Us vs Us?

I am fast becoming a fan of Bill Svelmoe. His credentials impress me. His use of the English language and ability to paint some clear pictures with his words are skills that I aspire to.  That said, his introduction on Facebook and his essay from ten years ago speak volumes. 

These words make sense to me. Share them as you may. I post them here with Bill's permission. 

Michael Sheehan

1/17/21

 

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January 17, 2021

There has been much talk the past week, including on this page, about Protestant evangelicals. They took a leadership role in Trump's army of insurrection after all. As a consequence I've had a number of questions along the lines of, who are these folks.

So I though I would post a tongue-in-cheek but entirely accurate, if I do say so myself, definition of evangelicals and evangelicalism.

I wrote this ten years ago or so. Back when I had just published a novel set in the evangelical community and was getting a lot of questions. 

 

At the time I was still coming out of the culture myself, having grown up in it. Consequently I was still quite sanguine about the movement as a whole. In my defense, they had not yet sold their souls to Donald Trump. Any definition I wrote today would be much darker. And being so colored by the present might actually miss what this more light-hearted approach reveals.

 

In a post a few days ago, I addressed one of the factors that led white evangelicals to so quickly embrace Trump. The fact that they tend to see the world as good vs. evil, light vs. dark, God vs. Satan. Pointy-headed intellectuals refer to it as a Manichean religion. The world is dualistic. It's either this or that. Evangelicals are "this." The rest of us are "that." A strong man on the side of "this," God's side of course, as they know his desires better than the rest of us, is worth bending the knee.

Tomorrow I will address another factor that I think makes them easy prey for such folk.

But perhaps, in this more gentle description, you will be able to see the cracked door to the dark side.

 

Here is what I wrote a decade ago.

 

"A word about evangelicals. I grew up evangelical and can still pass for one when I have to today. I can speak the language. The term has been in common usage ever since a Baptist farmer from Georgia grinned his way to the presidency. Recent studies suggest that anywhere from twenty to forty percent of Americans are evangelicals, and anyone with any sense of history and current events is aware of the profound influence evangelicals have wielded on American culture. Sociological studies have shown that they're really regular folk, not that different from the rest of you, except that they talk about God ... a lot ... o.k., really a lot. 

 

For those still fuzzy on the concept, evangelicals are Protestants who tend to believe in a literal Bible and who base their faith and practice on that book. Consequently they know the Bible better than most and are convinced they understand it better than anyone. I'd read it completely through five times by the time I was twelve. I may have cheated a bit in Leviticus and Chronicles. I read every word of Song of Solomon. I wanted to be the young lover "like a stag leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills." I married my wife because her "hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead." 

 

Evangelicals feel they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Where the Puritans tended to talk more about God, evangelicals, at least since the mid-19th century, have gotten on much better with Jesus. God makes them nervous. They write big books of theology to make him behave. But they "come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses" to spend time with Jesus. Often they lay their heads on his breast. Jesus loves them, and they love him back. They express that love in daily "quiet times." Many carry on a running conversation with Jesus all through the day. He tells them where to go to college, who to marry, sometimes even where to eat. He finds parking spaces, fixes flats, heals diseases, and saves souls. He's a very handy guy.

But you have to make Jesus your Lord, your total boss, acknowledge your sin, and pray the sinner's prayer to get in on the good stuff. Most evangelicals know the day and the hour in which they were "born again." I prayed every night of my young life that Jesus would save me and get me born again. I was terrified of his dad, and thought Jesus might just sneak me in the back door. I still think he just might.

 

Evangelicals believe in miracles even if they’ve never seen one. Most think they have seen one at some point or other. At the very least in the transformation of their own hearts. There's a certain kind of evangelical called Pentecostal that believes that God is most definitely still in the miracle business today. They fill stadiums and fall down a lot and send an awful lot of money to guys with funky hair. Sometimes they even talk in languages that nobody knows, not even themselves. Linguists don't believe they're really languages, but then linguists are probably educated and have been infected with secular humanism. 

 

Evangelicals are impressively evangelistic. (The American press regularly confuses the two words, indicating the resilience of the cultural divide in this country as well as the willful obtuseness of the chattering class where religion is concerned.) Indeed virtually the entire current American missionary force has been sent out by evangelical churches. Africa, Asia, and Latin America are rapidly turning Protestant thanks to evangelicals. It's why I spent my formative years in a bamboo house up on stilts in the jungle. Even folks in the jungle, after all, have to be told they're going to hell. And given a chance to choose differently.

 

Finally, although it’s not a hard and fast rule, evangelicals tend toward the conservative, both culturally and politically, although few could offer a good reason why Jesus wouldn’t prefer the Democrats. Liberals and sinners, victims of secular humanism and original sin of all stripes, make them nervous. "Hate the sin but love the sinner" is their frequent mantra, but that doesn't mean they have to actually like such folk. Their most fervent prayer is that God would make them all Christians or make them go away. There’s very little in between. They’re looking forward to the rapture because they genuinely want to meet Jesus, but also because they'd like to get away from the rest of y'all."

 

I might add today that they don't intend to leave the rest of y'all alone. Read the book of Revelation for a preview of what they have planned for you. Spoiler alert. It ain't pretty ...

 

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