Preliminary demographic data about the 2020 electorate has started rolling in. The Associated Press published the VoteCast survey that revealed some disappointing, if not altogether surprising, information: 81%…again.
Understanding The 2020 Electorate: AP VoteCast Survey
Four years ago eighty-one percent of voters who identified as white and evangelical threw their support behind Donald. J. Trump. Now, in a reprise of 2016 presidential election, white evangelicals continued to support Donald Trump at exactly the same rate after four years of his presidency. Four years of lies, scandals, bellicosity, chaos, and racism. White evangelicals voted for him again in droves.
These numbers raise a host of questions: Is evangelicalism more wedded to political power than the Prince of Peace? Can U.S. evangelicalism be salvaged from the grip of the modern GOP? What should racial and ethnic minorities in predominantly white evangelical spaces do in light of this voter info?
One question we should also ask is: What is the greatest threat to Christianity in the United States today? Some white evangelicals have set up Critical Race Theory (CRT) as the most insidious menace to the integrity of the Christian faith.
What is Critical Race Theory?
Kimberlé Crenshaw, a pivotal figure in the founding of the theory describes it as, “a practice—a way of seeing how the fiction of race has been transformed into concrete racial inequities.” Critical Race Theory has origins with legal scholars who examined the way race and racism gets transcribed into laws that create and perpetuate inequalities.
The fear-mongering over CRT even reached the White House. In September, Trump issued the “Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping.” The purpose of the order was “to combat offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating”–-a veiled reference to Critical Race Theory and racial justice efforts that may utilize components of the theory.
Kimberlé Crenshaw
But here’s another question: Is it Critical Race Theory that has caused more harm to the cause of Christ in the U.S. or is it Christian Nationalism?
According to sociologists Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead, Christian Nationalism (CN) is “an ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic belonging and participation.”
In their book Taking America Back for God, they go on to explain that the “Christian” in Christian Nationalism “represents more of an ethnocultural and political identity that denotes a specific constellation of religious affiliation, cultural values, race, and nationality.”
Kimberlé Crenshaw describe CRT as “a practice—a way of seeing how the fiction of race has been transformed into concrete racial inequities.” Critical Race Theory has origins with legal scholars who examined the way race and racism gets transcribed into laws that create and perpetuate inequalities.
History attests to this amalgamation of race, religion, and nationalism.
On Thanksgiving Day 1915, a former white Methodist circuit rider gathered a group of his white male friends and they went to the top of Stone Mountain in Georgia. Etched into the gigantic stone are the visages of Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, “Stonewall” Jackson, and Jefferson Davis.
On top of Stone Mountain, this group of white men resurrected the Ku Klux Klan. They performed a ritual that included burning a cross–an act that would soon become a symbol of white racial terrorism. They also constructed an altar and placed on it two objects: a Bible and an American flag.
A Georgia activist protesting at Stone Mountain (ABC News)
The rebirth of the KKK in the Jim Crow era demonstrates the melding of race, religion, and nationalism in a toxic mixture that conflates Christ and country and seals its devotion with the promise of violence.
This is not just an issue of the past either.
Days before the November 3rd election, Idaho Lieutenant Governor, Janice McGeachin (R), released a video of her sitting in a pickup truck draped in an American Flag. McGeachin leans slightly out of the driver’s side window holding a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other.
Protesting the restrictions on activity and the safety measures advised by medical professionals due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Lt. Gov. said, “We recognize that all of us are by nature, free and equal, and have certain inalienable rights. Among which are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property and pursuing happiness and securing safety.”
In their book Taking America Back for God, Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead explain that the “Christian” in Christian Nationalism “represents more of an ethnocultural and political identity that denotes a specific constellation of religious affiliation, cultural values, race, and nationality.”
One could hardly draw a clearer picture of Christian Nationalism.
Christian Nationalists–a term more accurate than white evangelicals because adherents actually include evangelical Protestants, Catholics, and Mainline Protestants–are the ones voting for Trump.
As historian Kristen Kobes Du Mez explains in her recent book Jesus and John Wayne, white evangelicals, and Christian Nationalists more broadly, voted for Trump not in spite of his character, but because of it. For them, Trump represents not a betrayal of their values but a fulfillment of them.
His insults? He’s just telling it like it is.
His long history of shady business dealings? He’s the consummate deal-maker and economically savvy.
His womanizing and philandering? He’s a virile, masculine man.
His faith? Depends on who you ask…He’s either a baby Christian, God’s chosen man to bring the nation back to true Christian worship, or someone elected to serve as “Commander-in-Chief not Pastor-in-Chief.”
Photo by Clay Brian on Scopio
But what has done more damage to the witness of Christianity in the United States: Critical Race Theory and racial justice efforts, or allegiance to Christian Nationalism and political support for Trump?
Are Christians abandoning the “evangelical” label because people are saying “Black Lives Matter” or because some Christians cheer on a man who advocates a ban on Muslim immigration and separates children from parents at the border?
