When many Americans think of evangelicals and politics, they often think of the “religious right” or possibly the “religious left.”
Ethicist David Gushee makes a reasoned case for a movement toward an already existing and growing “evangelical center” as a valid biblical path for Christians in the midst of a polarizing political culture. Focusing on the key issues of torture and human rights, marriage and the law, evangelicals and war, and creation care and climate-change, Gushee discusses how such important topics can be addressed by the evangelical center and lead to interaction with the public sphere.
Even though Gushee promotes a “centrist” view in the political arena where we may find we are to be conservative on some issues and progressive on others, in the end, he writes that Christians must not give in to the temptation to ultimately define themselves by political categories but instead through the gospel.
Rather than engaging ourselves in damaging “culture wars,” followers of Jesus Christ can find common ground with others, yet also speak truth that neither the political right nor the political left seems willing to speak.
Greg Bowman