There’s a plethora of new books portraying USA white Evangelicals as just about the worst people in the world, and Evangelicalism as just about the most repressive retrograde force in the world. Articles touting this perspective in major publications are routine and nearly weekly. They typically are not very creative and they all repeat similar talking points.
A New Republic book review by Matthew Avery Sutton is typical of this genre. He’s reviewing several of these new anti-Evangelical books, and he fully subscribes to their conventional and predictable dark analysis. He commends these books about Evangelicals for bringing “their deep-seated racism and sexism to the surface.” After all, Evangelicals are motivated by “fear, anger, and anxiety.” They are governed by “patriarchy,” “xenophobia,” and “Christian nationalism.” Of course, they want to “undermine 50 years of progress on civil rights.“
Sutton approvingly quotes one author asserting that Evangelical Christian nationalism “includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism. It is as ethnic and political as it is religious.” They want to “create boundaries of group membership around race and the right of white Americans to segregate themselves from minorities.”
Grudgingly, Sutton quotes one author admitting that more church going Evangelicals are less racist and hostile to immigrants and Muslims. But these church goers are fully aligned with the less devout on ‘gender, sexuality, and the family,” i.e. “patriarchy.” Sutton disputes one book’s attempt to distinguish true Evangelicalism from Christian nationalism. He insists of Evangelicals:
God, they believe, has destined them to make the United States in their image. Trump’s success demonstrates that their power is still ascending. We can only hope that as the goals and tactics of Christian nationalism are exposed, the rest of us—secular and Christian, agnostic and ‘none’ – will mobilize to bury it for good. If we don’t, then surely a different kind of apocalypse will soon be upon us.
“Bury it for good” sounds pretty serious. Sutton echoes Khrushchev’s infamous threat. And he’s as apocalyptic and draconian as are supposedly the Evangelicals he caricatures and condemns. But his rhetoric and stereotyping are unexceptional. Critics of Evangelicals usually seem to think their analysis is profound and courageous. Actually, it’s repetitive and essentially unreflective groupthink by mostly secular elites who can’t otherwise fathom opposition to their own cultural and policy preferences.
Disagreement about policy and cultural preferences is central to a vibrant and healthy democracy. Insisting that political opponents are essentially satanic and must be buried does not bode well for constructive debate and social harmony. White Evangelicals have been voting Republican by large margins for about 40 years. Mormons were already doing so decades before. Jews by similar margins have voted Democrat for much of a century. So too have black Christians. Catholics used to vote overwhelmingly Democrat. So-called religious “nones” are likewise strongly Democrat. There’s nothing new about political voting blocs oriented around spirituality and culture.
Among major religious demographics, only Mainline Protestants were traditionally divided politically. They occupied the center of American life and culture, serving as the cohesive ballast of American democracy. Mainline Protestantism‘s demographic and spiritual collapse did much to advance contemporary national polarization.
Demonizing opposing voting blocs by religious terms is not new in America. But it had mostly been set aside since the 1960 election of the first Catholic president, prior to which northern Democrats were often caricatured as the tools of immigrant Catholics and Jews who were mainly urban. They were also ostensibly easily manipulated by corrupt big city machines. And they were deemed by some suspicious Protestant elites as something less than fully American.
Today some secular elites, as the post-Christian heirs to the old Protestant establishment, see Evangelicals somewhat similarly. Evangelicals, by denying the reigning elite consensus on key supposedly settled cultural issues, are outside the pale of acceptable democratic discourse. In the language of another age, they are “un-American,” and must be buried.
Of course much criticism can be justly leveled at Evangelicals. They are just people, susceptible to venality no less than everybody else. Like everybody else, they have their prejudices and blind spots. Like everybody else, they pursue what they perceive to be their own interests as well as what they imagine is the common good, according to their own lights. Every group can be stereotyped and demonized with a blend of accuracy, bias and defamation.
But mainstream outlets, at this current moment in American life, seem to allow unalloyed demonization only of USA Evangelicals. Similar contempt and stereotyping of other religious groups would rightly be derided as bigotry. Instead of striving to interpret Evangelical concerns and arguments, Evangelicals are instead simply dismissed corporately as racists, sexists and xenophobes. Seventy years ago, in a similar vein, they would’ve been dismissed as communists or pinkos or fellow travelers, allegations to which there could be no effective response.
