The rise of Donald Trump has caused Christians of all varieties to question their conservative bona fides. There are many reasons conservatives have chosen Donald Trump. Some have chosen the real estate mogul as the most suited to destroy the Washington machine. Some support the former Apprentice host as the voice of anger for those silenced by the mainstream media and the establishment GOP. Others find his open hostility to illegal immigration his most redeeming value. But while conservatives may have a few reason for voting for the Donald, conservative Christians, in particular, are having a more difficult time. After all, these conservative evangelicals are contemplating voting for someone who believes in God but has not sought God’s forgiveness. In Trump’s world, that is not a contradiction, and for some evangelicals, the contradiction is an acceptable compromise.a
The result has been unnerving for many evangelicals who are generally on the side of Ted Cruz; a conservative Southern Baptist from Texas, who speaks the evangelical language with extreme ease. They cannot fathom why conservative Christians have endorsed someone who does not understand the most fundamental of evangelical commitments.
Some evangelical leaders have embraced Donald Trump enthusiastically. Consider the very conservative Southern Baptist, Robert Jeffress, who endorsed Trump and referred to the Republican front-runner as a “great Christian.” Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. praised Donald as “a successful executive and entrepreneur, a wonderful father and a man who I believe can lead our country to greatness again.”
Many are confused by the fascination of these leaders for a thrice-married man, a known profiteer from immoral businesses, and someone who continually praises Planned Parenthood.
Russell Moore Contra “Evangelical”
In a recent Washington Post Op-ed entitled “Why this election makes me hate the word ‘evangelical,’” Russell Moore openly expressed his disdain for the word “evangelical.” The argument is not based on an exegetical discussion, but rather on the association of the term in our politically immersed culture. According to Moore,
Part of the problem is that more secular people have for a long time misunderstood the meaning of “evangelical,” seeing us almost exclusively in terms of election-year voting blocs or our most buffoonish television personalities. That’s especially true when media don’t distinguish in election exit polls between churchgoers and those who merely self-identify as “born again” or “evangelical.”
Many of those who tell pollsters they are “evangelical” may well be drunk right now, and haven’t been into a church since someone invited them to Vacation Bible School sometime back when Seinfeld was in first-run episodes.
Moore goes on to imply–though he does not mention his name–that Donald Trump’s popularity in this election cycle has coerced evangelical leaders to adopt a broadly and undefined term that can refer to anything from “job creation to fighting ISIS.” Moore opines further that modern evangelicals are no longer concerned with the evangelical gospel of “repentance from sin and personal trust in Jesus Christ.” Even more precisely Moore explains:
We have been too willing to look the other way when the word “evangelical” has been co-opted by heretics and lunatics. This sort could deny creedal Christianity and gospel clarity with impunity, as long as they were on the right side of the culture war.
In the end, Moore does not wish to abandon the term altogether, but concludes,
But you will forgive me if, at least until this crazy campaign year is over, I choose just to say that I’m a gospel Christian. When this fevered moment is over, we will need to make “evangelical” great again.
Answering Moore
While I find myself in general agreement with Moore I do not believe we can abandon the term, even in the midst of the lunacy of this campaign season. I understand the frustration, the fury, and the ferocious opposition many evangelicals have towards a Trump presidency. At the same time, the term evangelical cannot be lost, it must be restored to its rightful place. The term evangelical requires a broader understanding than what Moore proposes. I concur with Moore that a) the term has been diluted in the political arena, b) repentance cannot be absent in any discussion of the term, and c) the term has lost its Gospel emphasis made clear by the Reformer Martin Luther. But all these proposals, which I share, have one element in common: it speaks of the evangelical theology as a distinctly individualistic notion. Moore is advocating much more with his hatred for the term. He is taking the particular flavor he dislikes in the term’s modern use and specifying a solitary, salvific, and soul searching evangelical theology that places politics aside, and proposes an apolitical evangel.
Moore’s evangelicalism avoids the broadness of the ugly political entanglement but forgets the broadness of Jesus’ political rule. And at this point, Moore does a great disservice. His entire sentiment stems from a misguided and myopic understanding of the evangel. The Gospel in its most evangelical sense calls good- good and evil- evil not just in relation to individual morality, but in relation to Jesus’ claim to the whole world. The evangel affirms, as Moore does, the cardinal truths of the Christian Gospel, but it also applies those truths to the entire cosmos. After all, Jesus was not given merely individual souls to care for, but all authority and power in heaven above and earth below.
We do not need to despise the term evangelical in light of its misuse, but we need to redeem it in order that we might use it aright. This campaign is”crazy,” as Moore declares. But the insanity of the campaign should lead us to restore the evangel to its rightful place. The Gospel turns the world upside-down. Let’s make evangelical great again by affirming the soul-crushing power of the crucified Son and the empire of the resurrected King Jesus on earth as it is in heaven. That’s the evangel. Anything less needs to be trumped.
- While the passion for a Trump candidacy seems to be on the rise, a vast majority of Conservative voices on the right and liberal voices on the left have found a surprising common ground: #nevertrump. (back)
creation, culture, Easter, Ethics, Martin Luther, Orthodoxy, Politics, Resurrection, Sin, Theology, Worship
