Evangelicals and Populism
Donald Trump’s unexpected victory will have a specific consequence for American evangelicals: many of their leaders will crank up their populism. As a result, many churches will decline.
Populism is a political toolbox for both left and right.
It tells a story of oppressors who steal from us. The downtrodden 99% are victimized by the greedy 1%. The system is rigged. For decades, evangelicals have framed social issues in populist terms: there’s a “culture war” against the “traditional values” of the “moral majority.”
Populism also assumes that “the people” are righteous. The 99% deserve all the wealth. Real Americans deserve all the jobs. Evangelical populists flatter their followers’ sense of entitlement: we deserve a culture that matches “our values.” They even turn forgiveness into a self-righteous escape clause. When we don’t live up to “our values,” God forgives us.
Evangelical organizations relentlessly use populist rhetoric to sell programs and raise money. The preacher who deftly uses us-versus-them themes with folksy humor and a sweet tone of voice can have a large audience.
Churches, however, will find that Trump’s political victory becomes a spiritual rout. Populists only recognize conversions that fit the us-versus-them story. The only way you can be right with God is to be one of us. This Pharisaical falsehood has been destroying churches from within for decades.
Fortunately, there are Christians from every political persuasion who recognize the problem. They reject the union of the cross and the flag. They are deaf to ideological flattery. They want the cross of Christ alone because it saves them from their own sins, and they aren’t expecting the cultural mainstream to affirm them. I know many pastors who don’t aspire to be infomercial personality boys, who won’t lift their sermons from bestselling books, and who devote themselves to teaching the Bible itself — even if it hurts attendance for a couple weeks.
The choice for evangelicals is clear: we can either flatter ourselves into extinction or we can confront our Pharisaical populism. It’s the real gospel, or nothing.