Dismissing and stereotyping tens of millions of people is both unfair and politically shortsighted. Instead of writing one more book or one more column lamenting how retrograde Evangelicalism supposedly is, thoughtful critics could actually examine who Evangelicals are, in all their human complexity. These critics may not be converted, but they might at least be sociologically intrigued and perhaps even empathetic with their fellow Americans and fellow humans.
Comment by Tom on July 17, 2020 at 5:33 pm
I have been an evangelical Christian for 47 years. I haven’t experienced, in several churches in several cities, anything like what they describe.
I am willing to bet that they do not know any evangelicals personally, nor do they understand what we really believe.
Comment by Stan Jefferson on July 17, 2020 at 7:01 pm
Tom, the problem is they have no desire to understand what we really believe. Today’s environment is spiritually charged, and we are beginning to experience the full weight of Satan against us. Do we have among us racists, xenophobes, sexists? Certainly, because the Body of Christ is all-inclusive. That’s why we look to Jesus for salvation. I don’t excuse our shortcomings, but rather acknowledge them. We’re not perfect, never claimed to be. But we strive to divorce ourselves from that which is described in Galatians 5:19-21, the ‘acts of the flesh.’
Comment by Lee Cary on July 18, 2020 at 8:10 am
Stan, with respect, sir, that’s not the problem. They know exactly what Christian evangelicals believe. And they hate it.
Comment by Douglas E Ehrhardt on July 18, 2020 at 2:39 am
Tom , I have found that to be true . Leftists don’t know or understand Bible believing Christians at all ,they just hate everything about them. And parrot what leftist media tells them.
Comment by Rev. Dr. Lee D Cary (ret. UM clergy) on July 18, 2020 at 8:08 am
Tom, we’re still early in the fight for the soul of the nation – which necessarily includes religion.
The haters clearly know of that for what evangelicals stand. Much better than those who identify themselves in the moderate – “Can’t we just all get along” – camp.
The ideological split in American politics has always been present, though less apparent, in the Christian religion. It’s just now becoming more strident as the “Seven Sisters” of the liberal protestant denominations enter the nursing home, and fall easy victims to the virus of the leftists.
It’s a mistake, IMHO, to be defensive. Leftists in all venues have the behavioral pattern of labeling their perceived opposition with slurs that best describe themselves.
Comment by Mike on July 18, 2020 at 8:37 am
” Leftists in all venues have the behavioral pattern of labeling their perceived opposition with slurs that best describe themselves.” Bingo! No truer statement can be made about liberals than that. They should read what Jesus had to say about taking the log out of your own eye before dealing with the speck of sawdust in your brother’s. OF course that comes to the root of the problem-liberals don’t believe God’s word.
Comment by William on July 18, 2020 at 9:33 am
Mike,
EXACTLY. Whatever they accuse me of doing, they’ve already do it or are currently doing it — in this case practicing blatant BIGOTRY. And notice, they operate from a position of self-proclaimed perfection thus giving them the “right” to condemn others with impunity.
But, the most striking and ironic component of this for the UMC is that our liberal branch of the church, the branch that will become the Post Separation UMC, is mostly in cahoots with these Satan motivated secularist-pagans. They are in cahoots with the very forces that are out to erase Christianity.
Comment by Stuart on July 20, 2020 at 4:54 pm
Your response to an article lamenting that the Left falls into the easy, lazy answer of demonizing the Evangelical is….. to literally demonize the Left.
Comment by David Worley on July 17, 2020 at 6:47 pm
Good article and I agree. Keep up the good work.
Comment by David Worley on July 17, 2020 at 6:49 pm
Good article. Keep up the great work.
Comment by David Gingrich on July 18, 2020 at 8:53 am
While charging loving Christians with “hate”, the leaders of “cancel culture” actually do hate.
Comment by Theodore on July 18, 2020 at 9:42 am
A very well written article. This is why I keep coming back to this website. Another divide worth commenting on is the divide between the leaders of evangelical churches and institutions and the laity. As soon as criticism (often unwarranted) against evangelical Christians comes from the political and theological left, the church and seminary leaders reflexively go into their lament-mode, tearing their garments and calling for continual repentance. They simply “pile on” the criticism of their fellow Christians. This is very wearisome. While periodic self-examination is a healthy practice, this perpetual call for lament is not. It makes me wonder if these pastors and theologians have a desire to minister to white evangelical Christians.
