American Evangelicals in the Age of Trump

Home , Christianity Today, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Franklin Graham, Jim Wallis, Nashville Statement

Bucknell University Bucknell Digital Commons

Faculty Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship

10-2019

Making Evangelicals Great Again? American Evangelicals in the Age of Trump

Brantley W. Gasaway Bucknell University, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/fac_journ

Part of the American Politics Commons, American Studies Commons, and the Religion Commons

Recommended Citation Gasaway, Brantley W.. "Making Evangelicals Great Again? American Evangelicals in the Age of Trump." Evangelical Review of Theology: A Global Forum (2019) : 293-311.

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Bucknell Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Bucknell Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Evangelical Review of Theology A Global Forum

Volume 43 • Number 4 • October 2019

See back cover for Table of Contents

Published by ERT (2019) 43:4, 293-311 Making Evangelicals Great Again? American Evangelicals in the Age of Trump

Brantley W. Gasaway

In contemporary American political As a result, conservative evangeli- culture, many people regard evan- cals and Religious Right leaders have gelicals as essential constituents of dominated the attention of the me- the Religious Right and assume that dia, politicians, and general public. religious conservatism necessitates In turn, ‘there’s a lot of perceptions political conservatism. These stereo- that the term evangelicals means types are understandable. In recent “Christians who vote Republican”’, decades, a growing and now over- reported David Kinnaman, president whelming majority of white evangeli- of the evangelical polling firm Barna cals have aligned themselves with the Group.2 Republican Party and conservative Yet such impressions fail to capture political ideology. According to exit the nuance and diversity of American polls, 70 to 81 percent of white evan- evangelicals’ political engagement. gelicals have voted for Republican Not only do they virtually ignore candidates in presidential and mid- non-white evangelicals, but they also term elections since 2004. 1 overlook the small but vigorous faction of politically progressive evangelicals—an evangelical left, so to 1 Danielle Kurtzleben, ‘Are You an Evan- speak—who have both challenged gelical? Are You Sure?’ National Public Ra- the conservative majority of white dio, December 19, 2015, https://www.npr. evangelicals and tried to change the org/2015/12/19/458058251/are-you-an- popular perception of evangelicals. evangelical-are-you-sure; Jessica Martinez When they have felt unable to ignore and Gregory A. Smith, ‘How the Faith Voted: A Preliminary 2016 Analysis’, Pew Research this progressive evangelical minor- Center, 9 November 2016, https://www. ity, Religious Right leaders have used pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/ various strategies to dismiss or dis- how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary- 2016-analysis/; Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac and Gregory A. Smith, ‘How Reli- tank/2018/11/07/how-religious-groups- gious Groups Voted in the Midterm Elec- voted-in-the-midterm-elections/. tions’, Pew Research Center, 7 November 2 Kurtzleben, ‘Are You an Evangelical? Are 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact- You Sure?’

Brantley W. Gasaway (PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is Chair and Associate Profes- sor in the Department of Religious Studies at Bucknell University. He is author of Progressive Evan- gelicals and the Pursuit of Social Justice (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), which examined the political theology and historical activism of the contemporary progressive evangelical movement. 294 Brantley W. Gasaway credit their positions. But an incident $2,500.3 in April 2018 was probably the first Although Claiborne insisted that time that the threat of arrest became his request was sincere, he should a tactic. not have been surprised that Falwell Shane Claiborne, a prominent pro- treated it as disingenuous. Claiborne gressive evangelical activist and co- and his fellow progressive evangeli- founder of a group called Red Letter cals had specifically chosen Lynch- Christians, had sent a letter to Jerry burg as their site to protest the sup- Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty port for Trump expressed by Falwell and other Religious Right leaders. University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Claiborne had labelled this type of Founded by the late Jerry Falwell Christianity as ‘toxic evangelicalism’, Sr., a televangelist who galvanized and the Red Letter Christians adver- the rise of the Religious Right in the tised their Lynchburg revival as an 1970s, Liberty University has always alternative to ‘the distorted Christian presented itself as a bastion of reli- nationalism that many white evan- gious and political conservatism. In gelical leaders have become known recent years, Falwell Jr. has become for’. Thus Falwell had good reason one of President Trump’s most ardent to regard the Lynchburg revival as a evangelical supporters. He was the thinly veiled attack on the theology first Religious Right leader to endorse and politics of conservative evangeli- Trump during the Republican prima- cals like him.4 ries, and he regularly appears in the The organizers of the two-day Re- media to defend the president against vival of Jesus and Justice succeeded in critics. capturing the media’s attention, giv- Claiborne wrote to Falwell as he ing them an opportunity to highlight was planning to come to Lynchburg progressive evangelicals’ distinc- tive political theology and agenda. in early April 2018 for an event that Speakers and workshops addressed organizers were calling ‘A Revival of poverty, racial injustice, immigration Jesus and Justice’. In his letter, Clai- reform, mass incarceration, Ameri- borne asked Falwell if they could can militarism and LGBTQ justice. meet to pray together. He also asked Journalists from the New York Times, for permission to bring people from the revival onto Liberty’s campus to join students in a prayer vigil. 3 Tara Isabella Burton, ‘For Many, Christian- Instead of a direct reply from Fal- ity and Trumpism are Synonymous. These well, Claiborne received an official Evangelicals are Pushing Back’, Vox, 12 April 2018, https://www.vox.com/identi- notice from the Liberty University Po- ties/2018/4/12/17216258/lynchburg-ral- lice Department, declaring that Clai- ly-red-letter-revival-shane-claiborne-jerry- borne was restricted from all Liberty falwell-jr-liberty-university. University properties and events. If 4 Jack Jenkins, ‘Christian Group Plans “Re- he violated this restriction, the notice vival” to Protest “Toxic Evangelicalism”’, Reli- gion News Service, 8 February 2018, https:// warned, Claiborne would be arrested religionnews.com/2018/02/08/christian- for trespassing and punished by up to group-plans-revival-to-protest-liberty-u- 12 months in jail and a fine of up to and-toxic-evangelicalism/. Making Evangelicals Great Again? 295

