I happened to run across this article in WaPo by Michael Gerson, calling out a recent joint statement authored by, among others, the conservative (or so Gerson says) pastor John MacArthur for betraying the legacy of the Evangelical movement. Recognizing the necessary shallowness of a mere newspaper article, I still found this bit from Gerson to be interesting, if dismaying:
Second, there is a matter of history. Elsewhere, MacArthur complains that evangelicals have a “newfound obsession” with social justice. This could be claimed only by someone who knows nothing of the evangelical story. During the 19th century, Northern evangelicalism was generally viewed as inseparable from social activism. Evangelist Charles Finney insisted that “the loss of interest in benevolent enterprises” was usually evidence of a “backslidden heart.” Among these enterprises, Finney listed good government, temperance reform, the abolition of slavery and relief for the poor. “The Gospel,” preached abolitionist Gilbert Haven in 1863, “is not confined to a repentance and faith that have no connection with social or civil duties. The Evangel of Christ is an all-embracing theme.” …
The MacArthur statement is designed to support not a gospel truth but a social myth. The United States, the myth goes, used to have systematic discrimination, but that ended with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Racism is now purely an individual issue, for which the good people should not be blamed. This narrative has nothing to do with true religion. It has everything to do with ignorant self-satisfaction.
I know very little about the Evangelical movement prior to, say, when Jerry Falwell, Sr, became a prominent and self-righteous leader in the Southern Baptists, and even since then my knowledge is still fairly shallow. However, it’s not difficult to pinpoint the most important issue for the conservative elements of the Evangelicals as being abortion.
Speaking of which, on a recent visit to extended family I had the opportunity to overhear a conversation – no, a venting – of a member who is probably evangelical, but positively appalled at her fellow church-goers. The surface issue is their voting and support for Trump, but the deeper issue was the use of abortion as the single issue on which they judged candidates for office, and how. To their mind, it is a signal error on their part to cast their votes on that single issue, as if nothing else matters. I was not part of the conversation, but I do agree.
Source: Gallup
As anyone who pays attention national matters is aware, abortion is considered a considerable evil by a sizable minority of the American populace, and I’ve come around to the point of view that this obsession over one issue, an issue of debatable religious as well as secular (or utilitarian) result, is tormenting the Evangelical movement in its conservative pole into something unworthy of respect. Of course, this may be laid partially on the leaders of the movement, as the constituents of the movement certainly look to them for knowledge and leadership. However, people are not sheep, and should not act like such, because in so doing we are wasting our potential to be truly autonomous moral agents. Why is this awful? Think of all unjust wars of aggression, from the Nazis to the United States war on the American Indian, all of which require the actions of the followers to discard their moral systems, or fail to acquire them, and engage in slaughter and even genocide.
And thus the followers, as well as the Evangelical leaders, are responsible for the injustices they perpetrate in pursuit of their dubious goal.
How many are self-aware enough to realize how far they’ve strayed from the path laid down by their admirable predecessors, led by this devil’s issue? That’s the question that preys on my mind.
