A number of evangelical leaders are pushing their fellow believers to think more broadly about faith, politics and public policy.

Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, World Vision United States

A former journalist who has directed relief programs in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere, Duss says that as Americans make trade policy, they have a moral duty to consider the needs of the poor around the world — the factory workers who labor in dangerous conditions and are paid too little to support their families, or the small farmers who can’t sell what they grow because U.S. producers are dumping cheap produce, propped up by subsidies, on the world market.

"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you: Either we believe in the Golden Rule, or we don't," he says. "If we believe, then we must act. We have a responsibility to our fellow human beings, especially those who live in extreme poverty."

He doubts these issues have penetrated far into the consciousness of the average person in the pew — or of most Americans. But increasingly, he says, evangelical leaders are thinking beyond traditional humanitarian aid to consider how U.S. policy and other institutional factors keep people poor or contribute to increasing poverty.

Duss served as president of the Association of Evangelical Relief and Development Organisations from 1996 to 1999.

Vice president for governmental affairs, National Association of Evangelicals

An ordained minister with degrees in political science and public affairs, Cizik has been a passionate voice for wider evangelical involvement on some of the most pressing issues of the day — the environment, human rights, poverty. He has been particularly outspoken recently on climate change and pollution, marching in a Washington anti-abortion rally with a sign that said, “Stop mercury poisoning of the unborn.”

“I don’t think we can sit on our hands,” he says. “God won’t let us sit on our hands.”

A regular presence at forums around the country on the environment and human rights, he is among those at the center of the ongoing effort among evangelicals to define the terms and principles that ought to guide their engagement with public policy. He wholeheartedly embraces the idea that evangelicals are the “new internationalists” — focused on their obligations to people around the world, whatever their faith or background.

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church ordained Cizik in 1992 to a special ministry in public affairs.

Executive director, Evangelical Environmental Network

Ball, also an ordained minister, grounds his call for environmental action in scripture. God’s love embraces all of creation, he says, and people of faith are called to safeguard it. That’s a message that more Christians are heeding — but there’s a great deal of work left to do, he says.

“My organization has been planting seeds for more than 10 years,” he says. “We’re not in full flower. We’re at the budding stage.”

Ball is among those who say evangelicals should develop their own voice on the environment, reaching out to business, for example, on issues like climate change before considering alliances with traditional environmental groups.

As a graduate student in the 1990s, pursuing a doctorate in theological ethics, Ball’s research focused on the evangelical response to ecological issues — work that later became a primer for Christians on global warming, “Planting a Tree This Afternoon: Global Warming, Public Theology, and Public Policy.” Before taking his current job, he was the climate change policy coordinator at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington.