Faith Expressions, Part I

We are in that season of the year in which I like to say that people may be more sensitive to spiritual matters, as they consider why there is celebration taking place.  Hebrews 6 reminds us that we are to
be people of hope:
10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end,
12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Hope is produced as the result of our reliance on Jesus Christ living in and through us - our growth in Him and the revelation of His character in us can make a powerful statement to the world around us. We are to be people who are grounded in our Biblical beliefs, who can be trusted and have a powerful influence because we trust in the One who is the hope of the world.  We can express our faith in a manner that brings glory to our Savior.

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We are people who are called to exhibit conviction and exercise compassion, so that people may see
the truth of Christ in action through us. 1st Peter 3 states:
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.

It is true that in our approach to the political realm that we never place party over position.  But, when a party's position aligns with Biblical principles, a number of Christians embrace candidates who are aligned with that particular party.  It's the way things are in American politics; not necessarily the best construct, but the hand we've been dealt.

And, we have seen an interesting dynamic occur in the culture at large - what evangelicals believe and what certain media outlets would like for evangelicals to believe are not the same.  Take, for instance, in the run-up to the Texas Senate race, the New York Times ran a story of five young, self-proclaimed evangelical women who supported Beto O'Rourke, the Democrat candidate - even though he was heavily supported by Planned Parenthood.  This was a brazen attempt to make it look as if there was a political shift among younger evangelicals.

Truth is, the mainstream media could care less about what evangelical Christians think, except when they can identify some who actually fit their purposes.  But, there is new survey data that disputes the notion of a liberalization of the evangelical community at large, even though we see pockets where more progressive elements are infiltrating the Church.

There was an interesting story at the Vox website, hardly a conservative space, that examines evangelical voting patterns.  And, while it identifies more liberal voices within the evangelical community, it does say this:

Overall, there isn’t much evidence of a young evangelical voice that is being “drowned out” by elders. On many issues, young evangelicals are quite similar to older evangelicals. When it comes to abortion, a signature issue among evangelicals, Ryan Burge finds that they are just as conservative on abortion as others. As Jeremy Castle shows in his forthcoming book Rock of Ages, one reason for this is that many evangelical churches have mechanisms for socializing members into conservative attitudes on cultural issues, including sponsoring Sanctity of Life Sunday and crisis pregnancy centers. As Andrew Lewis documents, another reason may be that the mandates of abortion politics drive conservatives to maintain support for anti-abortion candidates.

The story took aim at another unbalanced Times story, saying:

In short, accounts of a new generation of liberal young evangelicals such as the one appearing in the New York Times last week are intriguing, but the survey data for the most part doesn’t support the narrative that they are growing and shifting their politics from their parents and even grandparents.

This is consistent with what we have heard from observers of the March for Life, which report an influx of younger people who stand strong for life.

And, get this - again, from the Vox article:

Both partisanship and self-identified left-right ideology among 18- to 29-year-old evangelicals have remained nearly constant since 1990, though with a demonstrable conservative uptick in 2016.

 Regarding the President, a topic that certainly makes its way into these types of discussions:

Young evangelical support for Trump is also more complicated than initial analyses suggest. Even though Trump falls far short of evangelical ideals in terms of both his positions on certain issues and his personal behavior, evangelicals remained one of his most loyal constituencies. Burge’s research on young evangelicals indicates only very small differences in support for Trump across age groups.

A chart in the article shows that almost 79% of young white evangelicals, 18-29 years of age, went for Trump, just under the 81% of the 50-64 crowd who voted for him.

And, before you characterize this poll as an outlier, consider a new Pew poll that was released after the election.  The Family Research Council website states that Alan Cooperman, director of religion research at Pew presented data at a Faith Angle Forum event:

Samuel Smith, who covered the panel for the Christian Post, did us all a favor by transcribing the bulk of Cooperman's talk -- not just on the elections of 2018, but on the trends of the last several years. And if you're one of the millions of people who tuned in for the media's analysis of November 6, prepare to be surprised. Evangelical voters, Cooperman will tell you, aren't going anywhere.

FRC published four myths, which we'll unpack next week:

1. Evangelicals are turning liberal or turning against Trump
2. Younger evangelicals are more liberal and are turning Democratic
3. "Real evangelicals" are not supportive of Trump
4. White evangelicals are abandoning the 'evangelical' label

Now, research divides people into various categories; labels, if you will.  Each of us are individual moral agents and make our own choices, but we are to always make policy choices based on the principles of Scripture.  When the opportunity arises, we should allow our Biblical beliefs to determine our policy choices.  But, I don't think we should eschew politics.

Party affiliation has become a bad thing in some Christian circles, but our alignment with a set of ideals is actually an expression of our convictions.  Is there something wrong with possessing principles and allowing those principles to drive our choices?

Remember, though, our primary allegiance is to our Savior.  Evangelicals should never be characterized as simply a voting bloc.  The vibrancy of our faith should be evident to a culture in need of hope.