After Trump, Will Christians Be ‘Still Evangelical?’ – The Atlantic
Evangelicalism is all over the place about its identity with President Trump. Fundamentalism, as a movement, has been largely silent on Trump, understanding that politics is not the answer to the deep spiritual problems in the US. This article describes the split in evangelicalism identity with Trump and many are not wanting to use the term any more because of it. One professor from Fuller Seminary says the problem within evangelicalism is, of all things, “fundamentalism”. It just reveals that the term fundamentalism is used colloquially in a completely different way that fundamentalists have used it historically. KS
Fundamentalism, argued Mark Labberton, the president of Fuller Theological Seminary, is the driving force behind the hyper-partisan political norms among conservative Christians, which yielded Trump. Fundamentalism’s “attraction to theological and social purity plays easily into a theologized ideology,” he wrote. Yet, “the more ‘evangelicalism’ seeks to be cast or accepts being cast as a theo-political brand,” he added, “the more motivating it is for some evangelicals to walk away from the tribe, not as a rejection of Christian orthodoxy but as a way to preserve and defend it.”
Note: All posts in News Items, Opinion Pieces, and Home & Family are offered as a matter of interest to our readers. They do not necessarily represent the views of FBFI. They may often represent a different point of view which we think our readers might like to be aware.