National Public Radio, Vox and other the new administration. This article media outlets attended the Lynch- summarizes the proposals, protests, burg revival and portrayed it as the and petitions of progressive evangeli- ‘site of a battleground over the fu- cals with respect to four broad issues: ture of American evangelicalism’. racial justice, immigration, healthcare For progressive evangelicals, one re- and economic policies. On the whole, porter summarized, ‘the evangelical the current political context has ex- establishment’s embrace of Trump- acerbated a long-simmering iden- ism—unbridled capitalism, xeno- tity crisis among progressive evan- phobic nativism, and a willingness to gelicals, as they measure the costs of engage with white supremacy—goes identifying with a religious tradition against everything Jesus stands for.’ and label that has become popularly Thus the Lynchburg revival was part associated with white Christian sup- of progressive evangelical leaders’ porters of Donald Trump. persistent efforts to counter the par- Progressive evangelicals have not tisan politics of the Religious Right been the only ones troubled by Trump and, during the current presidential and the ways in which most white administration, to debunk popular evangelicals have embraced him. This perceptions of evangelicals as faithful article highlights how a small but vo- followers of Donald Trump.5 cal number of more moderate and This article describes the ways in conservative evangelical leaders have which the politically progressive mi- taken various political positions that nority of US evangelicals have reacted align with the goals of progressive both to President Trump’s adminis- evangelicals. Not least, a fair number tration and to most white evangeli- of these other anti-Trump evangelicals’ remarkable support of Trump cals have also questioned the value of himself. Not surprisingly, progressive continuing to identify as ‘evangelical’ evangelicals vociferously opposed in the current climate of American Trump’s candidacy and tried to dis- politics. suade other evangelicals from voting This mutual disillusionment and from him. In the wake of his election, the presence of partially overlap- leaders of the evangelical left mobi- ping political concerns could serve lized to protect the people and poli- as a common ground enabling pro- cies that seemed most threatened by gressive and other anti-Trump evangelicals to co-operate in countering pro-Trump evangelical conservatives. 5 Burton, ‘For Many, Christianity and Trump- However, the persistence of conflict- ism are Synonymous’; Laurie Goodstein, ing approaches to abortion and same- ‘Anti-Trump Evangelicals Confront Their sex marriage, as well as their partici- Brethren’, New York Times, 23 May 2018, htt- pation in different religious networks, ps://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/us/ diminishes the likelihood of such a anti-trump-evangelicals-lynchburg.html; Sa- partnership. I conclude this article rah McCammon, ‘“Lynchburg Revival” Activ- with reflections upon progressive ists Warn of Rising “Christian Nationalism”’, National Public Radio, 7 April 2018, https:// evangelicals’ perennial efforts to ‘re- www.npr.org/2018/04/07/600565196/ claim’ the evangelical tradition in the lynchburg-revival-activists-warn-of-rising- US from its association with political christian-nationalism. conservatism. 296 Brantley W. Gasaway

