Why Many White Evangelicals Have Succumbed to Conspiracies and Extremism

 

Why Many White Evangelicals Have Succumbed to Conspiracies and Extremism

reflections by Rev. Troy B. Cady

 

A recent study by the American Enterprise Institute[i] highlights a disturbing connection between conspiracy theories, extremism, and white evangelicals in the United States. Here are some snippets from the report.[ii]

1. Regarding the claim that antifa activists were to blame for the attack on the Capitol: “49% of white evangelical Protestants…said the antifa claim was completely or mostly true.”

2. 62% of white evangelicals believe there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. 63% believe President Joe Biden’s victory was “not legitimate.”

3. 55% of white evangelicals believe there is “a group of unelected government officials in Washington, D.C., referred to as the ‘Deep State’, working to undermine the Trump administration.”

4. 41% of white evangelicals completely or somewhat agreed with the statement “if elected leaders will not protect America, the people must do it themselves even if it requires taking violent actions.”

In an interview with NPR, Daniel Cox (director of AEI’s Survey Center on American Life) states: “As with a lot of questions in the survey, white evangelicals stand out in terms of their belief in conspiracy theories and the idea that violence can be necessary. They're far more likely to embrace all these different conspiracies.”[iii]

In another interview, Mr. Cox was asked why evangelicals were more likely to hold these views. As an ordained minister with an evangelical background myself, I offer some thoughts on this question below. I write this in part to help explain to those who are not evangelical how aspects within the evangelical subculture can naturally lead to these conclusions. I also write this to my evangelical friends in hopes of helping us reflect on how certain aspects of the evangelical belief system can be distorted in such a way as to hinder not only our witness in the world but also our ability to follow Jesus faithfully.    

 

1. The Battle Motif. White evangelicals are used to thinking of the world as a battlefield. Granted, there are forces in society that are antagonistic to evangelical faith, but I have noticed over the years that images of warfare have seemed to proliferate within evangelicalism to the detriment of faith. This proliferation occurs through mainstream elements of evangelical culture, such as the music industry, radio programs, celebrity teachers and even popular fiction (the best-selling Left Behind series about the end times is just one example of this).  

Many of the top Christian contemporary songs today tap into this motif by utilizing images of fighting, life-as-a-war, and emerging victorious over one’s enemies. Songs and teachings like these are held up by texts in Scripture that describe life as a “spiritual battle,” including certain texts in the Old Testament that portray the people of God in militaristic terms.

In terms of evangelical engagement in the world, one of the most common expressions one might hear in evangelical circles is the expression that evangelicals want to “take America back for Christ.” The general consensus among most evangelicals is that there is a culture war going on around us every day, and we need to stand up and be counted. The so-called “war on Christmas” is just one example of this.

For this reason, many evangelicals will have a love-hate attitude towards the commercial by Jeep during this year’s Super Bowl (which featured Bruce Springsteen driving to the center-point of the United States).[iv] On the one hand, evangelicals will love the implicit Christian message that portrays a small chapel sitting at the center of “the lower 48” with a cross inside that has been superimposed over an American flag. On the other hand, most evangelicals will strongly disagree with the message that we all just need to “meet in the middle.” There can be no compromise when it comes to war.

 

2. Deception, a Ploy of the Enemy. Because white evangelicals tend to view the world as a place of relentless antagonism, they feel as though they must constantly be on their guard against one of the greatest tactics of the Enemy: deception. This means that information which comes to them from a non-Christian source needs to be doubly tested for accuracy and this, in turn, creates an appetite for alternative facts and narratives that fit the evangelical worldview. The fact that the white evangelical version of reality differs widely from the way most people in the world see it just reinforces the conviction that Christians are privy to the truth and the rest of the world is (at best) deceived or (at worst) deceivers. White evangelicals are, thus, more prone to see anything coming from mainstream media as “fake news.”

This is partly why many white evangelicals still distrust the theory of evolution[v], thinking of it in conspiratorial terms (a huge deception foisted on the populace by the scientific community). To keep believers from falling prey to this deception, many evangelicals have gone to great lengths to offer their own alterative account of biological life. Still today a large number of evangelicals believe in a literal seven-day creation event, so you may find copious materials demonstrating (from a scientific perspective) that the earth/universe is much younger than most scientists claim. This, in turn, leads to certain views related to caring for the environment, climate change, and even what most scientists have had to say about the coronavirus pandemic.

