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Evangelicals Have Decided They Must Rule the Nation [1]

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Date: 2025-01-17

Religions are complex. A well-known religious studies scholar wrote that religions have seven aspects. They are ethics, ritual, doctrine, physical culture, sacred texts, sacred stories or myths, and religious experience.

The central way religions affect society is through the first aspect, ethics. But doctrine is also very important since it can be used to corrupt religious ethics.

Ethics are about things you should do and things you should not do. They consist of obligations and prohibitions. In past cultures, the prohibitions were somewhat easier to abide by. But in the modern world, we have enormous choice, and prohibitions seem more antiquated, more distant, and less desirable.

If we look at Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim ethics, we find a common theme. These are ascetic traditions or belief systems associated with practices of self-denial.

In Christianity and Islam for instance, the rewards after death are great for those who practice such self-denial and are ethical while alive. They will go to heaven, an ideal place.

I know a teacher of religious studies who would sometimes ask mostly Christian college students about their attitudes towards denying themselves wealth, pleasure, and entertainment to live a life more consistent with older forms of Christian ethics. Virtually none of these students could see the value of such self-denial.

Given our current materialistic culture, it is understandable how they wanted the big house, the car, the boat, the attractive husband or wife, the exceptionally talented kids, the high-paying job, etc.

Living a life of Christian charity, service, simplicity, and purity like many past Christians seemed to hold little appeal.

So, while Evangelicals may want all the prohibitions of the Ten Commandments to be listed on public school walls, they do not seem to be so enamored of living a life limited by their prohibitions.

Thus, we come to the Christian quandary. If living according to Christian ethics is too much of a burden, how can one expect to get into heaven? People ask for and hope for God’s forgiveness but there is always some doubt, especially when a person violates one or more of God’s commandments repeatedly.

Perhaps there is a work-around solution.

Thus, we come to what seems like the 11th commandment of modern Evangelicalism – the “Great Commission”. The Great Commission is Christ’s instruction following his resurrection for Christians to spread the gospel to all the nations of the world.

This instruction or obligation is the primary basis for Evangelical Christianity. As a substitute for failing to follow the Jewish Law or Christ’s other commandments, failing to implement the Great Commission is thought to possibly put one’s immortal soul in jeopardy for many Evangelicals.

Now Christ told his disciples dozens of things concerning what they should do in life but the extreme focus on this Commission was an arbitrary choice by many Protestant Evangelical leaders. This is where the concept of doctrine comes into play where some parts or statements in the Bible are emphasized, and others are ignored or made far less important. Authorities determine doctrine and are seldom questioned to justify such decisions.

A significant swath of Protestants (beyond evangelicals) live by this doctrine as being important to their practice of Christianity and they have been organized as a political force.

But the statistics on “spreading the Good News” are not good as the number of Evangelical or born-again Christians and religious people in general seem to be quickly declining. As a Public Religion Research Institute report concludes: "Since 2006, white evangelical Protestants have experienced the most precipitous drop in affiliation, shrinking from 23% of Americans in 2006 to 14% in 2020."

There is speculation that unconditional support for Israel and the lack of support for women’s rights, gay rights, and women ministers all contributed to the decline of membership among younger Evangelicals.

This decline has been a shock-wave to Evangelical leaders as it documents in stark detail their failure to spread the Good News which is their stated goal as a Christian group.

The Evangelical response to their declining numbers has also been an equal shock-wave to the US political system.

Now every group, religious and otherwise, wants the culture around them to reflect their values and ideals. But no group has had the audacity to try and take over the US government and dominate the Presidency, the Congress, and the courts like Evangelicals have (there are Catholic “evangelicals” like some of the judges on the Supreme Court who appear to subscribe to their overall goals).

Christ said in the Bible in Matthew 10:14 what Christians should do if people do not respond to the Christian message: “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.”

This is usually interpreted to mean that Christians should give Christ’s teachings but if they are rejected, they should move onto the next house or town without trying to force their message on people.

Christian ethics more broadly have had an extraordinarily positive affect on the world but the narrow goals of political Christianity are a different story altogether.

As with Christian missionaries in other parts of the world and here with native Americans, Christians have sometimes tried to force their message on nonbelievers in various ways. Today in the US, we see Christians trying to force their ethics on others and gain economic advantages by actively promoting anti-abortion laws, public school prayer, public money for Christian schools, tax free Christian PACS, government support for segregated Christian schools, laws against gays/transgender people in the military and athletics, and other conservative laws.

The Culture War casts unsupportive citizens and even different denominations of Christians as outsiders and in extreme cases heretics to be overcome and perhaps be dominated by a Christian minority.

Today’s desire to vote for self-proclaimed Christian politicians and judges is a move to force various Christian ethical principles as narrowly defined by a Christian minority on the larger population as they seek to accrue more and more power in government. The estimated 81% of Evangelicals who voted for the future President in 2016 and 2020 are a voting block that cannot be ignored and can often swing elections is their favor.

If Evangelicals fail to persuade people to join their group using voluntary methods, they seem to be using more coercive legalistic methods to make the United States into their definition of a “Christian Nation.” To them, having Christians rule the nation may be the next best thing to having a nation full of actual believing Christians. Their political power also gives them economic power so that can use the “bread and Bibles” approach (giving government-sponsored economic advantages to Christians) to increase their numbers. This economic strategy has been used successfully by missionaries in developing countries in the past.

Let us hope that a larger proportion of the population will find being governed according to the principles of a small religious group less desirable in the future, and the freedom said to be sought by conservative groups is extended to the US population as a whole instead of to only a small Christian minority.

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