracy, religious liberty, public justice, and the rule of law in other lands.

Leading the move is the former leader of the National Evangelical Association, who was widely criticized for his open support of pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

From the Open Society Website:

Richard Cizik Areas of Expertise: Climate Change, Criminal Justice Reform, Immigration Policy, Religion and Politics

Richard Cizik is the President of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, an organization committed to a broad, holistic, moral vision for evangelical engagement.

As an Open Society Fellow, Cizik will organize and host gatherings of evangelical faith leaders, policy-makers, and academics to address key challenges facing the United States and the world. His work will focus on climate change, immigration, and criminal justice.

Cizik served for ten years as vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, a post he left in 2008 after expressing conditional support for civil unions.

In 2002, Cizik was a participant in Climate Forum 2002, at Oxford, England, which produced the “Oxford Declaration” on global warming. He was instrumental in creating the Evangelical Climate Initiative, introduced in 2006. In 2005, the New York Times dubbed him the “Earthy Evangelist” for his advocacy on climate change, and in 2008 he was named to TIME Magazine’s list of the “TIME 100” most influential people. In 2006, Fast Company placed him on its list of “Most Creative Minds.”

Cizik has written over 100 articles and editorials and is the author and editor of The High Cost of Indifference (Regal Books). He contributed to the landmark document “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Engagement.”

Initially after his NAE departure Cizik was affiliated with Ted Turner’s United Nations Foundation, according to a Weekly Standard article.

According to US News and World Reports, an interview with National Public Radio host Terry Gross that aired on December 2,2008 Cizik responded to question about gay marriage by saying, “I’m shifting, I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say I believe in civil unions. I don’t officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don’t think.”

Even evangelical figures who’d supported Cizik’s environmental activism were troubled by the comments. “I don’t know what was going on in his head,” says Christianity Today Editor David Neff, an NAE board member and a Cizik ally on environmental issues. “When I heard that interview, I said to myself ‘Good grief—what are you talking about?’ That was not the Richard I knew.”

According to a statement posted on the NAE’s website Cizik acknowledged that he misspoke during the NPR interview. “Although he has subsequently expressed regret, apologized, and affirmed our values there is a loss of trust in his credibility as a spokesperson among leaders and constituents,” NAE President Leith Anderson said in a letter to the organization’s board of directors.”

The question I have to ask is….Why would an admitted Atheist- fund a so-called evangelical group? Answer AGENDA !

Recently, Soros has flooded the market with his Agenda driven videos like, The Story of Stuff, The Story of Cap and Trade, The Story of Bottled Water, and now, Let There Be…Stuff?, a “faith-based” video on American consumption.

Let There Be…Stuff?, the latest production, however, is perhaps the most unsettling of all, in that it attempts to indoctrinate teenagers by distorting religious teachings to adhere to the environmentalist agenda. Created by GreenFaith and The Story of Stuff Project, Let There Be…Stuff? is a six-session curriculum for teenagers that explores the relationship between their consumption, faith, and the planet’s health. Versions are available for Christian and Jewish teenagers.

The website for the newest production reads:

If you are a minister or lay church leader, youth group or bible study coordinator, we encourage you to download the curriculum here today…This 6-week series for teenagers of faith is designed to help them understand the problems facing the planet, raise awareness of the changes needed and empower them to develop environmentally sustainable patterns of consumption that honor creation and deepen their spiritual lives. It’s chock full of hands-on exercises, thought-provoking questions and great group activities.

But…why doesn’t Soros continue his “evangelical” ideals within this adventure…for example…in chapter one of Let There Be…Stuff? we learn that when we drink, we owe a debt. Not to God, however, but to Earth’s great waters.

Disgruntled by the video’s misrepresentation of Christians and Americans as environmentally callous beings, Calvin Beisner of Cornwall Alliance told a Glenn Beck audience recently, “The Greens want to make us feel that we’re supposed to be servants of the Earth. That is exactly the opposite of what the Bible says. Genesis tells us God blessed Adam and Eve and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill up the Earth, subdue it, and rule over it and over the fish of the sea and birds in the air.”

The New American explains this perfectly when author Raven Clabough wrote, “Perhaps the Left’s attempt to utilize faith in order to engage and manipulate students is the recognition that God continues to play a role in the lives of Americans. David Barton of Wallbuilders notes that 84 percent of Americans believe God had a hand in the creation of the Earth and man. Therefore, it may prove to be effective to combine the “teachings of God,” at least as the Left seems them, with the teachings of progressive environmentalists.

Of course, such an alliance is unholy and detrimental to true biblical teachings.”