Evangelicals and the Postmodern Trap
Postmodern thought has laid a trap for American evangelicals, and they have fallen into it. For years now, American society has been shifting from modern to postmodern ways of thinking, and in that process, cultural foundations have become undone, affecting all areas of life, even the institution of the church. I would suggest that many American evangelical intellectual leaders have predicted these changes and written about these changes but have nonetheless catastrophically failed to understand the practical import of the changes. As a result, they have fallen into a two-pronged postmodern trap. In a postmodern world, narrative rather than a quest for objective truth is everything, and evangelicals have begun adopting postmodern narratives that ultimately undermine their faith. The first prong of this postmodern trap is unqualified evangelical acceptance of secular American society’s narrative about itself – a narrative that says the mainstream of secular society operates almost exclusively out of goodwill. The second prong of the trap is acceptance of the idea that American evangelicalism is, generally speaking, an irreligious construct centered in corruption. In my opinion, a key reason evangelicalism has been imploding in the United States is because of the number of its adherents who accept these two parts of a postmodern narrative.
In relation to the first-prong of the trap, far too many American evangelical leaders act as though they believe society when society says it operates almost exclusively out of goodwill. Evangelicals may critique certain social trends as being opposed to Christian orthodoxy, but, more and more, evangelical intellectual leaders do so with the underlying assumption that the trend is a confused but honest mistake rather than a sin requiring repentance, which would have been an older evangelical way of interpreting events. Examples abound. Many evangelical leaders decry abortion but assume that no one, in particular an expectant mother, would actually want an abortion; these leaders, against all evidence, refuse to believe that someone would actually want to terminate their own child. Similarly, evangelical leaders may teach that the practices of homosexuality and transgenderism are wrong, but they act as though they view such sexual practices as misplaced love and identity and never as lack of self-control or any other category falling outside what is deemed to be virtue. On any point popular with American society at large, many evangelicals simply do not believe the mainstream of the populace would act out of bad faith. Such evangelicals pay lip service to the generic idea that humans are sinners, but they have trouble seeing any intellectually popular sin as being actually bad.
Such an assumption, however, has massive implications for both theology and politics. For example, evangelicals who adopt the narrative but try to adhere to traditional Christian orthodoxy are a mass of contradictions. Among other things, if they adhere to orthodox doctrines on hell, they are left awkwardly arguing that God sends basically good people to hell if those people do not know Christ. After all, society’s elites operate out of goodwill, per the narrative, so there are not many actually bad people anyway, sinners though they may be. Evangelicals who adopt the narrative are also left arguing that in forbidding the practice of homosexuality, transgenderism, or even sex outside of marriage, God was randomly denying humanity basic goods that would have been worthwhile had God not said to abstain. In other words, society says that almost any form of sexuality is good, and many evangelical leaders seem to see no reason to object, arguing instead that people should merely refrain from such behavior due to random rules. On issue after issue, evangelicals who adopt society’s narrative about itself are left with no way to reconcile key elements of their faith with a world that disagrees with those elements and, seemingly, needs not repent before God. Make no mistake. If there is no need for humans to repent of sin, the entire evangelical framework falls apart.
The practical effects of assuming that the bulk of society operates out of basic goodwill has political implications too. Evangelicals who accept the narrative then have to adhere to anything academia tells them because scholars would not lie, according to the narrative. Moreover, if the bulk of society operates out of goodwill, why would harsh punishment be warranted for temporarily misguided criminals? Why would anyone need guns to defend themselves from crime? Why would countries need large military budgets, regulated borders, police forces, or even checks and balances on government itself, since government says it is dedicated to public service? Evangelicals who adopt the narrative that most of society operates out of goodwill strip themselves of the ability to criticize it at all, even if those evangelicals adhere to traditional Christian orthodoxy in every other way.
The second prong of the postmodern trap works similarly and builds off of the first prong. Evangelicals, like most people, recognize that there are problems in the world. Those adhering to some form of orthodoxy believe in sin and in the need for Christ. But if they cannot criticize a secularized world that is assumed to operate out of goodwill, they are left with only one other group to criticize – themselves. And that is when postmodern society springs the rest of the trap by claiming that evangelicalism must be an irreligious construct centered in corruption. Evangelicals who adopted the first prong of the trap have to agree, since a knowledgeable society operating out of basic goodwill would not lie nor intentionally distort the truth.
