Evangelicalism is changing, said Russell Moore , Dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, as the younger generation of evangelicals search for something deeper than the politicized “movement” based evangelicalism of their parents. Moore discussed “evangelicals in the public square” at Princeton University, on October 3rd, with Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University in New Jersey. (George is also an IRD emeritus board member.)
Moore hopes to “see less and less of evangelical pastors who are foreign policy experts” or purport a Christian way “to deal with the debt ceiling issue.” He explained that “the more that evangelicals speak to everything with the same level of authority,” the more important issues are debased. “If you have a Christian position on gun control, your Christian position on the dignity of human life now is simply reduced down” to the “chaos” of other policy debates. A better approach, Moore said, is for evangelical pastors to maintain positions on “clearly revealed Christian truths” such as the “definition of marriage, or dignity of human life.”
The evangelical movement become “politicized” through prominent figures such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, but “younger evangelicals do not want to repeat the Falwell and Robertson years,” Moore said. “They are very suspicious of a politicized Christianity,” and are searching for a more nuanced approach to political issues. To move beyond this “crisis,” Moore said that evangelicals must recognize their deeper roots that go beyond the evangelical movement of the 20th century. He explained that “as a theological set of commitments,” evangelicalism is much older than the movement, but evangelicals have become disconnected from the “breadth of church history and the resources that are there.”
Moore described how the evangelical movement established independent churches, publishing houses, colleges, seminaries, and other disconnected entities. “We are at a time of crisis,” Moore said, as “all of those things tend to just rot over time because they’re not connected to living, vital church community.” The disconnected nature of the evangelical movement has led to focus on “celebrity preachers,” and “the individual flight to heaven” in lieu of a united church body. Moore said it is also “why you see a resurgence among younger evangelicals” who are “going back to something that’s deeper, something that’s stronger” because they know “there has to be more than the tent revivals, and the para-church ministries, and the curriculum industries that we’ve grown up with in evangelicalism.”
According to Moore, “several of the fatal flaws that existed in the evangelical movement … have left a vulnerability” within evangelical churches. One vulnerability is the lack of “historical memory” to draw from on issues where faith and politics intersect. Evangelicals tend to recognize no authority outside the Bible, but Moore explained that “reformation tradition says the Bible is the final authority,” (emphasis added) not the only authority. This limited perspective is problematic, Moore explained, as he once heard a “very respected evangelical leader” say that “if there’s no proof text in the Bible” concerning a particular topic, “we really can’t address the issue.” This mentality led Christianity Today initially to endorse Roe v. Wade and abortion rights in the 1970s, and it was only after “a lot of theological reflection” that evangelicals determined abortion is immoral. Today, Moore said developing a perspective on newer issues such as in vitro fertilization is “ravaging our churches because no one knows how to deal with that issue.”
Robert George and Moore discussed how developing a deeper and more thoughtful approach to issues not clearly addressed by the Bible means looking to Church history and natural law. Moore said often natural law “sounds to [evangelicals] like a blank social argument” that stops short of the gospel. Without realizing it though, evangelicals already use natural law arguments, but have a “hostility to the way natural law is presented.” George explained that “many times we don’t know things, cloning for example, from the biblical witness.” Unfortunately, Moore said, “evangelicals have often existed simply at the level of slogan” rather than at a thoughtful and nuanced level.
Along with the “slogan” mentality, Moore said “evangelicals over the years have this longing to see political leaders also as spiritual leaders,” instead of “seeing political leaders as being Romans 13, bearing the responsibility of the sword, and doing so with justice and with wisdom, and seeing spiritual leaders as being those within the church who are given the responsibility toward spiritual things.” Fortunately, because younger evangelicals are “suspicious” of politicization, are seeking more depth, and “thinking through ‘what does it mean to be a Christian,’” Moore said the future of evangelicalism is moving toward a less “politicized” role in the public square.
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