Political Engagement and the Evangelical

Jared has clarified his critique of evangelicals, which seems to be a sociological critique that, regardless of what we say at the end of the day, our orientation reveals that the political has in fact become an idol.

I think it’s worth bringing up at this point Joe’s post from way back when about evangelicals and political engagement, or rather our lack of political engagement.  If anything, it seems evangelicals talk a good game that suggests that we’re politically captivated, but our actions speak otherwise.  The small conservative evangelical church that I grew up in had one member who joined the school board, no one that ran for political office, yet gave all kinds of money to the local pregnancy shelter—all while indoctrinating the youth with David Barton videos.

I suspect—or maybe I just hope—that a similar pattern exists in evangelicalism,  namely that our actions are much more benign and in line with the Gospel than our rhetoric.