Culture of Evangelicalism
- hoadleyc70
- May 10
- 4 min read
There are many people of faith in the US who are troubled by the political power the Evangelical Church has sought since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Leaders of this “Evangelical Right” sought it, followers supported it and now they wield political power and in the process give Christianity a bad rep. It reminds me a little of the Crusades the Catholic Church engaged in with the express objective of spreading Christ’s gospel. These religious wars caused great harm as wars tend to do. In retrospect, the implicit, unspoken, unadmitted objective was primarily about attaining land and power and not so much spreading the Good News. Ironically and sadly, the Good News caused a lot of bad news for those on the receiving end. Over and over human beings try to be God and assume all the associated power and might. This leads me to ask what does the Evangelical Church SAY or believe is their mission? Are we seeing history repeat itself once again?
The Evangelical movement (apparently, it is a movement within Protestantism) focuses on the Bible as almost every Christian denomination does. The bible was developed by the Catholic Church who collected various writings, scrutinized and determined reliability and validity. As a piece of literature, it represents pretty much every type of writing possible. The “Good News” of Jesus Christ is the 2nd part of the bible known as The New Testament. The first part is, of course, The Old Testament. For many protestant denominations as is the case with the Roman Catholic Church, the Old Testament gives the backstory, if you will. It provides really important context for Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. However, as Christians, it is Christ’s teachings and modeling where our focus lies. If there is debate about a particular issue, practicing Christians will look to The New Testament for guidance and take passages in The Old Testament as historical context, what came before. It is but part of the larger picture.
While Evangelicals are bible-centered, there is also an emphasis on personal faith in Jesus Christ. In addition, they believe in the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. Evangelicals share these fundamentals with other denominations. The noticeable difference tends to be seen in their distinct worship style. Worship is characterized by lively music, emotional prayers, and somewhat charismatic sermons. One might see some resemblance to a show or performance. Compared to other denominations I believe it is fair to conclude the Evangelical movement goes more for an emotional experience than a thoughtful or reflective or intellectual one. I’m not saying it is wrong or bad. This is just what I see and others might agree…or not.
As the name suggests, Evangelicals have a mission to evangelize, spread the gospel message, perhaps to a higher degree than other denominations. As I think about it, I can understand why the Evangelical Church would find political positioning attractive. Except legislating faith teachings, interpreted by a single religious entity, goes against the principle of the separation of church and state and also goes against individuals CHOOSING to follow Christ and their own conscience. I would challenge anyone to find a New Testament story of Jesus forcing anyone to follow his ways. Free will is a common concept amongst denominations. Yes, Jesus gives “new commandments” but just like the old commandments and the story of Adam and Eve in the garden, humans choose to follow God…or not. Think about it. Is it particularly meaningful when someone forces you to have a personal relationship with someone? With God? In fact, some of our best relationships are typically with those we choose as family or friend.
It’s interesting to consider the ways our faith life is reflected in the larger context of society even when a separation is strictly kept. As one writer puts it, different denominations have a different ethos. This underlying character or spirit comes out in different ways. For example, in early America, Calvinist ideas of people being called to positions of authority or leadership resulted in the key figures of the Revolution coming from Massachusetts and Virginia, Puritan country. There are also plenty of universities in the area as they thought highly of education.
So what do we find when we look at the Evangelical movement? Those who write about religion see capitalism and consumerism at play. I can see how they arrive at that considering the Evangelical worship style. The teachings emphasize healing found through the gospels, not so much a particular ethical, moral or behavioral code. That may be true within the personal relationship with Christ, however on the political level, it shakes out much more as legislated morality. Do Evangelicals go against their own faith understandings when they lobby for particular laws, a legal code? If so, then it seems likely those steering the Evangelical movement into politics are not doing so from a place of spreading the gospel.
You know, for a long time I have tried to get a better sense of the foundation for the Evangelical movement and now I think I’m starting to get it! I try really hard to not rush to judgement when I am learning new things. Humans get some things right and some things land off target all the time. I can understand the appeal of Evangelical worship with good emotional engagement. As a former educator of the arts, I understand emotions are a key aspect of being human. As a former educator of children, I am interested in the whole brain. Short-changing the intellectual understanding, especially when the church is very bible centered, seems unwise to me though and I suspect that might be its biggest weakness. I mean there are many, many theologians who spend their entire lives searching for accurate meaning from this large collection of individual books written by different people using different writing techniques, translated and edited many times! On the flip side, denominations that are heavy on the intellectual study may be neglecting the emotional side of those in the congregation and perhaps missing out on some important spiritual connection. Something to ponder.
No faith, religion, spirituality, denomination or movement is likely to hit the bullseye on everything. We will always be imperfect and mess up. Our best bet is to continue to improve our own relationship with God and our interactions with our earthly brothers and sisters. That is, after all, the whole point of it all, right?
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