Does the Evangelical Left still meaningfully exist? Or has it all become simply Religious Left?
The former retains evangelical theological and ethical commitments, including biblical authority, salvation by faith, the centrality of conversion, plus historic Christian teachings about sexuality and sanctity of all human life.
The latter is more theologically vague while liberal or indifferent on abortion and sexual morality. It reserves its dogmatic commitments for progressive politics.
Years ago, the old Religious Left mostly was once influential Mainline Protestant agencies and ecumenical groups like the National Council of Churches. They claimed to speak for their tens of millions of church members. But their membership and institutional collapse has left them almost societally irrelevant. Recently they’ve been calling for a ceasefire in the war against Hamas. Who’s listening?
The Evangelical Left was mostly parachurch groups and academics from evangelical schools. They opposed the Religious Right’s alignment with Republicans and touted more government regulation, a larger welfare state, and environmentalism. Typically they were pacifist or close to it.
A leader of the Evangelical Left was the late Ron Sider, an Eastern University professor who founded Evangelicals for Social Action. He was a liberal Democrat who was pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, and he cared deeply about the overseas persecuted church. He was a fond frenemy to my predecessor as IRD president, the late Diane Knippers. She once wryly commented that it was nearly her full time job as a board member of the National Association of Evangelicals to counter Sider’s influence.
Sider died in 2022. His Evangelicals for Social Action changed their name to Christians for Social Action in 2020 and now is Religious Left, indistinguishable from old Mainline Protestantism, touting LGBTQIA+, no longer pro-life if not not favorable to abortion rights, and in sync with other themes of the cultural left. It is also, without Sider and its evangelical commitments, less influential.
Sider’s Eastern University colleague Tony Campolo was also a leading Evangelical Left preacher and activist, denouncing the Religious Right, himself supporting Democratic candidates, while usually trying to stay distinctly evangelical in his preaching and public positions. He served on the 2008 Democratic Party Platform Committee, where he tried to insert somewhat more pro-life language. He later regretted supporting Obama, whose administration was strongly pro-abortion rights. Campolo was a founder of Red-Letter Christians, which stressed the words of Jesus to back progressive causes. It now is full Religious Left.
Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, was an Evangelical Left partner to Campolo and Sider. All three were 1960s anti-war activists who never abandoned that model of social engagement. For years Wallis tried at least not openly to defy evangelical teaching on key issues although he eventually surrendered on same sex marriage. He also esteemed collaboration with Roman Catholics, which led to his 2020 downfall. Sojourners removed him for trying to stop an article that criticized supposed Catholic racism. Sojourners is now full Religious Left.
Absent the groups Wallis, Sider and Campolo founded, its hard to think of true Evangelical Left groups today. Perhaps there is the National Association of Evangelicals, which retains traditional stances on marriage and life while mostly highlighting its other stances that are more left of center like immigration and the environment.
But are there others? Perhaps the old model of parachurch group has been displaced by podcast and social media personalities, many of whom can be called Evangelical Left. With the para church model, there is Shane Claiborne of The Simple Way, and co-founder of Red Letter Christians, who is active in leftist social justice advocacy without specifically renouncing traditional evangelical stances. The Telos Group urges Evangelicals and other conservative Christians to become more neutral about Israel. (Absurdly, Mainline Protestant activist “Moral Mondays” Bill Barber in North Carolina sometimes claims to be evangelical when he is conventional Religious Left.)
Largely the organized Evangelical Left has dissolved into the Religious Left because its adherents no longer want to defend traditional Christian teaching on sexuality or be associated with pro-life advocacy. Some simply don’t want to identify as “evangelical,” which has become synonymous with Republican. Some polls now show some non-Christians identifying as evangelical as a tribal political label. There are likely many academics in evangelical schools who remain theologically and ethically orthodox alongside left-of-center political views. But they are mostly not very public and avoid the crossfire.
Some in the self-identified “Christian Nationalist” world critique their evangelical targets, even when having conventional conservative views, as supposed leftists because they are not post-liberal, populist or sufficiently apocalyptic. I wish these critics could recall the old Religious Left, which admired Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega.
We at IRD often critiqued old Evangelical Left leaders like Ron Sider while still appreciating their orthodox theology and ethics. They are missed. Their project was unsustainable partly because they wanted almost unlimited big government while insisting as pacifists that its defense was immoral, which was nonsensical.
