Mao Tse-tung published one. So did Ted Kaczynski, Ron Paul, and Valerie Solanas, the radical feminist writer who shot Andy Warhol. The Communists had one, and so did the Anarchists and the Humanists. Now the Evangelicals have one, too. Earlier this month, a group of more than 70 clergy, leaders and theologians released The Evangelical Manifesto, a 20-page declaration reclaiming the word “Evangelical” from the pit of political realm where, the say, it is danger of losing its sacred meaning. The word “manifesto” conjures images of wild-eyed extremists with a rusty mimeograph machine and an ax to grind. How appropriate that these religious folks chose one loaded word to describe their attempts to reclaim the proper meaning of another loaded word: Evangelical.

(Cathleen Falsani is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and author of “The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People.”)