In his chapter on Wheaton College in his book The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, journalist Tim Alberta spoke with Wheaton theologian and Current contributing editor Vincent Bacote about evangelicalism, politics, and idolatry.
Here is a taste from Alberta’s book:
“If you ask me what’s the biggest problem with evangelicalism, I’d say it’s a catechesis problem. It’s a formation problem, a discipleship problem. These are people who are supposed to have a knowledge of the Bible, but many of them don’t,” said Bacote, a renowned theologian on the Wheaton faculty. “The genius of evangelicalism is the breadth of it. The hazard is the lack of depth. A lot of people are just not going deep enough.”
By remaining shallow in the scriptures, Bacote said, too many American Christians have avoided a necessary showdown between their own base cultural proclivities and God’s perfect standard. When Christians are discipled primarily by society, inevitably they look to scripture for affirmation of their habits and behaviors and political views. “But the Bible is the word of God, then God ought to be interrogating those things. That’s why Jesus came: to fix your vertical relationship with God,” Bacote said. “He wants your whole life. He wants to transform who you are.”
We were sitting in Bacote’s fifth-floor office. The shelves appeared liable to collapse under the weight of his tomes. Bacote, an author himself, and a longtime professor of theology, is also the director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics. This is Wheaton’s de facto arm of civic and cultural engagement. Fittingly, the books surrounding us ranged from religion to warfare, elections to history, music to sports.
Reflecting on the sum total of his scholarship, Bacote said he felt confident sharing two basic observations about evangelicalism in the United States. The first is that too many American Christians are woefully under-discipled. The second–a by-product of the first–is that too many American Christians think of themselves as American Christians.
“Who is preaching to them about idolatry? I mean, really, in evangelical churches, how many sermons are people hearing about idolatry of any kind, much less national idolatry?” Bacote asked, turning his palms upward, as if begging me to provide examples. “If people generally aren’t preaching about idolatry in the first place, it’s no surprise that this particular species of idolatry just hides in plain sight.”
The positive we can take from this, Bacote noted, is that some Christians “are now showing us what they’ve always been thinking.” Indeed, the tumult of this era has brought forth from the shadows some of the blood-and-soil-compulsions of the American evangelical. What Bacote wants to do–what he wants his students, who are mostly current and prospective pastors, to do–is challenge these people the way that Jesus challenged His disciples.
“They need to understand that you can care for your country without worshipping your country,” Bacote said. “They also need help to understand that you can care for your country.”
Check out Vince’s writing at Current here.