If we are going to call for truth and respect in our nation, we must model it and demand leaders who model it, or people will have no reason to think we are serious about truth.
If we are going to emphasize the importance of personal character, we must model it and demand leaders who model it, or people will have no reason think we are serious about character.
If we are going to lobby for laws that support strong traditional families, we must model it and demand leaders who model it, or people will have no reason to think we are serious about the importance of traditional families.
If we are going to focus on sexual honor and purity, we must model it and demand leaders who model it, or people will have no reason to think we are serious about either of these things.
If we are going to demand that all people be treated with the value, worth and dignity due them as image bearers of God, we must model it and demand leaders who model it, or people won’t think this applies to all people.
If we are going to reject the Black Lives Matter and the #metoo movement because there are woke DEI socialist plots, please, for the love of God, also demand that we find even better ways to address the very real sins of racism and sexual harassment that have haunted our nation, lest people think we are either ignorant or heartless.
If we are going to demand a wall at our borders, we should also demand lots of doors, so that our desire for order and safety when it comes to immigrants and refugees is clearly matched by our desire to show compassion and generosity.
If we are going to follow Jesus' lead from the Sermon on the Mount, and be blessed as peacemakers as individuals and a society, we are going to need to use and promote language, attitudes and policies that are in line with peacemaking, or people may observe that we take our cues from Rome's pax Romana - the peace by the sword - rather than the pax Christi - the peace of cruciform love.
If we are going to value the economy more than anything else (which, according to polls, we do), we should commit to being radically generous with our money, lest people think we are trying to serve both God and mammon.
If we are going to value life, let us do it from womb to tomb, and let us show it by supporting parents and children with our money, time, friendship and things, and by supporting private and public systems that make the choice for life easier rather than harder, lest people think we only care about the lives of children when the weight of the support is on the mother, and costs us nothing.
If we are going to support America First, we should explain what that looks like for someone whose allegiance is first and foremost to the global kingdom of God rather than to the local empire of the United States. And if we don't know what that means, maybe we should figure that out.
No thanks. I think it’s time to leave a label behind without leaving Jesus behind. Because after all the anger, disillusionment, and grief, I still believe what I believed when this series began: Jesus is the best news ever.
I hope evangelicalism finds its way again. May the leading voices regain humility, courage, compassion, truthfulness and Christlike love. May there be repentance where repentance is needed, and revival deeper than political victory. May the movement rediscovers the upside down Kingdom in which enemies are loved, strangers are welcomed, the gospel is good news to the poor, swords become plowshares, the powerful wash feet, and the King gives his life so that others can live.
May the revival evangelicalism desires for America begin at home.
If we are going to value the economy more than anything else (which, according to polls, we do), we should commit to being radically generous with our money, lest people think we are trying to serve both God and mammon.
If we are going to value life, let us do it from womb to tomb, and let us show it by supporting parents and children with our money, time, friendship and things, and by supporting private and public systems that make the choice for life easier rather than harder, lest people think we only care about the lives of children when the weight of the support is on the mother, and costs us nothing.
If we are going to support America First, we should explain what that looks like for someone whose allegiance is first and foremost to the global kingdom of God rather than to the local empire of the United States. And if we don't know what that means, maybe we should figure that out.
* * * * *
Historic evangelicalism itself was imperfect and often inconsistent. But the scale of the moral reversal is difficult to ignore when many of the very issues evangelicals once emphasized publicly — care for the poor, racial reconciliation, humility, peacemaking, truthfulness, concern for refugees, warnings about nationalism, and suspicion of political idolatry — are now minimized, mocked, or treated as betrayals of the movement itself. Even when the right words are still there - justice, compassion, humility, mercy - they feel… false now, like a wonderful façade on a house that has been crumbling on the inside.
Recent polls have shown that nearly half of Gen Z says that the evangelical support of Trump makes them less likely to attend church. For those of us interested in apologetics, the target has shifted. It’s not so much that Christian teens are heading to college where their smart atheist professor rocks their theological world. They are leaving the faith before they leave for college, because they perceive their spiritual role models abandoning the principles they teach, and they conclude that what they were taught was not true enough to order their lives.
