Evangelicals in today’s America

In the wake of Donald Trump’s dramatic political comeback and return to the White House, it’s hard not to notice a “vibe” shift in the country. Tech CEOs, once fearful of an alliance with Republicans, have marched down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump. Democrats, who once called him an enemy of democracy, now signal a new openness to working with him. Others are decrying the identity politics of the left as an electoral albatross. Some of this is expected in the wake of a popular vote victory.

One stubborn shibboleth that deserves to die is the tortured thesis that demonizes evangelicals for voting Republican and blames this preference on darker notions of white supremacy. This is a hard argument to make when you observe the multiracial makeup of Trump’s electoral coalition. He won an astonishing 45% of Hispanic voters. He won the Hispanic male vote after losing them by 23 percentage points in 2020, and he improved his number among Hispanic women by 14 points. One heavily Latino district in Texas hasn’t gone Republican since 1896 flipped red. Among black voters, long a staple of the Democratic base, Trump drew numbers in swing states that Republicans haven’t seen in several generations. He also won a majority of Native Americans and made gains with Arab Americans and Asian Americans.

NBC analyst Chuck Todd, not exactly a right-wing pundit, declared of Trump, “He’s put together the multiethnic working-class coalition, and it’s a majority of the country, it’s over 50 percent.” It turns out voters of all ethnic backgrounds rejected inflationary economic policies, radical transgender policies, and an out-of-control border.

However, this reality conflicts with the persistent narrative churned out by the anti-evangelical industrial complex. Consider Kristin Du Mez, author of the bestselling jeremiad Jesus and John Wayne, who warns darkly that the new administration “will embolden and empower the White Christian nationalist movement.” She asserts, “In all likelihood, it will institutionalize White Christian nationalism.” She goes on to offer, as proof of this new apocalypse, conservative attempts to adopt school choice legislation, a policy position favored by 74% of African Americans and 71% of Hispanics.

Du Mez’s sentiments are not unique. Though progressive Christians are statistically more political, many voices have loudly insisted that when conservative Christians bring their faith to the public square, it is an illegitimate power grab, a descent into idolatry, and a loss of mission. What’s more, for nearly a decade, even some evangelical leaders have advanced the slanderous charge that churchgoing evangelicals are inherently bigoted, racist, and antidemocratic. Books such as White Too Long by Robert P. Jones or The False White Gospel by Jim Wallis insist that the average, churchgoing evangelical family who votes red is a menace to their fellow Americans.

Do politically active evangelicals have charlatans, idolaters, and cranks in their midst? Do some take the name of Jesus in vain in their political activity? Yes, like every cohort in human history, there are bad-faith actors and eccentric characters. Christians shouldn’t be afraid to hear criticism. Every generation needs sober voices warning the faithful. But the cottage industry of contempt that snickers at the saints is often more performative than prophetic. Genuine prophets speak to their own people with tears, not taunts.

And this last election proves that many of the tired narratives about politically active evangelicals are stale and untrue. A multiracial, multifaith coalition rejected progressive identity politics.

Far from being dangerous, patriotic Christians are essential to the American project of ordered liberty. Some of America’s best leaders understood this. Listen to George Washington’s words in his farewell address, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. … And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” Presidents from John Adams to Harry Truman, from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan affirmed this.

Conservative Christians should engage with humility and purpose, understanding that this nation is the place where God has called us to do a limited amount of good work in a fallen world. We engage because we love our neighbors. We seek the welfare of our cities. We steward the rare gift of citizenship. Does the arena of politics provide unique temptations and pitfalls? Yes. This is why we need the regular rhythms of church life, Scripture, and prayer.

But hopefully, the 2024 election will lead to a “vibe shift” from the tired, anti-evangelical jeremiads written by those who sell cheap cynicism to willing listeners. Let’s be less eager to cast aspersions on brothers and sisters in Christ for their political activity and be more willing “to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).