For those readers who are Protestant Christians Mark Tooley has written an interesting piece at Juicy Ecumenism in which he offers a taxonomy of American protestantism. As I read it I was curious to see where I fit in. Maybe you will be, too.
He begins by noting that there are currently five major streams of Protestant political outlook and activism. Here are the five with a brief excerpt from Tooley's description of each each:
The old Religious Left which is comprised chiefly of clergy from what’s left of Mainline Protestantism. It has little political influence but sometimes gets attention because it can stage rallies with berobed clergy in clerical collars....It rejects or minimizes historical Christian ethical teachings about human sexuality and the human body and endorses identity politics. It largely equates God’s Kingdom with an ever-expanding federal entitlement and welfare state.
The old Religious Right which was founded in the 1970s and 1980s by parachurch groups like the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family. It advocated moral renewal through political action to defend “traditional values.” It is pro-life, pro-traditional family and pro religious expression in public life. It has been mostly Reaganite, backing tax cuts, limited government, a strong U.S. national security posture, and free market economics.
The neo-Anabaptist left resembles the old Religious Left but is more adamant about pacifism, peacemaking and rejecting American “empire.” It has professed to be more theologically orthodox. And it was originally pro-life and affirmed traditional Christian sexual teaching but later mostly liberalized on these issues.
MAGA Christianity crystalized around the rise of Donald Trump over the last decade. Unlike the old Religious Right, it does not necessarily favor limited government but exalts in increased executive power vested in a strong man who can fight The Left. It is nostalgic for America’s past but not necessarily for America’s founding constitutional principles, which can impair its ambitions. It mostly hat tips to traditional Christian views about abortion and marriage but is willing to subordinate those stances to wider political ambitions.
The TheoBro right which wants a Christian confessional state that legally privileges Christianity as the only remedy for defeating the Left. Some of its leaders openly denounce voting rights for women as a liberal, modern corruption that undermines the family. Its denizens are not very numerous but have a high profile through social media. And its influence exceeds its numbers because it is aligned with much of MAGA Christianity.
A friend told me that didn't recognize himself in any of these and suggested that Tooley should've included a sixth stream characterized by the ministries of Tim Keller, Al Mohler, and some PCA churches.
In any case, Tooley has more on each of these groups in his article. If you read it you may ask yourself, if you are a Protestant, where, if anywhere, you would fit most comfortably.
