National Association of Evangelicals President Walter Kim has laid out the major challenges that he believes the modern Evangelical movement is experiencing in the United States.
During a recent episode of the Dallas Theological Seminary podcast “The Table,” Kim spoke with author and DTS professor Darrell Bock, senior research professor of New Testament studies, about the topic of modern Evangelicalism.
The NAE’s definition of Evangelical includes those who “recognize their sinful life, rely upon Jesus Christ for their redemption, and receive practical life guidance and wisdom from the Bible in their quest to live under the lordship of Jesus.”
When asked by Bock to lay out current challenges facing Evangelicals in America, Kim began by talking about the related issues of “fragmentation” and “polarization.”
“I would say we’re at the point more than ever that we really need to think about Evangelicalisms, not just Evangelicalism, it’s not a monolithic entity,” explained Kim.
“Depending on your immigration pattern or where you live in the country, depending on what news source you will rely upon, depending on your actual heritage and tradition, theologically. Evangelicalism is experiencing what we, as a country, are experiencing: the fragmentation of society.”
A similar issue was that of “polarization,” which Kim described as being a more negative version of the “fragmentation” that he had earlier described.
“It’s one thing to have a bunch of fragments, it’s another thing to have a bunch of fragments who are distrustful and disdainful of each other,” he continued. “That’s an added thing now.”
“That fragmentation now is being pushed out in ways that we’ve never seen before and then coupled with the algorithm of anger that incentivizes polarization.”
Kim referenced the 2012 book American Nations, in which journalist Colin Woodard argued that there are 11 cultural regions within the U.S., each effectively their own “distinct nation.”
Kim believes that these regions are “rubbing on each other” like tectonic plates, thanks to social media and internal migration, producing “polarization” on issues including religious matters.
Another issue Kim listed is the much-documented loss of a “shared Judeo-Christian worldview” within the increasingly religiously diverse and secular country.
This would include such phenomena as the rise of the religiously unaffiliated population, although some recent research indicates that their growth is slowing down.
The NAE president believes that while this “could lead to a sense of loss” or “a sense of aggrievement,” it could also become “one of the greatest missionary opportunities.”
Kim also believes that the Evangelical movement is better at handling the “personal” such as strengthening relationships, and is strong in prayer and worship, but less equipped to tackle “public issues” like policies and collective action.
“We are really good at that which is immediate, practical, popular and personal. We’re really strong in a salvation theology and practice of personal conversion. How to help marriages, how to help personal relationships, but it’s the public stuff,” he explained.
“Not just how to be ethical at work, but what is the ethic of work itself? How do we even understand work? Not just having a good marriage in terms of conflict resolution, but a theology of marriage and society. Not just loving your immigrant neighbor, but how do we understand social and governmental responsibilities for security and for hospitality?”
Kim referenced Deuteronomy 6, a passage often cited for its talk about the importance of loving God and one’s neighbor, yet noted it also “covered things like economic practices, having even scales.”
For his part, Bock speculated that the greater emphasis on personal rather than public matters “reflects our culture,” as American culture “is focused on the individual and the individualism.”
“I say, when it comes to corporate concerns, we have muscles that have atrophied, that they don’t get the exercise that they ought; they don’t get the attention that they ought,” Bock said.
“I often say, when it comes to cultural engagement, we don’t have a theology of cultural engagement in the church. We lack that. And so, we don’t know what to do in public because we don’t talk about it, we don’t meditate on it, we don’t think about it.”
According to a report from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released last year, Evangelicals constitute as much as 30 million people in the United States.
