Are evangelicals abandoning their political agenda?
June 8th, 2008 | 
It’s a hard time to be a conservative evangelical, I imagine. Up until now, the objective has always been clear: as a Christian, the battles in politics are to be waged against abortion and gay rights/marriage. Yet it’s becoming difficult to hear the cries of “It’s a child, not a choice!” and “It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!”1 amidst all of current tumult in the United States — an unpopular, drawn-out war in Iraq, the spiraling economy, skyrocketing gas prices and unemployment rates,2 global climate change, and so on.3
In other words, the non-abortion and non-gay-rights issues have now become the elephant in the room for evangelicals. So what to do? One choice is to rally the troops and become even more vocal and politically active in pushing the agenda. More lobbying, more outspoken leaders, whatever. Another choice is to step back, to understand the complexity of things, and to embrace the other issues.
And that’s exactly what’s happening.
A recent article in the Seattle Times called Young, evangelical… for Obama? discusses this trend within the context of the current presidential campaign.
“Polls have shown,” the article notes, “that young Christians aren’t any less concerned about the ‘family values’ issues that have traditionally driven [evangelical] Christians to the Republican camp… It’s just that they’re also concerned about issues such as social justice and immigration, issues traditionally associated with Democrats.”
Perhaps it’s getting harder to hear the rally cries because John McCain is a stupendously weak GOP candidate who doesn’t really push the traditional evangelical agenda. Or perhaps it’s because Barack Obama is really the uniter who he has promised to be, erasing generations-old lines in the sand.
Either way, the evangelical agenda of old doesn’t carry the same weight as it used to. The reign of the Religious Right is coming to an end, and young evangelicals are thinking for themselves. And when that happens, politics begin to look a little more messy than the easy-solution, tried-and-true dichotomies would have you believe.
From the same article in the Seattle Times, Andy Crouch, editor of Christianity Today, says,
“This could turn out to be the election where both parties realize that the evangelical vote is so hopelessly split down the middle that it’s not worth courting them at all because what parties need are blocs that can be appealed to en masse. Paradoxically, evangelicals would become less relevant than ever before.”
Beliefnet’s God-o-Meter recently interviewed Mark DeMoss, the former chief of staff to Jerry Falwell and former chief liaison to evangelical leaders for Mitt Romney. In response to a question about Obama, DeMoss says,
“You’re seeing some movement among evangelicals as the term [evangelical] has become more pejorative. There’s a reaction among some evangelicals to swing out to the left in an effort to prove that evangelicals are really not that right wing. There’s some concern that maybe Republicans haven’t done that well. And there’s this fascination with Barack Obama. So I will not be surprised if he gets one third of the evangelical vote. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 40-percent.”
While I agree that Obama will get a large amount of votes from evangelicals in November — I can’t wait for the media to beat it to death — I disagree with DeMoss about why some evangelicals are shedding their right-wing skin; I don’t think it’s reactionary. What is the rationale for “swing[ing] out to the left in an effort to prove that evangelicals are really not that right-wing?” Evangelicals have never had a problem being right-wing, why change now? Because it’s not as popular to be conservative as it used to be? Not likely.
What’s more likely is that a new generation of evangelicals are confronting the reality of the situation we find ourselves in, and realizing that we’re not getting out of this mess by magically ending abortion or forestalling gay rights. It’s just not that simple.
- Simple moral dichotomies make life so easy, don’t they? ↩
- Job Losses and Oil Surge Spread Economic Gloom. New York Times, 06/07/08. ↩
- Image: Jesus Army Rally - Clapham Common, London courtesy of cromacom. ↩
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There have been evangelicals within the Democratic party for years. This is nothing new. The problem is when the Democratic party no longer represented them.
My hope is those evangelicals will take the opportunity to be salt and light in the Democratic party. In 2006, many of the freshman Democratic congress members voted in are pro-life.
For me abortion is a big deal because I see it as murder. The unborn do not have a voice. I’m against gay marriage and have a plethora of reasons for having that position that I won’t list here, but I will also say that if all homosexuals see of evangelicals is protest it is difficult to reach out to them.
We do need to be concerned about the poor. There are justice issues that need to be addressed, and conservatives are concerned about those too. I’m conservative, and I am heavily involved in justice issues. I just don’t think the answers will ultimately come from Government.
Regarding the War on Terror - Christians are divided on this issue. This is nothing new. What constitutes a just war? When Jesus teaches about being a peacemaker is He referring to individuals or nation-states? Does that mean we can’t defend ourselves?
I think we see ebb and flow with these things, but again not a new phenomenon. Jimmy Carter had much evangelical support as well.
Perhaps this generation of Evangelicals have discovered that believing in the Bible and engaging your brain are not mutually exclusive concepts. As Baptist theologian and self-proclaimed Evangelical, Tony Campolo, is fond of saying, “There are over 2,000 verses in Scripture that address the need to care for the poor, and only a dozen that address homosexuality.” Hopefully young Evangelicals will discover a way to not REDUCE the focus on their “core beliefs” (gay marriage, abortion, et al), but INCREASE their focus on other equally valid Christian issues (poverty, discipleship, et al).
Good post, Jake.
Shane: Can you clarify? When you say that you hope “evangelicals will take the opportunity to be salt and light in the Democratic party” do you mean your hope is that they will lobby for pro-life legislation? Do you think that abortion issues can be “answered” via government but “justice issues” can not? I’m not trying to be snarky here, just want to get your view.
I agree that political sentiment ebbs and flows, but I believe that what we’re seeing happen among evangelicals — especially young evangelicals — is unprecedented.
Erik: Yes, I think a healthy balance of core beliefs with “other” issues would be reasonable.
I’m not so sure that “young evangelicals” have the same agenda as the “religious right” did. I think issues such as the environment, energy (related to environment), and the economy are far more scary to “young evangelicals” than living next door to “Adam and Steve”. Unfortunately, “young evangelicals” have grown up in an era where media (TV, movies, etc) portray homosexuality as something normal. They have made their peace with how to deal with these people. But, they are scared that their children will not have the same “blessed” or “healthy” earth that they do.
In addition, why should evangelicals vote for a Republican or democrat? If enough evangelicals refused to do it, and instead voted for third party candidates, the two major parties would be forced to change their agendas.