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The Evangelical Paradox
“We cannot view the church as an island isolated from the rest of society. It cannot be isolated. As the culture changes, the church changes”—says Leith Anderson, an advocate of the church growth movement.1 Most forms of religion have a close relationship with the surrounding culture. At times they influence culture and on other occasions they are shaped by the civilization in which they reside. This may be particularly true with American culture, especially its popular version. Few religious groups (and secular entities for that matter) have successfully resisted its powerful tug. Immigrant Catholicism became Americanized; mainline Protestantism accommodated itself to the modern world; Reform Judaism is at home in American society; and even some Eastern religions have had to make adjustments in order to market their faith.
In Christ and Culture, theologian H. Richard Niebuhr noted the ways in which Christ could transform culture. In the United States the opposite has happened—“culture has transformed Christ, as well as all other religions found within these shores. In every aspect of religious life, American faith has met American culture—and the culture has triumphed,” notes Alan Wolfe.2 Still, all religious bodies have not caved in. Eastern Orthodoxy has remained more traditional and some Old Order Mennonite groups have dug in their heels.
This book is about evangelicalism’s paradoxical relationship with American culture. While noting conservative Protestantism’s resistance to aspects of the modern world, the focus will be on evangelicalism’s romance with popular culture. For the most part, evangelicalism has been thoroughly acculturated—perhaps more than any other religious body in America. Evangelicals have not created a Christian America. Rather, they have developed an Americanized Christianity and they cannot tell the difference between the two. In the other direction, two trends are observable. Acculturation is a two-way street. Evangelicals have also influenced American culture, especially its religious component. Viewing the growth of evangelical churches, other religious bodies have adopted some of its methods and characteristics. But in other ways evangelicalism has been a counterculture movement. It has resisted certain national moral trends and its fundamentalist branch has often retreated from society. (This opposition to national sins, however, is often more talk than walk. As will be noted later, evangelical moral practices frequently parallel those of the general population.)
The first tendency—the acculturation of evangelicalism—has dominated and has been a key to evangelicalism’s numerical success. Rather than develop a viable subculture, evangelicals have created a counterfeit culture—that is, they have baptized and sanctified secular culture. For a religious group to be successful, it must be culturally relevant. For any religious body, however, there is only a fine line between being relevant to its surrounding culture and being absorbed by the culture. American evangelicalism has stepped over this line.
Granted that evangelicalism is tremendously diverse—nearly defying definition—generalizations are extremely difficult. Still, an attempt will be made to survey evangelicalism’s relationship with American culture since the eighteenth century. For much of its history, evangelicalism has accommodated popular culture. This trend has accelerated in the late twentieth century, but it is certainly not new. The popular character of evangelicalism was evident even in colonial America. Because this accommodation has increased in recent years, special emphasis will be placed on the late twentieth century and movements that have been most adaptable to contemporary American culture.
Martin Marty and James Hunter also note the evangelical paradox. They contend that “evangelicalism has remained a cognitive minority but has emerged as a sociocultural majority.” Evangelicalism still embraces its core beliefs and values. But at the same time, it has adapted itself to the secular world. In so doing, evangelicalism has become a middle-class movement, which dominates America’s culture. Because evangelicals have become culturally mainstream, their social acceptance has greatly increased. All of this has come about because of the tremendous pressure on evangelicalism to accommodate itself to American culture—something it has done very well.3
To a large extent, the evangelical paradox is unavoidable. On one hand, evangelicals are a traditional people. They embrace traditional values and the historic faith. Thus, evangelicalism can be called “the old-time religion.” On the other hand, they take very seriously the great commission—that is, to bring the good news to other people. They believe in reaching out and in church growth. Like the rest of American society, evangelicals are quantitatively, not qualitatively oriented. The disestablishment of religion in America has created a free market for religion. To succeed in a free market, a religion (or anything else for that matter) must appeal to the people. And this often entails incorporating the latest cultural fads into worship and other aspects of religious life. As a result, evangelicals are at once a very traditional but culturally accommodating people.