 

3. A Belief that Humanity is Totally Depraved. White evangelicals have come by this pessimistic view of humanity via Scripture texts that state “all are sinful”[vi] and, specifically, the apostle Paul’s teaching that humans are “slaves to sin.”[vii] These texts, in turn, have been interpreted for centuries by great theologians like Augustine and (more precisely) the Reformed scholastics (next-gen Calvinists) who described humans as “totally depraved.”

Since the doctrine of total depravity encompasses the whole person (including one’s intellect), it is easy to see how this specific doctrine can lead many evangelicals to regard everyday people with suspicion (at best) and disdain (at worst). This way of viewing people tends to reinforce the battle motif (referenced above) and the suspicion that one is being lied to all the time. What sets up this terrible predicament is that most evangelicals view this doctrine as a non-negotiable aspect of the true gospel: the admission that one is sinful through and through must precede the reception of the forgiveness that saves. There is no way around it and to insinuate otherwise is to invite apostasy.  

 

4. Conversion, Truth-seeing, and Gnosticism. The way out of this sad (totally depraved) state is by conversion, which evangelicals sometimes describe in the same terms as the beloved hymn Amazing Grace: “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” This experience of conversion is so crucial to evangelicals that the British historian David Bebbington has identified it as one of just four factors in describing the core features of evangelicalism.[viii] The expression “born-again Christian” refers to this because the experience of conversion feels like a new lease on life, a chance to start again and live as a totally new person. It is derived from something Jesus said to a religious leader once: “You must be born again.”[ix]

This genuine experience of conversion then gets distorted for the white evangelical into what one could fairly describe as a version of Gnosticism, which is actually something that Jesus would oppose. Among other features, Gnosticism contains the idea that only a select group of enlightened people know the truth about reality and it is their job to guard the truth. There is a certain gnostic element to conspiracy-theory thinking in that both claim to have a knowledge of the truth that is special and unknown to the average person. To the extent that white evangelicals are prone to gnostic tendencies, they will also be more likely to buy into conspiracy theories. 

 

5. Conversion and Activism. As those who have experienced the liberating effects of conversion and truth-seeing, evangelicals take it as a sacred calling to enlighten others about this truth by urging more people to convert. Bebbington describes this as one form of evangelical “activism,” a factor that also features prominently in his description of evangelicalism overall.

Bebbington also notes that the activist streak in evangelicalism is worked out in efforts to improve society and alleviate the ills that cause or perpetuate human suffering. He documents the role that evangelicals played in abolishing slavery, working for labor reform, promoting sobriety through the temperance movement, establishing hospitals, providing housing for orphans and facilitating adoptions (not to mention a whole host of other projects to promote the common good).

Within current streams of evangelicalism, this activist streak has involved passionate advocacy for the rights of the unborn through seeking political and legislative reform on the issue of abortion. Evangelicals see abortion as a grave societal disease (at least on par with the practice of enslavement that still continues today, especially in the form of sex trafficking).

Because most Republicans oppose abortion (especially for any and every reason), evangelicals (especially white evangelicals, but not solely) affiliate with the Republican party. It really is that simple: millions of lives are on the line, quite literally.

 

6. An Extreme Faith. Though evangelicals will be quick to acknowledge that the greatest commandments are to love God and love neighbor,[x] these commands fall under the banner of something even more fundamental: the core Christian creed that “Jesus is Lord.”[xi] This means that a Christian is one who gives total, unconditional, and unreserved allegiance to King Jesus. In that sense, Christianity could be fairly described as an extreme faith—but this need not be a bad thing, if it is infused with a redemptive, life-giving quality.

For the devoted Christian (evangelical or otherwise), this means that there is no aspect of life that lies outside the practice of one’s faith (including government, commerce, arts & entertainment, literature, the study of history, science, family, money, and sexuality). To love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength is to offer all one’s faculties to God as an act of worship and devotion—and to approach any aspect of life as an “ambassador”[xii] of this way.

When this allegiance is coupled with a sense of mission to transform society and, specifically, a militant, coercive or manipulative means to that end, white Christian nationalism becomes a virtually inevitable outcome. That is why you will find white evangelicals so intertwined with these movements that, ironically, are threatening to destroy us from the inside out.

