Marketing Evangelicalism
A shift has occurred among white evangelicals. Not too long ago, the modus operandi of white evangelicalism was a preaching style bordering on fire-and-brimstone, occasionally tipping into it. If they believed you were a sinner, you would be told so. Sometimes, they would make sure everyone else knew you were a sinner too. This model was primarily popular among white American evangelicals, supplanting the relatively dull and process-focused state churches that find a home in the Old World. Today, there is a shift from the old in-your-face approach to a new, consumerist, marketable evangelicalism.
This shift is only partially caused by a shift in theology. The staff of these new evangelical churches often went to the same seminaries as the staff of old evangelical churches. They typically have the same core doctrine. Often, what has changed is how they read the Great Commission, that command to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” The old churches often believe they are approaching this commission in an ethical way, expressing the moral doctrines of their religion and disciplining their members to follow them. The new churches, instead, tend to look a bit more utilitarian: They want to get as many people as possible saved.
This is not purely a quality-vs.-quantity divide. This is a matter of success in modern times. The new churches have embraced the attention economy in trying to draw and maintain the attention of as many people as possible, sporting sleek material design websites and choosing contemporary Christian music over hymns. They put up large, nice-looking signs and friendly slogans to pull people in. Their websites will be incredibly vague on contentious points so they do not alienate people. While the old churches will let you know exactly where they stand, the new churches are more hesitant to talk about things like same-sex marriage or feminism in Sunday morning sermons. This does not mean they do not have any official policies on the topic. They nearly always will, but will keep it as fuzzy as possible in the public eye.
None of these three models (Old World, old American, new American) are the exclusive true way to follow the gospel. They were each shaped by the conditions they grew in. The amount of intervention the state played in early Christianity helped ensure it an enduring place among the churches of Europe and their theology. In part, this is what Kierkegaard rebelled against in his Attack on Christendom. The old American model was the beginning of a market-based approach to Christianity. When Europeans began colonizing North America with a newfound religious freedom, a door was opened for emotional appeals to rouse the masses, as exemplified in the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon and the Christian Revivals. Today, however, marketing has gotten more advanced than making people feel sheer terror. American evangelicalism, being unbound by centralized institutions, has responded.
In 1921, a German philosopher by the name Walter Benjamin wrote “Capitalism as Religion”. In it he argued that, among other things, Max Weber had it wrong. Weber thought that capitalism was conditioned by the “Protestant work ethic,” that the ethos of Calvinism allowed capitalism to come into prominence. Benjamin thought otherwise:
Capitalism has developed as a parasite of Christianity in the West (this must be shown not just in the case of Calvinism, but in the other orthodox Christian churches), until it reached the point where Christianity’s history is essentially that of its parasite – that is to say, of capitalism.
Capitalism may have been helped along by Christianity, but it is far from true that religion conditioned capitalism. Instead, it is the other way around: Capitalism has conditioned Christianity. I think he was right, and the truth of this was not readily visible until now.
Today, the face of American evangelicalism is often as truthful as television ads, which is to say, only as truthful as it needs to be to get people to buy it. From a certain perspective, this is a better system for its practitioners than the old one. It is less prone to outright abuse and public shaming. For the surface-level member, it is much nicer. However, as already noted, the theology largely remains the same. Those who get deep enough to realize that the leadership stands against them are often so deep that it hurts like hell to leave. This is by design.
This design is not gospel-approved. While Jesus did not reveal everything at once (see how protective of his identity he is in Mark), He did not hide hard facts behind a wall either. He repeatedly tells the 12 Disciples that He will be murdered. In the second half of John 6, he scares away many of his followers by saying that you have to eat him to live. This new model tries to bring Jesus’ message to the world in a way that Jesus never would have.
This new model of American evangelicalism is a thoroughly capitalistic bastardization of how to run a church.