Maybe the decline of Christian pacifism ultimately will permit a more thoughtful Evangelical Left to arise. Having orthodox Evangelicals who can debate politically within their own community would help evangelicalism and wider society.
What society and church do not need is an empowered Religious Left that’s divorced from Christian orthodoxy, committed only to political dogmas, and only fueling further polarization amid Christian institutional decline. A reasonable Evangelical Left, brave enough to stay evangelical, is far preferable.
Comment by John N Kenyon on December 4, 2023 at 2:58 pm
Another low IQ article by the Beaver, who recently got promoted to Wally, but just got busted back down THE BEAVER. The man can’t tell a 4th century diphthong from a white woman,
Comment by Arthur Going on December 4, 2023 at 5:02 pm
Although he would probably eschew the “Evangelical” label, given the aforementioned Republican association, I think Scot McKnight is firmly on the Left while just as firmly holding to orthodox theology.
Comment by Tom on December 4, 2023 at 5:28 pm
“touted more government regulation, a larger welfare state, and environmentalism.”
These are in the Bible where?
Also, regarding the NAE, I was more than happy to be a delegate to the PCA General Assembly in 2022 that voted to withdraw from the NAE. If they were honest, they would put the E in scare quotes.
Comment by Gary Bebop on December 4, 2023 at 6:30 pm
The trajectory of the Evangelical Left that leads off into the weeds and oblivion is no puzzler to those who have suffered the multiplication of divagations among these elite brahmins. But do we learn anything from history?
Comment by Thomas on December 4, 2023 at 6:58 pm
Not surprisingly Ron Sider endorsed brainless Joe Biden for President in 2020, despite his radical pro-abortion stance. Also not surprising at all that Sojourners now fully endorses abortion rights. There are similarities with the Catholic left, who on behalf of social justice tends to minimize the pro-life stance and tends to vote pro-abortion, like it happens with the National Catholic Reporters, America magazine, Fr. James Martin. I`m not a Trump fan, he was a disaster in many ways, he wasn`t even really pro-life to won the presidential election and I`m perplex with the idea that he might be presidential candidate once again.
Comment by Thomas on December 4, 2023 at 7:00 pm
I do find curious that Mr. Kenyon just came here for brainless “ad hominem” attacks on Mark Tooley, while not saying a word about the content of this article.
Comment by David on December 4, 2023 at 7:32 pm
In recent decades there have been various political realignments. The South switched from Dixiecrat to Republican. Liberal Republicans as Nelson Rockefeller have gone extinct. The SBC and UMC supported abortion rights before Roe and now oppose it.
Comment by CeeCee on December 5, 2023 at 1:35 am
I guess only white people matter. There are still many minorities who are theologically conservative and would be left leaning, social justice, environmental responsibility, take care of the poor and infirm, types.
Comment by Curtis Nester on December 5, 2023 at 8:20 am
A Pew survey in 2014 found that two-thirds of Southern Baptists believed abortion should be illegal in most or all cases. In 2021, the Convention passed a resolution stating “unequivocally that abortion is murder” and calling for “abolishing abortion immediately, without exception or compromise.”
Comment by Gordon Hackman on December 5, 2023 at 9:20 am
“I do find curious that Mr. Kenyon just came here for brainless “ad hominem” attacks on Mark Tooley, while not saying a word about the content of this article.”
I wouldn’t be the first to observe that the kind of rudeness and ad hominem attacks Kenyon engages in are one of the hallmarks of today’s progressive Christians and false teachers.
Comment by Thomas on December 5, 2023 at 1:24 pm
“Liberal Republicans as Nelson Rockefeller have gone extinct. ” Not true, if you mean social liberals, you still will find people like Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, Bruce Rauner, Arnold Schwarzenneger. Social conservative Democrats, who used to be many, and still exist at some states level, are the ones who seem to be going into extinction.
Comment by Tom on December 5, 2023 at 5:35 pm
My other beef with the so-called evangelical left is that they are all talk and no action. How many scholarships for poor students have the funded? How many marriages of poor people have they saved? How many home repairs for poor people have they done? How many houses have they constructed for the poor? How many poor people have they hired or found jobs for? You get the picture.
