Evangelicalism and Republicanism: Lines Blurred

• SA Engages

March 21, 2019

I distinctly remember in elementary school being told by an older person that George W. Bush was the good guy and his opponent, John Kerry, was the bad guy. The picture painted for my impressionable mind was that Bush was Rocky Balboa and Kerry was Ivan Drago. It wasn’t like Kerry wore a dark cape and had a diabolical laugh like most of the bad guys in the cartoons I watched growing up had; in my little “America is the greatest nation on Earth and you can’t say that she has done anything bad, ever” bubble, Kerry was the bad guy because he was a Democrat and Bush was the good guy because he was an Evangelical Republican. Nothing else seemed to matter in the process of determining who to vote for.

For the longest time, I thought that “Evangelical Republican” was a special kind of Republican, but then I came to realize that Evangelicalism originally had no roots in politics whatsoever. Donald Bloesch writes: “The term ‘Evangelical’ as designating a particular religious identity came into prominence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although it had already appeared in the Reformation period as a point of dispute between a rising Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Evangelicalism came more and more to be contrasted with Modernism and Liberalism.” Being an Evangelical used to be an identifying term that set Christians apart as those holding to sound biblical doctrine, but as it gained popularity and influence, Evangelicalism became more of a credential for politics rather than a distinguishing term for those in Christianity.

As Republican and Evangelical become more and more synonymous with one another, the lines between them often seem blurred. During the 2016 Presidential election, a common sight to see on Facebook was a Republican sharing a post on loving our neighbors, but then follow that with vicious attacks on the Clintons, from bringing up Bill’s affair with Monica Lewinsky to making fun of Hillary’s physical appearance. Evidentially, since the former Secretary of State was a Democrat, that must mean that she was not a neighbor that should be loved and that she, due to her political stances, was not made in the image of God.

This commonly-found hypocrisy has given Evangelicals a bad name, one that has made it seem like Evangelicals are more concerned with who is in office than who is being shown the love of Christ. Peter Wehner, a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, concludes, “The term Evangelical — despite its rich history of proclaiming the “good news” of Christ to a broken world — has been so distorted that it is now undermining the Christian witness.” The nastiness of politics has polluted the love that should flow out of Christianity. Author and Presbyterian pastor Timothy Keller also notes, “‘Evangelical’ used to denote people who claimed the high moral ground; now, in popular usage, the word is nearly synonymous with ‘hypocrite.’ When I used the word to describe myself in the nineteen-seventies, it meant I was not a fundamentalist. If I use the name today, however, it means to hearers that I am.”

What frustrates and confuses me all at once is that many who say they are evangelical are not even actually evangelical. Bob Smietana of LifeWay writes,

“About one in four Americans say they are evangelical Christians. Most of them are white, live in the South and identify as Republican. Many go to church every week. But they’re not always sure what they believe. Fewer than half of those who identify as evangelicals (45 percent) strongly agree with core evangelical beliefs, according to a new survey from Nashville-based LifeWay Research. ‘There’s a gap between who evangelicals say they are and what they believe,’ said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. And a significant number of evangelical believers reject the term ‘evangelical.’ Only two-thirds (69 percent) of evangelicals by belief self-identify as evangelicals.”

This is like if a fan at a Lakers game wearing a jersey he bought online got on the court and started shooting air balls, thinking he was part of the team – he would be giving a bad name to something that is meant to be good, just like how many Republicans, who do not know what an Evangelical is supposed to be, identify as one and then have their political passions broadcasted, which many on the outside mistake for what Evangelical faith supposedly looks like.

If this sounds like I hate conservative politics and all things Republican, I don’t. My quarrel is with the distortion of the term “Evangelical” and where the priorities of even some of those who claim to be Evangelicals are. If Jesus is truly your Lord & God then He should have your love far more than any nation should. Jesus should have your pledged allegiance far more than any flag should. I love this nation, but I want it to be abundantly clear with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength that I love Jesus way more than I love this country. This country can’t save me, the Republican nor the Democratic party can save me, only Jesus can save me, and that’s regardless of how I vote.

Let this not discourage you from your political convictions but instead encourage in your loving interactions. You can be an Evangelical, you can be a Republican, you can be an Evangelical who happens to be a Republican; these are fine things to be, but be cautious about getting those lines blurred and getting priorities mixed up.

Sources

Bloesch, D. G. (2008). Evangelicalism. Dialog, 47(1), 16-20. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6385.2008.00363.x.

Keller, T. (2017, December 19). Can Evangelicalism Survive Donald Trump And Roy Moore?. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/can-evangelicalism-survive-donald-trump-and-roy-moore.

Smietana, B. (2017, December 6). Many Who Call Themselves Evangelical Don’t Actually Hold Evangelical Beliefs. LifeWay. Retrieved from https://lifewayresearch.com/2017/12/06/many-evangelicals-dont-hold-evangelical-beliefs/.

Wehner, P. (2017, December 9). Why I Can No Longer Call Myself an Evangelical Republican. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/opinion/sunday/wehner-evangelical-republicans.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fpeter-wehner&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&ccontentPlacemen=1&pgtype=collecti.

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