Is it true that Evangelical Churches (for example, Baptist and Pentecostal) are becoming more conservative?

[ViaCrucis]

In the United States at least there is a complicated history of politics and religion; the most significant time period is probably the mid-to-late 20th century.

The history of American Evangelicalism is itself fairly complicated, because we can differentiate between what we might deem "Paleo-Evangelicalism" (purely for the sake of contrast), which we could say covers the period of First and Second Great Awakenings. The Second Great Awakening was a significant and pivotal time in the history of religion in America. We also can talk about the Modernist-Fundamentalist controversy of the late 19th and early 20th century. A new Evangelical movement--Neo-Evangelicalism--emerged in the 1930's and 40's, which inherited a lot of the theological tradition of the Second Great Awakening, but was at least in part inspired by the social isolation of Fundamentalism of the period. The Neo-Evangelical movement wanted to actively engage with wider society, rather than isolate, and also retained the tradition of the Second Great Awakening--with the emphasis on revivalism and conversionism.

The most famous representative of the Neo-Evangelical movement is Billy Graham. But Graham was an inheritor of the traditions of Charles Finney and Billy Sunday.

The Paleo-Evangelicals of the 19th century were socially and politically active, and tended to be social progressives, pushing for Abolition during the Antebellum period, were on the side of Woman's Suffrage, and opposed Jim Crow in the post-Reconstruction period as well as tended to be on the side of labor, pro-union, and were advocates of social justice--supporting child labor laws, anti-trust laws, etc.

The Neo-Evangelicals were not, necessarily, very political in the beginning. One could find Evangelicals during the Civil Rights era on both sides of the fence, pro-segregationists and anti-segregationists, there were Evangelicals who marched with King, and Evangelicals who hated King. Which is to say, The New Evangelicals were not aligned to any political party, and politics was not a common denominator.

This continued to be the case into the 1970's. It might surprise a lot of people that plenty of Evangelicals supported Roe v Wade and that abortion was viewed by many, at the time, as a "Catholic thing". Now, plenty of Evangelicals also opposed Roe v Wade of course. But the point here is that abortion was not considered an Evangelical issue at the time.

But there were plenty of disenchanted Evangelicals, those who were upset with the Supreme Court decisions of 1962 and 63 which eliminated school-led prayer and Bible study. In the 60's and 70's there was also a rise in politically motivated Evangelicals, as well as old guard Fundamentalists, to see more political activism. For some it was racially motivated, and certain political actors used this to their advantage as part of the Southern Strategy. Also, by the time of Ronald Reagan the Republican Party made getting the Evangelical vote a big issue, which led to the Republican Party pursuing that path. In spite of the fact that Jimmy Carter was a rather out and proud Evangelical, and was probably single-handedly responsible for turning the phrase "Born Again Christian" into a household term across the United States; it would be Reagan who would become the symbol for the union of Evangelicalism with American politics, specifically with the Republican Party. Galvanizing on the Southern Strategy and various key issues like the resentment for having abolished school-led prayer in the 60's, Roe v Wade in the 70's, and then the banning of teaching Creationism in public schools in the 1980's, by the 90's Republicans had pretty well secured the Evangelical vote.

And what began under Reagan became more intensified after 9'11, in the George W. Bush administration it had effectively become common knowledge that Evangelicals voted Republican. Under Obama's presidency a lot of people on the Right took advantage of people's continued fears about terrorism after 9/11 as well as Obama's skin color to create a highly intense and polarizing opposition. This was made easier by focusing on the LGBTQ issues, as many states began to move to allowing same sex couples to marry. By the time the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefelle v Hodges that declared that banning same sex marriage is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment, people who had been growing in their resentment of Obama had reached an all time high. At around the same time Donald Trump was now running as a Republican candidate for the US presidency, and Trump had already gained some political notoriety when he tried to run in 2012 where he was generally laughed away, but he was a huge advocate of the Birther conspiracy theory, which would be helpful later on.

So decades of political strategizing, and certain key moments in American politics, as well as certain Evangelical leaders actively working toward a political union with the Republican Party and American conservatism more broadly increasingly worked. By the 2016 presidential election a non-religious philandering con-artist who couldn't even tell you what a Beatitude was or knew anything about conservative politics, or politics at all, and though boasting of his excessive wealth, in spite of his myriad failings in business, and who openly bragged about his immoral behavior became the galvanizing force for millions of white Evangelical conservative voters across the United States, and he won the presidency.

And, at present, it often seems that "Evangelical" has largely ceased to have the same meaning that it meant even a decade ago, let alone what it meant 60 years ago during Billy Graham's early crusades. The growing number of unchurched Evangelicals, Evangelicals who self-identify as Evangelical, but who are not under any guidance or shepherding from an educated and trained and ordained pastor, and who may or may not ever gather together or associate with a local congregation has also contributed to many Evangelicals being largely a political force, rather than a religious movement and religious sub-set within American Protestantism.

