The New Evangelical Scandal, Civitate
Even though the sociology has not yet caught up, the narrative of a new breed of evangelicalism has taken hold among the media and political elites. The narrative is doubtlessly popular in part due to wishful thinking by Democrats and their media-savvy friends; yet as a young evangelical myself, it is impossible to discount entirely. Even if the outline of our theology is broadly the same as our parents, as it is for an increasing number of conservative evangelicals, our ethos is different. And the differences are not strictly political—the political trends among young evangelicals that have received so much attention are grounded in different concerns and emphases that undergird younger evangelicals’ approach to culture and spirituality as well. This new ethos is largely a reaction to the abuses, failures, and excesses of our parents’ generation and contains significant clues as to the future of evangelicalism in America.
It’s a long article, but worth the read, by a 26 yr old evangelical who’s been thinking deeply about it all. You aren’t likely to agree with all of it, but it will stimulate your thinking, at least.
January 21st, 2009 11:57 am
Very interesting read. Thanks for posting that.
He makes a lot of good points, but some of his thoughts (on youth pastors and sexuality, the desire for ‘authenticity’, the assumption that innerancy needs to be accepted by evangelicals to keep the movement going, the assumption that the “emerging” leaders haven’t read classic evangelical writings, and the assumption that at their core younger evangelicals just want to be “cool”, to name a few) seem to be based on nothing more than his own musings. I’m sure that he has read some books by some of the leaders of the younger evangelicals, but pinning the writings of a few ‘leaders’ on an entire generation and calling it their creed or whatever is a bit rash, I think. Still, his point that the younger evangelical tendency toward non-partisan politics will go against the gears of the system is very intriguing. He is completely right, and it would be good for those who think it’s cool to somehow transcend politics by not selecting a party to reflect deeply on their decision and realize that their choice could have bigger implications than they realize.