Twenty-Something Evangelicals

The most considerable evidence that we're entering a "post-Religious Right America" is the shifting political agenda and theological emphasis of a new generation of 20-something evangelicals. I meet them all the time on the road; they are coming out of the woodwork for The Great Awakening book events in mass numbers.

I travel with one of these young evangelicals, a missionary kid who grew up in the former Soviet Union and who recently graduated from Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. From the conversations he and I have been having with those in attendance at book events, churches, and evangelical college campuses, it's clear that churchgoers growing up in conservative pews are finally coming of age.

Last week at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California, they packed the venue, with some sitting on the floor. Many of these students are disillusioned with the models of engaging the faith with which they were raised. This emerging generation of evangelical pastors and theologians realize that Christianity has an image problem: it is seen as hypocritical, judgmental, too focused on the afterlife, and too political. They desire something radically new and different, yet still solidly rooted in Jesus.

The quantitative picture painted by Barna pollster David Kinnaman in his recently released book, unChristian, is qualitatively borne out in this group of Generation Y "insiders" -- those raised inside the church but frustrated with the status quo. They will shake things up in the years ahead, both politically and theologically.

Politically, these 20-somethings are less likely to associate with the Republican Party than ever before, as discovered by a recent Pew Research Center poll. It showed that party identification among white evangelicals ages 18-29 decreased from 55% to 40% between 2005 and 2007. That's 15 points in just two years.

This doesn't mean young evangelicals are automatically becoming Democrats (and I don't think they should). It does mean that their agenda is broader and deeper, no longer beholden to a single partisan ideology -- more concerned with 30,000 children dying daily of poverty and disease than with gay marriage amendments in Ohio.

Theologically, these 20-somethings are abandoning a worldview that reduces the gospel of Jesus Christ to an afterlife-oriented, fire-insurance, salvation pitch. These are Matthew 25, Luke 4, and "Sermon on the Mount" Christians. They really believe that the kingdom of God represents God's best hopes and dreams for this present age, not only for the life to come.

From coffee-infused, late-night seminary conversations to missions trips bringing them into relationship with single mothers living in the crumbling remains of America's inner cities, with children living on garbage dumps in Mexico, with teenage girls rescued out of Southeast Asia's sex industry, and with the boy soldiers of sub-Saharan Africa -- the 20-something evangelical worldview is being disciplined by a new global context.

This new generation -- the Fuller Seminary Generation -- isn't responding to The Great Awakening message because of what we're doing; they're responding because of what they already see happening all around them. They are summoning the confidence to articulate a new vision for Christianity for the 21st century, rooted in the timeless orthodoxy of a first-century rabbi. And once it emerges, it could change everything.

Jim Wallis is the author of The Great Awakening, Editor-in-Chief of Sojourners and blogs at www.godspolitics.com.

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Comments

[mandycat]

If evangelicals want to persuade us that they're not a bunch of power-hungry, mischief-making busybodies with their snouts buried deep in the federal trough, they'd better get busy. They have about 30 years of damage to undo.

Any one who lives within 100 miles of Colorado Springs with its Focus on the Family, its Most Sacred Air Force Academy of Our Lord Jesus and its assorted right wing nutjobs, will need extra-convincing arguments.

[greymen]

They're still a bunch of idiots who believe in sky-fairies and virgin births, though.

[Ivyfree]

If evangelicals are leaving the republicans, that's a good thing: we might have a chance to retake our country from the neanderthals and maybe do some rebuilding, including the educational system.

But as for Christians themselves? I've watched them for over 50 years now, and I want to stay far away from them.

[sheila]

What has always baffled me is how any THINKING Christian could be a Republican - it seems to me that there is a certain type of person longing to be told what to do, and they grab onto fanatical religion, fanatical right wing politics, etc.

There is another type of person longing to do the right thing, and that person could NEVER be a Republican, with its culture of war, punishment, deprivation, hypocrisy, intolerance and hatred.

Any THINKING Christian would have to be a GREEN:

Ten Key Values

Grassroots Democracy

Social Justice

Ecological Wisdom

Non-violence

Decentralization

Community-based Economics

Feminism

Diversity

Responsibility

Future Focus

This is almost WORD FOR WORD what Jesus believed in, so hopefully a few people who care about what is right and wrong, and how to best steward our planet will infuse the Green Party with some new blood, and help get some QUALITY candidates elected.

[tbone99]

But what about evolution, tolerance, curiosity? Not allowed by Christaian standards.
When the heart of a religion is to save others it' veY PURPOSE is aggression.

[Merlin7]

It's very sad that there is a new generation of evangelicals -- that each year millions of young people choose to believe in an elaborate fantasy that is not substantiated by one shred of objective evidence. That's very scary, because if objective evidence is not required, one can believe in just any nonsense. And religion is worse than nonsense because it taps into humankind's deepest fears and vulnerabilities.

As long as religion is allowed to have considerable influence in the world, humanity will remain at war, soaking the planet in blood as it has for millennia. And with nuclear weapons proliferating, we don't have much time to figure out how to live without these comforting fantasies.

[unlikelyconservative]

By the comments, I see that no one seems to understand what this Jim Wallis is talking about - Obama, rapture, that's baloney, and we know it.

Welcome the new Jesus movement; young people disenfranchised with religion, but fascinated by a Person, and motivated by what He feels about the widow, the orphan and the foreigner, and willing to talk about it, and vote about it. Well traveled, educated, and not afraid to ask tough questions. This could be interesting.

[vsign]

I address this to the religious left and young people: Obama Nation cult members act like followers, not voters. Instead of talking about why to vote for Obama, they give you reasons to believe in him. And they don't like me - an older white working class woman. In fact they are giddy with excitement of power over my life with a democratic win. They really believe I will vote for their guy when I've determined their guy doesn't offer me anything. I want a president, not a cult leader. In fact - I will refuse to join this cult. I fear for my country if I give such a cult leader the power of my vote. So to all you Obama worshipers - I do not want my party taken over by your religious leader. I will do what I need to stop you from taking over my party. I know what I think does not matter to you. You are so drunk with the anticipation of power. Shame on all of you for not caring about me.

[DemandTruth]

Are you FREAKING kidding me? How can I not like you? I AM YOU! And I see many many posts talking about WHY we will be voting for Obama over Clinton. The discussions range from policy decisions and platforms to previous voting records, to who can win against McCain on the Iraq War issue. Maybe it is YOU who are so drunk on loyalty you can't open your mind to see our arguments. YES, it is true that Obama is inspiring. Don't you want people to be inspired and hopeful about our democratic process? Don't you WANT Americans to be involved in the direction of our own country? It sounds like all you WANT is for us to shut up and vote with the establishment we've already been spoon fed for the last two decades. It sounds like YOU care too much about YOU and ONLY YOU, and you don't see that we believe (rightly or wrongly) that Obama will restore balance and justice to YOU and US and the whole country. This is the whole problem. You are thinking in terms of YOU and what the president will do for YOU. WE are thinking in terms of WE and What WE can accomplish for ALL OF US!

Don't presume to tell me who I do and don't care about, by the way. You don't know the first thing about me or the other posters here.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

Are you on something?

[Pdubya]

The most disturbing account of Evangelicals these last decades is their exit from the Just War Theory.

[Henry]

What is it that this younger generation believes about the Rapture? Truth of propaganda?

[cktirumalai]

Taking Jesus seriously means both the serious consideration of what used to be called the German Higher Criticism of the Bible, which shook up the 19th century, and the ability to see Jesus not just as the adored of multitudes but as an insurrectionary in his time. An orthodox Jesus seems almost a contradiction in terms.