The signs are all set in plain sight, but we pretend not to see.
They point to a troubling future for the Christian community in America and, perhaps, for the entire American enterprise.
Chief among these is the insurrection of January 6 in Washington DC, covered over as it was with religious rhetoric and religious motivation.
Evangelical representatives have been writing about this emerging movement for several years; and here I name The Gathering Storm by Al Mohler, This Precarious Moment by James Garlow and David Barton, and God’s Hand on America by Michael Medved.
Then there is Fault Lines, by Voddie T. Baucham Jr. This African-born Evangelical describes a fear that is foreign to many Christians and forecasts a future that is deeply troubling.
The fear is the loss of their version of Christianity—one that centers on personal religion and decries the broad movement toward what is now known as social justice, with its attention to (among other things) immigrants and refugees, climate change, and racial reconciliation. Baucham and his bunch see this as a threat to the faith itself, as abandoning true religion for politics.
He is building on a 2018 initiative of California pastor John MacArthur known as The Gospel and Social Justice. More than seven thousand Evangelicals signed on immediately. It asserts, in part, that political or social activism … are neither evidence of saving faith nor constitute a central part of the church’s mission….
This distinction is at the core of what is troubling the Southern Baptist Convention. The young leaders in that network, such as J D Greear (immediate past president) and Russell Moore (who recently resigned his leadership of the convention’s ethics agency), have voiced a concern and a support for the plight of racial minorities in America. SBC president wannabe Mike Stone has led the charge against this understanding of the gospel.
This division in the Evangelical community is a powerful and public sign of what is coalescing around the country: a movement rejecting the attention that religious and political leaders are giving to social justice concerns, a movement embracing all of the elements of white power and white privilege, anointed with a thin veneer of religious rhetoric.
These White Evangelical Christians see, to use the language of Robert P. Jones’ book, the end of white Christian America, and are pushing back on all fronts. They are challenging church pastors, seeking office in both religious and political systems, resisting public health mandates, and raising a ruckus in school board meetings around the country.
Some have organized the Patriot Church Movement, inspired by the mythological Black-Robed Regiment of Revolutionary War times. They are preparing their congregations “for a coming civil war, a battle of good versus evil where they fight back against what they see as the tyranny of the left.”
Two prominent Evangelical congregations in particular—Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis and McLean Bible in metro Washington DC—are responding to grassroots rebellions against young pastors perceived to be too attracted to the social justice version of the gospel.
And two more things: these Christian patriots are in love with Donald J. Trump. At first, they were wary, thinking his irreligious and immoral life would taint their commitment to Jesus and the Bible. But political power is intoxicating, and they soon found ways to justify affection for the man, citing the biblical example of God using the pagan ruler Cyrus of Persia.
Finally, and most concerning: they are arming themselves. Guns sales are booming, and armed militias are expanding. How much of the increased violence in America can be traced to this white religious cohort is yet to be determined; but too many angry citizens are taking any provocation, however small and insignificant, as justification for a gun fight.
All of this is stitched together into a cultural quilt of discontent: angry, organized, armed. And dangerous.
The premeditated attack on the Capital was, in some respects, the opening shots of a new phase in the long-standing culture war. It was, in the language of the military, a probing of defenses, a testing of both the security of the building itself and, more importantly, the resolve of political leaders to respond appropriately.
They found weaknesses all around.
We are watching and listening as their Washington politicians equivocate: if I may paraphrase the recent words of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: “It was a bad thing, but let’s just move on.” Many rejoice at this lack of seriousness.
But do not be misled: the gathering storm (to appropriate Mohler’s title) sits on the horizon and threatens all of us with a future run by Trump, supported by a mighty host of Trumpian Christians, and animated by a distorted vision of what it means to follow the servant and savior we call Jesus the Lord.
If that doesn’t drive us to despair, desperation, and appropriate decisions, I don’t know what will.
The signs are all set in plain sight, but we pretend not to see.
They point to a troubling future for the Christian community in America and, perhaps, for the entire American enterprise.
Chief among these is the insurrection of January 6 in Washington DC, covered over as it was with religious rhetoric and religious motivation.
Evangelical representatives have been writing about this emerging movement for several years; and here I name The Gathering Storm by Al Mohler, This Precarious Moment by James Garlow and David Barton, and God’s Hand on America by Michael Medved.
Then there is Fault Lines, by Voddie T. Baucham Jr. This African-born Evangelical describes a fear that is foreign to many Christians and forecasts a future that is deeply troubling.
The fear is the loss of their version of Christianity—one that centers on personal religion and decries the broad movement toward what is now known as social justice, with its attention to (among other things) immigrants and refugees, climate change, and racial reconciliation. Baucham and his bunch see this as a threat to the faith itself, as abandoning true religion for politics.
He is building on a 2018 initiative of California pastor John MacArthur known as The Gospel and Social Justice. More than seven thousand Evangelicals signed on immediately. It asserts, in part, that political or social activism … are neither evidence of saving faith nor constitute a central part of the church’s mission….
This distinction is at the core of what is troubling the Southern Baptist Convention. The young leaders in that network, such as J D Greear (immediate past president) and Russell Moore (who recently resigned his leadership of the convention’s ethics agency), have voiced a concern and a support for the plight of racial minorities in America. SBC president wannabe Mike Stone has led the charge against this understanding of the gospel.
This division in the Evangelical community is a powerful and public sign of what is coalescing around the country: a movement rejecting the attention that religious and political leaders are giving to social justice concerns, a movement embracing all of the elements of white power and white privilege, anointed with a thin veneer of religious rhetoric.
These White Evangelical Christians see, to use the language of Robert P. Jones’ book, the end of white Christian America, and are pushing back on all fronts. They are challenging church pastors, seeking office in both religious and political systems, resisting public health mandates, and raising a ruckus in school board meetings around the country.
Some have organized the Patriot Church Movement, inspired by the mythological Black-Robed Regiment of Revolutionary War times. They are preparing their congregations “for a coming civil war, a battle of good versus evil where they fight back against what they see as the tyranny of the left.”
Two prominent Evangelical congregations in particular—Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis and McLean Bible in metro Washington DC—are responding to grassroots rebellions against young pastors perceived to be too attracted to the social justice version of the gospel.
And two more things: these Christian patriots are in love with Donald J. Trump. At first, they were wary, thinking his irreligious and immoral life would taint their commitment to Jesus and the Bible. But political power is intoxicating, and they soon found ways to justify affection for the man, citing the biblical example of God using the pagan ruler Cyrus of Persia.
Finally, and most concerning: they are arming themselves. Guns sales are booming, and armed militias are expanding. How much of the increased violence in America can be traced to this white religious cohort is yet to be determined; but too many angry citizens are taking any provocation, however small and insignificant, as justification for a gun fight.
All of this is stitched together into a cultural quilt of discontent: angry, organized, armed. And dangerous.
The premeditated attack on the Capital was, in some respects, the opening shots of a new phase in the long-standing culture war. It was, in the language of the military, a probing of defenses, a testing of both the security of the building itself and, more importantly, the resolve of political leaders to respond appropriately.
They found weaknesses all around.
We are watching and listening as their Washington politicians equivocate: if I may paraphrase the recent words of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: “It was a bad thing, but let’s just move on.” Many rejoice at this lack of seriousness.
But do not be misled: the gathering storm (to appropriate Mohler’s title) sits on the horizon and threatens all of us with a future run by Trump, supported by a mighty host of Trumpian Christians, and animated by a distorted vision of what it means to follow the servant and savior we call Jesus the Lord.
If that doesn’t drive us to despair, desperation, and appropriate decisions, I don’t know what will.
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