What can a gay atheist teach Evangelicals? Quite a lot as it happens. In this short and stimulating book, Jonathan Ruach challenges Christians to be true to their faith for the good of society.
His primary audience is American, and his concern is how American Christians have broken their bargain with the democratic order of the United States. John Adams, the second President, famously said that the American constitution was made for “a moral and religious people”. In the context of the early Republic, Adams had Protestant Christianity in mind. Sadly, according to Rauch, the historic mainline Protestant denominations are in serious decline having succumbed to a vague moralistic leftish liberalism.
Many Evangelicals on the other hand are veering politically rightwards to Magaland. Whatever you make of Ruach’s political analysis, his concern is that theologically conservative Christians are in danger of selling their inheritance for a bowl of political stew. Strangely, he holds up the Mormons as an example of how to remain true to [their] faith, but with a generosity of spirit and active public engagement. Putting that aside, Rauch’s big point is valid: Christians, and particularly Evangelicals, must be true to their convictions for the good of others and renew their commitment to the American constitutional order that owes so much to Protestantism.
