Nickolai

By Valerie Tarico / AlterNet


Ok, evangelicals do have a brand problem—but they also have a major product problem.
Bible-believing born-again Christians, aka evangelicals, have had a brand problem since Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority sold the born-again movement to the Republican party in exchange for political power a generation ago, forging the religious right.
The Republican party has been using Christianity’s good name to cover bad deeds ever since, all the while tapping evangelical media empires and churches as communications and organizing platforms to bring ordinary believers along with the merger. Having become true-believers themselves, Evangelical leaders have offered themselves up as trusted messengers for this New-and-Improved political gospel project.


And it has worked.
Born-again Christians haven’t given up their core beliefs: that the Bible is the literally perfect word of God, Jesus died for their sins, and folks who don’t accept this gift will burn forever in Hell. Rather, most white evangelicals (and a number of b****s and Hispanics) have appended parts of the Republican policy agenda and the underlying conceptual framework to this list. Religious beliefs and political beliefs have become, for many evangelicals, indistinguishable objects of devotion, beyond question. Political tribe and religious tribe now have the same boundaries.
When I outlined evangelicalism’s brand problem in early 2016, few of us had any idea how bad it could get. Now the world associates the term Evangelical with the Trump e******n—over 80 percent of evangelicals gave him their v**e—and with the candidacy of theocrat, Roy Moore, who despite credible allegations that he pursued and pawed young teens while an assistant district attorney, received comparable support from white Alabama evangelicals.
In the aftermath of Moore’s campaign and (merciful) defeat, the minority of Evangelical Christians who found him horrifying are doing some public soul searching—well, except not really. Many recognize only the brand problem and are, more than anything, simply scrambling to get away from the term evangelical itself. “After Trump and Moore, some evangelicals are finding their own label too toxic to use,” reports the Washington Post.  “The term feels irreversibly tainted,” agrees evangelical author Jen Hatmaker.

At Princeton University, the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship renamed itself Princeton Christian Fellowship to get away from the negative associations. But is evangelicalism tainting Christianity itself as a brand? Five years ago, Campus Crusade for Christ–which spends over $500,000,000 annually to recruit and retain evangelical college students–changed its name to the less t***sparent “Cru.” Mark Galli, editor-in-chief at Christianity Today, wrote of the Moore race, “There is already one loser: Christian faith...No one will believe a word we say, perhaps for a generation. Christianity’s integrity is severely tarnished.”

What even thoughtful evangelical leaders like Galli fail to recognize is that people shouldn’t believe a word they say—not about politics, not about morality, and not even about theology at this point. The problem isn’t skin deep. Their brand problem is a function of their product problem, and as Emmett Price at Gordon-Cornwell Theological Seminary put it, “Ditching a term is simply ditching a term.” Abandoning the term evangelical is the most superficial fix conceivable.
Real soul searching would mean asking what it is about the evangelical worldview that has made evangelical leaders and ordinary Bible-believers susceptible to courtship by authoritarian, bigoted, sexist, tribal, anti-intellectual greedmongers who dangle the carrot of theocracy. But few evangelical leaders are asking this question because that would mean revisiting the peculiar status they grant to the Bible itself. And that is off-limits.

When one treats the Bible as the literally perfect and complete word of God—which most Christian scholars don’t but most evangelicals do—it isn’t hard to find support for every item in the ugly list that now darkens the evangelical brand. The Bible contains some really bad ideas.  The opposite is also true, mind you. It also contains support for compassion, love, generosity, inclusion, and humility—and many other virtues that humanity values widely across both secular and religious wisdom traditions. The Bible is morally inchoate. It documents and sanctifies humanity’s moral infancy; and idolizing the book binds believers to the worldview of the Iron Age, leaving them susceptible to justifying all manner of misbehaviors in the name of god.

Dummy Boy Loc: Michigan

I assume you copied and pasted this article...

I doubt that Campus Crusade spends $500 million on recruiting or let me put it another way... a half billion. That makes no sense.

