I would have been considered an evangelical from the time I was born in 1955 until I departed the movement in 1990. I took ownership of my evangelicalism as a high school senior in 1973 and was a zealot for the cause for the next seventeen years. Jimmy Carter was the first candidate I voted for three years later. The decision was easy as our form of evangelicalism was congruent with the views and character of Jimmy Carter, a peacemaker and lover of the downtrodden.

But American Evangelicalism has lost its way since, unrecognizable by the Christians of a century ago. If I had the time, since I love history, I would tell the story of the step-by-step evolution of that change. Maybe another time. I will say that change was rapid, as I voted for Ronald Regan four years later. Sadly, I was evolving along with the movement.

Today, I will compare the original evangelicals to those of 2025. I am not painting with a broad brush, accusing all evangelicals of being from the same mold. My views are based on my personal experiences thirty years ago and recent conversations I’ve had with my old evangelical friends.

Few would argue that John and Charles Wesley were two of the fathers of American Evangelicalism. As a snapshot, when the brothers arrived in Georgia in February 1736, John wrote his manifesto, summarizing his beliefs. I will post his manifesto (modern paraphrase) followed by his literal words from the eighteenth century;

JOHN WESLEY’S MANIFESTO

1. Reduce the gap between rich people and poor people
2. Help everyone to have a job
3. Help the poorest, including introducing a living wage
4. Offer the best possible education
5. Help everyone to feel they can make a difference
6. Promote tolerance
7. Promote equal treatment for women
8. Create a society based on values and not on profits and consumerism
9. End all forms of slavery
10. Avoid getting into wars
11. Share the love of God with everyone
12. Care for the environment

Original

• Be ye ready to distribute to everyone, according to their necessity.
• Wickedly, devilishly false is that common objection, ‘They are poor only because they are idle…. Find them work…. They will then earn and eat their own bread.’
• How many are there in this Christian country that toil, and labor, and sweat… but struggle with weariness and hunger together? Is it not worse for one, after a hard days labour, to come back to a poor, cold, dirty, uncomfortable lodging, and to find there not even the food which is needful to repair his wasted strength?
• Beware of that common, but accursed, way of making children parrots …. Regard not how much, but how well, to what good purpose, they read…. The end of education….[is to] help us discover every false judgement of our minds, and to subdue every wrong passion in our hearts… [and] to understand as much as we are able .’
• I continue to dream… [of the time when the potential of] each person can be unleashed.
• Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion?
• May not women as well as men bear an honourable part….…..yield not to the vile bondage any longer. You, as well as men, are rational creatures. You, like them, were made in the image of God.’
• In seeking happiness from riches, you are only striving to drink out of empty cups. And let them be painted and gilded ever so finely, they are empty still’
• Let  none serve you but by his own act and deed, by his own voluntary action.  Away with all whips, all chains, all compulsion!…. Do with everyone else as you would he should do to you..
• War: What farther proof of do we need of the utter degeneracy of all nations from the plainest principles of reason and virtue? Of the absolute want, both of common sense and common humanity, which runs through the whole race of mankind?
• The world is my parish.
• Lead us beyond an exclusive concern for the well-being of other human beings to the broader concern for the well-being of the birds in our backyards, the fish in our rivers, and every living creature on the face of the earth.

I could almost stop here as you realize that the present evangelical movement has none of these original ideals. Additionally, the Apostle John records Jesus as saying in his Chapter 13, verses 34-35. I know some Christians would argue that this love was between Christians, but you can also read it, as I do, that this love was for all people.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Can you imagine today if you stopped a secular person on the street and asked them, “What do you think of when you think of evangelicals?” They would not say, “How much they love everyone.”

For better of worse, here are the values projected by today’s American evangelicals:

1. They are defined by the people they hate, which include, gays, transsexuals, queers, people who have had abortions, Muslims, environmentalists especially those who acknowledge the truth of human-caused climate change, feminists, supporters of minority rights including BLM, Democrats, scientists, immigrants, homeless, addicted, people with different cultures, people who struggle with English, and the poor.
2. They are defined by the people they respect, honor, and idolize, including serial adulterers, greedy, self-centered, rapists, rich, powerful, warmongers, habitual liars, and conmen. Those are now the apple of their eyes.
3. They have lost interest in factual truth, choosing political power over truth. Listen to the politically motivated conspiracy theories that they willingly share as if from their holy book.
4. They champion conformity, not curiosity or critical thinking. I don’t conform, I am curious, therefore I am the devil. If there is a God, the factual truth is God’s natural habitat, not magical thinking, self-deception, and an alternative cosmos.

If you know me, the philosophical movement post-modernism is my whipping boy, or as my son says, my strawman. I wish I could say that post-modernism caused the evolution of American Evangelicalism. It is more complicated than that. If anything, post-modernism has given the rest of Christendom apathy about this sad decline of evangelicalism and the decline of the church in general. When you no longer believe in objective truth, you have no foundation to have opinions. Study the words of the historical Jesus and you will find strong opinions on love, justice, kindness, peace, and truth. Those are the things I would die for.

In the new year, my hope for the evangelical church is a mighty repentance and a return to its roots. To flavor the salt once more.

This was not meant to be a negative statement, but more of a praise of the character of Jimmy Carter. Thank God for men and women like him. Let us all be more like him. God rest his good soul.

Happy New Year.

Mike