Category: evangelical

Evangelicals helped get Trump into the White House. Pete Buttigieg believes the religious left will get him out.

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey @ The Washington Post

“I do think it’s strange, though, knowing that no matter where you are politically, the gospel is so much about inclusion and decency and humility and care for the least among us, that a wealthy, powerful, chest-thumping, self-oriented, philandering figure like this can have any credibility at all among religious people,” he said.

‘Nones’ now as big as evangelicals, Catholics in the US

By Jack Jenkins @ Religion News Service

“Evangelicals punch way above their weight. They turn out a bunch at the ballot box. That’s largely a function of the fact that they’re white and they’re old.” A rising tide of religiously unaffiliated voters could potentially offset that influence. But analysis also noted that religiously unaffiliated Americans do not vote in the same percentages as evangelicals.

There are no real evangelicals. Only imagined ones

Opinion by Kristin Kobe’s Du Mez @ Religion News Service

When a large number of people who self-identify as evangelicals fail to ascribe to what some scholars have dictated to be the essential tenets of evangelicalism, does that mean that they are not actually evangelicals? Or does it suggest that something else has come to define evangelicalism?

Incomprehensible Evangelicals and the Death of John Allen Chaup

By Thomas Kidd @ The Gospel Coalition

I surveyed a few articles about the death of John Allen Chau before settling on this one from a decidedly conservative evangelical source written by Thomas Kidd, Distinguished Professor of History at the similarly conservative evangelical Baylor University.

The article cites media reaction to Chau’s fate as evidence of American culture’s increasing inability to understand the “core convictions of evangelicals, including the need for salvation through Christ and the mandate to share one’s faith.” An article from The New York Times and particularly The Wall Street Journal are proffered as proof of “post-Christian” America’s dense comprehension of the heartfelt opinions of evangelicals.

As a sidebar, while I subscribe to the NYT I am regrettably too poor to subscribe to the WSJ.

I cannot speak for America, but speaking for myself, I’d say that Thomas Kidd has confused “incomprehension” for “unsympathetic.” I assert that I understand the “core convictions,” or the heartfelt opinions, of evangelicals; I merely do not agree with them.

Thomas Kidd laudably affirms that he “would not advocate breaking the law in order to advance evangelistic aims,” yet he implicitly condones the activity by failing to explicitly condemn it in this instance–beyond noting the plan was “ill-considered”–and then by justifying it as a command from God and scripture.

The “comprehending observer” might “realize” that I may, theoretically speaking, passionately love a pretty blonde married secretary who works in my office with all of my heart, but the “comprehending observer” would sagely advise me to “leave [her] alone.” The “comprehending observer” would not extol the nobility of my incarceration for stalking the beautiful married secretary because of the sincere infatuation that burned within my heart. The comprehending as well as obtuse observer would be alarmed if I announced that I would be willing to die for the theoretical lovely married secretary who worked in my office.

Thomas Kidd finally assigns disagreement with his line of reasoning as the “contempt” of “those who are perishing,” and buttresses his weak argument with the invisible crutch of nothing less than “the power of God.”

The Bible says to welcome immigrants. So why don’t white evangelicals?

By Tara Isabella Burton @ Vox

How did a religious group whose foundational sacred text explicitly mandates care for the poor, the sick, and the stranger become a reliable anti-refugee, anti-immigrant voting bloc? How should we account for this seeming discrepancy between biblical theology — with its frequent exhortations to care for the poor and marginalized?

The Roots of Evangelicals’ Political Fervor

Produced by Shawn Hamilton, Sandra McDaniel, Scott Michels

White evangelical Christians are among President Trump’s most important supporters. But more than 40 years ago, they were on the margins of American politics, so how and why did they transform themselves into the powerhouse they are today? And how do they view their relationship with Trump?

Evangelicals are paying high moral price for anti-abortion gains. What would Jesus do?

Opinion by Doug Pagitt @ USA Today

Religious leaders have given up moral ground at every renewed show of support for this administration and Congress. They stood by as families were torn apart at our border, the children shipped off to remote detention camps in the middle of the night. They cheered as health care was stripped away from the poor and the sick.And they fell in line to support the newly confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was credibly accused of harming multiple women. These are not positions informed by the teachings of Jesus Christ — to the contrary, they are antithetical to what Jesus preached.