CHRISTIAN COALITION SEEKS FORGIVENESS.

Byline: Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

The head of the conservative Christian Coalition said Sunday that white evangelicals are seeking ``repentance and reconciliation'' because they have failed to embrace civil rights.

``There was a time in our nation's history when the white evangelical church was not only on the sidelines, but on the wrong side of the most central struggle for social justice in this century,'' Ralph Reed, the coalition's executive director, said on NBC's ``Meet the Press.'' ``I think that was wrong. I think we paid a price for that.''

Reed appeared to be extending an olive branch as he has invited civil rights leaders and African-American pastors to Atlanta for a meeting Tuesday on the African-American church burnings across the South.

His call for reconciliation is more significant because it comes a year after the powerful Southern Baptist Convention, a group founded largely to defend slavery, voted overwhelmingly to apologize and ask forgiveness from all African-Americans.

``There are white evangelicals in the South who justified Jim Crow and segregation and quote scripture to do it,'' Reed said. ``But when a community seeks repentance and reconciliation for doing that, I think all people of faith ought to welcome that and not turn it away.''

Some observers of politics and religion said Reed's comments, coupled with the Baptists' apology, are an indication of significant changes within the conservative, white community of the Christian church.

``It is a very healthy sign and development in society that Reed and the evangelicals are making such overtures,'' said James Reichley, a Georgetown University senior fellow.