Thus, evangelicals are forced to hold themselves responsible for every form of abuse present in American life, for every piece of power-grasping behavior, for every political event gone wrong, past and present. There is no one else, under the terms of the narrative, to hold responsible. Every flaw in an evangelical leader becomes representative of evangelicalism as a whole. Every temporary fad becomes part of the core of evangelicalism. Every extremist church is the responsibility of all other churches of any denomination. See how society frames the narrative. Who do evangelicals loyally follow? Per society and a recent popular book, they follow John Wayne not Jesus, even though attending a typical church service in most denominations would quickly dispel that notion. Who was responsible for the worst excesses of Trump? Per society, evangelicals were, even though many sectors of the evangelical world tied themselves in knots trying to figure out how to address Trump’s candidacy. Who was responsible for racism? Evangelicals were, even though at least a few of them have gone out of their way historically to fight slavery and, more recently, to try to heal racial divides. Who was responsible for sexual abuse? Evangelicals were, even though they were among the first to complain about the objectification of women in Hollywood. On every front, on almost every issue, evangelicals are said to be the fly in the ointment of the American cultural milieu, and the evangelical leaders who accepted the first prong of the postmodern trap logically have to accept the second prong. Sadly, they do so.
Those who do not then deconstruct their faith and depart evangelicalism entirely are left to try to pick up the pieces from a philosophical war that, practically speaking, they have already lost without knowing it. Usually, they try to move the needle by apologizing to the world on behalf of evangelicals, promising to do better, and through coffee shop meetings showing themselves to be a part of a new brand of authentic, genuine Christians who are not like all of those “other” evangelicals. That strategy will not work. First, by accepting that the bulk of society operates out of goodwill and that evangelicals generally do not, the leaders who fall into the postmodern trap can never be truly prophetic voices in society. For consistency’s sake, they have to follow what society says; they can only call something sin once society’s leaders, operating out of goodwill, also deem it to be so. For instance, society currently (though artificially) denounces racism but not legally unlimited abortion. Thus, evangelical victims of the postmodern trap can comfortably denounce racists, but they cannot and do not comfortably and clearly denounce those who support abortion. Racism is bad (as indeed it is), but abortion is a policy discussion. Only when society at large decides to denounce the supporters of legally unlimited abortion will evangelical victims of the postmodern trap also do so without hesitation. In other words, the evangelicals who accept the premises of the postmodern trap will always find themselves lagging behind and never leading any societal crusade. They shatter their own potential to influence the world for good.
Additionally, their promises to do better than past evangelicals will also ultimately fail because they hold themselves to such high standards for perfection. They accept society’s condemnation of evangelicals as a whole, so they try to start a new movement. But no generation of Christians has ever been perfect, and the current generation will be no different. At some point, in even the most reform-minded church, a church officer will steal money and abscond in a sordid affair with the church pianist, and the evangelical leaders who promised to be perfect and do better and show the world how authentic they are will have to start all over again. The process is one of destruction and not of construction.
The number of evangelical leaders who fall prey to the postmodern trap are, sadly, numerous, and they are on a path that will ultimately crush their own leadership ability. They can, however, extricate themselves; the success of the trap is not inevitable. First, they need to quit listening to the cacophony of voices from secular American society and instead focus on God’s Word as expressed in the Bible. Though that Word clearly shows all humans are not as bad as we could be, it also shows that we are all in rebellion against God when outside of relationship with Christ. Thus, no reason exists to implicitly trust everything secular American society says about itself. Christians can accept and enjoy good where we find it, but a healthy dose of skepticism should also be present. Christians do not have to change their beliefs in reaction to every socially-approved claim from academics, media, Hollywood, or politicians. They have to compare what anyone says to God’s Word, and God’s Word presents a picture of human nature that is somewhat more negative than American secular society claims. People really do sin in horribly selfish ways, and theology and politics would do well to acknowledge that.
Second, evangelical leaders need to remember that, despite sins and failures, evangelicals really do have good things to say when proclaiming the Word of God. Evangelicals will never be perfect and any attempt to create a perfect movement will fail until Christ Himself establishes a new heavens and a new earth. But evangelicals can be confident they know some truth, and they should behave accordingly. They do not have to cower at every criticisms the world offers. Their deeper concern should be when they stray from God’s Word.
That said, evangelicals should always strive to reform and repent of their own sins. One way to do that is to remember that, at least in the context of this essay, each evangelical’s sin does not represent every evangelical’s sin. When one church does something horrific, that does not mean all churches are guilty of that particular harm. Indeed, members of other evangelical denominations may not even have any authority whatsoever to replace that church’s leaders. So when evangelical churches reform and repent of sin, they need to do so with specificity. Contrary to postmodern narratives, every sin is not a failure of evangelicalism as a whole and can usually be traced to specific individuals, denominations, and leaders.
In conclusion then, postmodern American thought sets a two-pronged trap for American evangelicals. The first prong of that trap tries to convince evangelicals that secular society operates largely out of goodwill. The second prong argues that evangelicals do not so operate. Evangelical leaders who fall into the trap are headed for philosophical destruction that neuters the effectiveness of evangelical culture. Happily, evangelical leaders can extricate themselves from the trap by re-focusing on God’s Word, remembering that evangelicals do know some truth and can offer good to society, and by repenting of sins with specificity and keeping in mind that each evangelical’s sin is not necessarily a failure of evangelicalism as a whole.