Plus all the talk seems to mirror secular leftist talking points.
“Evangelicals” for social “action,” if they were honest, would change their name to “Evangelicals” for “empty talk.”
Comment by Gordon Hackman on December 6, 2023 at 6:08 pm
“If you want a serious, intellectual debate/conversation…”
People whose entry into the conversation begins with self-, important rudeness and name calling don’t get to lecture others about having serious intellectual conversations. This website exists for specific purposes. If you find that bothersome, then why not stay away?
Comment by Thomas on December 6, 2023 at 8:54 pm
Like John Wesley would say, “please don`t feed the trolls”.
Comment by Dr. Bruce Atkinson on December 9, 2023 at 8:36 am
Since “evangelical” means fully endorsing the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures and entirely supporting the Great Commission given to us by Jesus (i.e., evangelism, making disciples from all nations), then we can say with meaningful emotion, “Yes! The Left has left the evangelical building, and true evangelicals can no longer be on the left side of the political aisle.” This is because the Left has fully committed itself to destroying religious freedom and (like a corner drug pusher) to pushing sinful lifestyles on the unwitting public… such as pansexuality, same-sex marriage, and abortion… not to mention other antichristian ‘woke’ views such as antisemitism and cancel culture.
You cannot believe in the scriptures and support these things; hence you cannot be both Leftwing and evangelical. Or, as Bill Muehlenberg and Albert Mohler have both put it more strongly, these days you cannot be a true follower of Christ and also be on the radical Left. A political moderate, perhaps, but even that stance is becoming the preferred home of nominals and the spineless. You cannot ‘contend for faith’ as Jude commanded from a place of equivocation.
But of course, as Jesus said, the gates of hell will never overcome Christ’s true Church. So we need not be despairing nor even be overly pessimistic. Here are a couple of encouraging quotes:
“Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God is with you, who can be against you? (Romans 8:31). Are all of them stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God in the power of His might.” (Letter from John Wesley to William Wilberforce)
“At least five times the Faith has to all appearances gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases, it was the dog that died.” (G. K. Chesterton)
Comment by John N Kenyon on December 9, 2023 at 1:33 pm
Sheesh. Just wipe the dirt of your sandals and get on with it. The “left” won the name UMC and property.
Comment by George on December 10, 2023 at 2:10 pm
Using the word “won” infers that there was a fair game played. It was anything but fair.
The rules were tilted towards the UMC from the beginning. Yes they may have gotten away with more property and money but it was closer to theft than a fair contest. Shame on the UMC.
Comment by Ken MacAlister on December 11, 2023 at 5:47 pm
Thank you Dr. Bruce Atkinson for being a sane voice of reason.
Comment by David Gingrich on December 12, 2023 at 7:28 am
Satan is an expert seducer. He starts by questioning the Word of God. See Satan’s question to Eve: “Did God REALLY say that?”
Comment by George on December 14, 2023 at 2:01 pm
You’re wrong again, David. The Dixiecrat party was a flash in the pan. It was formed by segregationists for the 1948 presidential election. It only carried 4 states. South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. That’s not the South. I’m from Texas, and we were a southern state in war and in culture. We were solid democrat in most federal, state, and local government up until the 1970s. Other Southern states are similar in their history. As for the abortion issue, where on earth do you find “your” facts. Neither of these two churches were ever pro abortion. Please get a fact checker before you post this stuff.
Comment by Thomas on December 16, 2023 at 2:13 pm
George, I think the UMC was associated with a pro-abortion organization, the RCRC, until recently.
Comment by George on December 17, 2023 at 12:05 am
Thomas, when you say “associated”, you are speaking of one or two groups who are not recognized as official UMC organizations but who are some liberal members who want changes made in the UMC book of discipline to reflect their beliefs about abortion. Of course now that the split has taken place, the UMC may in fact adopt into the book of discipline the right of Methodist women to murder their unborn children. That may very well happen in the near future.
Comment by Thomas on December 17, 2023 at 9:06 pm
Like Cardinal Francis George once said, the real difference its not between left and right but between right and wrong. I think that the Catholic concept of a culture of life, like Pope St. John Paul II presented in his encyclica “Humanae Vitae” can help social conservatives to adopt some concepts more centrist and to present a real alternative to the left traditional “social justice” values.