Getting Mad at Evangelicals for the Wrong Reasons

When religion, culture, and politics are this intertwined, it can be difficult to know exactly who -- or what -- is to blame.

Image by Norman Mingo via Mad Magazine (not entirely legally… if you are Mad Magazine, reach out, and I will take this down ASAP. This is a free post, so I am not making money on it. I am unsure of the legality of Alfred E. Neuman’s image)

White conservative evangelicals in the United States are likely one of the most dangerous sociopolitical groups ever to exist, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. Their immense power affects the country and the world at large in nefarious ways, from propping up greedy billionaires to stalling any meaningful response to manmade climate change to spreading anti-LGBTQ propaganda everywhere in their wake.

However, I notice quite often — even among those of us who were once evangelicals ourselves — that so much of the rage is misdirected and misplaced. There’s no exact pinpointing of what “conservative,” “evangelical,” or “fundamentalist” means to each person, including me, and often our anger is geared toward individuals rather than collective, systemic oppression being enforced by governments and societies at large.

People raised in more liberal and/or secular households may not comprehend exactly what evangelicals believe or what they’re talking about. I recall a journalist on Twitter in 2016 who asked why evangelicals were “still supporting Trump” after Pope Francis came out with a statement against things he was saying; meanwhile, I knew Pentecostals who believed Catholics are going to hell for “worshiping Mary” and “worshiping saints.”

Awareness of the actual implications of the modern evangelical Christian movement has improved in recent years with the rise of deconstruction and exvangelical communities, but there’s still some work to do in media literacy. I don’t think I can do anything to help improve the mainstream media (unless one of you wants to hire me to write about religion — a dream job!), but I do think that I can help anyone reading better suss out the real dangers of evangelicalism.

Here are some basic definitions to get us started.

What’s an evangelical?

The Wikipedia definition: “Evangelicalism, also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being ‘born again,’ in which an individual experiences personal conversion; the authority of the Bible as God's revelation to humanity; and spreading the Christian message. The word evangelical comes from the Greek (euangelion) word for ‘good news.’”

Evangelicalism focuses on spreading Christianity to as many people as possible via proselytizing and societal influence. Other Christian movements, such as dominionism and Christian nationalism, are more extreme examples of evangelicalism, but it’s important to note that both of those movements exist in other Christian traditions as well, including Catholic and Orthodox ones.

Common evangelical Christian denominations are Southern Baptist, Assemblies of God, Seventh-day Adventists, and Church of the Nazarene. While most people consider Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Methodists as mainline, it’s important to note that there are branches of each that consider themselves evangelical, just as there is a branch of Baptists that considers themselves mainline. Almost all non-denominational and Pentecostal/charismatic (I do not have time to get into Pentecostalism and charismatic movements as a former Pentecostal, haha) churches are considered evangelical as well.

And while it may be easy to assume political affiliation based on evangelical identity, Pew Research tells us that there is a stark divide between the voting preferences of white evangelicals and Black evangelicals and differences between Asian evangelicals and Latino evangelicals. In fact, only 65% of white evangelicals say they lean or are Republican, but 76% of Black evangelicals say they lean or are Democrats. Obviously, the majority of white evangelicals are still Republicans — but it’s not as cookie-cutter as one might think.

What’s a fundamentalist?

Per Wikipedia: “Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing one's ingroup and outgroup, which leads to an emphasis on some conception of ‘purity,’ and a desire to return to a previous ideal from which advocates believe members have strayed. The term is usually used in the context of religion to indicate an unwavering attachment to a set of irreducible beliefs (the ‘fundamentals’).”

It’s important to note that anyone of any religion or even any sort of non-religious group can be a fundamentalist. And Christian denominations don’t always refer to themselves as “fundamentalist” as a whole. Christian fundamentalist theology, especially in the United States, is a reaction to liberal theology or modern implementations of religion.

It’s important to distinguish fundamentalism from evangelicalism. I would stress that fundamentalism is usually far more concerned with biblical ideology than political ideology, though there’s certainly a lot of overlap. Fundamentalists hold a dispensationalist view of the Bible and are strongly concerned with literalist teachings as they view them. The Duggars, for example, follow a very strongly fundamentalist worldview, which the majority of evangelicals do not strictly adhere to.

A great example to demonstrate this is Mormonism. I’m not an expert on Mormonism, but the two of the largest Mormon denominations are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The former is a mainstream religion. While they have conservative ideals, most attend public schools, support women working outside the home, wear modern clothes styles, and are active in larger society and politics. The latter is the one that ends up on the news: child marriages, forced extremism in mandated gender roles, male headship over society, traditional polygamy, and not interacting with contemporary society unless absolutely necessary. This is based on their literalist interpretation of the original texts from the Book of Mormon and early Mormon society.

