The European Evangelical Alliance, which represents some 23 million evangelical Christians on the continent, recently released an important report “European Evangelicals in Public Life: Our Identity and Contribution.” It summarizes who European evangelicals are, what they believe, and what their major stances are on current public policy issues.
Normally, such a statement would draw little attention outside its own circles. Its primary audience is European media and others in public life, which sadly are still all too likely to portray evangelicals in very different countries and contexts through stereotypes of American evangelicals. It also illustrates current tensions about America in the worldwide church.
The EEA is affiliated with the World Evangelical Alliance. This group draws together some 650 million evangelicals which, if it were centralized, would make it, after the Catholic Church, the world's second largest grouping of Christians (Full disclosure: I am a Senior Advisor on Religious Freedom to the WEA).
The statement is sober and balanced. But, apart from outlining its own views, it also has a subtext that European and, by implication, world evangelicals, should not be equated with some American evangelicals, many of whom are seen as on the political right, even Trumpist.
In most countries, evangelicals are minorities drawn from a range of churches, and their domestic Evangelical Alliances can and do speak for them. In contrast, US evangelicals are a large, sprawling, and often brawling, movement that contains robust, diverse denominations, independent megachurch networks, massive NGOs, and myriad other movements. Who could possibly speak for all of these?
Consequently, America’s own National Association of Evangelicals, while it draws in many groups, including more than 45,000 local churches across roughly 40 different Christian denominations, has much less ability to speak for Americans evangelicals.
Inside the EEA report
Apart from American concerns, it is vital to consider the EEA’s careful report in its own right. It firmly challenges “characterizations that imply Evangelicals are political extremists.” It maintains that “collectively, European Evangelicals are diverse, multiethnic, and nonpartisan” and that they represent "a broad spectrum of political views” whose “primary identity is rooted in Christian faith, not political allegiance.”
It emphasizes that “because we believe every person is made in the image of God, Evangelicals value every human being. This shapes our concerns for all, including: migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees; the poor, the prisoner, the marginalised and other misunderstood groups; the unborn, children, youth, disabled, elderly, and dying; victims of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, other abuse and violence; religious minorities and anyone discriminated against for their beliefs; people affected by addiction, loneliness, mental distress or social exclusion.”
It adds: “Our concern for people also explains our concern for healthy relationships, including within marriage and family.”
The EEA further stresses that “this is not a political ideology but a consistent ethic of human dignity” and that it does “not seek political privilege or dominance,” but supports “a pluralistic and civil public square and respects democratic institutions, rule of law, and human rights, while rejecting coercion, manipulation and the misuse of religion in politics.”
“Famous Evangelicals who have been outstanding contributors to society, include Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, pioneering educator John Amos Comenius from the Czech Republic, Josephine Butler, British campaigner against the exploitation of women and girls, Hans Nielsen Hauge, Norwegian business entrepreneur & social reformer, Abraham Kuyper, Dutch Prime Minister & journalist, Elizabeth Fry, British prison reformer or Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, German cooperative banking pioneer.”
We should give primary attention to the EEA’s own excellent words, but it also, without explicitly mentioning it, carefully distances itself from some images of its America brethren.
EEA on trends ‘outside the continenet’
The report notes that it comes “at a time of growing confusion in public discourse, where the term ‘Evangelical’ is wrongly linked to political movements and narratives that do not reflect the reality of Evangelical communities in Europe.” The term “Evangelical” has “become increasingly associated in public discourse with radical Right politics, including dynamics that originate outside our continent,” the report says.
“Evangelicals may be stereotyped and are sometimes described “as dangerous extremists. It is natural that journalists might pick up these themes. However, while we do not always get things right, these portrayals profoundly misrepresent who we are.”
The EEA explicitly distances itself from a “Christian nationalism” that can “promote exclusion, intolerance, or the fusion of faith with political power. In a plural democracy, naturally Evangelicals – along with everyone else — should be able to seek to influence politics. Sometimes, they may promote views that others do not like. However, disagreement is not extremism.”
“We oppose any political movement that undermines democratic accountability or treats any group of people as less than fully human.”
It correctly notes that the term “Christian nationalism” is used in very diverse and sometimes contradictory ways: “Love of nation is a precious thing when that love does not lead to hatred for or harm of others. Bringing Christian ideas to the table for debate is also good, just as others bring theirs. Christianity has had a profound and positive impact on the development of all European nations.”