Comment by Frank Brown on July 18, 2020 at 9:48 am
Please know I do not mean to “proof text,” but I must in all humility quote the Lord of the universe as we consider what we who follow Christ are experiencing from the world under the powerful influence of its prince (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11; Ephesians 2:2):
“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil….You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world….If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 3:19; 8:21, 42-44)
Comment by William on July 18, 2020 at 10:45 am
NOTE: Read on, Adam Hamilton accepted federal dollars from what has been described as an evangelical supported Trump Administration. His church must have had to back up to the pay window to pick up this check.
https://www.umnews.org/en/news/millions-in-federal-dollars-boost-ministries
Comment by Lloyd R Thompson on July 18, 2020 at 11:08 am
Yes, the anti-religious (and anti-evangelical) bias of the secular press is real. That said, it seems obvious to me that (white) evangelicals in general ARE motivated by “fear, anger and anxiety,” which explains the deal they’ve made with the devil in the person of Donald Trump. Evangelicals will smell of Donald Trump for many years to come, and the smell for the general public is not a good one, I fear. This they will chalk up to their “stand” as Christians, oblivious to the fact that they have shredded (and disgraced) their witness.
Comment by Bill Lang on July 18, 2020 at 11:29 am
It would be a shock to many in the churches of Christianity if they came to the realization that the true nature of the church is to be “evangelical”. The Great Commission is that as you are living your life, make disciples, a task that is generally ignored.
Comment by Jim on July 18, 2020 at 3:06 pm
Some that trumpet the leftist view of evangelicals present themselves as Christians. The writings of those like history professor John Fea, who teaches at Messiah College are a prime example. Fea is also an ardent never-Trumper who never misses a chance to slam the President. Other objects of his blog include Eric Metaxis and Jerry Falwell, Jr. Fea who claims to be a Christian seems to lack any charity toward evangelicals.
Comment by Robert Hulse on July 18, 2020 at 3:56 pm
Of course, the overall point is that Tooley offers nothing in the way of defense of the levels of both biblical ignorance and intolerance of anything theological not coming from white males. He offers nothing but “boo hoo, people are not liking our misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, and Pharisaic demands for obedience to OUR laws”.
*yawn*
This is what you get when you have an organization led by an unqualified theological amateur. There is no “vision” of the kin-dom of God for which IRD advocates, only a scorched-earth, schism-inducing hatred of anything that challenges their biblical distortions and tortured theological blathering that serve only to prop up White Male Supremacy.
Comment by Douglas E Ehrhardt on July 18, 2020 at 4:11 pm
What a fun guy you are Bob .
.
Comment by William on July 18, 2020 at 5:03 pm
Robert,
Appreciate that. This is good advertising for the emerging Traditional Methodist Church. Keep this stuff coming.
Comment by Palamas on July 18, 2020 at 8:33 pm
Thank you for that Leftist Random Phrase Generator generated comment. If people like you couldn’t insult rather than engage, you’d be as quiet as Trappist monks.
Comment by Mike on July 19, 2020 at 1:13 pm
Sometimes I wonder if you have read the same article that I did. I do not feel it necessary to refute anything you said, as you are just as guilty, as those mentioned in the article, of the same thing, accusing us normal, average white males of things that more than likely are true on the liberal side. Who are you to be calling Mr. Tooley “an unqualified theological amateur”. How about “a scorched-earth, schism-inducing hatred of anything that challenges their biblical distortions and tortured theological blathering that serve only to prop up White Male Supremacy”? What liberal rag gave you that inspiration?
“Every group can be stereotyped and demonized with a blend of accuracy, bias and defamation.” That is a whole fairer than your commentary.
Comment by Jeff on July 19, 2020 at 8:03 pm
Same unsupported rot you post on every IRD article, Karl. Oops, sorry, I mean Robert.
*yawn*
Comment by td on July 18, 2020 at 6:20 pm
Yeah, that book is full of ridiculous stuff.
But, on the subject of the UMC, the part of the UMC who view themselves as “evangelical” have done a horrible job of making allies with those in the UMC that share their beliefs but aren’t culturally or liturgically evangelical. I believe that will probably be the reason that so few local churches in the US will end up aligning with them.
Unfortunately, the evangelical UMC has not made it clear that traditional believers and local churches who don’t want an evangelical worship style would be welcome in their new church. I think the truth may be that they don’t really want them.
