This theological train wreck explains much about what it means to be "evangelical" in America: https://t.co/BLPWvjBNRp
— Russell Moore (@drmoore) September 28, 2016
And where does that link go? To a survey about religious beliefs conducted by Lifeway, the Southern Baptist Convention subsidiary that sells books and conducts research.
I love that headline. “Details” — Ha!
Americans don’t know much about theology. Most say God wrote the Bible. But they’re not sure everything in it is true.
Six in 10 say everyone eventually goes to heaven, but half say only those who believe in Jesus will be saved. And while 7 in 10 say there’s only one true God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—two-thirds say God accepts worship of all faiths.
Those are among the findings of a new survey of American views on Christian theology from Nashville-based LifeWay Research.
Ho-hum. This is what you get when you parse make-believe.
Though evangelicalism can be defined as a specific set of theological beliefs, the more complicated reality is that evangelicalism is a steadily-shrinking culture; it appears that Moore doesn’t ‘get’ that yet. That’s the reason Moore and Albert Mohler were so shocked when evangelicals swarmed to Donald Trump after he announced his candidacy. Moore and Mohler were thinking of a set of theological beliefs, and had no idea that the people sitting in evangelical churches — their churches, listening to pastors they educated — don’t know bupkes about evangelicalism as a set of theological propositions. What is more, few of the people sitting in those churches have ever read the Bible, or even have that on their ‘to do’ list, or have the slightest interest in learning about theology.
What they know is that their familiar world is changing, dying — and Donald Trump trashes the people they blame for it.