Argumentative Essay: The American Evangelical Culture

The article The Myth of Certainty by Taylor Daneie talks about What it means to be a true Christian that lives in a healthy way. Daneie starts listing off a bunch of questions to get the reader to start thinking about their own life. She talks about being a respectable person and the challenges that a person faces in their life when they try to be a Christian. She talks about the doubts that she knows people have to face from society. A big part of her story was talking about what group a person fits in with and the contributions they make to that group. She says, “We belong to communities of belief which help shape, whether we are conscious of it or not, our views of the world and the actions in it” (Daneie p.21). Once people get into their groups and for their world view, it is tough to try and change them; nearly impossible to get them to change their mind.

Times were changing and some Americans welcomed contemporary culture, mass entertainment, racial, sexual, and traditions while other frowned upon it. Evangelicals Protestants felt threaten by the old-fashioned values and the upsurge of Catholicism and Judaism due to immigration. Believing that the precise truth of the Bible made the foundation of Christianity, fundamentalists organized a campaign to get rid of modernism in order to battle the new liberties that challenged traditional ethics.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Thomas Jefferson wrote those words to express the emotions of a nation that desired freedom, and to shake the foundation of the British Empire. However, this simple, but eloquent phrase has sparked one of the greatest debates in American history. Is America a Christian nation? One question has divided the nation and its politicians since the founding and forming of America. This fiery debate has sparked more controversy than any other debate in modern politics.

Church buildings, musical instruments, ministers’ attire, choir robes, hymns, names of converts, schools and curriculums had Americans’ religious, cultural, and economic trademark. The Christianity that addressed issues of life in the American cultural context was transplanted in different parts of the world. Unlike the transition of the Hebraic-Christianity from the Jewish culture to the Gentile world in the first century, which developed its own unique theological, cultural, and leadership identity in a short period of time, the phenomenal growth of Christianity in the majority world has been largely influenced by the dominance of American Christianity. As the result, we have Christian faith that is not well anchored on local theology. And to most of the churches in the majority world, up until recently,

Conservatives, Protestants, evangelical and fundamentalist combined religion with politics when they felt they were misrepresented after World War II. America evangelical retreated from larger society and constructed institution and networks to protect them because they felt threatened. They isolated from the society and operated their own churches whose the congregations were white they also build and run own bible colleges where young people were nurtured and got education on evangelism.

The true meaning of Christian in CCU is defined by this Evangelical orientation, which transcends denominational boundaries. These beliefs in action are defined by four distinct concepts. The first being conversionism, which is the belief that lives need to be changed. Next activism, the expression of the gospel in effort. Biblicism, a particular regard for the bible and finally crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. (Session 1 Biblical perspective, n.d.)

NAE quickly became known as standing for moral and social campaign, and referring to the Bible as the foundation for the American public life policy. That is prevalent in many of evangelicals involved in high level of interaction with the surrounding society and brake the secular system. Ironically, the Protestant evangelical movements in the U.S and the Christian coalition focused their activism mainly on domestic issues that conflicted with the Christian values and beliefs in the late 1970s and the early 1980s with a strong impact on the heart of conservative politics. It is obvious that religious conservatives were central part of the Republican Party and they were becoming the key figures in organization over the country.

“Dayton’s specific contribution to American religious historiography: popularizing and making accessible a tradition of evangelical social activism” (Dayton and Strong 19).The authors had discovered an evangelical social activism that had been buried and largely forgotten. “Indeed, this social-reform heritage represented the natural fruit of evangelical piety while the now-dominant post-fundamentalist forms of (neo-) evangelicalism represent a deflection from (and perhaps a hijacking of) authentic evangelical identity” (Dayton and Strong 20). Therefore, contemporary American evangelicalism were often portrayed as right wing and socially conservative. What surprise me in this book is that Dayton examines include: Jonathan Blanchard, Charles Finney, Theodore Weld, Arthur and Lewis Taipan, Orange Scott and Luther Lee. They are all from the Arminian end of the evangelical spectrum. If Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney can both be regarded as evangelicals - it raises the question as to how effective and/ or appropriate is the evangelical label? On the other hand, we can see the pattern of reform by Graham by saying, that, “I am convinced that God has called me to be a New Testament evangelist, not an Old Testament