I. The Contemporary movement and established it as a rec- Progressive Evangelical ognizable minority within evangelical circles.6 Movement At the end of the 1970s, however, Contemporary progressive evangeli- the newly emergent Religious Right calism emerged as a reform move- captured the public’s attention and ment within the larger network of pushed most evangelicals to support modern evangelicalism in the United conservative political causes and States. In the late 1960s, a small group candidates. Leaders of the Religious of disgruntled leaders began calling Right built their movement around on evangelicals to abandon narrow campaigns to oppose perceived as- religious preoccupations and apoliti- saults on America’s Christian heritage cal conservatism. Outside of strident and traditional standards of family anti-communism, most American and sexuality. Yet progressive evan- evangelicals in the mid-twentieth gelicals maintain that the Bible calls century had come to regard social and Christians to care as much about com- political action as distractions from batting poverty, ending racism, work- their primary task of evangelism. ing for peace, defending human rights They associated progressive politics and protecting the environment as with theological liberalism and the they do about abortion and same- Social Gospel, believing that only an sex marriage. As a result, progressive aggregate of spiritual and moral re- evangelicals have argued, Christians forms of individuals would alleviate should prioritize reforming injustices social problems. and inequality in their public engage- In addition, because many evan- ment.7 gelicals had embraced dispensational The evangelical left has remained premillennialism, they also believed a minority faction within evangelical that social and political activism circles over the past four decades. Yet could do little to stem the cultural its most visible and vocal representa- decline that they expected to occur tives have served as gadflies, offering before Jesus’ imminent second com- an alternative to the Religious Right ing. In contrast, pioneering progres- and developing biblical arguments to sive evangelical leaders insisted that persuade American evangelicals to the Bible calls people to care not only for people’s spiritual welfare but also for their physical and material needs. 6 Brantley W. Gasaway, Progressive Evangel- Inspired by the civil rights movement icals and the Pursuit of Social Justice (Chapel and opposition to the Vietnam War, Hill: University of North Carolina Press, they urged fellow evangelicals to take 2014); David R. Swartz, Moral Minority: The political and social action to redress Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism injustices and inequalities. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania In 1973, a group of these progres- Press, 2012); George M. Marsden, Under- standing Fundamentalism and Evangelical- sive evangelical leaders signed the ism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991). ‘Chicago Declaration of Evangeli- 7 Daniel K. Williams, God’s Own Party: The cal Social Concern’. This manifesto Making of the Christian Right (New York: Ox- marked the marked the public coales- ford University Press, 2012); Gasaway, Pro- cence of the progressive evangelical gressive Evangelicals. Making Evangelicals Great Again? 297 support progressive public policies.8 why they supported Trump.9 This analysis of the progressive Many prominent conservative evangelical movement focuses on a evangelicals such as Franklin Graham, network of prominent representa- Focus on the Family founder James tives such as Sojourners and its presi- Dobson, author and radio host Eric dent Jim Wallis; Red Letter Christians, Metaxas, Family Research Council co-founded by Shane Claiborne and president Tony Perkins, and theolo- well-known progressive evangelical gian Wayne Grudem urged Christians Tony Campolo; activists such as Lisa to overlook Trump’s history of per- Sharon Harper; and the organization sonal immorality since he pledged to Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA), appoint pro-life Supreme Court jus- led for many decades by Ron Sider tices who would also protect their re- and currently by its executive director ligious liberty in an increasingly secu- Nikki Toyama-Szeto. Collectively, the larizing culture. For evangelical laity, writings and activities of these rep- polls indicated that improving the economy and national security were resentatives serve as a lens through the most important issues determin- which to view and to interpret the ing their vote, and Trump’s campaign evangelical left’s contemporary pub- promises of economic populism, com- lic engagement. batting Islamic terrorism, immigration restrictions and border control 10 II. Evangelicals and the targeted these concerns. Many white evangelicals’ insensi- Electon of Donald Trump tivity to racial bigotry and expressed When Donald Trump won the US fears for growing racial diversity presidency in 2016, he received more within the United States made them than 80 percent of the votes cast by tolerant (and perhaps, in some white evangelicals. A complex combi- cases, supportive) of Trump’s appeals nation of factors motivated this over- whelming support for Trump. Dedi- cation to the Republican party made 9 Sarah Pulliam Bailey, ‘The Deep Disgust for Hillary Clinton That Drives So Many it likely that most white evangelicals Evangelicals to Support Trump’, Washing- would vote for its nominee over any ton Post, 9 October 2016, https://www. Democratic candidate. Hillary Clinton washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/ in particular seemed an especially un- wp/2016/10/09/the-deep-disgust-for- tenable option. Due to the distaste for hillary-clinton-that-drives-so-many-evan- her politics and personality that be- gelicals-to-support-trump/. gan during her years as First Lady in 10 Alan Noble, ‘I’m an Evangelical. The Religious Right Leaders Who Support the midst of the 1990s culture wars, Trump Don’t Speak for Me’, Vox, 24 Oc- three-quarters of evangelicals cited tober 2016, https://www.vox.com/first- dislike of Clinton as a primary reason person/2016/10/24/13361582/trump- religious-right; Myriam Renaud, ‘Myths Debunked: Why Did White Evangelical Chris- 8 Gasaway, Progressive Evangelicals; Joel A. tians Vote for Trump?’ Sightings, 19 January Carpenter, ‘Compassionate Evangelicalism’, 2017, https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sight- Christianity Today 47, no. 12 (December ings/myths-debunked-why-did-white-evan- 2003): 40–42. gelical-christians-vote-trump. 298 Brantley W. Gasaway to white identity politics. Finally, and the health of our democracy’, Trump’s slogan ‘Make America Great they declared. ‘Donald Trump directly Again’ resonated deeply with white promotes racial and religious bigotry, evangelicals’ own nostalgic view of disrespects the dignity of women, America as a Christian nation.11 harms civil public discourse, offends Progressive evangelicals worked moral decency, and seeks to manipu- in vain to prevent Donald Trump’s late religion.’12 election. In the early months of 2016, In response to media reports as it became apparent that he would showing high levels of evangelical win the Republican nomination for support for Trump, a wide range of president, the evangelical left began progressive and moderate evangeli- to denounce Trump’s candidacy. So- cal leaders issued another statement journers’ Jim Wallis and Lisa Sharon and petition on Change.org a month Harper, ESA’s Ron Sider, ethicist David before the election. In it, they argued Gushee, Shane Claiborne, and many that evangelicals could not vote for other progressive evangelicals joined Trump in good conscience, and they ecumenical leaders in April 2016 decried ‘the media’s continued iden- to issue ‘Called to Resist Bigotry— tification of “evangelical” with mostly A Statement of Faithful Obedience’. white, politically conservative, older While recognizing legitimate politi- men’. The signers concluded, ‘We cal disagreements among Christians, must respond when evangelicalism signers of this statement argued becomes dangerously identified with that Trump’s campaign had created one particular candidate whose state- ‘a moral and theological crisis’ that ments, practice, personal morality, faithful Christians from across the po- and ideology risk damaging our wit- litical spectrum should unanimously ness to the gospel before a watching condemn. ‘The ascendancy of a dema- world.’13 gogic candidate and his message, with In a final effort to persuade other the angry constituency he is fueling, is evangelicals, Ron Sider wrote an ar- a threat to both the values of our faith ticle in Christianity Today—the most prominent US evangelical magazine—in which he publicly endorsed 11 Robert P. Jones, ‘The Evangelicals and the Great Trump Hope’, New York Times, Clinton. This is ‘the most important 11 July 2016, https://www.nytimes. presidential election in my lifetime’, com/2016/07/11/opinion/campaign- the 76-year-old Sider wrote, and he stops/the-evangelicals-and-the-great- trump-hope.html; Nancy D. Wadsworth, ‘The Racial Demons That Help Explain 12 Jack Jenkins, ‘Major Faith Lead- Evangelical Support for Trump’, Vox, 20 ers Declare Trump “Racist, Bigoted, and April 2018, https://www.vox.com/the-big- Hateful”’, Think Progress, 29 April 2016, idea/2018/4/30/17301282/race-evangeli- https://thinkprogress.org/major-faith-lead- cals-trump-support-gerson-atlantic-sexism- ers-declare-trump-racist-bigoted-and-hate- segregation-south; Andrew L. Whitehead, ful-548e21a8173f/. Samuel L. Perry, and Joseph O. Baker, ‘Make 13 ‘A Declaration by American Evangelicals America Christian Again: Christian National- Concerning Donald Trump’, Change.org, 6 ism and Voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 October 2016, https://www.change.org/p/ Presidential Election’, Sociology of Religion donald-trump-a-declaration-by-american- 79, no. 2 (Summer 2018): 147–71. evangelicals-concerning-donald-trump. Making Evangelicals Great Again? 299 painted Trump as a uniquely unquali- Immediately after the 2016 elec- fied, unjust and potentially destruc- tion, progressive evangelicals de- tive candidate. As election results clared their intention to join the revealed, however, nearly all white resistance against Trump’s admin- evangelicals disagreed with him.14 istration. In Sojourners, Jim Wallis Since the 2016 election, Trump called Trump ‘the most dangerous has maintained strong support from man’ elected ‘to the White House Christian conservatives. In poll after that we have seen in our lifetimes’. poll, white evangelicals have been He urged progressive evangelicals the demographic group giving him and other anti-Trump Christians to the highest job approval ratings, with actively protect those likely to be well over 70 percent still viewing his targeted by the new administration: administration positively through undocumented immigrants, people of summer 2019. Conservative evangeli- colour, Muslims, women of all races, cals have described President Trump and LGBTQ folks. ‘One of the saddest as their protector and advocate. They aspects of the election for me’, Wallis have felt vindicated as Trump has reflected, ‘is the fact that most white fulfilled campaign promises to ap- evangelicals voted for a man whose point pro-life Supreme Court justices life has embodied the most sinful and and lower-court judges, endorsed shameful worship of money, sex, and policies to safeguard their religious power and who represents the very liberties, passed tax cuts and sus- worst of what American culture has tained a strong economy, and low- become’.16 ered immigration rates. Falwell called Evangelicals for Social Action Trump evangelicals’ ‘dream presi- expressed similar concerns. While dent’, while David Brody of the Chris- tian Broadcasting Network labelled him the ‘most evangelical-friendly wp/2017/05/04/their-dream-president- United States president ever’. In re- trump-just-gave-white-evangelicals-a-big- cent months, Religious Right leaders boost/; David Brody, ‘In Donald Trump, Evangelicals Have Found Their President’, and organizations have begun pre- New York Times, 24 February 2018, https:// paring to campaign vigorously for www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/opin- Trump’s re-election in 2020.15 ion/sunday/donald-trump-evangelicals- president.html; Tom McCarthy, ‘Faith and Freedoms: Why Evangelicals Profess Un- 14 Ron Sider, ‘Why I’m Voting for Hillary wavering Love for Trump’, The Guardian, 7 Clinton’, Christianity Today 60, no. 8 (October July 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/ 2016): 55–56. us-news/2019/jul/07/donald-trump- 15 Christina Zhao, ‘Nearly Three-Quarters evangelical-supporters; Julie Zauzmer, ‘“He of White Evangelicals Approve of Donald Gets It”: Evangelicals Aren’t Turned Off by Trump’, Newsweek, 22 July 2019, https:// Trump’s First Term’, Washington Post, 13 www.newsweek.com/nearly-three-quar- August 2019, https://www.washingtonpost. ters-white-evangelicals-approve-donald- com/politics/evangelicals-arent-turned- trump-1450610; Sarah Pulliam Bailey, off-by-trumps-first-term--theyre-delighted- ‘“Their Dream President”: Trump Just Gave by-it/2019/08/11/3911bc88-a990-11e9- White Evangelicals a Big Boost’, Wash- a3a6-ab670962db05_story.html. ington Post, 4 May 2017, https://www. 16 Jim Wallis, ‘Resistance and Healing’, So- washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/ journers 46, no. 1 (January 2017): 14–17. 300 Brantley W. Gasaway pledging to pray for Trump, Ron Sider In May 2017, Wallis responded wrote, ESA planned to challenge the directly to Falwell’s statement that unjust policies it anticipated from Trump represented evangelicals’ his administration. Not least, Sider dream president. ‘Falwell means worried that the election results a president like Trump is a dream would damage evangelicals’ reputa- for white evangelicals like him, not tion and thus their public witness. evangelicals of all races, not the Evangelicalism ‘is now publicly and wonderfully multiracial global body intimately identified with a political of Christ’ who feel astonished and campaign that denied the science of betrayed ‘that 81 percent of white global warming, tolerated and even American evangelicals voted for Don- appealed to racism, promoted lies ald Trump’, Wallis declared. He chal- (e.g. denying that President Obama lenged all other evangelicals to con- is a US citizen), demonstrated des- demn ‘the moral hypocrisy and racial picable treatment of women and em- idolatry of the white evangelicals of braced economic policies that will America’s Religious Right who fail to overwhelmingly help the very rich’, he see racism, poverty, hunger, health, lamented. ‘Increasingly, that is what the treatment of refugees and immi- “evangelical” means to large numbers grants, and a biblical commitment to of Americans. That agenda contra- social justice as gospel issues.’ While dicts biblical teaching and leads many not comprehensive, this list of issues millennials to turn away from the named by Wallis—racism, immigra- evangelical church and even to reject tion, health care and economic jus- Jesus.’17 tice—reflects the primary concerns After Trump’s inauguration, many of progressive evangelical leaders 19 prominent progressive evangelicals since Trump’s inauguration. signed a public letter to the President issued by the group Faith in Public Life. Over 800 ecumenical Christian III. Oppositon to the Trump leaders promised to pray for Trump Administraton but also warned him that, if he contin- As long-time advocates for racial jus- ued to promote division, fear and pol- tice, contemporary progressive evan- icies damaging to the vulnerable and gelical leaders have consistently con- marginalized, they would not hesitate demned the overt and covert forms to oppose him.18 of racism that they believe Trump’s