Comment by William on July 18, 2020 at 7:38 pm
Style vs Substance. Let’s Vote
To Which Methodist Denomination Do
You Wish To Belong?
Please Check ✔️ One
——— A Progressive Denomination
1. Believes in a new understanding of Christian marriage to include same-sex marriage derived from a liberal, contextual Biblical interpretation perspective —- accompanied by same-sex marriage ceremonies inside the church sanctuaries conducted by the church clergy.
2. LGBTQ identified persons welcomed into full-inclusion with their committed sexual relationships affirmed, thus freeing them from the call of repentance for the forgiveness of historic Biblical sexual immorality sins —- a revised understanding of God’s love and grace derived from a liberal, contextual Biblical interpretation perspective — while having an undefined position regarding the sexual practices and lifestyles of the heterosexual community outside those of a man and a woman in marriage.
3. Full inclusion of LGBTQ candidates seeking licensing and ordination into the ministry who are in committed LGBTQ sexual relationships while having an undefined position for heterosexual candidates engaged in committed sexual relationships outside those of a man and a woman marriage.
———- A Traditional Denomination
1. Believes in God’s created order for Christian marriage as only that between a man and a woman as Jesus described and emphasized when he said — “haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So, they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate”.
2. LGBTQ identified persons and heterosexual identified persons welcomed equally into full-inclusion (Wesleyan Prevenient Grace) in order to partake of repentance preached in Jesus’ name for the forgiveness of sins, including the sins of sexual immorality, and be recipients of salvation (Wesleyan Justifying Grace) thus being born again and transformed from a sinful orientation to a new orientation in Jesus in order to pursue, with the help of the Holy Spirit, holiness and good works for the glorification of God (Wesleyan Sanctifying Grace) — the historic, universal, and Wesleyan Christian understanding of the Good News Gospel.
3. Believes in the traditional, historic, universal, and Wesleyan Biblical standards of sexual behavior for candidates seeking licensing and ordination into the ministry as those practicing fidelity in a marriage of a woman and a man or celibacy in singleness.
Comment by td on July 18, 2020 at 10:41 pm
Truth is that while I agree that substance ultimately matters most, most people choose style. And…honestly, style can very much be an outward sign of substance.
Comment by David on July 19, 2020 at 6:57 am
Here is a highly detailed map of where Evangelicals were located in 2010.
https://www.indexmundi.com/blog/index.php/2012/08/30/the-evangelical-states-of-america/
As usual, this reveals fairly closely the borders of nearly every political/social divide in the US, namely those of the Civil War. The slave state mentality is not noted for tolerance of “those people” and prefers to deny human rights to minorities and women wherever possible. There is also blatant anti-intellectualism and rejection of science. Another map was published today showing face mask usage and the pattern is almost the same. It is difficult to see how any movement centered in the malignant culture of the US South could be anything but “evil.”
Comment by Palamas on July 19, 2020 at 8:44 am
Your bigotry toward anyone who doesn’t toe your ideological line knows no bounds, does it?
Comment by Mike on July 19, 2020 at 1:02 pm
Palamos, thank you for saving me the trouble of responding to David.
Comment by Loren J Golden on July 19, 2020 at 2:36 pm
The Book of Proverbs gives two pieces of advice for how to answer such individuals as “David”.
The second is: “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes” (26.5). You have done this often enough in this site, and still he persists in posting insipid tripe, such as what he wrote above, so he can sit back and laugh at the responses his posts provoked.
So I suggest following Proverbs’ first piece of advice: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself” (26.4). Internet trolls like “David” have no real interest in engaging in meaningful dialogue in a genuine attempt to understand Evangelicals and is content to “sit in the seat of scoffers”, yielding no fruit, while his leaf withers, and he ultimately fails to prosper (Ps. 1.1,3).
Comment by Timothy on July 19, 2020 at 4:48 pm
Great to see Loren in comment section with the Holy Scripture point of view.
Comment by td on July 19, 2020 at 3:09 pm
Wow, just wow. Now i am waiting for the map that shows where atheists live…and how it correlates with areas where no one would stop to help someone with car trouble.
Please, just stop. We already fought the civil war 150 years ago. And if you want to be scientific, please stop correlating statistics without any factual basis. For example, homicides are more common in black neighborhoods…and homicide is evil. .