What’s a Republican?

Wikipedia states, “The platform of the Republican Party of the United States is generally based on American conservatism, contrasting with the modern liberalism of the Democratic Party. The positions of the Republican Party have evolved over time. Currently, the party's fiscal conservatism includes support for lower taxes, small government conservatism, free market capitalism, free trade, deregulation of corporations, and restrictions on labor unions. The party's social conservatism includes support for gun rights outlined in the Second Amendment, the death penalty, and other traditional values, often with a Christian foundation, including restrictions on abortion. In foreign policy, Republicans usually favor increased military spending, strong national defense, and unilateral action. Other Republican positions include restrictions on immigration, more specifically opposition to illegal immigration, opposition to drug legalization, pornography, and affirmative action, and support for school choice and school prayer.”

I would say a Republican is someone who calls themselves one or primarily votes for them. That matters because several people may hold conservative ideology without voting Republican for various reasons, while other people call themselves “independent” or “unaffiliated” while meanwhile helping to put Republican politicians in places of power. So while identity is a huge part of it, so is actual voting preference.

They hold specific political beliefs that they expect to see promoted by their politicians. It is overtly political, and many Americans feel that they must vote for Republicans or Democrats, and there’s no in-between since third-party candidates are unlikely to win. No matter how conservative their beliefs are, nonvoters are unlikely to call themselves a Republican.

If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably already aware of what the GOP promotes, believes, and what their politicians support. It’s a constant mainstay of the news cycle, and the label is powerful: Trump only won after joining the Republican Party. There are more “liberal” Republicans, but both parties are moving ever-rightwards, so socially liberal Republicans are more and more of a rarity. Most people who find GOP policies too extreme can find solace in the Democratic Party, which is quite conservative for a “progressive” or “liberal” party compared to leftist and progressive political parties elsewhere.

What’s a conservative?

According to Wikipedia, “Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in which it appears. In Western culture, depending on the particular nation, conservatives seek to promote a range of social institutions such as the nuclear family, organized religion, the military, property rights, and monarchy. Conservatives tend to favor institutions and practices that guarantee stability and evolved gradually. Adherents of conservatism often oppose certain aspects of modernity (for example, mass culture and secularism) and seek a return to traditional values, though different groups of conservatives may choose different traditional values to preserve.”

The differences between Republicanism and conservatism are similar to the differences between evangelicalism and fundamentalism. Republicans are loyal to the brand of the GOP, while the conservative ideology is much broader. Many Republican politicians have referred to themselves as “conservative first, Republican second” because they have stronger adherence to intangible beliefs than specific party platforms.

Conservatives exist in all religions and all movements. One can even be a conservative socialist — for example, many Catholics believe strongly in centering the family and traditional values regarding sex, gender, and children but hold economically leftist positions otherwise. (This is the main reason that, while I will always be a Christian and will fight until my dying breath for the right to be one in all circumstances, I align strongly with the concept of a secular government as proposed by communist thought leaders.)

Why did I just spend two hours writing that? For one thing, I see those terms used interchangeably and incorrectly quite often. I also use those terms interchangeably at times, which isn’t always correct but can drive home a point when needed.

As I get older, I get more frustrated at society’s focus on individualist blaming. The average idiot that you know who is spewing hateful opinions is usually a product of poor education, capitalist oppression, familial and cultural influence, and in the case of many evangelicals, convinced their soul is on the line when it comes to issues. And when you scream at people to “educate themselves,” they usually do — and people on the right are far more willing to “educate” people in the easiest and most accessible way possible. Can you think of any resources on the left as powerful as Prager U or Turning Point USA — not to mention the underbelly of social media, especially YouTube and TikTok, that goes almost completely uncensored and unrestrained? I can’t.

If you know me, you know I also loathe the red-state, Christian, southern, conservative mockery prominent in some liberal spaces. For one thing, many of us come from those environments and still live there. Queer people and PoC are in almost every corner of the United States. Whenever I see people mocking deaths, catastrophic weather events, and corrupt laws in red states, I want to throw a brick through a window. It’s hard to convince people of your political ideology when you’re being as reactionary as they are and when you literally don’t care if they live or die.

I’m also perpetually frustrated at the atheist impulse to jump to religion when it comes to blaming people for social bigotry. It’s true that I certainly won’t be moving to a red state or spending time with conservatives any time soon, but I think one needs to almost disconnect a bit from the individual and see what we’re really mad at: the belief. You’re not mad at someone’s “sky fairy.” People believe in unproven things constantly, like astrology, ghosts, aliens, or even aspects of historical knowledge. (This is why people get into absurd arguments stating that Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Shakespeare, Homer, et al. aren’t real.)