17 Ron Sider, ‘President-Elect Trump: a but/; Jack Jenkins, ‘Trump’s National Prayer Response from ESA’, Evangelicals for Social Breakfast Begins with Religious Protests’, Action, 9 November 2016, https://www. Think Progress, 2 February 2017, https:// evangelicalsforsocialaction.org/faith-and- thinkprogress.org/trumps-national-prayer- public-life/president-elect-trump-a-re- breakfast-begins-with-religious-protesters- sponse-from-esa/. 58142ecfe6ea/. 18 Kimberly Winston, ‘Christian Leaders to 19 ‘Jim Wallis Speaks Out on Jerry Falwell, Trump: We’re Praying for You, But … ’, Reli- Jr. and Donald Trump’, Sojourners, accessed gion News Service, 1 February 2017, https:// 15 August 2019, https://sojo.net/about-us/ religionnews.com/2017/02/01/christian- news/jim-wallis-speaks-out-jerry-falwell-jr- leaders-to-trump-were-praying-for-you- and-donald-trump. Making Evangelicals Great Again? 301 administration has encouraged. Just In 2018, progressive evangelicals after Trump’s inauguration, Jim Wal- predictably denounced President lis declared that Trump’s election Trump’s racist remarks describing ‘provides both a great danger and a several African nations, Haiti, and El real opportunity to finally deal with Salvador. But beyond Trump’s rheto- race in America’, and that ‘racial rec- ric, leaders have also criticized the onciliation will be an act of repent- racialized inequalities exacerbated by ance and resistance in the Trump era’. the Trump administration’s policies. The racialized protests and violence ‘The historical sin of racism lingers in Charlottesville in August 2017 on in America today, continuing and became a flashpoint for such resist- evolving in our social systems of eco- ance. As white nationalists gathered nomics and education, policing and for their ‘Unite the Right’ rally, sev- criminal justice, housing and gentrifi- eral progressive evangelical leaders cation, voting rights and suppression, such as Lisa Sharon Harper joined in our racial geography and, pain- ecumenical clergy in Charlottesville fully, in the continued segregation of to conduct counter-protests. In the our churches, which adds to our own aftermath, President Trump equivo- complicity’, declared a statement ti- cated in his response, claiming there tled ‘Unity Declaration on Racism and were ‘fine people on both sides’ of the Poverty’ that many progressive evan- 21 Charlottesville protests. In response, gelicals endorsed. progressive evangelicals issued ex- These responses by the evangeli- plicit condemnations. ‘Because this cal left to rising racism and white is not the time for ambiguity, we re- nationalism have been connected ject the idol of white supremacy, of to their opposition to the Trump neo-nazism, and of a nationalism administration’s immigration and that places country before God’, ESA refugee policies. Much of their initial activism focused on defending the proclaimed. Leaders from Sojourn- Deferred Action for Childhood Arriv- ers and Red Letter Christians issued als (DACA) programme, which pro- a similar ‘Theological Declaration’ tected from deportation hundreds that renounced ‘white nationalism, of thousands of young adults, often white separatism, white supremacy called ‘Dreamers’, who were brought … and any and all movements that to the United States illegally as chil- abide by the logics of domination and 20 dren. When President Trump pledged colonization’. to end DACA, progressive evangelicals mobilized. ‘Jesus says welcome 20 Jim Wallis, ‘Studying Racism as an Act the stranger. Donald Trump has just of Repentance and Resistance in the Trump said “no” to this clear call from Christ Era’, Sojourners, 16 February 2017, https:// in his decision to turn away 800,000 sojo.net/articles/studying-racism-act-repentance-and-resistance-trump-era; ‘ESA Statement in Response to Charlottesville’, 22 declaration-on-christian-faith-white-su- August 2017, https://www.evangelicalsfor- premacy/. socialaction.org/esa-statement/; ‘Theologi- 21 ‘Unity Declaration on Racism and Pover- cal Declaration on Christian Faith & White ty’, October 2018, http://circleofprotection. Supremacy’, 6 September 2017, https:// us/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/unity- www.redletterchristians.org/theological- statement-racism-and-poverty-2018.pdf. 302 Brantley W. Gasaway young Dreamers who were brought non-violent civil disobedience at ap- to this country by their parents when propriate places in the days ahead’. they were children—and who have Wallis, Shane Claiborne, and others no other home’, Jim Wallis declared. associated with Sojourners and Red Sojourners partnered with the Inter- Letter Christians were themselves faith Immigration Coalition to lobby arrested on June 26 for civil disobe- Congress and to organize campaigns dience outside the White House as on behalf of immigrant rights. In De- they protested the family separation cember 2017, an array of progres- policy. Evangelical progressives have sive evangelical leaders from ESA, tried to demonstrate that Trump’s Red Letter Christians, Sojourners, immigration policies are, in Wallis’ and other socially concerned Chris- words, ‘anti-family, anti-American, tian organizations organized a public and anti-Christ’.23 demonstration in Washington, D.C. in Universal access to affordable support of Dreamers and other immi- health care has long been a prior- 22 grants. ity for progressive evangelicals, and The family separation policy en- leaders had championed passage acted by the Trump administration in 2010 of the Affordable Care Act, in April 2018 especially outraged also known as Obamacare. During progressive evangelicals, particularly Trump’s campaign, he promised that as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and he would ensure health coverage White House Press Secretary Sarah for everybody and not enact cuts to Huckabee Sanders invoked biblical Medicaid and Medicare. But in early justifications in defending it. Join- 2017, the non-partisan Congressional ing with ecumenical partners, lead- Budget Office judged that the health ers such as Wallis, Tony Campolo, care bill proposed by Republicans Ron Sider and long-time evangeli- and supported by Trump would re- cal community activist John Perkins sult in over 24 million people losing condemned the ‘misuse and viola- health coverage over the next decade. tion of the Word of God to defend a Denouncing Trump as a liar, progres- morally indefensible policy’. They sive evangelicals called for petitions also called on churches ‘to teach and and protests against final passage of preach about this moral crisis, organize candlelight prayers at the offices of Immigration and Customs Enforce- 23 ‘“Suffer the Little Children”: The Sepa- ment (ICE) and at local Congression- ration of Immigrant Children from Their al offices, and prayerfully consider Parents Is Not Biblical’, https://sojo.net/ about-us/news/separation-immigrant-children-their-parents-not-biblical-reclaiming- 22 ‘Statement by Jim Wallis on DACA Deci- jesus-elders; Adam Taylor, ‘At What Cost to sion’, 5 September 2017, https://sojo.net/ Our Soul?’ Sojourners, 26 June 2018, https:// about-us/news/statement-jim-wallis-daca- sojo.net/articles/what-cost-our-soul; Jim decision; John Seel, ‘A Prayerful Embrace: Wallis, ‘Trump’s Immigration Policies Are ESA Joins in a National DACA Action’, 7 De- Anti-Family, Anti-American, and Anti-Christ’, cember 2017, https://www.evangelicalsfor- Sojourners, 15 February 2018, https://sojo. socialaction.org/compassion-and-justice/ net/articles/trump-s-immigration-policies- prayerful-embrace-esa-joins-national-daca- are-anti-family-anti-american-and-anti- action/. christ. Making Evangelicals Great Again? 303 the bill. Sojourners urged Christians Defending inexpensive access to contact their congressional rep- to health care has represented just resentatives while praying ‘that God one part of progressive evangelicals’ would move the hearts of our elected broad commitment to economic jus- officials so that they would be open to tice for the poor. Throughout 2017, hearing the stories of those affected leaders opposed the budget priorities by their harmful policies’.24 and tax cuts supported by President In a series of direct-action protests Trump and Republicans. Working in July, Lisa Sharon Harper, Red Let- alongside ecumenical allies as part ter Christians executive director Don of an anti-poverty coalition called Golden, and other evangelical pro- Circle of Protection, representatives gressives were arrested as they dis- from Sojourners, ESA, and Red Let- rupted Congress and blockaded the ter Christians campaigned against offices of Republicans. In September, the combination of increased mili- Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill tary spending, reductions in social Cassidy proposed a bill to repeal the service programs and lower taxes on Affordable Care Act. The bill never the wealthy. ‘The poor and vulnerable reached the floor for a vote, however, … are at great risk in President Don- and Jim Wallis claimed that the oppo- ald Trump’s proposed budget’, pro- sition of faith leaders played a pivotal claimed Jim Wallis at a March news conference and prayer vigil organized role in this process. ‘Jesus tells us that 26 how we treat the most vulnerable in by Circle of Protection at the Capitol. society, including the poor and the Though progressive evangelicals sick, is how we treat Christ himself’, continued to lobby and to protest over the following months, Republi- Wallis wrote. ‘The moral test and the cans passed Trump’s budget in Octo- biblical test of any system is how it ber and prepared to pass massive tax treats the poorest and most vulnera- cuts. Outraged, evangelical progres- ble—how a health care system treats sives joined ecumenical and inter- those who are sick.’ Throughout 2018, faith allies to oppose the tax reform progressive evangelicals continued to bill. During a protest in the Capitol work against legislation and policies in late November, Wallis quoted pro- designed to undermine or to disman- 25 phetic biblical passages about the tle the Affordable Care Act. oppression of the poor before he was arrested. ‘The treatment of the poor 24 ‘Here’s What You Can Do Right Now and vulnerable is lifted up in the Bible About the Senate Health Care Bill’, 23 June more than 2,000 times. And it is these 2017, Sojourners, https://sojo.net/articles/ people, the ones our Scriptures call us here-s-what-you-can-do-right-now-about- to protect and serve, who will be most senate-health-care-bill. 25 Don Golden, ‘#Faith4Healthcare: On Being One with the Vulnerable’, Red Letter could-still-lose-heath-care-here-s-how-you- Christians, 26 July 2017, https://www.red- can-stop-it. letterchristians.org/faith4healthcare-on- 26 Jim Wallis, ‘Truth That Bears Repeating: being-one-with-the-vulnerable/; Jim Wallis, A Budget Is a Moral Document’, Sojourners, ‘Millions Could Still Lose Health Care. Here’s 30 March 2017, https://sojo.net/articles/ How You Can Stop It’, Sojourners, 25 Septem- truth-bears-repeating-budget-moral-docu- ber 2017, https://sojo.net/articles/millions- ment. 304 Brantley W. Gasaway hurt by the results of this disastrous authors recounted their condemna- tax bill’, Wallis proclaimed. ‘The bill tion of a wide range of injustices, suffers from deeply immoral logic: including ‘the resurgence of white to blow a hole in the deficit by giving nationalism and racism in our nation huge tax cuts to the rich and corpo- on many fronts, including the high- rations, that will ultimately be paid est levels of political leadership’; ‘the for by the poor. … This is a shameful growing attacks on immigrants and hypocrisy, callous calculation, and refugees, who are being made into immoral act.’ For evangelical progres- political targets’; unjust ‘attempts to sives, the enactment of this bill in late deny health care to those who most 2017 represented yet another moral need it’; and ‘the growing national sin failure of the current presidential ad- of putting the rich over the poor’. 27 ministration. Although this statement served as a rebuke of President Trump, progressive evangelicals also hoped to IV. ‘Reclaiming Jesus’—but challenge Christians who supported Retaining ‘Evangelical’? Trump to re-evaluate their ‘theology In their efforts to persuade both other of public discipleship and witness’. ‘It Christians and politicians, progres- is time to be followers of Jesus before sive evangelical leaders regularly is- anything else—nationality, politi- sue statements that convey their vi- cal party, race, ethnicity, gender, [or] sion of faithful political engagement. geography’, they declared. While this In May 2018, Jim Wallis, Tony Campo- statement did not say so explicitly, lo, Ron Sider, African-American com- progressive evangelicals clearly be- munity activist John Perkins and sev- lieved that, because no one can serve eral other progressive evangelicals two masters, Christians cannot follow joined a small group of mainline Prot- both Jesus and Donald Trump.28 estant leaders to release a statement Yet the majority of white evan- entitled ‘Reclaiming Jesus: A Confes- gelicals have disagreed—a fact that sion of Faith in a Time of Crisis’. The has not only galled progressive document communicated both their evangelicals but also caused some to exasperation and their hopes in this considering no longer identifying as age of Trump. ‘We are living through ‘evangelical’ Christians. The shocking perilous and polarizing times as a na- percentage of white evangelicals who tion, with a dangerous crisis of moral voted for Trump tempted Sojourn- and political leadership at the highest ers’ Lisa Sharon Harper to take that levels of our government and in our step the day after the election; ‘I felt churches’, the statement began. The betrayed. I felt like that’s just not who I am anymore. This group who voted 27 Jim Wallis, ‘Great Injustice Calls for Great for Trump is just not who I am’, she Action’, Sojourners, 28 November 2017, htt- said. Shane Claiborne and Tony Cam- ps://sojo.net/articles/great-injustice-calls- polo wrote an op-ed for the New York great-action; ‘Circle of Protection Leaders Speak Out Regarding Passage of Tax Bill’, Sojourners, 20 December 2017, https://sojo. 28 ‘Reclaiming Jesus: A Confession of Faith net/about-us/news/circle-protection-lead- in a Time of Crisis’, http://www.reclaim- ers-speak-out-regarding-passage-tax-bill. ingjesus.org/. Making Evangelicals Great Again? 305

