Category: Pluralism & Public Life

This is an excerpt from John Inazu’s substack, *Some Assembly Required. Read the full essay here.

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I tell my law students to lose most of their adverbs. It’s generally good to avoid overextended emotion and overclaiming. The other side isn’t always wrong. Few people are absolutely mistaken. You don’t have to really care; just care.

As we inch closer toward what is sure to be a divisive and contested election, each of us might consider our own adverb inventory, especially on social media. You will seldom win an argument by making your point more forcefully, more angrily, and with less nuance. Fewer adverbs might also lower your blood pressure.

No side has all the answers, extreme policy positions rarely win, elections are seldom about good versus evil. And every time we type away to the contrary—we’re right, they’re wrong; we’re good they’re evil; we’re smart; they’re stupid—we undermine the moderated discourse on which our civil peace depends.

None of this means the stakes don’t matter—of course they do. This coming presidential election—like every one that has preceded it—will have enormous consequences and its outcome will affect people’s lives and liberties in ways that matter. You should care. Be involved, make your arguments known, and vote.

But as you do, aim for nuance and moderation in your claims. The way we engage with each other—particularly in political discourse—shapes the fabric of our democracy. In an age of polarization, where every issue seems to divide us into opposing camps, it is more important than ever to remember that our words can either contribute to the unraveling of our social fabric, or they can help to restore it one conversation at a time.

This essay is a new contribution to a weekly series by Christianity Today.

American Christianity is in cultural and political decline. In 1937, 70 percent of Americans reported that they belonged to a church. These numbers held relatively steady through much of the 20th century. But in the past 25 years, an estimated 40 million Americans have stopped attending church. As Ernest Hemingway said, bankruptcy comes gradually and then suddenly.

The American public square, previously white and Protestant, is quickly becoming a pluralistic bazaar of diverse cultures, religions, ideologies, and lifestyles. Once dominant and uncontested, Christianity is increasingly one moral vision among many.

Contrary to media caricatures, evangelicals are not a monolith. We’re responding to this decline in a wide variety of ways. The classical stages of grief can offer an insightful tool for understanding the ways evangelicals are processing their cultural and political decline (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance).

It is quite possible to meet an evangelical at any stage in this grieving process. But of course, this scheme does not fit everyone. Some evangelicals are not grieving at all. They actually celebrate Christianity’s loss of power. This group believes it would be fundamentally good and healthy for Christians to take a moratorium on political engagement, seeing it as beneficial for both America and the church.

While I sympathize with their sentiments, I must object. I believe that Christians are called by God to engage in political life. We must actively seek public justice and mercy. We must vigorously work for the flourishing for our neighbors. This requires us to be involved in politics and exert some level of political power and influence toward these ends. Privileged Christians who wish to politically disengage are abandoning the very neighbors they’re commanded to protect, serve, and love.

No, I believe it is entirely appropriate for evangelicals to grieve their loss of cultural and political power. That said, as any counselor will tell you, there are productive and unproductive forms of grief. The bereft are not permitted to remain in denial, anger, depression, or bargaining forever. Nor are they allowed to hurt others as they wail.

Here’s how we might interact with these stages. The first stage of grief is denial. While some evangelicals are still in denial over the decline of Christianity, their numbers are dwindling by the day. It is becoming harder and harder to ignore Christianity’s marginalization in the media, the academy, the marketplace, arts, and politics. For those still in denial, there is not much to say.

The second stage is anger. Evangelical rage makes for great TV; infantile evangelical leaders coming unhinged attract a lot of clicks. It is thus no surprise that the bulk of media attention has been trained on evangelical fits of outrage, victimhood, and lament over the emergence of a post-Christian America.

The third stage is bargaining. Quite a few articles and books have explored the disastrous ways in which evangelical leaders are increasingly willing to make a devil’s bargain for a few scraps of political power and access.

While much ink has been spilled on these forms of evangelical denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, the final stage has received precious little attention. What might look like for American evangelicals to step into a state of acceptance?

This essay is the first installment of a new weekly series by Christianity Today.

In 2020, Tim Keller and I coedited a book titled Uncommon Ground. Our project convened a group of evangelical and evangelical-adjacent friends to reflect—as the subtitle said—on how Christians can live faithfully in a world of difference. Since then, however, I’ve rephrased the question for my own work. We should be faithful, yes, but also neighborly. And our world is not just host to real difference of belief; it’s also a world we don’t control.

I owe this subtle but important reframing to my friendship and work with Eboo Patel, the founder and president of Interfaith America. The most important interfaith organization in the country, Interfaith America does not advance a soupy multiculturalism that pretends that all roads lead to heaven or that our differences don’t matter. It takes religious particularity seriously, identifies conflicts and tensions created by that particularity, and works to find common ground across religious differences.

In an interview with NPR, Russell Moore reflects on his journey from being a prominent Southern Baptist leader to his current role as an outside critic, driven largely by his opposition to Donald Trump and the Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of various issues. Moore describes how his public criticism of Trump and the Convention’s response to sexual abuse led to his ostracism from the denomination. Despite the personal and professional challenges, Moore finds that his faith has strengthened, and he aims to address the crisis in American Christianity through his new book, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call For Evangelical America. He emphasizes that the core problem is not just political but a broader issue of cultural and existential disconnection.

Moore argues that genuine reform in evangelicalism cannot be achieved through top-down efforts or political battles but must start at the grassroots level. He states, “When the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis,” highlighting the extent to which fundamental Christian teachings have been overshadowed by cultural and political conflicts. Moore also reflects on his personal exile from evangelical circles, noting, “I am not someone who thinks of myself as a dissenter… but one of the things I’ve noticed is that since I’ve gone through that, I’ve talked to thousands of people who have experienced a very similar thing.” This perspective underscores his belief in the necessity of revisiting and realigning with the original, transformative vision of the church.

In this episode of Christians for Social Action’s “20 Minute Takes” podcast, Eboo Patel joins Nikki Toyama-Szeto for a conversation about what a pluralistic nation needs from Christians. They talk about the The Bear (Hulu) and the human condition, the role of faith in public life, and the role that Christians can play in a pluralistic nation.

You can listen to the full conversation here.

Why doesn’t Congress work? A recent article sheds light on how factors like diversity, education, and geography are pulling the political parties further apart. These dynamics also shed light on the growing divisions within evangelicalism. Historically, evangelicalism was shaped by academic institutions in the North, but it’s now increasingly driven by entertainment hubs in the South—a trend Phil refers to as the rise of “Christian Nashville-ism.” Skye then speaks with Bishop Claude Alexander about his book “Necessary Christianity” and the pressing issues he sees facing the church today. Plus, there’s more listener feedback on teen mental health research, a look at how puppies, infants, and Baby Yoda tap into our brains, and a surprising animal encounter in Ohio.