Has Evangelicalism become an essentially negative, fear-based form or expression of human religiosity? Why or why not?
Here's why I ask the question...
I grew up in a small, Midwestern town during the 1960s and 70s. At that time and place, the highest compliment you could give someone's morals and character was to call them, "A true Christian".
That term was taken quite seriously by nearly everyone of my acquaintance, and it meant someone with exemplary human decency, compassionate morals, generosity of heart and means, etc. who treated everyone -- high and low, saint and sinner, Black and White, etc -- with the same respect, compassion, and caring kindness. You honestly could not earn a higher accolade in my home town than to be called "a true Christian". It was a powerful ideal and I knew people who were not especially religious -- and sometimes not even Christian at all -- who aspired to that ideal in their own lives.
All that began to change sometime during the 1970s around the same time that droves of up-until-then politically apathetic Evangelicals became politically active in order to vote for Jimmy Carter during his first run for office. As the 70s turned into the 80s, the term "a true Christian" progressively lost its former status and meaning. Eventually, it fell into disuse among just about everyone except the Evangelicals. One day in the mid-90s, an old woman asked me if I could recall the time that term "meant something". We put our heads together and realized that neither one of use could remember the last time we had heard it used in its former meaning.
Now, I think at least three things might have happened to crush the idea that 'true Christians' have exemplary morals. First, the leaders of the Evangelical movement into politics seem to have had a largely negative agenda. Down with women's rights. Down with LGBTQ+ rights. Down with political liberalism. Down with the separation of church and state, etc. etc. etc. Conversely, they do not seem to have had much in the way of a positive agenda, except in terms of window dressing for their core negative agenda.
Second, those same leaders tended to drum up support for their agenda largely through promoting fear and hatred of the groups that opposed their negative agenda. They were unremarkable in promoting compassion, understanding, and kindness towards those who disagreed with them, to put it mildly.
Last, for much of the American public, they (and their followers) came to represent the face of Christianity. That is, the term 'Christian' came to be almost synonymous for many people with the term 'Evangelical' or (until 9/11) 'Fundamentalist'.
In combination, those three developments destroyed the traditional meaning of the phrase, "a true Christian" outside of the Evangelical community itself. Today, I believe it has been over 20 years since I last heard anyone who was not an Evangelical praise someone as "a true Christian".
All of which leads me to wonder if Evangelicalism is an essentially negative, fear-based form of religiosity? If not, why do Evangelical leaders -- and so very many Evangelical followers -- seem preoccupied -- or, more than preoccupied. Obsessed. -- with who they fear and hate? Is that impression of Evangelicals an illusion, or is there any substance to it?
Here's why I ask the question...
I grew up in a small, Midwestern town during the 1960s and 70s. At that time and place, the highest compliment you could give someone's morals and character was to call them, "A true Christian".
That term was taken quite seriously by nearly everyone of my acquaintance, and it meant someone with exemplary human decency, compassionate morals, generosity of heart and means, etc. who treated everyone -- high and low, saint and sinner, Black and White, etc -- with the same respect, compassion, and caring kindness. You honestly could not earn a higher accolade in my home town than to be called "a true Christian". It was a powerful ideal and I knew people who were not especially religious -- and sometimes not even Christian at all -- who aspired to that ideal in their own lives.
All that began to change sometime during the 1970s around the same time that droves of up-until-then politically apathetic Evangelicals became politically active in order to vote for Jimmy Carter during his first run for office. As the 70s turned into the 80s, the term "a true Christian" progressively lost its former status and meaning. Eventually, it fell into disuse among just about everyone except the Evangelicals. One day in the mid-90s, an old woman asked me if I could recall the time that term "meant something". We put our heads together and realized that neither one of use could remember the last time we had heard it used in its former meaning.
Now, I think at least three things might have happened to crush the idea that 'true Christians' have exemplary morals. First, the leaders of the Evangelical movement into politics seem to have had a largely negative agenda. Down with women's rights. Down with LGBTQ+ rights. Down with political liberalism. Down with the separation of church and state, etc. etc. etc. Conversely, they do not seem to have had much in the way of a positive agenda, except in terms of window dressing for their core negative agenda.
Second, those same leaders tended to drum up support for their agenda largely through promoting fear and hatred of the groups that opposed their negative agenda. They were unremarkable in promoting compassion, understanding, and kindness towards those who disagreed with them, to put it mildly.
Last, for much of the American public, they (and their followers) came to represent the face of Christianity. That is, the term 'Christian' came to be almost synonymous for many people with the term 'Evangelical' or (until 9/11) 'Fundamentalist'.
In combination, those three developments destroyed the traditional meaning of the phrase, "a true Christian" outside of the Evangelical community itself. Today, I believe it has been over 20 years since I last heard anyone who was not an Evangelical praise someone as "a true Christian".
All of which leads me to wonder if Evangelicalism is an essentially negative, fear-based form of religiosity? If not, why do Evangelical leaders -- and so very many Evangelical followers -- seem preoccupied -- or, more than preoccupied. Obsessed. -- with who they fear and hate? Is that impression of Evangelicals an illusion, or is there any substance to it?