What’s Gone Wrong With American Evangelicals? #3

What We Do With Jesus Determines Everything

This installment in my What’s Gone Wrong with American Evangelicalism? resumes my discussion of our peculiar hermeneutic or interpretive device for understanding and applying Biblical content and generally accepted Christian moral and spiritual instruction. It may seem an arcane subject, especially to non-evangelicals. Still, it goes a long way toward explaining the extreme politicization and apparent hypocrisy of so many in my religious tribe.

Most people know that mistreating desperate, marginalized, and reviled people isn’t in keeping with Christian sensibilities. The general public also knows that telling half-truths, obfuscating, and outright lying violates commandments about how to treat others and that hating people for who they are or how they behave contradicts Jesus’ teaching–especially his story of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus Is Too Much for Too Many Evangelicals

Let’s get to the core of it: Many evangelicals now seem to consider Jesus as too “DEI” for them. As Donald Trump, Jr. once said to an auditorium filled with evangelicals and other hard-right religious believers, “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. OK? It’s gotten us nothing while we’ve ceded ground in every major institution in our country.”

According to the new Trumpian religion, often associated with American evangelicalism, Jesus’ teaching is worthless. This alone indicates a serious departure from the central truth of Christianity—and the singular feature of evangelicalism—the centrality of Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior, and ultimate source of truth. In fact, for evangelicals, every believer must be a follower or disciple of Jesus, patterning themselves after His behavior.

To sideline Jesus or push Him to the margins is worse than heresy; it constitutes apostasy–the abandonment of the Christian faith.

When It Comes to Belief, Nothing Matters but Jesus

The New Testament Book of Hebrews opens with these words, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son . . .” (Hebrews 1:1-2a) If God is speaking to us today in any form—whether from His written Word (II Timothy 3:16–17), in our consciences (Romans 2:15), through the physical creation (Romans 1:18–20, Psalm 19:1–2), or in the still small voice of our hearts (I Kings 19:11–13), He is doing so through the agency of His Son. In the gospels, we often hear Jesus saying, “You have heard it said, but I say to you . . .”

Using the Christ hermeneutic, it doesn’t matter what we may have heard or understood to be God’s Word or God’s will before we hear Jesus speak; it is what He says and/or does that matters. The measure for interpreting the meaning of any biblical text is Jesus. The operative question is, How does Christ’s model, ministry, message, and mission affect the meaning and application of this text?

A Consequential Number of Evangelicals Are Done With DEI Jesus

The four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, contain most of the records of Jesus’ words and actions, but there is more in the Book of Acts and Revelation. We can extrapolate from this material what Jesus likely would have done in almost every situation. When it comes to Christ’s ministry, message, and model, there is more than sufficient evidence in Scripture to answer the hackneyed (but beneficial) question: What would Jesus do? The answer to which is the most critical determination of what a Christian should do. Sadly, this is where too many evangelical Christians are failing—and failing miserably.

The morning after Donald Trump’s first swearing-in as President of the United States in 2017, my wife, Cheryl, and I were in the sanctuary of the Washington National Cathedral as guests of the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, the Right Reverend Marianne Budde, for the Post Inaugural Prayer Service for Mr. Trump. (The same ceremony at which she would deliver her now-famous admonition of Mr. Trump after his second inauguration in 2025.) Following that 2017 Cathedral service, I mingled with numerous religious leaders near the altar area. Among them was the head of one of the largest evangelical institutions in America. As he and I chatted, I registered my concerns over the conflicts between what Mr. Trump stood for in his campaign and our Christian values. I suggested our movement return to the virtues in the Sermon on the Mount and “recalibrate our moral compass.” He snapped back, “I don’t have time for that. We’ve got real work to do!”

Then he was gone–and simultaneously, so was any integrity that attended to American evangelicals. In the ensuing years, the situation has only gotten worse.

In my next installment, I’ll examine the Trumpification of American evangelicalism and its dire consequences for evangelical faith and American public life.