Now, much of this hinges on "White Evangelicals", because looking at Black Evangelicals, things do look different on the macroscopic level.

So are Evangelical churches becoming more conservative? Yes and no. Yes, in that this has been the trend for the last several decades, going back before I was born in the early 80's. But also no, in that there seems to be a growing case that this has nothing to do with churches per se, and more to do with the White Evangelical voting bloc, in which church doctrine and church practices, and pastoral teaching and counseling play little to no role.

To offer a purely anecdotal story: One of my uncles, my dad's brother, is an ordained pastor, he received his degree from Multinomah Bible College and was a youth pastor for many years, as well as highly active in Campus Crusade for Christ and Youth For Christ. Back in the 90's he was responsible for booking Christian bands to play at a major regional youth event called Big Splash held at a major water park in the Tacoma, Washington area. He personally studied under David Needham at Multinomah, for those who are in the know.

I say all this because I think it important for this story to share my uncle's Evangelical street cred.

Last year my uncle finally retired, deciding to step down from being lead pastor at the church he had been pastoring for the last 15 years. After my dad passed away in 2019, my uncle was a big help in helping me work through my grief and we have had many conversations about faith, theology, and Christian living. He and I don't see eye-to-eye on everything, obviously; for one he's a Baptist and I'm a Lutheran. For another, his political leanings are conservative, mine tend to be more liberal.

However, though my uncle is a rather unashamed conservative Evangelical pastor (retired pastor now), on numerous occasions he has shared with me his deep concerns with the present state of the Church in America. He is concerned that many Christians are ignoring the Bible, ignoring Jesus, and becoming far more interested in politics. He doesn't demonize any group, he says that both those on the right and the left have problems, and what he wants is for Christians to remember Who their first love is supposed to be.

Which is all to say, much of what I have observed, largely from the outside (as I'm not an Evangelical), my uncle has largely confirmed by his far more intimate experience and connections he has with the larger Evangelical world.

Again, I offer this purely as anecdotal, so take it as you wish. But for myself, it's been eye-opening and also deeply depressing.

Also, this isn't me trying to demonize conservatives. This is me working through the complexities of modern religio-politics in America viz-a-viz Evangelicalism.

I say that because I suspect at least some will consider me an untrustworthy witness due to my admission to being more on the left than on the right; in addition to my not being an Evangelical myself.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[bbbbbbb]

In the United States at least there is a complicated history of politics and religion; the most significant time period is probably the mid-to-late 20th century.

The history of American Evangelicalism is itself fairly complicated, because we can differentiate between what we might deem "Paleo-Evangelicalism" (purely for the sake of contrast), which we could say covers the period of First and Second Great Awakenings. The Second Great Awakening was a significant and pivotal time in the history of religion in America. We also can talk about the Modernist-Fundamentalist controversy of the late 19th and early 20th century. A new Evangelical movement--Neo-Evangelicalism--emerged in the 1930's and 40's, which inherited a lot of the theological tradition of the Second Great Awakening, but was at least in part inspired by the social isolation of Fundamentalism of the period. The Neo-Evangelical movement wanted to actively engage with wider society, rather than isolate, and also retained the tradition of the Second Great Awakening--with the emphasis on revivalism and conversionism.

The most famous representative of the Neo-Evangelical movement is Billy Graham. But Graham was an inheritor of the traditions of Charles Finney and Billy Sunday.

The Paleo-Evangelicals of the 19th century were socially and politically active, and tended to be social progressives, pushing for Abolition during the Antebellum period, were on the side of Woman's Suffrage, and opposed Jim Crow in the post-Reconstruction period as well as tended to be on the side of labor, pro-union, and were advocates of social justice--supporting child labor laws, anti-trust laws, etc.

The Neo-Evangelicals were not, necessarily, very political in the beginning. One could find Evangelicals during the Civil Rights era on both sides of the fence, pro-segregationists and anti-segregationists, there were Evangelicals who marched with King, and Evangelicals who hated King. Which is to say, The New Evangelicals were not aligned to any political party, and politics was not a common denominator.

This continued to be the case into the 1970's. It might surprise a lot of people that plenty of Evangelicals supported Roe v Wade and that abortion was viewed by many, at the time, as a "Catholic thing". Now, plenty of Evangelicals also opposed Roe v Wade of course. But the point here is that abortion was not considered an Evangelical issue at the time.

But there were plenty of disenchanted Evangelicals, those who were upset with the Supreme Court decisions of 1962 and 63 which eliminated school-led prayer and Bible study. In the 60's and 70's there was also a rise in politically motivated Evangelicals, as well as old guard Fundamentalists, to see more political activism. For some it was racially motivated, and certain political actors used this to their advantage as part of the Southern Strategy. Also, by the time of Ronald Reagan the Republican Party made getting the Evangelical vote a big issue, which led to the Republican Party pursuing that path. In spite of the fact that Jimmy Carter was a rather out and proud Evangelical, and was probably single-handedly responsible for turning the phrase "Born Again Christian" into a household term across the United States; it would be Reagan who would become the symbol for the union of Evangelicalism with American politics, specifically with the Republican Party. Galvanizing on the Southern Strategy and various key issues like the resentment for having abolished school-led prayer in the 60's, Roe v Wade in the 70's, and then the banning of teaching Creationism in public schools in the 1980's, by the 90's Republicans had pretty well secured the Evangelical vote.

