What is an evangelical, and am I one?
Most older adults these days are aware of how much American culture has changed during our lifetime. I suspect that most of us applaud some of the changes and are worried about others. Some of us would like to turn back the clock on at least some of our more recent developments. Others, on balance, are more or less content with the direction our culture seems to be taking.
Many self-identified evangelicals bring a special perspective to these changes. First, they focus on what they see as decline from what they take to be biblical norms. And, second, a subset of this group often understands the decline as signs that the end times are near, including the "rapture," Armageddon, and finally the second coming of Christ. The Left Behind series has made this apocalyptic narrative widely available in popular culture. Most evangelicals at least know about this conviction and have some sympathy for it even if they don't accept all or perhaps any of the specific details. For example, up to half of self-identified evangelicals may support Israel because they believe it is important for fulfilling end-times prophecy.
Many evangelicals take their standards about proper morality, right social ordering, and God's future for the world from their special understanding of the Bible as a complete, inerrant, word-for-word account of God's dealings with the world. The Bible's historically situated depiction of gender roles and appropriate social arrangements are taken as normative, established by God. Its apocalyptic narratives such as found in the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament or the Book of Revelation in the New, are taken as veiled predictions of what the future will bring. Evangelicals disagree among themselves on these points, but the authority of the Bible remains highly influential in defining or at least rationalizing their social and political views.
Most evangelicals deplore various developments in modern society such as feminism, acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, end of prayer in schools, the teaching evolution, and so on. They see it as their Christian duty to oppose these developments as best they can, exercising their rights as citizens to act on their convictions and advocate political and cultural changes in support of their convictions. Some go further and cast these developments as (in some ways, welcomed) signs of the coming apocalypse that, after a period of strife, will bring in the reign of Christ on earth. They see themselves as holy warriors in a divine struggle. This can give rise to a self-righteousness and refusal to comprise. (And, to be sure, provoke a self-righteous and uncompromising response from those they oppose).
Let's dig a bit down into two broad areas.
Gender Roles
The societies described in the Bible are hierarchical and patriarchal. For many (but by no means all) evangelicals, these patterns are understood as normative, desired and commanded by God.
As a result, many evangelicals advocate a "Christian" ordering of society. They understand the family to be properly one husband (a dominant male), one wife (a subordinate female), and however many children (subordinate to parents). Single-sex marriage and homosexuality do not adhere to this pattern and are accordingly condemned. Male superiority in the family is assumed, and the wife's responsibility to see to the sexual satisfaction of her husband is broadly advocated.
Once again, this may be the general pattern but abundant variety can be found, including evangelicals who completely disagree with these normative standards.
Christian Nationalism
When we turn to society and government, we also find a normative hierarchical understanding of the Bible at work, conditioned by range of distinctly American refinements.
Patriotism is an expression of love of country, and is not peculiar to any particular group of Americans. Nationalism, however, and Christian Nationalism in particular, is another matter.
A "nation"--from the root natio, meaning birth--tends to be understood as a group of peoples with a similar background of ethnicity, language, and religion. "Nationalism" is a relatively modern development arising in Europe soon after the Reformation (and partly as a consequence). It is in some ways an alternative to polyglot amalgamations of peoples such as found in medieval kingdoms and in some places, say, the former Yugoslavia or, to take another modern but Asian example, India. America as a nation differs in this regard from the European nations which contributed America's earliest citizens. Americans came from a variety of ethnicities, spoke when they arrived a variety of languages, and practiced (or ignored) a variety of different religions. But even so, the dominant Americans well into the 19th century were Anglo-Saxon Protestants, and America's implicit “evangelical Christian" character was not appreciably changed until mid-century with the addition of Catholic Christians and some Jews. Despite the Deism of many of the Founders, America was broadly seen by evangelicals as a “Christian nation” and, for many, as exceptional nation with an (almost?) divine calling to be an example to the world. Variations on these two conviction often underpins an insistence that Christianity should have a privileged position in governmental policy and public affairs. It can also justify a militancy, even a belligerency towards other, less "chosen" and less "Christian" nations. By survey, a large majority of self-identified evangelicals are strong supporters of American military intervention around the world. They are not alone in this, to be sure, but they tend to be more "gung-ho" than most other religious groups.
And finally, for those who see in cultural trends the signs of the approaching end times, the struggle to save this special nation takes on religious overtones and makes its actors, at least in their own eyes, God's warriors in a righteous battle between good and evil.
Questions
- How do you understand recent changes in our culture and society? What constitutes for you changes for the better, and which, for the worse?
- Do you agree that America is or should be a "Christian nation"? What would have to change for America to become, or returned to, being a "Christian nation"?
- How do you distinguish between the claims on you by your Christian faith and the claims on you because of your American citizenship? How do you reconcile the two? How do you live with the tension, assuming there is a tension?