Right wingers used to cite political and economic theorists like Hayek and Friedman in support of their policies. Now it seemed they’re appealing to their idea of God’s wishes. That could be viewed as evidence that they’re struggling to produce any non-supernatural arguments.
This would be an effective strategy for Paul Marshall, James Orr, Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) &co. if they could draw on a popular British tradition of born-again Christianity of the kind that still exists in the the USA. But I don't think they can. There is no cross-shaped Brexit that I can see. Britain is becoming more and more secularised and multicultural. Insofar as there is a Christian revival, it's coming mostly from immigration, from Africa mainly (though it's surprising how many Indian Christians there are in Britain). These migrant Christians may often be socially and theologically conservative, but they are unlikely to be attracted to an ethnonationalist Anglo-British movement that proposes mass deportation of immigrants.
The evangelicals made rejection of homosexuality their shibboleth, but the public has become much more accepting of same sex relationships (less so of transgenderism, which is very different, whatever the LGBTQ+ activists may say) and churches where I live (Coventry) can often be seen putting out rainbow signs saying, sheepishly, 'Everyone is welcome here'. Then sex abuse scandals ripped through the movement, the implosion of the Jesus Army (very prominent in street evangelism in the Midlands) followed by the John Smith scandal that brought down Justin Welby.
And since when was evangelicalism anti-Enlightenment? The evangelicals of yore prided themselves on their scientific rationality - science illuminated God's providence made made manifest in Creation (at least until Darwin blew a huge hole in that argument) - the evangelical tracts of my 1970s-1980s English childhood were illustrated with images of microscopes and heartbeat monitors. The rejection of the Enlightenment is a much more Catholic or Orthodox line - Putinist influence, perhaps?
And as for Trump, you don't have to be a Marxist-infused liberation theologian to find him abhorrent, a conservative Christianity that rejects incessant lying, sexual incontinence and aggression and gold-painted wordly vanity will do...
Right wingers used to cite political and economic theorists like Hayek and Friedman in support of their policies. Now it seemed they’re appealing to their idea of God’s wishes. That could be viewed as evidence that they’re struggling to produce any non-supernatural arguments.
This would be an effective strategy for Paul Marshall, James Orr, Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) &co. if they could draw on a popular British tradition of born-again Christianity of the kind that still exists in the the USA. But I don't think they can. There is no cross-shaped Brexit that I can see. Britain is becoming more and more secularised and multicultural. Insofar as there is a Christian revival, it's coming mostly from immigration, from Africa mainly (though it's surprising how many Indian Christians there are in Britain). These migrant Christians may often be socially and theologically conservative, but they are unlikely to be attracted to an ethnonationalist Anglo-British movement that proposes mass deportation of immigrants.
The evangelicals made rejection of homosexuality their shibboleth, but the public has become much more accepting of same sex relationships (less so of transgenderism, which is very different, whatever the LGBTQ+ activists may say) and churches where I live (Coventry) can often be seen putting out rainbow signs saying, sheepishly, 'Everyone is welcome here'. Then sex abuse scandals ripped through the movement, the implosion of the Jesus Army (very prominent in street evangelism in the Midlands) followed by the John Smith scandal that brought down Justin Welby.
And since when was evangelicalism anti-Enlightenment? The evangelicals of yore prided themselves on their scientific rationality - science illuminated God's providence made made manifest in Creation (at least until Darwin blew a huge hole in that argument) - the evangelical tracts of my 1970s-1980s English childhood were illustrated with images of microscopes and heartbeat monitors. The rejection of the Enlightenment is a much more Catholic or Orthodox line - Putinist influence, perhaps?
And as for Trump, you don't have to be a Marxist-infused liberation theologian to find him abhorrent, a conservative Christianity that rejects incessant lying, sexual incontinence and aggression and gold-painted wordly vanity will do...