Therefore, black anericans are evil.
Comment by binkyxz3 on July 20, 2020 at 12:42 am
David’s analogy is a joke. The strongly evangelical areas of Texas west of Dallas were under the control of Comanche Indians during the War For Southern Independence.
Comment by Gary Bebop on July 20, 2020 at 2:58 pm
Mark, thanks for the timely piece. The flood of partisan work that’s coming now seems strategically generated to influence the 2020 election. But a further curiosity to me is Firebrand, ostensibly nonpartisan, conservative, and Wesleyan-holiness, but showcases negative perspectives on evangelicals. I doubt there’s anything incidental or accidental about this. What’s going on?
Comment by Jim Radford on July 20, 2020 at 3:38 pm
Mark, I have said repeatedly that I love Evangelical Christians. I believe that they are the finest people. And, as God is my witness, I believe this is true. However, I am so aware of their/our “baggage” in the form of a history for which we can express disdain–things such as the European Inquisitions, persecutions of rivals/factions (read: “anyone not like us”) within Christendom, the Western Imperialism of the Missionary Movement and, and God knows, so many other things, but from which we cannot disassociate or extricate ourselves. And that said, I would also point out that my own “pedigree,” having come from that lineage, in my mind is really not a part of this discussion, although I’m sure some would disagree. One cannot simply dismiss one’s tradition. I am not a traditionalist for the sake of following suit, or for solidarity, or put still another way, for the fact that “birds of a feather flock together.” I love Evangelicals because they, for the most part, are supporters and proclaimers of the conciliar creeds. There are too many to mention, but Nicaea in 325, Constantinople in 381, and Chalcedon in 451 are the primary ones in my world. They proclaim Jesus, his hypostatic union with the Father, his humanity, his divinity, his power to save, his rule and reign, his Lordship over death, the Mind and Heart of the Father, the reality and activity of the Holy Spirit. These are all big-ticket items in my own mind, heart, and soul. But here is where it gets dicey for me, and where I myself sometimes want to part company with some of my Evangelical brothers and sisters. When one’s tradition, say for example, “inerrancy,” gets in the way of Truth Itself, I have a serious problem with it. The Fundamentalists such as Ken Hamm, who, as you know, built the “Ark Encounter” in Boone County, Kentucky. His supporters believe in a Young Earth creation theory; hence, dinosaurs are present on their full-scale replica of the Ark. Christian school children take field trips to that theme park– which is really what it is–and learn, among other things, that Evolution is not true. They are taught means to combat evolution, or, rather, they are given things to say designed to contradict others who do believe it, and that man and dinosaur inhabited the earth at the same time. Essentially there is no Jurassic Period in their historical schematic. I have said, too, that if Ken Hamm (and I don’t really mean to single out Ken and bash him because I know that he means well) had lived in the days of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, he might well have constructed a large scale planetarium in which the Earth is shown to be the center of the universe. This is just another example of how one segment of evangelicals believes something that the scientific world repudiates. The reality for me is, this argument is about protecting a literal interpretation of scripture: that a 24-hour, 6-day creation–as well as Bishop Ussher’s 8,000-9,000 year-old age-of-the-world time frame for human existence–is accurate and should be defended. I believe that their determination to insist on the validity of their tradition is simply intellectually dangerous. It’s insulting. At least to me. Again, this is just one example of what’s going on in SOME evangelical minds, and in my opinion a strong reason as to why they’re being rejected by others. One more recent example, and more germane to this present topic regarding Evangelicals as the worst people, in one of your last threads–the one about Stan Hauerwas’s more recent ethical stance on abortion–one of your readers took me to task for voting for Hillary Clinton. He said–and you can go back and read for yourself–in so many words, that I voted for Satan. This isn’t true. It’s laughable, actually. This reader who said that “(I) should be sorry” is an example of why some people in fact do want to distance themselves from Evangelicals. In voting for Hillary, I didn’t vote for Satan. But evidently a few of your readers believe that I did. In my mind, I was not voting FOR Mrs. Clinton. I was voting AGAINST Mr. Trump. And apparently that’s all it takes to garner the ire of some of the IRD’s constituents. All this said, I want to end this post by stating that I have just as many, if not more, problems with the Progressive Christians as I do with the Evangelicals. Their often hypocritically naïve and self-righteous belief that theirs is the position that Jesus Himself would endorse is equally laughable. Long story short: I think that the only place to stand is on the Living Word of God Himself. His Body, in my mind, is fractured, disunified, generally messed-up, and I don’t see how we are ever going to get back on track barring a direct intervention of the Living Resurrected Christ. It ain’t gonna happen politically. If I could, I would guarantee that. My two cents.