Times in which they sought to disas- tive director Nikki Toyama-Szeto de- sociate themselves from the evangeli- clared. ‘A lot of folks are saying that cal label. The reputation of evangeli- “If this is what evangelical means, calism has been ruined by its close then I’m not that”.’ As scholar Mela- association with Trump’s successful nie McAlister has summarized, ‘For campaign, they argued, and younger, many evangelicals of color, the poli- non-white voices seem unwelcome or tics of white supremacy is now the ignored within American evangelical dominant reality associated with a circles.29 multiracial faith identity that they Thus, in the words of Claiborne once comfortably (if not always en- and Campolo, ‘Jesus-centered faith thusiastically) claimed.’ Though pro- needs a new name.’ They proposed gressive evangelicals have long occu- the label ‘Red Letter Christians’ to in- pied a marginal place within modern dicate their faithfulness to the teach- American evangelicalism, most white ings of Jesus (which many Bibles evangelicals’ enthusiasm for Trump print in red). ‘We are committed to has caused some to explore or to cre- living out the words of Jesus, even if ate different religious and discursive that sets us at odds with those evan- communities.31 gelicals who have tended toward a In opposing and criticizing cultural religion that has embraced Trump’s candidacy and his admin- Donald Trump with little or “no” pro- istration, progressive evangelicals phetic judgment’, Campolo wrote sev- have been joined by some prominent 30 eral months later. conservative and moderate evangeli- Numerous progressive evangelicals. Russell Moore, president of the cals of colour, often active in progres- Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics sive evangelical networks, have de- and Religious Liberty Commission, scribed not only discomfort but also fervently opposed Trump prior to the a sense of betrayal within broader election. Moore called him ‘an arro- evangelical circles. ‘If you voted for gant huckster’ and compared Trump’s Trump, then his racism was just not campaign to ‘reality television moral a deal-breaker for you’, ESA execu- sewage’. He also described evangelical defences of Trump ‘a scandal and disgrace’ after the release of the Ac- 29 Emily McFarlan Miller, ‘Can Evangelicals Unite after the 2016 Election?’ Religion News cess Hollywood video that contained Service, 16 November 2019; Tony Campolo Trump’s sexually predatory com- and Shane Claiborne, ‘The Evangelicalism ments.32 of Old White Men Is Dead’, New York Times, 29 November 2016, https://www.nytimes. com/2016/11/29/opinion/the-evangelical- 31 Melani McAlister, ‘A Kind of Homeless- ism-of-old-white-men-is-dead.html. ness: Evangelicals of Color in the Trump Era’, 30 Campolo and Claiborne, ‘The Evan- Religion and Politics, 7 August 2018, https:// gelicalism of Old White Men Is Dead’; Tony religionandpolitics.org/2018/08/07/a- Campolo, ‘Why Evangelicals Voted for Don- kind-of-homelessness-evangelicals-of- ald Trump … and Continue to Support Him’, color-in-the-trump-era/. Red Letter Christians, 24 July 2017, https:// 32 Mark Woods, ‘Russell Moore: Trump, www.redletterchristians.org/why-evangel- Clinton Both Represent “Reality TV Moral icals-voted-for-donald-trump-continue-to- Sewage”’, Christian Today, 9 May 2016, support-him/. https://www.christiantoday.com/article/ 306 Brantley W. Gasaway

