Like Salt (Part I): The Evangelical Movement

Having just turned 70, I am old enough to remember American religion in the 50s and 60s.  In those days I attended a large downtown mainline Protestant church, wearing a very respectable sport coat and tie by the time I was in the sixth grade.  It was the peak period of American religion.

Back then mainline Protestantism (Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, etc.) and Roman Catholicism dominated the American religious landscape.  Worshipers packed the pews every Sunday.  Church budgets soared, platoons of missionaries worked around the world, and new church buildings popped up all over urban and suburban cityscapes.  Newspapers covered religion like it mattered, often reporting on religious pronouncements and meetings, and even printed sermons.  Mainline seminaries had reputations equal to medical and law schools and enjoyed huge enrollments.

Catholicism was booming, too.  Catholic schools were crowded, Catholic men pursued the priesthood, and Catholic women joined religious orders, all in large numbers.

It seems so long ago.  Now these traditions are in decline, in both numbers and influence, though the decline of Catholicism has been less steep because of the influx of Hispanic immigrants, many of whom are Catholic.

It is different with evangelicals.

Evangelicalism as we know it today emerged in the 1940s.  Leaders like Billy Graham (the popular evangelist), Carl F. Henry (the leading theologian of the movement), and Harold Ockenga (pastor of the historic Park Street Church in Boston) wanted to turn conservative Christianity into a force that would exercise greater cultural influence.   These early pioneers founded new organizations, like Youth For Christ, Cru (then Campus Crusade for Christ), World Vision, Fuller Seminary, and Christianity Today, all of which are still thriving today.  And many more.

The movement grew rapidly.  Evangelical publishing houses sold tens of millions of books (many became best sellers), evangelical entrepreneurs used technology (radio, and later TV) to market the faith to outsiders, evangelical conferences attracted huge attendance, new churches sprang up, some growing so fast that observers called them “megachurches,” evangelical non-profits raised hundreds of millions of dollars to meet practical human need, evangelical colleges and universities grew in number, size, and reputation, and evangelical leaders routinely visited the White House.

Evangelicalism has leveled off in the past few years.  But it is still highly visible.

It would appear this is the evangelical moment.

Is it?  If so, will it continue?  Or will evangelicalism suffer the same fate as mainline Protestantism and Roman Catholicism?

It is difficult to know.  But there are signs of vulnerability, which could prove to be fatal in the long run.  Ironically, the vulnerability is the result, at least in part, of evangelical success.

One point of vulnerability stands out as especially menacing and destructive—the evangelical quest to make America a Christian nation again, which assumes that it was before.

There are two problems with this quest.

First, America never was a Christian nation, though it has clearly benefited from Christian influence.  There are bright spots: America’s role in the Second World War, its educational system, from primary through graduate, its grand experiment in representative democracy, its commitment to freedom and human rights, its economic prosperity, its vast empire of non-profits serving the common good, its vibrant church life.

But it also has blindspots, as we all know: slavery and racism, near genocide of First Nation people, materialism, waste, and pollution, the disparity between rich and poor, and more.

The attempt to make America a “Christian Nation” has birthed the rise of Christian Nationalism, which elevates nation above Kingdom, party above church, leader above Lord.  It also privileges the few over the many: rich over poor, white over black, men over women.  It leads to apocalyptic thinking and tends to turn all national problems into a fight between good and evil, light and darkness, which makes it almost impossible to negotiate compromise and to exercise any degree of self-criticism.  It is too much “all or nothing.”

Christian Nationalism will inevitably push America in the direction of other failed “Christian” empires that became intoxicated by their own power, privilege, and success—the Holy Roman, the Byzantine, the British, and, yes, the Third Reich, which enjoyed the full support of the German Church, though we would hardly dare call it Christian today.

Second, Christians have functioned best in America when they have done their work quietly.  To be quiet is to be faithful and obedient, not loud, belligerent, and boastful; it is to choose persuasion over coercion; it is to serve the least of these rather than dominate as the greatest of these; it is to seek for truth, refusing to believe cultural lies.  It is to put Jesus ahead of all other loyalties, commitments, and convictions.

Evangelicals are at a crossroad.  Christian Nationalism is worming its way into the life of the church.  A demagogue is demanding submission.  A bold assertion of power is eroding Christian witness.

It all culminated on January 6.  Did you see the flags waving?—American, Confederate, Trump, and Christian.  Idolatry in plain site, and on the day of Epiphany no less.  The irony is too obvious to miss.

Many evangelicals are excusing the insurrection, still bowing to the demagogue, still elevating party and politics over Kingdom, still believing lies and claiming the election was stolen.  Soon there will be little left in the movement that resembles true Christianity.

Christian Nationalists might succeed in the short run.  They might get their way, and make lots of noise when they don’t.  They might foment more uprisings.  They might bully a large swath of the population into unthinking obedience.  They might win the White House again, and assert their will over the nation.

But it will not last long.  In the end it will deface what evangelicalism claims to be, and it will be ruinous to its witness and mission.  Evangelicals will join mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics as a cautionary tale.  America will be the worse for it.

As evangelicals, we are losing our way.  We have only ourselves to blame.