Depending on how researchers ask the question, some 25 to 45 percent of the U.S. population report that they see themselves as either born-again or evangelical Christians. About 30 million Americans belong to member churches of the National Association of Evangelicals. In political terms, these are sizeable percentages and numbers that dwarf by millions of members such prominent political action groups as the National Rifle Association and labour groups as the Teamsters and AFL-CIO.

But as political analyst Chip Berlet pointed out in an article in the summer 2003 issue of Public Eye magazine, ",,,contrary to the impression fostered by the direct-mail rhetoric of many liberal groups, not all evangelicals are part of the Christian Right, and some evangelicals are actually politically liberal or progressive." In noting the high profile evangelical Christian leaders involved in American public life, liberal groups tend to count the usual prominent conservative evangelical leaders-Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and, of course, George Bush, Jr. But they fail to remember Martin Luther, Jr. and to include prominent liberal evangelical personalities such as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton. Rick Warren, best-selling author of the "Purpose-Driven Life", and Jim Wallis, Sojourners magazine publisher and best-selling author. In a broad sense, conservative and liberal evangelicals share a common religious experience. They are born-againers who believe that the Bible is the word of God and that they should help spread his message. But within these broad groupings are varieties of evangelical experience, ranging from the fundamentalists who reject evolution and believe in the literal truth of the Bible to the more moderate but still conservative traditionalists, who are trying to maintain their traditional beliefs in a changing society, to the ethnic evangelicals, Blacks and Latinos, who total about 267 million in numbers and tend to favour the Democrats in politics, to the progressive liberals, who believe their brand of evangelicalism should include a social conscience.

The conservative evangelicals have built powerful political action organisations. They include Pat Robertson's network which gave birth to the Christian Coalition, Jerry's Falwell's Moral Majority, and James Dobson's Focus on the Family, which is considered the most country's influential evangelical organisation. But liberal evangelicals, although smaller in numbers, have organised to combat the powerful influence of the conservative evangelicals. The two leading groups are the Interfaith Alliance and The Call to Renewal. Founded in 1994, the Interfaith Alliance describes itself as the faith-based voice that's countering the radical right and promoting a positive role for religion. It has 109 chapters in 39 states and 150,000 members from more than 70 religious faiths, including Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims. The Alliance provides training, research, education and support to grassroots religious groups working to promote social justice in their communities.

Among its recent actions, the Alliance opposed the passage of an amendment in the US House of Representatives this June that prohibited law enforcement from removing a Ten Commandment display in Indiana. The Reverend Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President of the Interfaith Alliance, described the congressional move as "an extreme act of congressional activism." The Call to Renewal was organised by Jim Wallis, whose magazine, Sojourners, styles itself a progressive Christian community focused on faith, politics and culture. At about the time of the Call to Renewal's founding in 1995, Wallis said in an interview that "social movements change history more than finding the right person for office. It's the difference between trying to create moral authority and seizing power. Pharaoh has the power, but Moses has the authority."

Jim Wallis is the author of the current best-selling "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It." In Wallis's view, religious conservatives are co-opting the religious language and are using it to polarise America, while liberals shun the idea of religion in American life, even though Christianity's true mission-working for peace and correcting social ills-is in line with those values. In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Wallis said: "So a number of us in this country as Christians, as evangelicals, are waiting to see policies that reflect the language and the intention of a faith-based initiative or compassionate conservatism. We are not seeing policies that benefit poor people in this country or around the world. That, for us, is a religious concern, not just a political one."

But many conservative evangelical Christians are showing that abortion and same sex marriage are not the only issues that will compel them to get involved in politics. Last June 15, in an article in USA Today newspaper, John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron and co-author of the "Values Campaign: The Christian Right in American Politics", noted that "Evangelicals have broadened their perspective and widened their agenda. It's not as if social issues have vanished: they still care about them. But foreign policy issues, environmental issues, even social policy issues have joined the agenda. This has lead them to develop broader alliances in some really odd ways."

There have several developments in recent years to illustrate Professor Green's point. For example, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 was passed, thanks to a broad alliance that ranged from Charles Colson, born again former Nixon aid convicted in Watergate to feminist Gloria Steinem. In 2004, a coalition of Korean Americans and conservative Christians helped push the North Korean Human Rights Act through Congress. The act directs the US government to stress human rights issues and nuclear proliferation in dealing with North Korea. Conservative Christians were also involved in the recent campaign to cancel the $40 million owned by poor nations to international organisations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Last year, the National Association of Evangelicals adopted a new position statement on social engagement titled "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility." In the manifesto, the Association pledged to "protect the vulnerable and poor and guard the sanctity of human life, to further racial reconciliation and justice, to renew the family, to care for creation and to promote justice, freedom and peace." With regard to the pledge to "care for creation", evangelicals have shown that they are committed to walking the talk. For instance, the National Association of Evangelicals, together with other religious groups, have joined with scientists to call for action on global warming, or climate change, as many conservative evangelicals prefer to call the issue, under the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, which states that "global warming is an universal moral challenge." Meanwhile, Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn) and John McCain (R-AZ) have reportedly sought out evangelical support for an amendment they are sponsoring that will limit global warming pollution.

So America may be polarised, but some common ground exists upon which liberals can meet and even work with evangelical Christians. As Madeleine Albright, the Secretary of State in the Clinton administration, told USA Today: "Within the American political spectrum, the religious right and international left stand at opposite poles, but on humanitarian issues, it's more a circle than a straight line."

Ron Chepesiuk is a visiting professor of Journalism at Chittagong University and the author of recently released "Drug Lords" (see www.ronchepesiuk.com/).