Popular Evangelicalism in American Culture

Richard Kyle, Richard G. Kyle

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138297968
• eBook ISBN: 9781351581530
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Religión

Popular Evangelicalism in American Culture explores the controversies, complexities, and historical development of the evangelical movement in America and its impact on American culture. Evangelicalism is one of the most dynamic and growing religious movements in America and has been both a major force in shaping American society and likewise a group which has resisted aspects of the modern world. Organised thematically this book demonstrates the impact of American culture on popular evangelicalism by exploring the following topics:

• politics;
• economics;
• salvation;
• millennialism;
• the megachurch and electronic churches;
• and popular culture.

This accessible and thought-provoking volume will interest anyone concerned with the modern-day success of the Evangelical movement in America.

1 At home in American culture

The Bible urges Christians “to be in the world but not of the world.” At best this is a difficult and complex task. But what happens when one resides in the comfortable, affluent, and seductive American society? The Apostle Paul complicates matters even more. In one place he tells us that he has become “all things to all people” in order to win some to the cause of Christ. In another passage, he admonishes Christians to not conform themselves to this age.

Most forms of religion, however, 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 has been 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. According to Leith Anderson—an advocate of the church growth movement—“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.”¹

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 groups 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 the Americanization of evangelicalism—a development that has not followed a smooth and uninterrupted path. At times it has been paradoxical, meaning that evangelicals have resisted aspects of the modern world. On other occasions, evangelicalism has been a major force in shaping American society, especially in the nineteenth century. Still, the focus will be on evangelicalism’s romance with popular culture and its influence on the evangelical faith, particularly in the modern era. And the approach will be thematic, hopefully demonstrating how the Americanization of evangelicalism has influenced how evangelicals view a number of subjects: the nation’s heritage, politics, economics, God, Jesus, salvation, millennialism, mental therapy, worship, and doing church in general. In fact, Randall Balmer has characterized “the final quarter of the twentieth century as an era of capitulation on the part of evangelicals to the larger culture.”³

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 mind of many evangelicals, Christianity and American civilization (as it existed before the 1960s) were one and the same. 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.

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.

Being absorbed by the culture, however, does not eliminate the paradoxical nature of evangelicalism. In noting this development, Martin Marty and James Hunter 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 doing so, 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.⁴

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.

The impact of religious disestablishment

It would be difficult to exaggerate the impact of religious disestablishment upon American religion, especially the 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.⁵

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 the personality. They do not gather around doctrines or church organizations but tend to follow a charismatic leader.⁶

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.⁷

Throughout the nineteenth century, religious disestablishment greatly benefited evangelicals. It enabled them to expand numerically and to establish a cultural consensus around their values. But the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have not been as kind to evangelicals. By the late twentieth century, a combination of social, intellectual, and demographic assaults had destroyed their cultural dominance. As a result, many evangelicals now desired to restore their cultural hegemony by means of legislation. They want the government to legalize prayer in the classroom, teach creation science, provide public support for private education, rescind the policy prohibiting religious leaders from endorsing political candidates, and ban abortion and same-sex marriages. And in pressuring the government to enact such provisions, they are undermining church separation.⁸

The direction 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 the 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. While Bush declared himself to be an evangelical, the Republicans did not have such a candidate in the elections of 2008 and 2012. Still, evangelicals voted Republican in overwhelming numbers. As noted, while Donald Trump’s evangelical commitment remained suspect, 80 percent of evangelicals still voted for him. Consequently, few Republicans can ignore their agenda and expect to remain in office. Even other religious bodies noted evangelicalism’s numerical success and to some extent emulated it. The characteristics of the evangelical style—“its strongly personal 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.”⁹

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 Kelly 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.¹⁰

This study will argue t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1 At home in American culture
• 2 One nation under God
• 3 One market under God
• 4 The millennial nation: two versions
• 5 An evangelical gospel takes shape
• 6 What can God do for me?
• 7 The bigger the better: megachurches and American culture
• 8 Religion can be entertaining: the electronic church
• 9 Evangelicalism embraces the popular culture
• 10 Epilogue
• Select bibliography
• Index