The functionality of America would not be as novel or ingenious without religion, a monumental influence in the building of the United States. If we trace back hundreds of years to colonial times, religion acted as the absolute driving force that convinced colonists that America was the new haven they had been looking for. It also contributed long lasting moral, social, and political impacts seen in countless movements reflecting the christian ideals of truth, life without sin, and altruism, or good works. Lastly, religious liberty is a major campaign so trite that one will find religious tolerance laws in every state as well as various religious tolerance groups with ease. Patently, the rudiments of religion are responsible for shaping

In his classic work Christ and Culture, H. Richard Niebuhr asserts that the relationship between earnest followers of Jesus Christ and human culture has been an "enduring problem."1 How should believers who are "disciplining themselves for the purpose of godliness" (1 Tim. 4:7) relate to a world whose culture is dominated by "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life" (1 John 2: 16)? Culture is God's gift and task for human beings created in His image and likeness. At creation humanity received a "cultural mandate" from the sovereign Creator to have dominion over the earth and to cultivate and keep it (Gen. 1:26, 28; 2:15). But sin's effects are total, and

Fundamentalism is a strict adherence to a set of ideas or beliefs that are conservative in nature. It is a pejorative term usually associated with religious fanaticism. Usually, this is what comes to mind when there is mention of a fundamentalist. However, in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist starring the protagonist Changez, a Pakistani Princetonian who is a top-ranked employee at a prestigious New York valuation firm, turns out not to be an Islamic fundamentalist, but a reluctant fundamentalist of US Capitalism. Hamid challenges readers to reevaluate their preconceived notions and prejudices of people different from themselves in post 9/11 America by employing the use of motifs, aphorism, and suspense, to create a conflation

Christian faith believes in one God and that through his son Jesus one can attain salvation. God sent Jesus to this world to deliver his message of faith and the proper instructions on how to receive eternal salvation. It is through the spirit and the son of God (Jesus) that one must be saved (MOSER, P. K. 2014). For Christians, life after death will mean eternal life in heaven. A Christian’s purpose is to glorify and honor God while on earth. Most importantly, we are to serve him above all other things. In scripture, Romans: 8:29 God calls us to be more like him, in other words Christians should strive to be more Christ like (GCI.org 2017). To be more Christ like could mean serving in your community are even going on a mission trip to spread the gospel of God. The gospel of Jesus is the New Testament scriptures and gives us a thorough examination of what Jesus did from another’s perspective, most importantly, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all of which wrote stories in the New Testament about the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (GCI.org

Once during a passionate sermon at church, my pastor had made a vivid statement about incorporation of sin in law. Pastor Smith stated, “the world has developed loopholes to maintain its dignity by incorporating sin into the law, and as long as we are operating under the law, our actions are perceived as being justified”(Smith). Reflecting on his theory has brought me to the realization that the United Stated has established a profitable industry, governed by the creation and the manipulation of laws. Although, it’s ideal to believe that the standards of laws were truly orchestrated with the foundation of equality, justice, and freedom. It is imperative to be informed of historical events that has transpired through the history of the black race each operating under the ordinance of law. Beginning with the development of slavery, to the alarming rate of black men behind bars. I am compelled to present the clause of injustice that has labeled the United States as the home of 25% of the world 's prisoners ().

Isaiah 43:21 reveals God’s purpose in creating us; to give Him praise through worship. As a leader/minister, preaching the gospel, teaching, providing an environment conducive to growth and flourishing, reproducing the character of Christ, and leading others to worship and delight of God is my real responsibility. Matthew 28:19-20 says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the ages.”

Imagine a world in which you are prohibited from traveling to another country, even though you are guaranteed the basic right to practice your religion. Remember how over fifteen years ago, people that shared nothing but your religion committed acts of terrorism, and people still hold you responsible. Picture an era where you and your people were persecuted, but now reciprocators of the oppressors are marching freely without a second thought. You can stop imagining now. Because this is the world we live in. A society of religious intolerance. It is defined as, “not respecting the fundamental human right of other people to hold religious beliefs that are different from your own” (“Religious Intolerance Introduction”). Around the world in six predominantly Muslim countries, citizens are forbidden from coming to America because of an executive order issued by the US. Likewise, on September 11th, 2001, a group of Muslim terrorists hijacked a plane, killing thousands. In present day, people only connected to them by their religion are still being judged for actions they didn’t perform. Another situation in which bigotry occurred was in World War II. The Nazi Party attempted to gain control of many European and Asian countries, all the while trying to rid the world of races and religions they saw as inferior. Now the Neo-Nazis have the right to march freely and spread their hateful messages. Religious intolerance is a pressing issue, causing harrassment, inequality, violence, and