The Last Temptation

This article was fascinating in the way in which it details a change in a certain religious group which is representative of a greater change in the entire country as a whole. This change refers to the election of Donald Trump as president, in which he is an outsider to the White House and has expressed many controversial ideas throughout his campaign. The religious group in question, the evangelicals, vastly supported Trump in the election, demonstrating a change in their past beliefs which I found to be interesting. The article describes how in the past the evangelical movement centered around virtuous behavior starting from the Second Great Awakening and the work of influential preachers such as Charles G. Finney, who sought to spread a message of postmillennialism, or the belief in the second coming of Christ which could be hastened by virtuous human behavior and the acceptance of God’s grace through faith in Christ. Evangelicals in the past also supported reform movements such as prison reform and abolitionism, which reflected on another tenant of Evangelicals regarding a desire to perfect society. However, following the Civil War, the industrial revolution in America, and the rise of evolutionism through Darwin, conservative evangelicalism began to lose faith in the movement due to the willingness of progressives to compromise and focus more on social reform than religious piety. I found it interesting how this political divide ultimately created a divide in the religious movement, in that religious conservatives found themselves alienated by progressives in the movement and thus shifted to the pessimistic belief in premillennialism, rather than postmillennialism. I agree that evangelicals have since felt oppressed by liberal social reformers who threaten their core values of Christianity regarding topics such as same-sex marriage and more permissive sexual norms which society has grown into more and more. I also agree that in response to changing societal standards, many evangelists have abandoned previous strict Christian beliefs which can be evidenced by their voting for Trump who has been involved in numerous scandals involving racism and sexism; however, I disagree that these scandals provide solid evidence that Trump does indeed possess these qualities. Whether or not evangelicals support Trump based on prejudice is nearly impossible to determine, and I certainly disagree that voting for Trump has caused racism, misogyny, lawlessness, nativism, etc. with the Christian faith. As the article itself even states, Trump’s policies appealed to the demographic group comprising many white evangelical voters who also traditionally voted Republican, and many of whom disapproved of Obama’s policies while in office such as his supporting of same-sex marriage which in turn caused them to oppose Hillary. I still wonder to what extent the Evangelical movement will change in upcoming years due to the emergence of younger evangelicals who are more concerned with social justice, as mentioned in the article. Also, how much of a divide exists between Evangelicals who are liberal versus those who are conservative? Has the majority changed in recent years?