However, when “Christian nationalism” refers to “dominance, coercion, imposition, intolerance and exclusion, Christianity being aligned to just one political ideology or ‘the ends justify the means,’ the vast majority of Evangelicals in Europe reject it.”
It also rightly cautions that American evangelicals are themselves often stereotyped: “Contrary to impressions in much of the media, European Evangelical attitudes to public engagement are shared by many Evangelicals in the USA. The National Association of Evangelicals is the “Evangelical Alliance” of the USA. Its foundational document for public engagement is very similar to ours.”
Who are American evangelicals?
As the report emphasizes, much of the world's view of evangelicals is shaped by perceptions of its most visible wing — white American evangelicals. As noted, this is a notably disparate group, hence it is difficult to know who might count as a member.
This problem becomes much harder when we include black and Hispanic evangelicals. Definitions and statistics can vary widely, but Pew Forum figures indicate that a greater percentage of African Americans and Hispanics are evangelicals than are whites. Probably, the majority of American evangelicals under 30 are now not white. Their political stances are also often different from that of older evangelicals.
Theologically, perhaps the most accepted, though still disputed, marker has been the “Bebbington Quadrilateral,” named after British historian David Bebbington, who first formulated it. This characterizes evangelicalism as a movement with: “A focus on the Bible (biblicism), the cross (crucicentrism), personal conversion (conversionism), and active faith (activism).”
Even these theological emphases cannot be restricted to any single denomination or non-denominational, or even Protestant group. They and do integrate with more sacramental traditions such as Anglicanism and Catholicism. In my travels I was surprised to find evangelicals so defined even in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches (similarly for the terms “charismatic” and “Pentecostal”).
However, within much current popular American discourse "evangelical" is often simply reduced to some MAGA/Trump supporting movement. Much of this is because the word 'evangelical' has now mutated into a political term since there is indeed high support for Trump among self-described “evangelicals.”
However, this support can include self-described evangelicals who never, or rarely, go to church. The Pew Research Center reports that 77% of White evangelical voters who do not attend church regularly supported Donald Trump (compared to 83% of regular churchgoers). Clearly, the word has become theologically uprooted and morphed into a political/sociological term.
Similarly for that now perennial bugbear “Christian nationalist.” As a political philosopher by training, I would like to use the word 'nationalist' with some specificity. If so, there is little that could accurately be labeled Christian nationalism in the U.S.
Instead, we find a few conservative Presbyterians who have a genius for gaining extensive press coverage and who, mirroring Catholic integralists, would like a semi-confessional state. This would be parallel to historical Canada, and especially Quebec. We should perhaps note that, while they had a close relation of church and state, and perhaps because of this, these are now the most secular regions of North America.
We can disagree, as I do, about the desirability or feasibility of these Christian emphases, but they are hardly deserving of a Christian nationalist label.
American evangelicals often different from media portrayals
While many current labels, with some justification, baptize American evangelicals as a political movement, their giving patterns tell a more complex story. They give significantly more money to charitable world relief organizations than they do to political causes. While they are very heavily engaged in wide-ranging religious philanthropy, only a small fraction gives to political campaigns.
Only about 11% to 12% of evangelicals donate to political campaigns, candidates, or causes in any given year. By contrast, 61% give to a local church, and 50% give directly to non-church charities and ministries. Evangelical giving is heavily weighted toward home-based ministries first, international relief second, and politics a very distant third.
Largely, political "evangelicals" appear to be provoked by increasingly widespread “woke” antics. But the reaction appears to be not a call for an imagined theocracy but a desire for America to be as conservative as, for example, it was under President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s.
US evangelicals often dissimilar to their world brethren
However, largely through general media, the American evangelical right has become the dominant image of evangelicalism in the world. Thus, many of the world's 650 million evangelicals have felt the need to distance themselves from it. Currently, the WEA's head is Palestinian.
I experienced this for many years in Canada, where evangelicals have had continually to distinguish themselves from their US brethren. It is a death sentence from public life, especially now, after Trump expressed a desire for this most non-American country to be a 51st state, for Canadians to be identified with the U.S. (Even more full disclosure, before arriving in the U.S. in my fiftieth year, I was the founding chairperson of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's Social Action Commission and also of its Religious Freedom Commission, and often wrestled with these issues).
While there is often tendentious media coverage of actual multi-varied and multi-racial evangelicals in the US, America's sprawling presence in the world's media and imagination is negatively shaping views within world evangelicalism.
The Europeans feel the need gently to point this out. Others should do likewise.