Are Black people leaving predominantly white churches because their pastors are preaching too much about racism or because they are parroting Republican talking points?
Christian Nationalists–a term more accurate than white evangelicals because adherents actually include evangelical Protestants, Catholics, and Mainline Protestants–are the ones voting for Trump.
Are people leaving the Christian faith altogether because they can’t stand the talk of systemic racism and power structures or because they cannot reconcile a faith that commands adherents to “love your neighbor as yourself” with supporting a president who loves only himself?
The sad irony is that the word “evangel” means “good news.” But under Christian nationalism and Trumpism, the word evangelicals preach has become very bad news indeed.
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Thank you for expressing so well the thoughts I’ve been mulling. (And I’ve been watching exit polls that show 76% of white evangelicals voted for Trump, thinking at least there was a little change.)
As a white evangelical who cares deeply about reaching the lost, I see constantly the barrier that the majority “Christian“ political positions raise for those who do not yet believe. The proclamation of the good news rings hollow when the actions (including political support) of believers are in contrast to what the Bible teaches. In polls of young people, including those raised in Christian families, the joining of conservative branded nationalism with biblical faith is the main reason people leave, or never consider, the Church.
Thanks for this brief article. While the numbers are not overwhelmingly surprising (given our current political climate). It still is a bit disturbing to know that such a large number of people, who identify themselves as Christians, support leaders that promote hating their neighbors.
I really appreciated this article. Thank you Jamar. I think you are right to push Christian Nationalism (rather than CRT) to the forefront of what threatens us. I’m a white evangelical in the 19% who did not vote for Donald Trump.
A few weeks ago I was in conversation with a black friend of mine. He told me that he is going on a podcast to share about his departure from being a self-described “evangelical”. He now self-identifies as a “black Christian man”. I told him I understand. His reasons made good sense to me. Honestly, I wasn’t very critical because I’ve been wrestling with this dilemma myself for the past few years. Our conversation primarily came down to whether evangelicalism should primarily be considered a global Christian movement or an American cultural phenomenon.
As an American cultural phenomenon, it seems that political and racial allegiances govern much of what takes place. Not in every evangelical corner. But in many.
My friend and I agreed that as a theological category evangelicalism has to do with holding a high view of scripture, the need to be born again, and the concept of having a personal relationship with Jesus. And if we define evangelicalism by these terms then we have in mind Chinese Christians suffering under the CCP. We also have in mind Christians across much of Africa. And a growing number in South America. Not to mention a remnant surviving in Europe who remain true to a biblical worldview.
I told my friend that I am hesitant to make a choice to abandon a term that describes a slice of the global Christian movement in which I fit best. Putting aside the behavior of many of my fellow American evangelical brothers and sisters, it seems to me that the believers across the world with whom I most identify can be best described as evangelicals. And I am hesitant to distance myself from them.
My friend took my point and confessed that he doesn’t want to distance himself from these believers either. But, he wondered whether holding onto the term “evangelical” actually sacrificed that connection. I am not sure it does. In the end he said that he still believes in the big ideas that make up the theological category of “evangelical”, but that the term now has so much cultural baggage in America that it has become a hindrance to gospel witness (a pillar of evangelical faith).
I guess it just comes back to how we define our terms. Do we mean evangelical as a theological category/global movement or as an American cultural phenomenon? I think this is critical. My friend defines it primarily as an American cultural phenomenon (and a historical case can certainly be made for this) and I think I define it primarily as a stream within the global Christian movement.
Thoroughly agree, and thank you. One minor errata point: the carving of Confederate generals into Stone Mountain didn’t exist yet in 1915. If I recall correctly, they had only just begun floating the idea of doing it and raising money, and the actual work didn’t get done until after WWII, which implies that the carving was directed against the Civil Rights Movement more than anything.
I am a big fan of yours, Jemar. I grieve with you. Once again Christianity has slipped out of the halls of power. Whenever Christianity ascends into political power, the real faith migrates “downward” — think Waldensians, Anabaptists, Black church, Latino Pentecostals, house church in China. .
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/09/19/stone-mountain-the-ugly-past-and-fraught-future-of-the-biggest-confederate-monument/
Started in 1925 – finished in the 1960’s. Time period covers Jim Crow to white supremacy reaction to Civil RIghts legislation.
When one calls oneself a Christian, everything one does and says, as well as what one refrains from doing and saying, can be associated with the Gospel. And that should strike fear in all of us Christians because we all too often fail to believe and live as Jesus wants us to.
So yes, Evangelical support for Trumpism does cause more stumbling blocks to hearing the Gospel for unbelievers than promoting CRT does. But this is where we need to take Romans 2 seriously and be careful not to say anything more than that lest we too be judged for our own failures that have caused stumbling block to those who would otherwise listen to the Gospel.
Thank you for the very insightful explanation of this subject. As a member of a CBF Baptist Church we are obviously in the minority and want to do what we can to eliminate systemic racism.