Friday, March 16, 2018

Are white evangelicals idolatrous?

In the April 2018 issue of Sojourners Magazine Kelly Brown Douglas wrote an article titled "How Evangelicals Became White".  In a one sentence summary of the article Douglas stated, "By linking Anglo-Saxonism with godliness, evangelical Christianity has become complacent in promoting a great America that is equated with white supremacy."

A term that was used by scholars in the mid-1900s needs to be revived: that term is "white Anglo-Saxon Protestant"  Today white evangelicals equate WASP as an Americanized Kingdom of God.  This turns white ethnocentrism into a type of idolatry.

Why is the evangelical social ethic so deeply flawed, so easily corrupted by the worst of Americanism?  Why has white evangelicalism degenerated into a spirituality without justice?  A couple of possible reasons:  There is no biblical theology of oppression in spite of the fact that there are 555 references to oppression in the Old Testament, and there is no New Testament theology of justice in spite of the fact that there are over 300 dik-stems in the New Testament.

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