The Religion Guy has previously complained that the media fixation on socio-political agitation by U.S. evangelical Protestants tends to overlook “mainline” and African-American Protestants, Catholics and Jews, whose congregations over-all may actually be more politicized.
Also neglected is evangelicals’ important political impact on like-minded churches overseas – and vice versa.
Background on a half-century of activism comes from Melani McAlister, a U.S. foreign policy specialist at The George Washington University who belongs on your sources list. Her “The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals” is great for background or a story theme and the release in August, allowing relaxed summertime reading. Reporters seeking galleys can contact Oxford University Press: emily.tobin@oup.com or 212-726-6057.
There’s perennial debate over how to define the term “evangelical.” For starters, they uphold standard Christian doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus Christ, but McAlister finds three distinct emphases:
(1) An “authoritative” Bible as “central, foundational, believable – and true.”
(2) Personal faith in Jesus’ death for one’s sin as “the only path to salvation.”
(3) Passion for “evangelizing the world.”
Please note: McAlister includes U.S. Protestant “people of color,” who are heavily evangelical in faith, though analysts usually treat them separately.
Looked at internationally, she says, “evangelical politics are not just about abortion and same-sex marriage but colonialism and neocolonialism, war and global poverty, religious freedom and Islam.”
