Yale Divinity School just concluded a most interesting conference titled, “Voices & Votes: Religious Convictions in the Public Square.” As you’ll be able to tell by the conference agenda, the panelists were both distinguished and from across the ideological spectrum. Not every day you get to see Ralph Reed and Eric Sapp at the same conference. In between jokes about who sat to the left of whom at the presenter tables, there was a good bit of serious discussion of the state of religion in American public life today.

Many themes resonated throughout the day, perhaps none moreso than the increasingly diverse political priorities of the evangelical community in America. Whether driven by disenchantment with the Bush Administration or a theological dedication to what Ron Sider called Biblically balanced politics, evangelicals are prioritizing things like creation care, protection of human rights, and combating global AIDS with increasing vigor. As Rich Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals pointed out, this isn’t only good policy, but makes good news when working with media outlets that expects little political diversity from the evangelical community.

Hopefully some of the day’s proceedings will be available through the Internet at some point. The discussions, even when touching on points of serious disagreement, featured an honesty and civility that could be a model for our discourse on faith in public life.