Exclusion, coercion, and MAGA politics: The story of white evangelicals in America

Ideas53:59How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

As the 2024 U.S. Presidential election draws near, polls and analyses appear to be in constant flux. But for the past decade, there has been one stable voting bloc: white evangelical Christians. Their support has been at a constant 80 per cent for Donald Trump, according to historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez.

She describes the Trump era as the latest chapter in a long story of exclusion, patriarchy, and Christian nationalism in the evangelical church.

"If a prominent figure inside the evangelical world comes out and supports, or endorses, Kamala Harris, they will be attacked... Even if you just say, 'I can't vote for Trump,' that'll get you in trouble in a lot of spaces," Du Mez told IDEAS.

"We continue to see these attacks from the right against mainstream evangelical organizations and institutions claiming that they've sold out to the left, claiming that their leaders have no integrity, promoting the idea that the only way to be an authentic, faithful Christian in this political moment is to align 100 per cent with MAGA politics."

She argues those evangelical Christians are as strong as ever as the 2024 election gets closer.

Du Mez is a professor at Calvin University and the author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.

In April of this year, she spoke at a conference called Beyond Culture Wars, organized by Martin Luther University College (Wilfrid Laurier University)and the Institute for Christian Studies.

Here is an excerpt from her talk.

Evangelicalism I treat as a series of networks and alliances think ministries, conference circuits, popular culture, Christian publishing, Christian radio, television, music. And this cultural evangelicalism crosses borders. And not just the Canadian border, but I hear from Australian Christians and Brazilian Christians and British Christians and Chinese Christians are experiencing this kind of imperial U.S. evangelicalism.

For anyone concerned with the resiliency of American democracy, I don't think it's inaccurate to suggest that the fate of American democracy may well come down to how, quote-unquote, 'moderate evangelicals,' these folks in the middle, respond to the escalating erosion of democratic norms and institutions.

Sixty per cent of white evangelicals believe the election was stolen.- Kristin Kobes Du Mez

However, deciphering which way evangelical moderates are going to fall is no easy task.

To begin with, many evangelicals and their defenders insist on downplaying the centrality of politics. Evangelicalism, they contend, is a movement defined chiefly by its theology. Evangelicals themselves, they say, are salt-of-the-earth Christians who give generously to charitable causes. They care for their local communities.

And too often, they are the ones who have been demonized by scholars such as myself and the media. As such, they should not be unfairly stereotyped, lumped together into a basket of deplorables with the neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville and other supremacists.

Now, it is absolutely true that most white evangelicals were not marching with neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, nor were most evangelicals storming the Capitol on January 6th. Yet it is also true that underlying affinities make it difficult for many mainstream evangelicals to unequivocally condemn these acts.

Sixty per cent of white evangelicals believe the election was stolen. And of those, 39 per cent believe that true American patriots might have to resort to violence to save the country. Indeed, in many cases, the kinder, gentler version of evangelicalism has proven to be fully compatible with the movement's authoritarian tendencies.

'White' evangelicals

My book's subtitle is admittedly a bit provocative. But I wasn't aware of just how provocative it was. I thought the problem might be with the whole 'corrupted a faith' thing or even the 'fractured a nation' part. But no it was just one word: 'white.' It was triggering to some. And I've been accused more than once of being racist simply for including 'white' in my subtitle. It was not meant to be pejorative, merely descriptive. Precise.

This points us to a foundational question: What is evangelicalism? Who are evangelicals? Now, if we insist on a pure theological definition, it can be really difficult to see what whiteness has to do with anything.

But if we think of evangelicalism as a historical and cultural movement, whiteness becomes visible if you know where to look. Did you know that when the "fundamentals" were published this is a series of pamphlets, booklets in the 1910s that define the fundamentals that gave fundamentalism its name that these books were sent out only to white pastors and not to any Black pastors? Even though the majority of Black pastors in the United States aligned with these doctrinal stances?

Did you know that when the National Association of Evangelicals was formed, Black denominations were excluded from the association? Did you know that when racial justice surfaced in its early years and in conversations among the founders of Christianity Today, it was deemed too divisive to engage directly? Those with openly racist and segregationist views, they were kept inside the fold. Black pastors were kept at arm's length.

Historian Jesse Curtis has shown us how the myth of colourblind Christians came to dominate white evangelical understandings of race and foster in them a benevolent understanding of themselves, a belief in their own righteousness and innocence. And people of colour who bolstered this myth were welcomed and platformed.

And those who challenged it were ushered out the door.

Evangelical masculinity

Du Mez also explores how white male evangelicals have come to dictate very specific gender roles in the church, and the impact that has had on women.

In the fall of 2024, as the U.S. election approached, she released a short documentary called For Our Daughters, that she says "draws a direct link between evangelical masculinity and masculine authority, patriarchy and Christian nationalism."

The film is inspired by the last chapter of Jesus and John Wayne, where Du Mez explores sex abuse inside evangelical churches as part of a larger theological, cultural and political framework.

"We see the effects of that in the lives of women who live under the authority of these men. And we see what happens when things go wrong," Du Mez said.

She says countless times survivors in these spaces are discredited; the film was a platform to allow them to speak their truth.

"[I wanted to] bring these stories to faith communities so that they can take a critical look at their own practices; and also challenge them to look at the broader political scene of how this ideology is linked to Christian nationalism," Du Mez said.

"Some of the very men depicted in this film are connected to networks that are working to essentially achieve a Christian nationalist take over, which could in fact be upon us in this next election."

Listen to the full lecture and interview withKristin Kobes Du Mezby downloading the IDEAS podcast from your favourite app.

*Transcript edited for clarity and length. This episode was produced by Sean Foley.