The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) invited United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon to be their keynote speaker last night at a Global Leaders Dinner in Crystal City, Va. And the NAE official who invited Ban to speak, the Rev. Richard Cizik, got a kick out of the irony of the occasion -- an irony that a Washington Post columnist also picked up on in an article he wrote called "Guess Who Came to the Evangelicals' Dinner."

What did Cizik think is so funny? Evangelicals have generally been wary of the United Nations -- to put it mildly -- thinking the organization will play a key role in the Antichrist's one-world government. The Left Behind novels even depict a U.N. secretary general as the Antichrist. And now evangelicals have invited the Antichrist -- so to speak -- to their dinner. 

According to the Washington Post column, before Ban arrived at the dinner Cizik quipped: "My joke is, some people will say the evangelical Christians have invited the Antichrist to the Last Supper." He then said he was only teasing, that Ban is a "Christian man" (was he trying to make another joke?).

Cizik thought the whole thing was pretty funny, but I don't think he'd be laughing if he knew the U.N.'s plans for its Alliance of Civilizations, which has identified fundamentalist Christians -- a.k.a. evangelicals -- among the enemies of world peace. See its Concept Paper that says one of its goals is to "counter the influence of those who feed on exclusion and claim sole ownership of the truth."  And its November 2006 Report of the High-Level Group recommends requiring all religious schools to register with authorities and use pre-approved curriculum that doesn't "foster hatred of other communities." It also says it's the "duty" of religious leaders to avoid "provocative" language about other beliefs. What does the NAE think of that? The gospel, by definition, is provocative.

Despite all his punchlines, Cizik missed the real irony. In the NAE press release, Cizik called evangelicals the "new internationalists." Yet, if they really are becoming so international in their scope, then you think they'd at least know about the Alliance of Civilizations -- which was created to address the U.N.s most urgent international agenda, religious friction.

But my guess is that most evangelicals don't know about the Alliance of Civilizations, which explains how Ban could get invited to the NAE dinner in the first place. The way it's going, I don't think it's long before we'll see evangelicals like Cizik signing up with the Alliance of Civilizations, which plans to recruit religious leaders to promote its school curriculum, according to the Report of the High-Level Group. 

My hunch is strengthened by the Washington Times column, which reports that Cizik -- when asked how NAE members responded to Ban being invited to the dinner -- said he hadn't heard any complaints. He said he thinks evangelicals are warming to those "U.N. types." 

Sure, it's all buddy-buddy. For now.