Evangelism, Empathy, and Christian Nationalism...

[Ernie]

An interesting article about Evangelicalism, evangelism, empathy for internationals, and Christian nationalism...

A quote from Russell Moore: "Trump has transformed evangelicalism far more than evangelism has influenced Trump."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/30/opin ... =url-share

[barnhart]

I appreciate Russell Moore a lot, but I would say President Trump did not transform Evangelicalism, rather he revealed what was hidden all along.

[Ken]

Interesting article. Here is how Moore defines Christian Nationalism. Which I think is a useful definition:

Christian nationalism is the use of Christian symbols or teachings in order to prop up a nation-state or an ethnic identity. It’s dangerous for the nation because it’s fundamentally anti-democratic. Christian nationalism takes a political claim and seeks to make it ultimate. It says: If a person disagrees with me, that person is disagreeing with God. No democratic nation can survive that, which is why the founders of this country built in all kinds of protections from it.

Christian nationalism is also dangerous for the witness of the church, because Christian nationalism is fundamentally, at its core, anti-evangelical. If what the Gospel means is for people to come before God, person by person, not nation by nation or village by village or tribe by tribe, then Christian nationalism is heretical.

Christian nationalism assumes outward conformity enforced by social or political power. It transforms the way that we see reality with the assumption that the really important things are political and cultural, as opposed to personal and spiritual and theological.

[Josh]

Interesting definition. According to that, every liberal denomination like MC USA Central District, PC(USA) etc is Christian Nationalist.

[Ernie]

I appreciate Russell Moore a lot, but I would say President Trump did not transform Evangelicalism, rather he revealed what was hidden all along.

Good point. But might it be some of both?

[temporal1]

Interesting definition.
According to that, every liberal denomination like MC USA Central District, PC(USA) etc is Christian Nationalist.

True. As pointed out now+then on forum.
It’s one of the more blatant examples of “the pot calling the kettle black,” with lib churches openly+unapologetically political, voting, while believing they are uniquely entitled to do so.

[Sudsy]

An interesting article about Evangelicalism, evangelism, empathy for internationals, and Christian nationalism...

A quote from Russell Moore: "Trump has transformed evangelicalism far more than evangelism has influenced Trump."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/30/opin ... =url-share

Regarding the quote above - My view is that satan manages to use whatever means he can to keep people from the Gospel. He is the great deceiver and will use things like politics to get believers off a Kingdom view of living in this world. Sadly many of the evangelical background have been caught in one of his snares. I would say that satan has done the transforming and Donald Trump is one of his many tools.

It is interesting to me the various means satan uses to side-track Christian groups from the Gospel that saves us. When I first became involved with the Salvation Army, I read up on their history and then participated in some of their ministries. What a change had taken place since their beginning. Somehow the social gospel had become the primary focus and not the saving of souls. This was not true for every SA church/corps but it was most obvious overall.

I believe satan has infiltrated most Christian groups in some way or other to get them off the main goal of the eternal salvation of the lost. I think he is quite pleased when a Christian group is mostly focused on holiness issues or social help issues or prosperity issues or emotional experiences and various other side-trackings to hinder the main issue from getting the attention it deserves. He is very sly and truly is a wolf in sheeps clothing.

One can be called an 'evangelical' and have little to no involvement in personal, born again evangelism as described in scripture as a radical change to becoming a Christ follower.

Anyway, Jesus said He would 'build His Church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it', so regardless of where church groups seem to be heading, I believe His Church is not any man defined Christian group but only the ones that may be in them that are truly His children. He says many in judgment day will claim to be His but He will say He never knew them. So, the main question is not how religious we were but whether or not we knew Him and served Him in a personal way.

A 'Christian Nationalist', to me, is a Christian who is an ambassador of the Kingdom of God. Our 'nation' is not of this world. We are aliens here. Foreigners in a strange land. Pilgrims passing through. The kingdoms of this world will all come and go and should have little interest to us. When they do take on my interest and concerns, I need to re-consider who I am and my mission here. Thats how I see it but struggle to keep that view in mine.

[Bootstrap]

A quote from Russell Moore: "Trump has transformed evangelicalism far more than evangelism has influenced Trump."

Here's that quote in context:

Trump has transformed evangelicalism far more than evangelism has influenced Trump.

I was surprised by the aftermath of the “Access Hollywood” tape. When the “Access Hollywood” tape was released, I was saying to people around me: “Don’t say, ‘I told you so.’ We need to have empathy for Trump-supporting evangelicals who are really hurting at this revelation.” But what ended up happening is that white evangelicals made peace with “Access Hollywood,” if anything, quicker than the rest of America did.

I received a castigating email from a sweet Christian lady who had taught me Sunday school when I was a kid. And none of it argued: “You’re wrong about Trump’s moral character.” The argument was: “Get real. This is what we have to have in order to fight the enemy.” That was surprising to me. And disorienting.

I agree with Russell Moore, that was a time that many Christians decided they no longer cared about moral commitments they had held in the past. It changed the way many Christians talk about public morality. And it's changed the definition of what "the enemy" is for Christians.

[barnhart]

I appreciate Russell Moore a lot, but I would say President Trump did not transform Evangelicalism, rather he revealed what was hidden all along.

Good point. But might it be some of both?

Possibly, but I see the phenomenon more as a maturation or natural consequence of ideas that were built in to Evangelicalism from the start.

I see the genesis of Evangelicalism rooted in the impulse to provide a response to Communism that countered the full scope of global communist ideology, cultural, religious and philosophical. From that vantage point denominational distinctives like eschatology, modes or function of baptism, ecclesiology, ect... were distractions
or impediments to the real problem, insecurity in the American way of life. How will the Communists be defeated it the communist elements within strip prayer from schools to secularize society?

The collapse of global communism stripped the movement of its purpose and since then it has relied on increasingly temporary enemies to maintain cohesion, Muslim Jihad, same sex marriage, increased government spending on social programs (socialism), religious freedom (cake baking battles), Black Lives Matter, Social Marxism, Transgender acceptance, Wokeness, ect...

The transformation Moore is observing is the continuity of the stripping away of theology to better fight for the culture. A large percentage of people who identify as evangelical cannot be bothered to attend church at all, yet they will stop and pray for Jesus' blessing before storming the Capital.

I was born into a tradition that did not join that movement back when it was fighting global communism, so I feel reluctance to jump in at any point. The same way my parents believed God ruled supreme over global communism, I have conviction God rules over Wokeness.

[Josh]

I agree with Russell Moore, that was a time that many Christians decided they no longer cared about moral commitments they had held in the past. It changed the way many Christians talk about public morality. And it's changed the definition of what "the enemy" is for Christians.

Boot,

Evangelical Christianity (and mainline Protestantism, too) has always been deeply enmeshed in politics and trying to promote whatever was currently in fashion for being the good thing to promote.