I don’t think everything has changed. I still see good, faithful evangelicals trying to live this out with boots on the ground, sweat of their brow kind of love in action. It’s just that now, more than ever, they stand out because of that.They have become the exception, not the norm. Which is so discouraging, because it was such a beautiful norm.
Michael Hamilton believes white evangelicalism now has a political quadrilateral:
Recent polls have shown that nearly half of Gen Z says that the evangelical support of Trump makes them less likely to attend church. For those of us interested in apologetics, the target has shifted. It’s not so much that Christian teens are heading to college where their smart atheist professor rocks their theological world. They are leaving the faith before they leave for college, because they perceive their spiritual role models abandoning the principles they teach, and they conclude that what they were taught was not true enough to order their lives.
“Deconstruction is involuntary; it happens when something we’ve been taught to believe comes into conflict with something we experience. We were taught that Christians fight against abuse, but then we watched church leaders at the highest level cover up abuse and enable abusers time and time again.
We were taught that Christians value ethics and morals, but then we watched many Christian leaders wholly support a political leader who openly mocks disabled folks, brags about sexual assault, calls migrants “animals,” lies constantly, and was found liable of rape, among other things.
We were taught that Christians are called to be generous, but then we saw pastor after pastor get caught embezzling money.
We were taught that Christians hate racism, but then we watched many of them post “all lives matter” after George Floyd’s murder.
We were taught that Christians abhor violence, but then we read polls showing they support torture at higher rates than those who are nonreligious.
We were taught that Christians strive for peace, but then we watched an insurrection led by people carrying signs bearing the name of Jesus.
We were taught that Christians take care of the sick, but then we watched prominent pastors call the COVID-19 virus fake news and host what ended up being super-spreader events.
Even former Southern Baptist pastor and denominational leader Russell Moore understands this truth. Speaking about folks who have deconstructed, he says:
“The culture often does not reject us because they don’t believe the church’s doctrinal and moral teachings, but because they have evidence that the church doesn’t believe its own doctrinal and moral teachings.”
They suspect that Jesus is just a means to an end—to some political agenda, to a market for selling merchandise, or for the predatory appetites of some maniacal narcissist. Not one of them walked away because they wanted to curry favor with “elites” or because they wanted to rebel. If anything, the posture of many of these people was not that of the Prodigal Son off in the far country so much as that of his father, waiting by the road for a prodigal they loved and wanted to embrace again: their church.
Actor, comedian, and former conservative evangelical Rhett McLaughlin puts it even more bluntly: “Your kids are not leaving the church because you didn’t train them enough. Your kids are leaving the church because you trained them well enough to develop a sense for truth and justice. You let them read the words of Jesus, and they got it, and they’ve recognized that the church doesn’t seem to be interested in those words. They’re not leaving because they don’t know the truth; they’re leaving because they do.”
(Better Ways To Read The Bible, Zach Lambert and Sarah Bessey)
I don’t think everything has changed. I still see good, faithful evangelicals trying to live this out with boots on the ground, sweat of their brow kind of love in action. It’s just that now, more than ever, they stand out because of that.They have become the exception, not the norm. Which is so discouraging, because it was such a beautiful norm.
Michael Hamilton believes white evangelicalism now has a political quadrilateral:
- Christian nationalism (the United States is a Christian nation, and its enemies are God’s enemies)
- Christian tribalism (a conservative version of identity politics with evangelicals as the priestly Levites in a modern Israel)
- Political moralism (politics should uphold Christian values)
- Anti-statism (expanding government programs are socialist or communist)
I hope evangelicalism finds its way again. May the leading voices regain humility, courage, compassion, truthfulness and Christlike love. May there be repentance where repentance is needed, and revival deeper than political victory. May the movement rediscovers the upside down Kingdom in which enemies are loved, strangers are welcomed, the gospel is good news to the poor, swords become plowshares, the powerful wash feet, and the King gives his life so that others can live.
May the revival evangelicalism desires for America begin at home.
