Anyone who is not an evangelical and has not yet abandoned Christianity altogether should take heart.
Evangelicals will not win the war for the soul of our faith even though they won a decisive battle in the 2016 election.
On the contrary, that victory is in fact a major reason why the future belongs to us and not to them.
It represented yet another low point in the history of Christianity that has too often been marked by moral betrayal of God and goodness as we are seeing today.
We cannot forget that centuries of Christian anti-Semitism throughout Europe laid the foundation for the Holocaust.
Or that New England Puritans practiced religious intolerance that included hanging Quakers and driving out everyone who refused to accept Puritan beliefs and practices.
That Christian leaders endorsed the slaughter of native Americans and their culture, the inhumane practice of slavery and Southern segregation, and so much more.
This history is why evangelical support of Donald Trump is already eroding respect for them that will ensure that in the not too distant future they will cease to be seen as a credible expression of Christianity.
Hypocrisy is not something you can hide, and once people see you that way it is nearly impossible to regain their trust.
Evangelicalism will survive, but its future is bleak. History leaves little doubt that Christians who betray their faith for political gain never recover from that moral blunder, as the way we remember the German Christian movement that supported Hitler proves.
In contrast, partisan evangelicalism has served to heighten respect for non-evangelical Christianity. What is more, it has made progressive Christians bolder in their public witness.
Yesterday several mainline Christian leaders were arrested in the nation’s capitol building for holding a prayer vigil in support of Congress passing a clean DACA bill for the dream kids.
It was a small item in the news, but a significant expression of prophetic ministry.
It’s happening all over the country, Christian voices being raised in the name of love, kindness, compassion, and justice by clergy and laity who know the difference between being a Christian and being Christian.
They are the light in this time of darkness.
And that is why all of us who are offended by what partisan evangelicals are saying and doing can take heart.
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