What is to Be Done About American Evangelicalism?

To quote Alexander Hamilton, “What I’m gonna say may sound indelicate.”

Fact: American evangelicalism is now endemically tribalized and therefore trivialized by its political partisanship.

But why do I care and why don’t I mind my own beeswax?

Well, for a few reasons.

First, the best and the worst of the US evangelicalism migrates to Australia, the UK, Singapore, and the other Anglophone countries. The city with the most viewers of TGC is Sydney, Australia. We get the same news and social media feeds as the US. We hear what is going on there and people start parroting what they see and hear.

Second, I have so many American friends who tell me how their churches are divided over Trump, CRT, vaccines, gender equality, and immigration. It is a horrible time to be a pastor where evangelical churches are rented asunder by extreme views and equally extreme reactions. In fact, I visited one church where, just before I arrived, there was a fistfight over Trump at the adult Bible study. The poor pastor tried to quickly diffuse that situation!

Third, I get a lot of invitations to speak on podcasts and I find the same issues coming up: Trumpism, complementarianism, race-relations, and inerrancy. Nobody cares about my views of early christology, discipleship in Luke-Acts, or religious freedom, stuff that I’m researching, but people keep asking me about the same narrow band of issues.

Fourth, American evangelicals are big fear-mongers. I remember when it was said in the 00’s, “Watch out for relying too much on historical background or you’ll end up going all New Perspective on Paul.” Now the latest fear-mongering is sociology, whether it is CRT, or Kristen du Mez, it’s all “Don’t listen to sociology or you’ll start complaining about racism or misogyny in American churches.” This kind of fear-mongering finds its way into sermons, articles, and book that my students come across and then ask me about. So I’m stuck with fighting culture war fears with faith seeking understanding.

Fifth, the future of American Christianity is far too important to entrust exclusively to Americans.  

In search of a solution, there are several organizations/networks that I thought would be a voice of fidelity and reason and offer courageous leadership amidst all the insanity. But alas, most of the time, they have proven to be quite enthusiastic to share in the feeding frenzy of American evangelicalism’s penchant for devouring itself in the culture wars.

This is precisely why we need a network of evangelical leaders to heal, unite, refocus, and sustain the future of the American evangelical churches in the face of convulsing challenges from a nationalist right-wing and an increasingly anti-religious culture.

We need a network where …

The evangel, i.e., the gospel, is esteemed as the fulcrum of fellowship. So that the gospel is the centre, boundary, and integrating point of fellowship and the fellowship exists to partner together in the promotion of the gospel.

The gospel is centre of the alliance, not Calvinism and Complementarianism, even if Calvinism and Complementarianism just happen to be the two things that unite the factions of white protestants who plant churches, buy books, listen to podcasts, attend conferences, are active on social media, and constitute a mega-market of religious consumers.

We are united by Nicene faith, not by networks of influencers.

We choose catholic culture over celebrity culture.

We believe that character and holiness matter more than mega-church size or book sales.

The fellowship exists for the sake of mission, not to provide a bigger platform for its leaders.

We cultivate radical disciples, not synergize the sycophants of evangelical luminaries.

There is a commitment to biblical testimony, theological reflection, and engagement with cultures.

There is clarity about the essentials, liberty in the non-essentials, and consciences are respected.

Calvinists and Arminians, egalitarians and complementarians, credo-baptists and paedo-baptists, can debate and discuss things in good faith.

We pursue the things that make for peace and mutual encouragement.

There is an ongoing conversation between theologians, pastors, missionaries, journalists, and lay-people on how to follow Christ in a rapidly changing post-religious world.

The contribution of women are acknowledged and valued and conference speakers do not address mixed audiences as “brothers.”

There is a concern for social justice without descending into the dumpster of a rebooted old liberalism.

Our cultural marginalization is not lamented as much as seen as an opportunity for new vistas in mission.

We push back on the attempt to reduce Christianity to political capital for conservatives or progressives.

There is no praetorian guard of masculinity who intimidates victims of sexual abuse and no circling the wagons of whiteness against systematic racial injustices.

Multi-ethnic leaders and global voices are central rather than peripheral.

Where ethnic unity does not mean granting honorary white-ness to people of colour.

We look to minority leaders for wisdom as how to be the people of God in adversarial contexts and confrontational spaces.

Certain pastors of poor temperament and even poorer judgment are never given an opportunity to write about whiteness or domestic violence (led the reader understand!).

Where will this leadership come from? Who will rise to the challenge and save American evangelicalism from itself?

Will it come from Christianity Today, Missio Alliance, the National Association of Evangelicals, some seminary president, or a prophetic and powerful voice in a little rural church?

I don’t know.

But what I do know is that my American evangelical friends need someone to rise up, kick over the table, and say, “Thank you children, you’ve had your fun, but now the adults are speaking!”

Leave a question or comment and I’ll respond later this week!