Evangelicalism is having an identity crisis. Reactionary Evangelicalism is taking advantage of that.
To many insiders in the modern day, Evangelicalism is a last bastion of freedom and faithfulness, under attack on all sides by forces both spiritual and physical. They see themselves as a derided and suffering majority who for too long have endured the slings and arrows of enemies ranging from socialists and feminists to a “globalist Cabal” and the devil himself.
To countless faithful insiders, America was fundamentally at its origin a Protestant Christian nation, whose laws derive from the Bible itself and whose destiny is divinely decreed – and perhaps even of cosmic importance in the End Times.
The rising tide of Christian Nationalism exists in both the pulpit and the voting booth. Hansel Orzame, founding pastor of Ekklesia: The UNWOKE Church, closes his sermon, titled Are We A Christian Nation? with a prayer. He leads his congregation in holding their hands over their hearts, “like when you do the pledge of allegiance.”
“Let us be encouraged…that you are the Lord that caused the people to leave Europe, to come here and take a stand against tyranny and establish a government, establish laws of the land that are based on your eternal word.” He prays, “And so Holy Spirit I thank you for encouraging us today because we will see the Promised Land…and we’re standing on it right now.”
On this Sunday, a man wearing a t-shirt from Alex Jones’ infamous media outlet and disinformation machine, InfoWars, collects the tithe in a cloth basket. For Orzame’s part, he is wearing a shirt that boldly declares “Make California Gold Again” – the name of a “grassroots movement” founded by Californian Sarah Stephens, that seeks to “redeem every aspect of the state – spiritually, financially, educationally, socially…” What “redemption” entails is left to the reader, but pictures of Stephens posing for pictures with QAnon supporters or attending anti-trans rallies form a frighteningly clear picture.
“We’re gonna press the attack,” Hansel says in his sermon, “because we are not stopping until this land is the kingdom of God.”
To others, Evangelicalism is a flawed but positive movement that has slowly gone astray. And yet, hope is not lost – what began as a movement to bridge the divides between sectarian Protestant denominations still holds the now-bittersweet promise of what it once hoped – presenting a Church that works together across doctrinal divides on behalf of those Jesus would have served.
“The efforts spent on defending our turf in the culture wars could be better served on loving our neighbor as ourselves.” Biola Univeristy’s Allen Yeh writes in Still Evangelical? Ten Insiders Reconsider Political, Social, and Theological Meaning.
Likewise, Russel Moore – former President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Church – writes in his book Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America, “We have arrived at the point at which, for many people who name the name of Jesus Christ, Christlikeness is compromise. How did this happen?”
Moore adds elsewhere in the book, “Christian nationalisms and civil religions are a kind of Great Commission in reverse, in which the nations seek to make disciples of themselves, using the authority of Jesus to baptize their national identity in the name of the blood and of the soil and of the political order.”
What Is Reactionary Evangelicalism?
These Evangelicalisms are but two differing visions of how to see the religious movement in the modern day. What of the countless conceptions of the church, from the First Great Awakening in America’s colonies to today?
Is Evangelicalism a subculture, like that experienced by the countless suburban youth group kids of the 90s and the 00s, who grew up reading Left Behind: The Kids, listening to Relient K, and attending Cornerstone Music Festival? Is it a theological statement of unifying belief? A voting block? An audience to market to? Megachurches and televangelists, or intentional communities and church plants?
It is all of these things at once.
Whatever it means to one person or another, it cannot be denied that the development of Evangelicalism in America has been heavily influenced by the forces of capital, by issues of class, and the shifting beliefs of countless adherents who have built it from their wants, needs, and sometimes, prejudices.
Evangelicalisn’t focuses on one particular form of American Evangelicalism – that expression which has come to almost monopolize the public perception of Evangelical religion. We will refer to this as Reactionary Evangelicalism, both for the reactionary nature of its politics and doctrines, and for the political affiliations of those who most often adhere to it.
David Bebbington’s famous quadrilateral describes the unifying core of traditional Evangelical thought as Biblicism, Crucicentrism, Conversionism, and Activism; Reactionary Evangelicalism is defined by a quintet of anti-intellectualism, apocalypticism, supremacism, conspiracism, and authoritarianism.
Reactionary Evangelicalism is religious belief – specifically American Protestant Evangelical Christianity, in this case – that has been bent to the purpose of justifying capitalism and defending established hierarchies of power.
The emergence of some of these malignancies has its roots in the action of many men over several hundred years – some by a conscious effort to reshape Christianity to their ends, and others by well-intentioned yet shortsighted sincere believers. Likewise, other roots of the current crisis find themselves in the realm of the theological, in doctrines that have created damaging and even deadly beliefs or outcomes.
At the same time, many who would have been resistors within the movement have instead become disenfranchised, burnt out, or alienated by its increasing concern with maintaining its own ideological borders, covering up or excusing abuses, and house-of-cards theology. Many were cast out; many others excused themselves. Of those who left, a great number of them were often among Evangelicalism’s most devoted followers, whose own faith or desire for intellectual depth led them to ask questions they shouldn’t, or challenge dogma that is off-limits to challenge. These individuals are in no way at fault for Reactionary Evangelicalism’s rise – the truly faithful have often been among its first victims.
In lieu of a strong or unified Evangelical conviction that could resist it or leadership who could meaningfully rebuke it, Reactionary Evangelicalism has laid claim to the whole of the movement.
The Headless Horseman of the Apocalypse
There is no one man pulling levers behind the curtain, and Evangelicalism could never be so easy to steer – as a movement it lacks the hierarchical spiritual authority one sees in the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Churches.
There are denominations with individual power structures – one might imagine the Southern Baptist Convention – and in the same way, there are prominent pastors who command outsize influence by way of Christian book publishing, radio, and the internet. But even so, even those who rise to prominence are unable to steer the movement – in most cases, they are simply those who have fitted themselves to the populist demands of their congregants and shown a particular skill at navigating the power dynamics and social mores of Evangelical culture.
Evangelical lacks structure or accountability; the only judge is the mob. A megachurch pastor, a denominational leader, a conservative political candidate, and the author of Zondervan’s next bestseller might all wield equal influence over the Evangelical thought space. Stars rise and fall as they prove their usefulness or step too far outside the carefully-guarded intellectual boundaries of the ever-watchful congregation. Consumers set the doctrine and give the marching orders, while what hits store shelves, plays on the radio, solicits tithes, and grants political clout shape them.
Evangelicalism has become a headless horseman of the apocalypse, kicking its stirrups to race full speed ahead to a long-awaited and ever-imminent Rapture or societal and ecological collapse, whichever comes first.
We must understand how this all came to be if anything can done about it, from within or without. Time is of the essence – not because Jesus is about to come back at any minute, but because it might be soon that the reactionary evangelicals in the pews decide to turn their vision of transforming America into the Kingdom of God from rhetoric in the sanctuary to blood in the streets and an iron fist in the halls of power.