African-American pastor Thabiti servative and moderate evangelical Anyabwile, a prominent member of leaders have joined evangelical pro- the Gospel Coalition network popular gressives in vocally opposing specific with Reformed evangelicals, rebuked aspects of Trump’s administration. Trump as a racist and his potential With respect to immigration, for ex- presidency as ‘intolerable’. Conserva- ample, World Relief—the humanitar- tive media figures such as Washington ian arm of the centrist National Asso- Post columnist Michael Gerson and ciation of Evangelicals (NAE)—issued National Review writer David French an open letter in the Washington denounced Trump despite viewing Post challenging Trump’s immigra- support for Hillary Clinton as unten- tion and refugee policies. The letter able, while popular evangelical au- was endorsed by a wide coalition of thors Philip Yancey and Max Lucado evangelical leaders such as Christian- expressed incredulity and dismay ity Today president Harold Smith, Bill that fellow Christians considered and Lynne Hybels of the Willow Creek Trump fit for office. Even the conserv- Association, Southern Baptist Bible ative evangelical magazine World, un- teacher Beth Moore, Latino evangeli- der the editorship of Marvin Olasky, cal leader Samuel Rodriguez, author called Trump ‘unfit for power’ and Ann Voskamp and Wheaton College argued that he should step aside for 33 president Philip Ryken. Evangelicals another candidate. across the political spectrum also ex- An even broader range of con- pressed horror at the Trump administration’s family separation policy and russell-moore-trump-clinton-both-repre- lobbied for its reversal. Regarding sent-reality-tv-moral-sewage/85670.htm; healthcare, the NAE joined progres- Russell Moore, ‘If Donald Trump Has Done sive evangelicals in opposing Repub- Anything, He Has Snuffed Out the Religious lican efforts to repeal Obamacare. Right’, Washington Post, 9 October 2016, ‘Despite its impressive achievements, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ our health care system often fails to acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/09/if-donald- deliver affordable, life-saving help to trump-has-done-anything-he-has-snuffed- many of our citizens’, president Leith out-the-religious-right/. Anderson said. ‘Any policy and fund- 33 Thabiti Anyabwile, ‘Can We Talk? Or, Why I Think a Trump Presidency Is Intoler- ing changes should be evaluated by able Even Though You Might Not Agree’, The how they treat the most vulnerable Gospel Coalition, 6 June 2016, https://www. among us.’34 thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabiti-anyabwile/can-we-talk-or-why-i-think-a-trump- presidency-is-intolerable-even-though-you- 34 Kate Shellnutt, ‘Max Lucado, Beth Moore, might-not-agree/; Harry Farley, ‘Christian and Hundreds of Evangelicals Call for Immi- Author Philip Yancey: Trump “Stands against gration Reform … Again’, Christianity Today, Everything Christianity Believes"’, Christian 7 February 2018, https://www.christianity- Today, 26 September 2016, https://www. today.com/news/2018/february/max-luca- christiantoday.com/article/christian-au- do-beth-moore-evangelicals-immigration- thor-philip-yancey-trump-stands-against- dreamers-ref.html; Harry Bruinius, ‘Family everything-christianity-believes/96353. Separation: Evangelicals Add Their Voices htm; Marvin Olasky, ‘Unfit for Power’, to Opposition’, Christian Science Monitor, 18 World, 11 October 2016, https://world.wng. June 2018, https://www.csmonitor.com/ org/2016/10/unfit_for_power. USA/Justice/2018/0618/Family-separa- Making Evangelicals Great Again? 307

