Still Evangelical?: Ten Insiders Reconsider Political, Social, and Theological Meaning

This exemplary compilation of essays brings together evangelical thought leaders and insiders to consider what it means to be evangelical in the era of President Donald Trump. In the introduction, Labberton (Called) contends that the election “made apparent that culture rivals the gospel in defining evangelical political vision.” Lisa Sharon Harper explores the spiritual inspirations that led her to Christianity as a way to discuss the evangelical movement’s shift toward conservatism in the wake of the civil rights movement. Harper argues that Trump’s rise can be directly linked to this time in the early 1970s, when libertarians and isolationist Christians came together over flash point social issues such as abortion and the removal of tax exempt status from Bob Jones University. Allen Yeh writes from a “global perspective” that a Christian’s right action is to be pro-life “from the womb to the tomb.” He stresses that “the West needs to balance orthodoxy with orthopraxis” by taking religiously ethical political stances, while also staying true to core Christian practices of humility, service, and mutual respect in an era of heightened individualism This thoughtful collection of insights from self-proclaimed evangelicals will appeal to those perplexed by evangelical support for Donald Trump. (Jan.)