Reflections on Ten Big Issues in the American Evangelical World

1. Theory and Praxis: there exists a profound disconnect between the Evangelical theoretical understanding of the Christian faith, and the christological praxis of the faith or the call for followers of Christ to actively engage in the everyday reality (and mess) of the human experience (i.e., the existential struggles and traumas of the people in need). In this sense, American Evangelicalism has become a type of social problem, not the solution to the social problems in the culture.

2. Grace and empathy: Christian grace and empathy have become a rare thing to find in the Evangelical practice, especially concerning the existential problems of human pain and suffering in contemporary societies. As a practice, the Evangelical grace has been compartmentalized discriminatorily to respond to the needs of a selected few in society. Empathy has also become a preferential option expressed and demonstrated toward a selected group. The problem of grace and empathy could be particularly observed in the Evangelical reaction and response to the problem of mass incarceration, immigration debates, police brutality, food scarcity, the Israelite-Palestinian conflict, as well as in the American government’s response to the Russian-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war.

3. Caring for the poor and the homeless: the biblical call to care for the poor and the homeless is a quality that is not inherent in today’s Evangelical faith and practice. Acts of kindness and charity toward the marginalized and the economically-disavantaged groups are often done and associated with certain seasons and holidays of the year ( Christmas, Thanksgiving, short-term mission trips to foreign countries). In other words, caring for the poor and the homeless is not a way of life in American Evangelical Christianity, and unfortunately, in many Evangelical circles, it is sometimes associated with socialism. 

4. The sanctity of life:  in American Evangelicalism, the concept of the sanctity of life is deeply connected to political decisions and legislations. It has become a political vote and an association with a political party. Life is deemed sacred because it could be secured through the process of political and judicial legality.  

Also, the biblical mandate to preserve and defend life has been reduced to a particular 

 phase of the human development and a monolithic view of the human life: the stage of the unborn. It’s not carried through the whole life of the individual after birth.  

5. Religious freedom: in the Evangelical mindset, religious freedom is connected directly to the rights and freedom of American Christians to practice their faith freely, openly, and without any restraints. Evangelicals defend and guarantee such rights and liberties for American Christians only; they are often silent on the struggle of other religious faiths and non-christian groups to have these same rights applied and guaranteed to them in society.

Evangelicals have become dependent on the state to make (and maintain) the practice of religion a freedom and a right, and the practice of freedom and rights a religious association, correspondingly. 

6. Politics: in various American Evangelical circles, politics has become a partisan phenomenon that is based on a selective-value system or theory that is often short of a thorough moral assessment of political leadership and actions. This particular reaction to contemporary politics has become an accepted practice in contemporary American Evangelicalism, what we might call the demoralization of American politics. There is no moral compass deployed to assessing the value-system and ethical worldview of a political leader associated with the political party often aligned with American Evangelicals. Within this framework, it could be said that American Evangelical values and worldview when it comes to matters of legislations, and political leadership and actions are not universally shared with global (other) Christians elsewhere.

7. War and freedom: there’s an obsession with the culture of war that it is deeply ingrained in the Evangelical mind and commitment to the American state. American Evangelicals generally support the American government’s decision to go to war because the Christian faith has been taken captive by the government. The idea is that the survival and continuous maintenance of the Christian faith in the American society is dependent upon the preservation and the defense of American democracy and freedom within and in the world. Hence, Evangelicals not only support the American government’s decision to go to war because of the fear of losing national sovereignty; the matter also pertains to the Evangelical obsession in spreading  the American gospel of democracy and freedom in the world.  Hence, Evangelicals gave pledged its undivided allegiance to the state because they see the government as its ally, meaning it’s the guardian of Christian liberty and the American state as the advocate of Christianity in society. 

8. Peace-building and peace-making: in the same line of thought with the previous thesis, American Evangelicals understand peace-making or peace-building in the most political sense.  The project of Christian peace-making is often construed as the goal of the American government. American Evangelicals believe that genuine societal peace is intrinsically dependent upon the government’s decisions and interventions. To put it another way, the project of Christian peace-building is intertwined with the American Christian nationalist ideology. This is the antithesis of Jesus’ declaration to his followers to “become peacemakers” in the world. From a christological point of view, peace-making or peace-building is an intentional decision and a deliberate practice of children of God. It is the sons and daughters of God who are the peacemakers in the world, and it is this community of peace that is mandated to propagate and practice peace in society. The state is not inherently a practitioner, a doer, or a builder of peace in the world.

9. Justice and Fairness: justice in Evangelical circles does not necessarily mean transformative justice and holistic justice for all people and for those who might be culturally  and ethnically different. Because of the close association with American Evangelicalism and Christian nationalism, not only justice as a concept is associated with the task of the American government; many Evangelicals have blindly subscribed to a definition of justice, as defined politically by the state or the American government. In other words, the biblical concept of justice (rooted in the ethical character of God) and the Christian call to practice justice (grounded in God’s moral attributes) have become subservient to the legal practice and judicial sense of justice, which is often flawed, partial, and non-transformative.  

In the biblical narrative, justice is not only an essential attribute of God. It is the fundamental rule or moral compass that God deploys to govern the world and assess morally the decisions and affairs of world governments and the global populations. Divine mercy is often associated with divine mercy, and justice is said to be one of the most visible markers of the people of God in the world. 

10. Theory of the Good life: the concept of the good life in American Evangelicalism is measured by American exceptionalism and triumphalism in the world, as well as the idea of Western democracy and freedom as a global phenomenon. American exceptionalism and Western concept of democracy and freedom challenge the biblical understanding of Christian liberty and “freedom in Christ;” they also contradict the biblical virtues and the call to pursue (and practice) humility, hospitality, global peace, reconciliation, harmony, servant leadership, and not to regard oneself far more superior than another individual. This theory of the good life also promotes the doctrine of the (cultural) superiority of nations and the (cultural) inferiority of other nations.

The christological definition of the good life lies in the imitation of Christ’s character, that is to be a servant to others and to promote human dignity and preserve the sanctify of life.