 

An Invitation to Change

This form of Christianity (white Christian nationalism) is a distortion of the true spirit of Christianity in that it tethers the essence of Christianity to a particular nation, culture, and man-made political philosophy. White Christian nationalism violates the essence of the gospel and betrays the very heart of evangelicalism in that it dishonors Jesus’ commission to his followers to go into all the world to make disciples of all nations.[xiii]

It should give American evangelicals pause when we spend so much time and energy defending the virtues of whiteness or the greatness of our country. The Bible has a word for such passions: idolatry. These matters distract us from the greater work of sharing (by word and deed) the good news of Jesus with all, a message that can be received regardless of one’s national background or political affiliation. The way of Jesus disrupts our mere man-made political machinations.

Thus, this work of disciple-making (that forms the very core of one’s evangelical calling) becomes poisoned when it is also treated as converting people into the (ideal) American way of life or assessing someone’s allegiance to Jesus based on whether they are a Republican or a Democrat.  

It will be a supremely difficult work to change this within white evangelicalism, however, because of the stubbornness of evangelicals to hold on to their beliefs, buttressed by a sense of suspicion towards the world’s wiles and a sense of fidelity to their King (who has sent them out into the world with marching orders which they are not at liberty to question in the least).

It is no small paradox that coming out of this way of living in the world requires nothing short of a conversion, a rediscovery of what it means to follow Jesus, and an openness to read Scripture through the eyes of One who described himself as “gentle and humble of heart,” the Servant of servants. Perhaps evangelicals need to be reminded that following in the footsteps of Jesus involves laying down one’s life without forcing an agenda or doing violence to the lives of others in the process. Sadly, to the extent that white evangelicals think of themselves as soldiers, such a militaristic approach will prevail, buttressed by a belief in the nobility of martyrdom.

It is really a question of extremes and there is no escaping this for the evangelical Christian. Jesus said that there is no greater love than to lay one’s life down for another.[xiv] And the apostle Paul adds that God showed God’s love for us in that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[xv] Because of love, our heavenly Father went to great lengths (extreme lengths) to reveal his heart to us by sending his one and only Son, who gave up his own life for us. This was all because of love and only because of love. There was no forcing, no cultural engineering, no political manipulation, and no secretiveness about it. It was all out in the open for all to see, plain and simple.

Yes, Jesus’ life involved conflict with adverse powers, but I would suggest that the way Jesus approached this conflict is vastly different than the way white evangelicals have been approaching cultural conflict for decades now. This is an appeal to my fellow evangelicals, from a pastor who has a deep appreciation for his own roots in evangelicalism: stop fighting on the world’s terms, vying for cultural supremacy. Jesus’ work of love was counter-cultural precisely because he refused to vie for power, even when it was offered to him freely…whether by people[xvi] or even the devil himself.[xvii]

The way of Jesus is neither forceful nor violent and it certainly is not conspiratorial. There is a way out of this madness that plagues our society—but giving support to conspiracy theories and violent extremism is not one of those ways. Far from advancing one’s witness in the world, it only hinders it because it positions the Christian as one who has merely created the madness. It will take faith and humility to let go of such ways of engaging the world, but if we really trust Jesus and his way, God will show himself to be more than able to redeem all things.

   

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Notes:

 

[i] https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/after-the-ballots-are-counted-conspiracies-political-violence-and-american-exceptionalism/

 [ii] Points 1-4 above are drawn from this news briefing of the AEI report: https://religionnews.com/2021/02/11/survey-more-than-a-quarter-of-white-evangelicals-believe-core-qanon-conspiracy-theory/

 [iii] See https://www.npr.org/2021/02/11/966498544/a-scary-survey-finding-4-in-10-republicans-say-political-violence-may-be-necessa

[iv] You can view the commercial here. https://youtu.be/-gPOPLrUfyw

[v] The evangelical historian Mark Noll documents this in his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.

[vi] The precise expression is actually “all have sinned.” See Romans 3:23.

[vii] See Romans 6:17-18 where the apostle Paul uses the metaphor of slavery to describe the human relationship to sin.

[viii] See David Bebbington’s seminal work Evangelicalism in Modern Britain.

[ix] John 3:7

[x] Matthew 22:36-40

[xi] Philippians 2:9-11

[xii] II Corinthians 5:20 refers to those who follow Jesus as “Christ’s ambassadors.”

[xiii] See Matthew 28:19 where Jesus sends his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations.” Evangelical Christians refer to this as “the Great Commission.”

[xiv] John 15:13

[xv] Romans 5:8

[xvi] See the so-called “triumphal entry” scene in Matthew 21:1-11.

[xvii] See how Jesus responded when the devil offered Jesus worldly power and authority in Matthew 4:8-11.