The widest consensus between questioned the value of continuing to more conservative and progressive identify as an evangelical in the cur- evangelicals has been in their re- rent political climate. Early in 2016, bukes of Trump’s apparent tolerance Russell Moore wrote an opinion piece for and enabling of racism, especially for the Washington Post titled ‘Why after the white supremacist rally in This Election Makes Me Hate the Word Charlottesville. ‘I condemn the forces “Evangelical”’. He lamented the popu- of white nationalism, white suprem- lar conflation of ‘evangelicals’ with an acy and antisemitism that divide our election-year voting bloc readily lin- country today, and I also condemn ing up behind Trump. While not ready those who seek to politicize it all for to fully abandon the term evangelical their political gain’, declared Samuel as a religious identity focused on the Rodriguez of the National Hispanic good news that Jesus saves, Moore Leadership Conference, a member of concluded, ‘At least until this crazy Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board. campaign is over, I choose to just say Many others criticized Trump’s un- that I’m a gospel Christian.’36 willingness to explicitly denounce At the end of President Trump’s racism. ‘The so-called Alt-Right white first year in office, Peter Wehner, supremacist ideologies are anti- a senior fellow at the conservative Christ and satanic to the core’ and ‘We Ethics and Public Policy Center, pub- should say so’, Russell Moore wrote. lished a similar argument in the New In response to the visible rise of rac- York Times. Wehner described how ism during Trump’s presidency, the white evangelicals’ support not only Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious for Trump but also for disgraced Re- Liberty Commission and the Gospel publican senatorial candidate Roy Coalition held a joint conference in Moore in Alabama had led him and April 2018 focused on the urgent others he knew to no longer identify need for racial justice and unity.35 as an evangelical.37 Like some progressive evangeli- In early 2018, InterVarsity Press cals, several conservatives have also published a book titled Still Evan- gelical? that contained essays by progressive, moderate, and conservative tion-Evangelicals-add-their-voices-to-oppo- evangelicals questioning the value of sition; Jack Jenkins, ‘National Association of the label in the aftermath of the 2016 Evangelicals Blasts GOP Effort to Repeal Oba- macare’, Think Progress, 25 September 2017, election. Even international observ- https://thinkprogress.org/this-time-even- ers recognized how white evangeli- evangelicals-are-blasting-the-gop-health- cal support for Trump had produced care-bill-1b3336946c06/. an identity crisis for American evan- 35 ‘“This Is NOT the Way of the Cross”: Chris- tian Leaders Condemn White Supremacism’, Christian Broadcasting Network, 13 August 36 Russell Moore, ‘Why This Election Makes 2017, https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/ Me Hate the World “Evangelical”’, Washing- us/2017/august/this-is-not-the-way-of-the- ton Post, 29 February 2016. cross-christian-leaders-condemn-white- 37 Peter Wehner, ‘Why I Can No Longer Call supremacism; ‘MLK50: Gospel Reflections Myself an Evangelical Republican’, New York from the Mountaintop’, The Gospel Coalition, Times, 9 December 2017, https://www.ny- https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/confer- times.com/2017/12/09/opinion/sunday/ ence/mlk50/. wehner-evangelical-republicans.html. 308 Brantley W. Gasaway gelicals. Filipino Bishop Efraim Ten- engagement. Progressive evangeli- dero, Secretary General of the World cal leaders define ‘pro-life’ broadly Evangelical Alliance, commented that as protecting the sanctity of human the label ‘evangelical’ needed to be life against all forms of violence and ‘reclaimed’ in the United States since injustice. They also argue that pro-life it had become ‘identified more for advocates should support practical political advocacy’ rather than ‘the policies and programs that reduce demonstration and proclamation of the need for abortion, such as better the Gospel’.38 access to contraceptives, health care, and economic support for pregnant women.39 V. Persistent Evangelical Rarely do progressive evangelicals Divisions especially champion the protection One may wonder whether these of unborn life or endorse efforts to shared concerns between progressive restrict abortion—a fact not lost on evangelicals and anti-Trump moder- conservative evangelicals. In a 2018 ates and conservatives could lead to article, for example, Billy Graham new forms of collaboration between Center director Ed Stetzer criticized these different factions of American progressive evangelicals for their evangelicals. Might Donald Trump in- relative silence in debates about directly inspire progressive and more abortion. The differing approaches conservative evangelicals to create to abortion politics also put progres- new alliances or even a common vi- sive and conservative evangelicals on sion for political engagement? Three opposite sides concerning the confir- factors—one political, one theologi- mation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Su- cal, and one sociological—make such preme Court. While conservative and potential partnerships unlikely. moderate evangelical critics of Trump With respect to political priorities, still celebrated the nomination of a progressive evangelicals place signifi- pro-life judge, progressive evangeli- cantly less emphasis on abortion than cals such as Lisa Sharon Harper and more conservative evangelicals. The activist Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove evangelical left has typically identified argued, based on Kavanaugh’s record, as pro-life but, unlike conservatives, that his constitutional interpretations has refused to treat opposition to and rulings would be devastating for abortion as the primary issue guiding minorities and poor people. The poli- their electoral decisions and political tics of abortion continue to place progressive evangelicals at odds with the majority of evangelical Christians.40 38 Mark A. Labberton, ed., Still Evangeli- cal? Insiders Reconsider Political, Social and Theological Meaning (Downers Grove, IL: 39 Gasaway, Progressive Evangelicals, 128– InterVarsity Press, 2018); Samuel Smith, 62. ‘“Evangelical” Has Become Too Political and 40 Ed Stetzer, ‘Dear “Whole-Life” Progres- Needs to be “Reclaimed”, says WEA Head,' sive Evangelicals, Did You Forget “Pro-Life” Christian Today, 9 October 2018, https:// and the Unborn?’ Christianity Today, 30 www.christiantoday.com/article/evangeli- January 2018, https://www.christianityto- cal-has-become-too-political-and-needs-today.com/edstetzer/2018/january/all-life- be-reclaimed-says-wea-head/130645.htm. progressive-evangelical-pro-life.html; Lisa Making Evangelicals Great Again? 309

