Here are a couple of maps that I find very interesting. The top map represents the number of evangelicals per 1000 of population as of the year 2000 as found at a quite amazing site called The Association for Religion Data Archives. (I will blog more about it another day.) The darker the red, the more evangelical the state. The bottom map represents the vote for President in 2000. Each number on the second graph denotes the number of electoral college votes from the state. Red for Republicans, blue for Democrats.
Notice the high correlation between the two maps. Of the ten most Evangelical states (based on percent of population identified as Evangelical), all ten voted Republican. Of the next ten most Evangelical states, eight voted Republican.
Conversely, of the ten least Evangelical states, eight voted Democrat. One of the two exceptions is Utah. I guess Mormons vote Republican too!
It is no wonder that people associate the Evangelical movement so closely with the Republican party.
Now Evangelicals up in Canada are a different kettle of fish. Generally, Evangelicals in Canada tend to vote across the political spectrum although there have been exceptions to the rule.
Unfortunately Canada is so dominated by U.S. media, that when people in Canada hear the word Evangelical they promptly thing of some of the more prominent American Evangelicals, and don’t realize that Evangelicals are composed of a much broader range of people than is conveyed through the media. This can become frustrating for Canadian Evangelicals.
It is for this reason that I quite like An Evangelical Manifesto. It communicates that the Evangelical movement is broader than what is conveyed by the graphs above. I am also grateful that I can see myself as being included in the bigger Evangelical tent that is described by the Manifesto. For this reason I would also encourage Christians to read Letters to a Young Evangelical by Tony Campolo. You may not agree with everything that he says, but it may help open eyes to the fact that Evangelicals have a range of ideas, and should not be so narrowly defined.
Here is what one reviewer had to say:
I was drawn to order this book when I heard Campolo interviewed on NPR.
My own beliefs tend heavily toward the liberal side of the scale so I surprised how interested I was in what Campolo had to say during the interview. Clearly, what he was saying often was not what I expected to hear from an Evangelical. So I purchased the book to learn more about him and I recommend the book for others, like me, who aren’t satisfied to just sit with their assumptions and are open to learning about the common ground we can share with folks whose beliefs we may not understand as well as we thought we did.
Michael Bell
Joshua Hearne
Tim Melton
Joel Black
Good post, bro. That was pretty eye opening. Of course I sensed the strong correlation between Evangelicals and Republicans. That’s as obvious as the nose on the face. But it was startling to see the direct connection so vividly drawn.
I do think there is a grass roots movement to de-politicize Evangelicals and bring them back to the Gospel. Unfortunately, most of this work is coming from Emergent churches that have very little denominational ‘street cred’. It would be refreshing to hear some denominational voices echoing what the emergents are saying.
Tim Keller is helpful, but he doesn’t say enough in this regard. Driscoll is helpful, but he smells too emergent to most denominational leaders. Campolo is helpful, but he’s too radical, too given to overstatement to be heard by most (I do love that he rattles the cages, though). Steve Brown is a very helpful voice, but he plays too much. We simply need a few strong leaders to come together to address this threat to the Gospel.
Frankly, I hear far too many Evangelicals parroting Dobson, Bill O’reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and the like. Those are not the voices we need to be listening to. There is not a serious theologian in the bunch.
A very helpful documentary has been made by Dan Merchant, who has also written a companion book, called “Lord, Save us from your Followers”. Here’s the link.
http://lordsaveusthemovie.com/
Tim
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the link. I had checked the movie out a few weeks ago when I saw it linked from your site. I was quite impressed with it although I thought that it might have been a bit edgy.
I have hopes that maybe the “Evangelical Manifesto” can become the voice that we agree is needed.
Mike