By Tony Campolo & Shane Claiborne
As the election retreats like a hurricane going out to sea, first responders are assessing the damage left in its wake. One casualty is the reputation of evangelicalism.
Evangelicalism was closely associated with the campaign of Donald J. Trump, and more than 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for the president-elect. This, despite large numbers of African-American, Latino, Asian, young and female Evangelicals who were fiercely opposed to the racism, sexism and xenophobia of Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and the hypocrisy of a candidate who built a casino empire while flaunting morality.
As a result, much of the good that went by the name “evangelicalism” has been clouded over; now a new movement is needed to replace it.
When it comes to religion in America, the fastest growing group is Nearly a quarter of all Americans, and over 35 percent of Millennials, report no religious affiliation. When we talk to “nones, ” many of whom grew up within evangelicalism, they often still affirm faith in God. They left the church because they gave up on evangelical leadership. Nothing sums up their objections more clearly than evangelicals’ embrace of Donald J. Trump.
Didn’t Jesus say, “Blessed are the meek” and “love your enemies”?
Read the full article in the New York Times.