Comment by K. Landi on July 21, 2020 at 12:20 am
I do not know how I got here, nor do I ever comment on ANY article that I come upon. But I will be silent no more. I am originally from New York City and I voted for our President because he was NOT an Evangelical candidate. I am a first generation Puerto Rican American who comes from a Spanish Pentecostal born-again family. We do not look Caucasian. To the untrained eye we look African American or mixed. I specify this because we have experienced racism from white Evangelicals in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida and now here in South Carolina. Specifically, but not exclusively, Assemblies of God. In my family we are Pastors, Missionaries,Prophets, and Evangelists. We have every color in our family. My husband is Italian American. We know what it is like to feel inferior while attending these type of churches. We therefore have made it our business to attend multi-ethnic churches when possible because, after all, this is what heaven will look like and they usually show the true love of God, not racism. I have personally attended many churches throughout my 50 years and I have to say that the Evangelicals do not speak for the rest of the body of Christ. And I am tired of them being the representation of what an American Christian looks like. They do not represent the wonderful multi-ethnicity of our country. God has the final say in how we are to represent His Kingdom. I could get into many specifics in the way most, not all, but most Evangelicals behave contrary to the word of God,and yes, there are other denominations that fall short as well. This I know. But their awful behavior was solidified for me when they came after then candidate Donald J.Trump because he was not “The right candidate to represent Us (the Evangelicals)”. How dare they speak for the millions of Born Again, Spirit Filled Christians from all walks of life. No one is perfect. We ALL fall short and require Salvation from the Risen Savior. It is time for us to form an alliance as brothers and sisters in Christ. Not by so-called denominations. We must put aside so-called doctrines that separate us, which has been the enemy’s plan from the beginning. The Word of God is so much easier to comprehend with the Holy Spirit than leaders would have us believe. This is one of the reasons Paul said we are to work out Our Own Salvation…
I know there is so much more to this. Remember, I come from a long line of those in Ministry and I am simplifying this. But Christ was simplistic in many ways. And God wants us ALL to know Him and exude His never-ending, everlasting love to all man-kind together as one people. In decency and in order. It’s that simple and no one will ever convince me otherwise. Remember, God is coming for a Spotless Bride. Let us not disappoint Him.
Comment by Jim Radford on July 21, 2020 at 10:26 am
K. Landi,
I whole-heartedly agree with your post. Good word. And accurate, as well.
Comment by R Spurgeon on July 21, 2020 at 2:17 pm
Communist from the World Council of Churches and National Council of Churches have infiltrated the leadership of many of our protestant denominations. It’s time to call them out. Inform their membership of what exactly is happening to their denomination. Communist or Marxist if you prefer, have inundated our universities, hollywood and now the church structure. The real question is, what are we going to do about it beside discuss it?
Comment by Ryan Hall on July 21, 2020 at 2:56 pm
Interesting. I am not an Evangelical but I did grow up in the South where such churches are everywhere. I can think of several Evangelical churches in the places of my youth that are primarily minority parishes, either Hispanic or African/African American or Vietnamese Alliance churches. I am curious what these authors make of those churches? Are they racist, etc., as well?
Comment by Gary Bebop on July 21, 2020 at 5:54 pm
This comment section is rife with contentious hyperbole, much of it preachy and self-magnifying and cherry-picked. For what purpose? To slander evangelicals? Evangelicals are like a big family with many strange cousins. The family resemblance is there but may appear distorted. But they are family. The strangeness is ineradicable. I enjoy Crazy Ruthie. She’s good fun. We differ on some emphases, slants, tastes, forebodings, fantasies, forecasts, whatever. I say she stays in the family.
Comment by John Kenyon on July 21, 2020 at 7:45 pm
I fail to see what is so hard to believe about why the left holds white Evangelicals in such high suspicion. White Christian slave holder justified slavery. The Southern Baptist Convention did not renounce racial segregation until 1995. And the National Association of Evangelicals did not make a statement against racial equality until 1956. Ergo, (white) Evangelicals have earned the right for moral Christian leadership in the United States of America?