Church-State Separation
It would be difficult to exaggerate the impact of religious disestablishment upon American religion, especially its evangelical version. On one hand, the First Amendment has created an exciting, diverse, and vibrant religious climate—“one unmatched in any Western culture…”notes Randall Balmer. The government’s laissez-faire attitude toward religion has made it a market economy with no government support or restrictions. Perhaps more than any other religious type, the evangelicals have capitalized on this dynamic and innovative religious climate. They have emphasized the experiential aspect of religion and used the most creative methods to promote their faith. In doing so, their numbers have grown dramatically.4
On the other hand, this free exercise of religious freedom has come at a price. It has prompted American religion—especially evangelicalism—to become “unabashedly populist.” Evangelicals have championed the spiritual superiority of the common person against the elite or learned clergy. In doing so, they have reduced serious religious thinking to its lowest common denominator. Evangelicalism’s obsession with numbers since the mid-twentieth century has caused the movement to pander unashamedly to the popular tastes of American culture. Serious worship has “degenerated into showmanship,” often with a circus atmosphere. Evangelicals view America as God’s chosen nation and feel that they (and the nation, too) have a corner on divine truth and righteousness. They have sanctified large segments of American culture, especially its consumerism and middle-class values. Worse yet, evangelicals have a tendency to gravitate toward charismatic personalities who embody the traits they desire—populist, sensational, nonconformist, and independent. American evangelicals have indeed embraced the cult of personality. They do not gather around doctrines or church organizations but tend to follow a charismatic leader.5
Paradoxically, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries many evangelicals—especially those identified with the Religious Right—have little desire to maintain the separation of church and state. They contend that the “wall of separation between church and state” cannot be found in the First Amendment. Rather, the Supreme Court drew this language from Jefferson’s 1802 Danbury letter and has since interpreted the Constitution in such a way. And even if the separation of church and state is legitimate, this interpretation should not entail the separation of religion from culture and the demand that religion should be removed from all aspects of public life. To employ a phrase coined by Richard John Neuhaus, a “naked public square” is not required by the First Amendment.6
Throughout the nineteenth century, religious disestablishment greatly benefited the evangelicals. It enabled them to expand numerically and to establish a cultural consensus around their values. But the twentieth century has not been as kind to evangelical values. A combination of social, intellectual, and demographic assaults destroyed their cultural dominance. As a result, many evangelicals now desire to restore their cultural hegemony by means of legislation. They want the government to legalize prayer in the classroom, provide public support for private education, and ban abortion and same sex marriages. And in pressuring the government to enact such provisions, they are undermining church-state separation.7
The Flow of Culture
The acculturation of Christianity flows in several directions. The more mainstream liberal denominations have tended to accommodate their faith to the elite culture, that is, science, psychology, sociology and more. Conversely, evangelicals have adjusted their faith to the popular culture, including its highly personal, experiential, intellectually shallow, and growth-oriented tendencies. But the result has often been the same. The elite culture is frequently hostile to Christianity and thus promotes a more secular society. Conversely, evangelicalism has Christianized secular society, often with the same results. Society is superficially Christian but with a secular core.
The influence, however, can run the other way. From the White House to the halls of Congress, politicians know that evangelicals are a powerful voice with which they must reckon. In the elections of 2000 and 2004, about 35 to 40 percent of George W. Bush’s votes came from conservative Protestants. Consequently, few Republicans can ignore their agenda and expect to remain in office. Even other religious bodies have noted evangelicalism’s numerical success and to some extent emulated it. The characteristics of the evangelical style—“its strongly personalist and therapeutic tendencies, its market savvy approaches to expanding the flock, and even a certain theological fuzziness—have permeated other faith traditions in America, including Roman Catholicism and Judaism.”8
If numerical growth is the standard, evangelicalism has been enormously successful since the mid-twentieth century. During the same time, mainline Protestantism has experienced a significant decline. Some estimates suggest that up to one-half of the Protestants in America may be regarded as evangelicals. What has caused this situation? In his 1972 book, Why Conservative Churches are Growing, Dean Kelley set forth an idea that dominated for years. He argued that people are seeking the meaning to life. In maintaining both their faith and lifestyle standards, conservative churches have exhibited “traits of strictness”: absolute beliefs, moral and social nonconformity, and a missionary zeal.9
This study will argue that such an idea is only part of the answer. Yes, evangelicals have generally maintained their belief system and resisted a number of contemporary moral trends. But at the same time they have bought heavily into the popular culture—so much so that in many respects the evangelical subculture is really secular culture sprayed over lightly with a coating of Christianity.
Several scholars note the acculturation of American evangelicalism. “The Christian faith is unrivaled among the world religions for its genius in innovation and adaptation. And no branch of the Christian faith has demonstrated this genius more often and more successfully than the evangelical movement,” argues Os Guinness. Or as he puts it differently elsewhere, “Fundamentalism…prided itself on being world-denying by definition. Today…it has become world-affirming in a worldlier and more compromising way than…liberalism.”10 For this and other reasons, Mark Noll includes the words flexible and adaptable in his list of evangelical characteristics. Indeed, evangelicals have been “pervasively shaped by their particular cultures.”11
Thanks to television and other innovations in the last thirty years or so, popular culture has become a more dominant force than ever before—so much so that success in many areas of life depends on how one relates to popular trends. Because of the free religious market in America and evangelicalism’s emphasis on winning converts, it has fallen prey to the winds of popular culture more than has either mainline Protestantism or Catholicism.
In some evangelical churches, this accommodation to popular culture has reached ridiculous proportions. One large Texas church has stated its plan—namely, “to create a worship service…that is fast-paced, light on doctrine, and very heavy on music and drama.” They were not concerned with be being “holier-than-thou” but rather with being “trendier-than-thou.” Another church advertises, “Church Like You’ve Never Seen It Before! Outstanding music…no choirs or pipe organs here. Our music is crisp, contemporary, professional, and yes, even hot! World Class Drama…presents a dramatic performance specifically designed to enhance…messages…tailored for people in the 90s.” Several years ago in another Texas church service, the pastor honored an individual and his wife for bringing six friends to chu...
