How Did “Evangelical Christians” Become a Voting Bloc to be Manipulated for Political Power?

This essay is a lament, not an answer to my question.

I was raised and educated in a solidly evangelical context in which Christian discipleship and Scripture were taken seriously. Through the time of the “culture wars,” opposing extra-marital sex, abortion, and homosexuality eclipsed Christian commitment to integrity and compassion, justice and peace. Today even promoting sexual morality has gotten lost in the confusion of political discontent.

Please understand I am not a sexual antinomian. However, I want my life, my faith, my discipleship, and my ministry to be about Jesus not about sex. When someone gives a eulogy at my funeral, I don’t want them to say I was a tireless crusader for the causes of sexual purity. I hope they will be able to say that people recognized that I knew, loved, and followed Jesus. I hope I would be remembered as having aspired to live the prayer of Richard of Chichester (1197-1253) that was so beautifully set to music in the Godspell song Day by Day.

Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
and follow thee more nearly, day by day.
Amen.

As I have heard political commentators and candidates talking about the strategic importance of “evangelical Christians” for the 2016 US Presidential election, I do not recognize the wonderful people who shaped my faith in Christ. I do not even recognize the sometimes strident crusaders for the causes of sexual morality in the “culture wars.” In the evangelical setting in which my faith took shape, we knew that we were strangers in this world and did not think of the country as the purveyor of our religion. The church was the community for nurturing faith. We who trusted and followed Jesus all around the world in many different countries and cultures had more in common with each other than with our neighbors who shared our nationality and ethnicity if they did not share faith in Jesus. Now “evangelicals” seem angry that the nation does not promote our religion. Rather than being salt and light for the people in our broken world, “evangelicals” bemoan their powerlessness even as they advocate legislation compelling external, behavioral conformity. I am sure such sour attitudes repel people from Christianity.

I heard one political commentator define “evangelical Christians” as those who claim a personal relationship with Jesus and regard the Bible as their authoritative guide for living. By that definition, I would certainly be considered an evangelical Christian, though my political perspectives do not match the “evangelical Christian” voting bloc. I have served congregations in the “mainline” church context for over 35 years in which a personal relationship with Jesus and a life guided by the Bible is welcomed, embraced and celebrated, even by those who would not use the label “evangelical” for themselves. Indeed, what I hear about the “evangelical Christian” voting bloc gives, at best, minimal lip service to a life of relationship with Jesus guided by the Bible. At most, I hear clichés and proof-texts manipulated in support of political machinations that candidates manipulate to garner votes and amass power.

Like many others who grew up in evangelical congregations and studied in evangelical schools, who have personal relationships with Jesus and build our lives around the Bible, I am no longer comfortable identifying myself as an “evangelical,” not because I am any less committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but because the label “evangelical” has come to mean a particular voting bloc manipulated by politicians. If I am identified as an evangelical, people assume all sorts of inaccurate things about me. Being evangelical has lost the sense of proclaiming the Good News (which is the meaning of evangel and gospel) of Jesus Christ. It projects an anger and attitude totally alien to Jesus. (I know the Gospels do sometimes show Jesus’ anger, but it was anger at how sin wounds people and anger at self-righteousness in people. In the Gospels, Jesus is not angry that he doesn’t get his way.)

I am not going to propose a label as an alternative to “evangelical.” I understand that some do not want to surrender a perfectly good word to this destructive distortion; however, labels distort and confuse. What I propose is what I have been aspiring to live and teach, that all of us who have a relationship with Jesus and guide our lives by the Bible, live that out in such a winsome way that those who are spiritually hungry and wounded will be drawn to Jesus. If they are attracted to us or to our congregations, that is secondary and a means to the end of pointing them to Jesus. Of course, we who follow Jesus must all live as citizens of specific countries and societies in which we are called to participate in the name of Christ. While undoubtedly more challenging, authentic Christian faith must be able to be practiced in hostile as well as tolerant societies. To me, living my faith in Jesus doesn’t mean becoming allied with political causes which subjugate our faith, but it means bringing justice and kindness and our humble walk with God into every context in which we live. (Micah 6:8) Our brother and sister Christians may move in different political circles, and we have political disagreements, but we can do that in such a way that the primacy of our shared loyalty to Jesus is obvious to each other and to all around us.