why modern evangelicals reject the label "white evangelical"

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The people who have the hardest time accepting the existence of what sociologists call white evangelicals are what sociologists call white evangelicals.

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There are six major reasons for this. First, white evangelicals largely diminish or ignore their cultural, political heritage.

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We may value church history, but we generally do not value things like the Anglo common law tradition.

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When sociologists test for social differences, they are detecting habits that are the result of various historical developments.

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In this case, the most external indicator of something like a voting pattern is the designation white evangelical.

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But behind this is clearly a set of circumstances that go far deeper.

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We do not recognize something that exists in reality because we diminish its importance.

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Do not move the ancient boundary which your fathers have set. Proverbs 22 verse 28

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Second, white evangelicals are very influenced by a certain type of ideological thinking that reduces many issues into a biblical, unbiblical binary.

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This binary certainly exists, but it does not explain everything. There are many cultural issues, political positions, etc.

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that do not fit neatly into this mold. An easy way to see this is to compare the large differences between Christian communities across time and space or the small differences that exist between different churches and denominations.

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There are important identity -conferring ways to arrange one's society that do not come directly from the pages of scripture.

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We are right to apply scripture to life, but many are wrong to assume this application explains all difference.

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You shall not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not detest an

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Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land. The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the

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Lord. Deuteronomy 23, 7 -8 Third, for decades white evangelicals grappled with the challenge

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Darwinian evolution posed. This caused us to rightly reject a Darwinian conception of race, but this became a rejection or diminishment of any racial differences.

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This played directly into critical race theory. Even the most platformed conservative evangelicals today believe race is simply a social construct.

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This universally accepted idea was not known to Christians of antiquity and their writings indicate they would have rejected it.

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Differences between people groups, what the term race originally designated, certainly exist, whether political, cultural, genetic, religious, etc.

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We rightly reject genetic determinism, but go too far in minimizing non -theological differences between people.

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Fourth, we have a tendency to conflate temporal and eternal identities. Paul could be an ethnic

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Jew, a Roman citizen, and a citizen of heaven, but modern evangelicals have a hard time with this.

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We tend to minimize or erase temporal cultural identities by replacing them with a heavenly identity.

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It is no surprise that left -leaning evangelicals are starting to do the same when it comes to gender roles and marital status by minimizing them in favor of a general

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Christian identity. In short, we are right to celebrate the citizenship Christ won for us in heaven, but wrong to make this the main or only thing that defines us in a temporal world.

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And they sang a new song, saying, Fifth, we share with white people, in general, a pathological obsession with proving we do not discriminate on the basis of race.

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This is so ingrained that many white evangelicals accept the desecration of their own heritage in order to separate themselves from alleged racists.

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Just because some have used racial ethnic designations in promoting evil does not mean that designations do not exist at all.

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People have also abused marriage, but we do not reject its existence. This is one reason left -leaning evangelicals who accept the term white evangelical as a negative tend to distance themselves from the label personally.

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They do not accept the category for themselves. In short, we seek opportunities to acquire social approval by signaling to others our rejection of racial ethnic categories.

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For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am

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I striving to please men? If I were striving to please men, if I were trying to please men,

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I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Galatians 1 .10 Sixth, some of us believe the term white evangelical is too broad and does not help communicate exactly what sociologists detect when examining voting patterns.

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The term white evangelical is obviously not a hill to die on. I hardly ever use it unless I'm examining polling data.

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However, the alternative terms don't seem to capture the group most responsible for electing conservative politicians.

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White is too broad. Christian is too broad. Anglo fails to recognize churches tracing back to other countries in Europe which exhibit similar political behavior.

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There's already a long tradition stretching back centuries of grouping Europeans into one broad category without erasing their particular differences.

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There are also people whose families came from places other than Europe who have adopted cultural practices that were foreign to their ancestors.

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In fact, European Christians themselves, at one time, converted to a religion that started in Israel.

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The point is, whether the term is used or not, it does signify something.

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The AP VoteCast survey showed 81 % of white evangelical Protestants who voted did so for Donald Trump.

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Only 18 % voted for Biden in 2020. A 2020 American Values survey found that coronavirus was in the top three issues of concern for all religious groups except for white evangelicals.

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63 % of white evangelicals thought abortion was the most critical issue. Compare this to Hispanic Protestants, almost half of whom believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

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White evangelical Protestants were the only group that believed the country was moving in the right direction under President Trump.

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Obviously, there are white evangelicals who do not feel this way, just as there are a minority of evangelicals in other ethnic groups who do.

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The point is that there exists a general pattern that political campaigns must take into account.

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It would do what sociologists call white evangelicals well to consider the political power they exert and demand politicians they support take their interests into consideration.

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Instead, we are saddled with evangelical elites who apologize for, deny the existence of, or celebrate the demise of so -called white evangelicals.

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Many of them sound silly. When we reject God's providential ordering and the temporal world is represented in natural relationships, we end up saying foolish things like we should not create an identity or a tribe based on ethnicity instead of Christ.

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Taking into account racial -ethnic differences is a color -based paradigm. There is no place in Christ's church to distinguish between white or Asian or black or Latino.

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The universal church and not white evangelicals is the lone bulwark against all unrighteousness in this country.

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Some of the deepest identities we possess are not manufactured. We were born into particular families in particular communities in particular places speaking particular languages.

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Skin color is not the major or only factor conferring identity, but it is one. The prophet

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Jeremiah linked region with skin color. When he asked, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?

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Differences between people are part of God's providential order. Moses wrote, when the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of man, he set the boundaries of the peoples.

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People often arrange themselves according to similarity even in an age of mass transportation and technology.

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This is never called sinful or a denial of the imago Dei in itself. While members of the universal church are the only earthly force capable of doing heavenly good, this does not mean that there do not exist non -believing fathers who give their children fish instead of snakes and thereby accomplish earthly good.

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There are also believing Christians who accomplish much evil by making poor political decisions.

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Yet they are still part of the universal church. If Christians of all backgrounds are to politically secure and preserve liberty so they can continue public ministry unmolested, they will need to accept reality.

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The reality is that historically, Anglo -European culture profoundly shaped all of society in deep ways over the course of centuries.

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These ways of living were rooted in biblical principles and distilled through tradition. They were inherited by children.

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They became part of the very fabric of social identity to such an extent that even unbelievers recognized and defended them.

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Now a new pharaoh has arisen who does not remember Joseph, but we do.

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What sociologists call white evangelicals as a social group, do. And that means something.