My Response to Timothy Keller on Rebranding White U.S. Evangelicalism: Going to Take a Lot More Than Rebranding

A much-needed gloss on Keller's commentary, in my view: he asks if evangelicalism can survive Donald Trump & Roy Moore?

The historical reality: it DID, in fact, survive its fierce opposition to the Civil Rights movement in the mid-20th century. 1)

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 22, 2017

 

As an avis rara who has had feet in both the white evangelical and the Catholic world in the U.S., who has been repuidated by the latter, here's my response to Timothy Keller's parsing-and-rebranding proposal to solve the problem that is white evangelicalism in the U.S.:

I can testify to this, because I grew up in a Southern Baptist church in that period, in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

White evangelical churches in my region were almost uniformly engines of resistance to the Civil Rights movement. 2)

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 22, 2017

And they have not paid much of a price, historically or otherwise, it seems to me, for choosing the wrong side of history's moral arc in that period.

They've gone chugging right along, acting as if that history is not there, does not matter. 3)

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 22, 2017

They've gone right along, acting as if that history does not ABSOLUTELY form the firm foundation for their current support of the moral monstrosity in the White House and Roy Moore — a seamless transition. 4)

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 22, 2017

For that matter, white evangelical churches in the South have not paid an historical price for their fervent support of slavery, for splitting their national churches due to their commitment to the slave system. 5)

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 22, 2017

I haven't noticed white evangelical churches in the South paying any price for their heated opposition to women's rights and woman suffrage at the start of the 20th century. 6)

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 22, 2017

It might be argued that white evangelicals in the South are a case apart, a fluke — but the voting patterns of white Christians in general in the Trump election suggest otherwise. White evangelicals are an extreme case of something endemic to white U.S. Christianity. 7)

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 22, 2017

As American Catholics keep asking about the abuse crisis, where has repentance gotten to as a key theological category and posture of the churches? Where is repentance for all of these things — and now Moore and the moral monstrosity in the White House — in evidence? 8)

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 22, 2017

The churches chug right along as if all this historcial "there" is just not there, as if does not radically undercut their claim to be offering good news to the world. As if it not at the core of the support of white Christians for Moore and Trump. 9)

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 22, 2017

Personally, I don't think attempting to parse white evangelicals into "good" and "bad" categories is going to help much. I think that's a diversionary effort, an attempt to avoid facing something that's glaringly wrong in white U.S. Christianity. 10)

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) December 22, 2017