Otherwise, I agree...their star is fading.

wuzblynd Loc: thomson georgia

Ur both clueless.

out of the woods Loc: to hell and gone New York State

God does not change, nor does his word. Regardlless of inconvenience, the t***h remains the t***h. There is no grey area, just t***h and unt***h. That we ALL fall short is also true, doesn't mean we are to soften Gods message, but appeal to Christ for Salvation. There is no other name under heaven whereby men must be saved. Everything else is temporal.

Dummy Boy Loc: Michigan

Okay, "Deep Thought", un-clue us with your wealth of knowledge. Statistics, or articles supporting the faith would be helpful, as a suggestion.

Dummy Boy Loc: Michigan

...it's too bad that Roy-Boy couldn't accept the t***h. Hopefully, he will rot in Hell with the other p*******es.

Richard Rowland

Here's another perspective for you to contemplate, Dummy Boy. It's a long read, be Persistent.

https://newswithviews.com/the-swamp-strikes-back-destroys-roy-moore/

Big Kahuna

So you believe the demonratic party should be a bible believers first choice? You can't be a real Christian and v**e demonratic. Just think logically for a while. Why would a Christian support a party that: 1. Took God out of their platform and the demonrats cheered. 2. Believe in murdering babies by the millions and selling their parts even up to and including partial birth a******ns ( totally immoral). 3. Stealing money from those who are working, with higher and higher taxes, to then give it to those who have their non working hands out. MARXISM DOESN'T WORK, NEVER HAS!!! 4. A party that divides by race, social status, sex, religion. 5. An anti-American, anti-traditional marriage party 6. A party that loves everything illegal over law abiding, righteous individuals 7. A party that promotes sexual perversion and flies rainbow colors over the White house. 8.A party that believes in a weak military, open borders, and the importation of criminals, terrorists and gangs but then wants to disarm its own innocent and law abiding citizens. 9. And on it could go. No thank you, I will align with a party that is not perfect but at least isn't pushing totalitarianism and Hitlerian attitudes and principles in my face 24/7 like the corrupt l*****t media who pimps for the demonratic party continually.

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

My bad, you are a Dummy Boy! You've set yourself up as your own god and have judged Roy Moore based on on hear say, rumor, and the media. All weak evidence for slandering or judging someone. Not a very good reflection on you. Time will reveal if all the "they say" evidence is true or not.

out of the woods Loc: to hell and gone New York State

How is this in reply to me? Whether or not Moore fell short is not in question, though the accusations aimed at him to sway the e******n are dubious, at best. You'll find none perfect.

Hemiman Loc: Communist California

Where are all those “ladies “gone until the next payday.?

mythoughts

Speaking out of context as a blanket view.God judges individually, so should man, given that power has not been given him by God?Careful someone's watching and it's not big brother.

Dummy Boy Loc: Michigan

1. I have never declared that I was God or a God.

2. Since you like making stuff up, it is clear that you don't have a credible opinion.

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

You judged someone without proof, only hear say, your words, not mine. My opinion is just as credible as your opinion. Or are you simply judging someone without facts or knowledge again? Nasty habit, you should look at correcting it.

Dummy Boy Loc: Michigan

My short comments about the article were only to agree that Evangelical Christianity will soon be seen as a collection of believers who have no scruples.

Roy could have taken a different stance on the whole "affair", but instead he:

-Said that the women were liars. He could have calmly said, "let's go to court" and you can spend the money to accuse me in court.

-Or, a Christian, would have said, I forgive you for lying, because I KNOW that I didn't do that. Because being a Christian means, what Jesus said:

Luke 17:3 Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

Roy gave Christians a "black eye", because he doesn't even understand forgiveness. Whether he did or didn't do anything is only a political issue, but since the Evangelical Right is so obsessed with obtaining power, they must first consider what a Christian needs to do to handle a situation..... since their candidate has such a profound relationship with Christ....he needs to understand the fundamentals of his faith.