And what began under Reagan became more intensified after 9'11, in the George W. Bush administration it had effectively become common knowledge that Evangelicals voted Republican. Under Obama's presidency a lot of people on the Right took advantage of people's continued fears about terrorism after 9/11 as well as Obama's skin color to create a highly intense and polarizing opposition. This was made easier by focusing on the LGBTQ issues, as many states began to move to allowing same sex couples to marry. By the time the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefelle v Hodges that declared that banning same sex marriage is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment, people who had been growing in their resentment of Obama had reached an all time high. At around the same time Donald Trump was now running as a Republican candidate for the US presidency, and Trump had already gained some political notoriety when he tried to run in 2012 where he was generally laughed away, but he was a huge advocate of the Birther conspiracy theory, which would be helpful later on.

So decades of political strategizing, and certain key moments in American politics, as well as certain Evangelical leaders actively working toward a political union with the Republican Party and American conservatism more broadly increasingly worked. By the 2016 presidential election a non-religious philandering con-artist who couldn't even tell you what a Beatitude was or knew anything about conservative politics, or politics at all, and though boasting of his excessive wealth, in spite of his myriad failings in business, and who openly bragged about his immoral behavior became the galvanizing force for millions of white Evangelical conservative voters across the United States, and he won the presidency.

And, at present, it often seems that "Evangelical" has largely ceased to have the same meaning that it meant even a decade ago, let alone what it meant 60 years ago during Billy Graham's early crusades. The growing number of unchurched Evangelicals, Evangelicals who self-identify as Evangelical, but who are not under any guidance or shepherding from an educated and trained and ordained pastor, and who may or may not ever gather together or associate with a local congregation has also contributed to many Evangelicals being largely a political force, rather than a religious movement and religious sub-set within American Protestantism.

Now, much of this hinges on "White Evangelicals", because looking at Black Evangelicals, things do look different on the macroscopic level.

So are Evangelical churches becoming more conservative? Yes and no. Yes, in that this has been the trend for the last several decades, going back before I was born in the early 80's. But also no, in that there seems to be a growing case that this has nothing to do with churches per se, and more to do with the White Evangelical voting bloc, in which church doctrine and church practices, and pastoral teaching and counseling play little to no role.

To offer a purely anecdotal story: One of my uncles, my dad's brother, is an ordained pastor, he received his degree from Multinomah Bible College and was a youth pastor for many years, as well as highly active in Campus Crusade for Christ and Youth For Christ. Back in the 90's he was responsible for booking Christian bands to play at a major regional youth event called Big Splash held at a major water park in the Tacoma, Washington area. He personally studied under David Needham at Multinomah, for those who are in the know.

I say all this because I think it important for this story to share my uncle's Evangelical street cred.

Last year my uncle finally retired, deciding to step down from being lead pastor at the church he had been pastoring for the last 15 years. After my dad passed away in 2019, my uncle was a big help in helping me work through my grief and we have had many conversations about faith, theology, and Christian living. He and I don't see eye-to-eye on everything, obviously; for one he's a Baptist and I'm a Lutheran. For another, his political leanings are conservative, mine tend to be more liberal.

However, though my uncle is a rather unashamed conservative Evangelical pastor (retired pastor now), on numerous occasions he has shared with me his deep concerns with the present state of the Church in America. He is concerned that many Christians are ignoring the Bible, ignoring Jesus, and becoming far more interested in politics. He doesn't demonize any group, he says that both those on the right and the left have problems, and what he wants is for Christians to remember Who their first love is supposed to be.

Which is all to say, much of what I have observed, largely from the outside (as I'm not an Evangelical), my uncle has largely confirmed by his far more intimate experience and connections he has with the larger Evangelical world.

Again, I offer this purely as anecdotal, so take it as you wish. But for myself, it's been eye-opening and also deeply depressing.

Also, this isn't me trying to demonize conservatives. This is me working through the complexities of modern religio-politics in America viz-a-viz Evangelicalism.

I say that because I suspect at least some will consider me an untrustworthy witness due to my admission to being more on the left than on the right; in addition to my not being an Evangelical myself.

-CryptoLutheran

I beg to differ from you. IMO the most significant, by far, period of entanglement of religion and politics was in the mid-nineteenth century with the abolition movement tightly bound to evangelical Christianity, especially Post-Millenialism. The result was the bloodbath of the Civil War. The entanglement of religion and politics in the late twentieth century did not even come remotely close that that horrific outcome. As well, one can argue that the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century temperance movement runs a distant second place from the abolition movement. The WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) which, to this very day clearly identifies with Christianity, was able to outlaw the production and consumption of all forms of alcohol in the United States.