And we can pinpoint where the belief came from — a religious text? In a literalist context? Without modernity? Because as long as religious people do exist without those beliefs (and we do) and as long as irreligious people exist WITH those beliefs (atheist China anti-gay laws? British TERFs in academia?), we can’t fully associate one with the other.

We need to move to a systemic way of thinking. It’s unhelpful, for instance, to blame a Republican policy when Democrats had the power to stop it and chose not to, i.e. student loan debt and the U.S. Supreme Court. Obviously, the Republicans were the bad guy. But, you know, the Democrats certainly didn’t stand too much in the way. And all of those politicians only agreed to this for one reason: the power of capitalism. Capital won. It was so far beyond a Republican/Democrat thing.

We’ve created a country that lets teenagers go into tens of thousands of dollars of debt that cannot be removed in bankruptcy to receive an education for a workforce that likely cannot provide for their cost of living, much less their student loan debt. We’ve created a society in which education is only available for people who can afford it, creating a rich/poor divide that can’t be recovered from. (Hey, did you know that most Republicans, evangelicals, conservatives, AND fundamentalists are far less likely to have gone to college?) We’re doing all of this on land that was stolen from indigenous societies that were already there, in infrastructure often built by enslaved people or severely underpaid labor. Even with “affirmative action” (which is likely all gone, legally, now), the most prestigious colleges still have “legacy admissions” — a.k.a., a preference for the wealthy.

I watch almost all conservative religious documentaries that come out, but I always avoided one: Jesus Camp. First of all, it features a charismatic summer camp for children. I attended those myself, and I’m not necessarily interested in reliving it. One time, I saw a clip from The Daily Show or something where it showed a bunch of children putting their hands on a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush and praying around it. The commentators were angry that the prayer “looked so weird” and said that the kids were “worshiping” the then-president.

But is the laying on of hands — a religious tradition in many cultures — the problem? Or is the problem the political indoctrination toward children by the adults in power in their lives? My childhood church always prays for the president, even the ones they hate. Their sermons are praiseworthy of Republicans and condemning of Democrats, of course, but prayer itself isn’t the issue.

More recently, people complain about evangelicals voting for Trump again. But of course they’re voting for Trump again. They don’t care or comprehend the hypocrisy. And they have a vested interest in the capital of the Republican economic policy or lack basic political understanding; in their mind, their woes are due to people on welfare, people of color getting the bare minimum, immigrants, abortion, gay sex, and trans people, because that’s who Republicans have told them the bad guys were for decades. Republicans have put out the message for years that Democrats are evil, and many white evangelical churches have too. And Democrats aren’t good at politics the way that Republicans are. The best they’ve done for years is “we’re not Republicans,” and I’m not certain how true that even is these days.

The Moral Majority in the latter 20th century happened alongside the overturning of segregation laws, the second-wave feminist movement, increasing prosperity, and the rise of evangelicalism as a powerful institution thanks to celebrity-like figures such as Billy Graham. These things are not a coincidence, and the people involved in the Moral Majority required lots of money to gain that much influence. Where did that money come from? What did those people really want? The answer, as always, is greed and wealth. While many followers of conservative and/or evangelical movements have sincerely held beliefs, those in power (and those in money) often don’t.

There’s a reason that so many Republican donors are often irreligious billionaires. It’s not because they give a shit about abortion.

If you’re going to get mad at evangelicals, do it. By all means, call out an individual sharing a harmful opinion. Argue with them. But don’t get mad because they happen to believe in God or have religious traditions you think are strange. So do I, and most of those same people think I’m an abomination too.

Get educated on what people believe and why they believe it. It’s easy to lump all people into a category, and it’s usually a safe bet. But if you really want to research the source of the beliefs most causing harm to society right now, it’s important to know what exactly you’re angry at and what solution would actually fix it. I think giving grace, forgiveness, and understanding is also important, as I was once a conservative, too. Maybe I’d still be one if it weren’t for education and lived experiences.

You know that I think the source of these issues is capitalism and oppression, but I’m not naive enough to say that those problems would suddenly go away if we implemented my ideal economic structure and government. Bigotry and hatred will always exist, and it’s our duty to keep bigoted and hateful people out of our lives and our safe communities in one way or another. However, I think a lot of people would be better off if they had resources, education, and a country with stricter standards of 501(c)(3) approval, religious freedom, and ministerial licensing.

Because I assure you that none of these movements, beliefs, or political parties would be so powerful if we had that.