National Association of Evangelicals Asked to “Unsign” the Covenant of Civility

Over at the blog “My Word Like Fire” (link here), John Lanagan has written a short blog post where he asks: Will NAE disavow “Covenant of Civility”? In case you didn’t know, NAE is the National Association of Evangelicals, currently headed by L. Roy Taylor. In no uncertain terms, Lanagan puts him to the point:

L. Roy Taylor,
It is my understanding that you have signed the “Covenant of Civility.” As you may know by now, Assemblies of God General Superintendent George O. Wood has asked that his name be removed from this document.

I respectfully ask that you, as President of the National Association of Evangelicals, do the same.

You see, Brian McLaren and other signatories have added their signature to the document. I applaud Lanagan’s letter written to L. Roy Taylor, and here’s why: Scripturally we cannot support joining hands with those who deny some of the basic tenets of the Christian faith.

I was a musician before I was saved, and I often think of things in musical terms. If two people were singing in unity, it meant that they were singing the exact same pitch or note. If they were singing “in harmony”, it meant that the two notes were not the same pitch, but they complemented each other. Finally, if they were singing in “discord”, or in dissonance, then the two notes being sung would have a rather grating effect.

This is what we have going on when you have people such as the Superintindent of the AoG and the President of the NAE signing a document with the likes of Brian McLaren and others who cannot agree with us on the core tenets of the Christian faith.

Scripture explains it like this:

2Co 6:14-18 (ESV) Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? (15) What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? (16) What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (17) Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, (18) and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

I hope that more men will step forward and take their names off such a document. It may seem fruitful from a pragmatic sense to sign such a document, but as Ken Silva has pointed out over at Apprising.org (link here), this will only serve to help those who wish to silence those of us who hold to orthodox Christianity.

This sounds to me like a warmed over version of Catholics and Evangelicals Together. Am I wrong?