Any Immediacy Before Christ
I haven’t been writing much in the long form lately, as I’m deep into what I plan to be at least a year of intense study on the history of American revivalism and the rise of what I’ve termed the religion of Cultural Evangelicalism—something I believe is akin to the Second Great Awakening. Then, yesterday, Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress posted the following on social media, which I cannot let pass without comment.
I cannot let it pass, because I find something ethereal, almost spiritual, about this image; it evokes unutterable emotions of what it’s like to be a dissenting voice inside a Cultural Evangelical church, something that caused me to walk away from the faith for over a decade. Be that as it may, I will do my best to break down this disorienting display and describe the larger issues it speaks to. First, let’s begin with the obvious.
This is a group of women who all attend the same Southern Baptist church, quite probably members of an official women’s group.
The dress they’re mimicking was custom made for Melania Trump by designer Hervé Pierre. You cannot buy it, meaning they all likely had it custom made themselves, just to go see the movie at a local theater and take a group photo, adding to the ostentatiousness of the act.
If it had stopped there, it would have just been another instance of MAGA-church weirdness. Yet, their pastor, the man who, in 2008, took to the convention podium to nominate Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President, Albert Mohler, for SBC President, believed it was such a good representation of the spirit of his church, that he posted it on social media.
Jeffress’ church, First Baptist Dallas, reportedly has roughly 16,000 members. Statistically, there have to be people in the church who don’t want this type of gross political syncretization from their pastor, who has been a very vocal Trump supporter for some time. Even if that number was one in one-hundred members, that is one hundred sixty members, close to the Sunday attendance of the average Southern Baptist church. I’m sure some in Jeffress’ corner would respond, “If they don’t like it, they should find another church,” but this is the flippancy of a 21st-century, buffet-style view of the church, where it is meant to serve the attendee’s perceived needs more than being a mutually-beneficial relationship. Jeffress has been the lead pastor of FBC Dallas since 2007, but the church was founded in 1868. As a former member of an over-century-old Baptist church, I guarantee there are octogenarians who have been attending this one church their whole lives, whose children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren may also attend.
In this lays the deeper betrayal of the body that is Jeffress’ political obsession, and which speaks to how the religion of Cultural Evangelicalism regularly marginalizes devout saints who seek a faith that transcends politics, or any other worldly pursuit. When your entire social circle is contained within a church, when you’ve been attending for decades—so long that you predate the pastor—is it safe to publicly express dissent with the above behavior? Can you do so and not expect to instantly become an outsider in your own church? Something that’s rarely spoken of is the pain of having attended a church long enough to remember how it was before someone new came in and radically changed its culture; the pain of seeing people whom you love embrace this new culture at significant odds with the one that brought you to the church; the pain of seeing the changed culture shift the demographics, as it brings in new people specifically looking for it.
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship, “For every immediacy [before Christ], whether we realize it or not, means hatred of Christ, and this is especially true where such relationships claim the sanction of Christian principles.” Jeffress has put the immediacy of signaling loyalty to MAGA ahead of welcoming people into his congregation (and those already there) who, in their God-given liberty of conscience, don’t like the current President, but who need Jesus just as much as anyone. He is not alone in this, nor is the only immediacy before Christ in the religion of Cultural Evangelicalism politics, but, make no mistake, he displays a hatred of Christ. There will be no sanity in 21st-century American Protestantism at large until we are willing to state this truth.
FBC Dallas has a long, distinguished history and was once considered the flagship church of the SBC. For a 94 year period in the 20th century, they were pastored by two men: George W. Truett and W.A. Criswell.
Criswell was especially known for his conservative theology and politics. A young Paige Patterson was once the president of the church's Criswell College. Patterson is now once again a member of that church.
To make a long story short, conservative politics are in the DNA of that church. Jeffress has kicked it up a couple of notches.
First time I hear a pastor advise the flock on their vote is the last visit I make.