What In The World Is Happening To Evangelicalism In 21st Century America?
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(OPINION) In nine-plus years of these weekly Memos, the Religion Guy has sometimes complained that the news media pay too little attention to, for example, the mainline Protestant denominations or to White Catholics as all-important swing voters who decide elections.
Nonetheless, as GetReligion.org prepares to close down Feb. 2, it’s understandable that this next-to-last Memo would send fellow journalists a few notations about the U.S. evangelical Protestant movement. (Full disclosure: This is The Guy’s own private, lifelong home, even though he was raised in a mainline denomination, worshipped for years in another and currently belongs to a third one.)
Evangelicalism, in one form or another, was analyzed in 43 prior Memos. Why so much attention?
Evangelicalism may be confusing in terms of organizations and fiefdoms, but since World War II it has developed into the largest and most dynamic force in American religion, striding into the hole in the public square created by the decline of the old mainline. Also, evangelicalism has been the most disruptive, and certainly one of the evident, influences within the Republican Party.
Something odd is happening to this movement in the 21st century. The Memo has dealt with relentless politicking, conflicts over race and women’s role, squalid scandals and has discerned signs of a “crack-up.”
Pundits regularly tell us that in the Donald Trump era we’re no longer even sure what an “evangelical” is, that it’s as much a sociopolitical label as a religious one and that this redefinition damages churches’ spiritual appeal to outsiders. Maybe so, but despite the media focus on outspoken agitators on the national level, local evangelicals are the least politicized faith grouping, according to noteworthy Duke University data at pages 52-58 in this document.
Then there’s that ongoing head-scratcher: Why have fat majorities of White evangelicals supported Trump, a morally bewildering politician and now a criminal and civil court defendant? For one thing, they automatically give lopsided support to Republican nominees, whether Romney, McCain or Bush, just like Black Protestant, Jewish, nonreligious and anti-religious Americans have done for Democrats. Many truly believe that they have no choice.
Also, what if their acceptance of Trump’s apparently unstoppable 2024 nomination run is not a matter of fears over religious freedom, secularization, LGBTQ issues or abortion? Perhaps evangelicalism, that most populist of Christian expressions, simply reflects feelings among grass-roots Americans overall.
That explanation gains support from a poll reported this month by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. Yes, the committee is highly partisan and conservative, but the numbers are stark enough to command attention, including in a paywalled Jan. 19 Wall Street Journal column.
The pollsters surveyed the general U.S. population last year, then compared the results with September sampling among just the “elites,” roughly 1% of Americans, who live in high-population ZIP codes and have graduate degrees and household incomes above $150,000. They pretty much dominate culture via higher education, law, entertainment, “legacy” news media and, increasingly, the corporate clout of Big Business.
About half of these elite respondents attended just a dozen blueblood private universities (the eight Ivy League campuses plus Chicago, Duke, Northwestern, Stanford) and were similar to overall elite opinion but moreso. Democrats — pay heed to the following.
The elites by 74% said their personal finances are “getting better” vs. 20% for the general American population sample.
The elites gave Democrat Joe Biden an 84% approval rating vs. 44% among Americans generally (currently a 38.8% average per fivethirtyeight.com).
The elites trust government to “do the right thing most of the time” by 70%, more than double the trust found among Americans generally.
Only 21% of the elites thought the U.S. has “too much government control” vs. 57% of Americans generally.
Elites by 77% favored “strict rationing of gas, meat and electricity” to “fight climate change,” versus 28% of Americans generally. On outlawing gas-powered cars, 72% of the elites backed such legislation versus 24% of Americans generally.
Just under 80% of elites had favorable opinions of lawyers and journalists, versus 49% and 44%, respectively, among Americans generally.
Only 26% of elites thought “parents need more control” over what their children are taught in school, vs. 45% of Americans generally.
Remember, these numbers show a chasm between a tiny elite and Americans in general. Try to imagine the gap between this elite niche and people in flyover country territory.
Next, The Guy recommends a depiction of the 21st century spiritual innards of this movement posted Jan. 17 with the headline “Reflections on the Evangelical Fracturing, Ten Years In.” Author Jake Meador, a member of the conservative Presbyterian Church in America, is editor-in-chief of the online magazine Mere Orthodoxy, a thoughtful young website self-described here.
Meador spins a complex saga of unhinged ministries and both extremism on the right and a leftward drift. One major theme is that over recent years, evangelical leadership by well-seasoned baby boomers such as the late Tim Keller in New York City has given way to Generation Xers whose freewheeling ministries have a dangerous lack of outside accountability and essential spiritual maturity, when at young ages they build huge platforms through niche social media.
His chief example is a typical 21st century creation, the Acts 29 network, (contact via press@acts29.com) whose 700-plus independent congregations are known for pop appeal and a “complementarian” ban on women’s leadership. He cites in particular three star pastors at megachurches.
Acts co-founder Mark Driscoll’s Seattle ministry collapsed in 2014 amid accusations of abusive leadership and he now leads a new church near Phoenix. Acts President Matt Chandler stepped down in 2022 over a nonsexual but “inappropriate” online relationship outside marriage, then quickly returned to his Dallas-area church. Acts Vice President Darrin Patrick recovered and continued his ministry after similar accusations in St. Louis but then committed suicide in 2020.
Finally, The Guy has this media observation. The rancid evangelical scandals regularly reported by secular mainstream were often unearthed by Christian media. The independent Christianity Today and World magazines have long records of biting evangelical hands that feed them with courageous investigative reporting.
The secular media should also be monitoring young Christian muckrakers, in particular these three:
The Roys Report, which for example reported Jan. 17 on a “Bible Church” with this eye-popping headline: “Tennessee Pastor Who Allegedly Tried to Kill His Wife Plants New Church.”
Ministry Watch, which for example last month examined tumult at Philadelphia evangelicals’ prominent Tenth Presbyterian Church.
The Wartburg Watch, which for example posted an 8,500-worder Jan. 19 on Boston’s Park Street Church, a historically venerated citadel in the evangelical empire. (Disclosure: The Guy’s daughter was a former member.)
We rarely see this sort of intense coverage about moderate and liberal mainline Protestant groups. Are they purer than the conservatives?
More likely, they lack investigative outlets like those listed above. As in so many areas, U.S. evangelicalism has been notably moralistic, innovative, energetic and surprisingly bold in journalistic enterprise.
This piece first appeared at GetReligion.org.
Richard Ostling is a former religion reporter for The Associated Press and a former correspondent for TIME Magazine. He’s also worked in broadcast TV and radio journalism covering religion and received a lifetime achievement award from Religion News Association.