Second, progressive evangelicals’ Finally, despite their ostensibly increasing theological affirmation shared evangelical commitment, of LGBTQ Christians also alienates longstanding disagreements between them from most other evangelicals. progressive and more conservative Although they had long criticized evangelicals have led them to partici- the anti-gay politics of the Religious pate in different religious and social Right, in recent years more and more networks. As progressives became evangelical progressives such as Jim marginalized in the broader evangeli- Wallis, Tony Campolo, David Gushee, cal movement, they developed part- and others have taken a much bigger nerships over the past three decades step to the left, accepting theological with politically liberal Protestants arguments in support of same-sex and Catholics. Conservative evan- marriage and for full LGBTQ inclu- gelicals, on the other hand, gravitated sion and equality within churches. toward cooperation with conserva- Even those who are not fully affirm- tive Catholics and Mormons. During ing, such as Shane Claiborne and the Trump’s presidency, the statements leaders of ESA, readily partner with issued and endorsed by progressive LGBTQ and affirming Christians. In evangelicals have usually been made contrast, conservative evangelicals in cooperation with mainline Protes- remain staunchly opposed to both tants, and they have often protested theological and political recognition alongside ecumenical allies in ac- of gay rights and equality. Since the tivities associated with the so-called legalization of same-sex marriages Religious Left. Just after progressive in 2015, they have championed ‘reli- evangelicals participated in the 2018 gious liberty’ rights in an effort to ex- ‘Revival of Jesus and Justice’ rally in empt themselves from any perceived Lynchburg, a separate gathering oc- participation in or affirmation of gay curred at Wheaton College, involv- marriages. Moreover, many conserva- ing moderate leaders concerned tive evangelicals regard LGBTQ-af- about ‘the challenges of distortions to firming Christians as heretics. This evangelicalism that have permeated position severely dampens prospects both the media and culture since the for partnerships with progressive 2016 election’. Most participants in evangelicals who are committed to this consultation shared progressive LGBTQ justice and equality.41 evangelicals’ concerns about public perceptions of American evangelicals. Yet they could not reach enough of a Sharon Harper, ‘Evangelical Women and Men consensus to issue a planned state- Call for a Pause on Culture War’, Red Let- ter Christians, 21 July 2018, https://www. redletterchristians.org/evangelical-wom- can Religious Liberty Is in Peril’, Wall Street en-men-call-for-a-pause-on-culture-war/; Journal, 26 July 2019, https://www.wsj. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, ‘The Evangeli- com/articles/yes-american-religious-liber- cal Case Against Judge Kavanaugh’, New York ty-is-in-peril-11564152873; ‘Thousands of Times, 3 September 2018, https://www.ny- Christians Respond to Nashville Statement times.com/2018/09/03/opinion/evangeli- With Emphatic “No”’, Sojourners, 31 August cal-brett-kavanaugh-civil-rights.html. 2017, https://sojo.net/articles/thousands- 41 Gasaway, Progressive Evangelicals, christians-respond-nashville-statement- 163–99, 272–73; David French, ‘Yes, Ameri- emphatic-no. 310 Brantley W. Gasaway ment on evangelicalism in the age of Imitating the 1973 declaration, the Trump, nor would most join the meet- new statement declared its signers’ ings and declarations of the evangeli- commitment to ‘biblical justice’ and cal left. Shared disillusionment with active resistance to racism, patriar- most white evangelicals’ support for chal sexism, homophobia, economic President Trump could not easily injustice and all forms of dehumaniz- unite distinct factions of the evangeli- ing oppression.43 cal movement.42 The Chicago Invitation illustrates how much the Trump administration VI. Conclusion and its white evangelical supporters have put progressive evangelicals on In late 2018, the most prominent pro- the defensive. In a political sense, they gressive evangelical leaders issued yet have been forced anew to defend those another statement. Called ‘The Chi- who seem most exploited and endan- cago Invitation: Diverse Evangelicals gered by Trump’s policies. But in a Continue the Journey’, the document religious sense, they feel compelled to intentionally built upon the 1973 Chi- defend the integrity of the evangelical cago Declaration of Evangelical Social tradition. In an article accompanying Concern that helped to launch the the statement, Sojourners’ Jim Wallis contemporary progressive evangelical and Adam Taylor wrote: movement. Older white male leaders such as Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo and We hope and pray that this invita- Ron Sider were joined by younger and tion can foster desperately needed non-white ones, such as Shane Clai- dialogue about the present-day borne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, diversity within the evangelical Lisa Sharon Harper, Nikki Tomaya- movement and can serve as a pow- Szeto and Soong-Chan Rah of North erful antidote and corrective to a Park University. false narrative that has dominated The Chicago Invitation argues that our politics that defines evangeli- ‘the story that became nationally and cals as white, Republican, and ar- globally dominant after the 2016 elec- dently pro-Trump. Evangelicalism tion was that 81 percent of “evangeli- is a much more diverse movement cals” voted for Donald Trump, when, than the current media narrative in fact, this group only represented represents. … By correcting the the votes of white evangelicals. When public narrative to include diverse evangelicals of color and younger evangelicals, we can help rehabili- tate the perception of evangelicals evangelicals are accurately accounted and enable our nation and the for, the picture changes significantly’. church to better cross the bridge into a more inclusive, multi-racial 42 Gasaway, Progressive Evangelicals, 18– future that mirrors God’s kingdom 20; Katelyn Beaty, ‘At a Private Meeting in Il- come. linois, a Group of Evangelicals Tried to Save Their Movement from Trumpism’, New Yor- ker, 26 April 2018, https://www.newyorker. 43 ‘The Chicago Invitation: Diverse Evangel- com/news/on-religion/at-a-private-meet- icals Continue the Journey’, https://sojo.net/ ing-in-illinois-a-group-of-evangelicals-tried- sites/default/files/chicagoinvitationformat- to-save-their-movement-from-trumpism. ted_final.pdf. Making Evangelicals Great Again? 311

Thus the Chicago Invitation was as tion and label from those who they much a public-relations effort as a believe have hijacked it for right-wing religious and theological statement. political agendas. They have tried to Progressive evangelical leaders want- persuade conservative evangelicals— ed to correct distorted perceptions as well as the media and larger pub- and reclaim American evangelicalism lic—that authentic evangelical Chris- as a more variegated and a more jus- tianity should bring good news to the tice-oriented religious tradition. They poor and freedom to the oppressed. were trying, from their perspective, to Like the prophets of old whom they make the reputation of evangelicals love to quote, progressive evangeli- great again.44 cals believe they are standing on the For the past four decades, progres- margins, calling the wayward back to sive evangelicals have consistently faithfulness to God. The dominance tried to reclaim the evangelical tradi- of the Religious Right and evangelical conservatism has always made their appeals difficult to hear. Now, the un- 44 Jim Wallis and Adam R. Taylor, ‘Toward expected appeal of Donald Trump to a More Authentic Evangelicalism’, Sojourners, so many white evangelicals has made October 3, 2018, https://sojo.net/articles/ their task even more difficult. toward-more-authentic-evangelicalism.