A Letter of Lament to Evangelicalism

Posted : 2 Jul, 2020 01:08 PM

By Ben Cremer



https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=866911267384&id=167300995



Someone asked me why I thought my generation is leaving the Evangelical tradition. I started to write then I started to breakdown. What started as an answer turned into a lament over my tradition. A tradition I love and cherish.



I gave my life to Jesus when I was 5 and was later baptized into the church. I was called to be a pastor when I was 7 years old and even through I had several major crisis of faith, I couldn’t shake that call. From 2004 to 2012, I studied under and next to some of the greatest theological minds I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting. This caused me to care far more about being the church Christ called us to be than I’d ever care about a political party or its ideologies.



I was ordained as a pastor in 2016. I love my church, I love my tradition, and I am committed to my calling.



But many of my friends have left. I really miss them. It’s important to lament why they left and I hope to repent and learn from those ways so they and the future generations may join us and stay.



Here is my letter of lament to evangelicalism. This is not written to individuals, a particular generation, political party, or denomination. This is just compiled laments from my generation about the tradition itself. May you read it in the humble spirit in which it was written: 



Evangelicalism, the way you taught my generation to live is sadly not what you’ve been living out.



You taught us to pursue the kingdom of God first, yet you so often pursue America first.



You taught us to proclaim Christ as Lord of all, but when it comes to talk of real power, all we hear you talking about is presidents.



You taught us about purity and respect, yet get mad at us when we call out political leaders for their unwholesome remarks about women and people of color.



You taught us that violence isn’t the way to solve our problems and to love our enemies, yet you seem so preoccupied with war and the right to bear arms.



You taught us to spread the gospel, yet so much of what we hear from you is the spreading of political ideologies.



You taught us to welcome the stranger as a friend and help those in need, yet you talk so disparagingly about immigrants, refugees, and those in need of welfare.



You taught us to repent, yet when we want to repent from racism, jingoism, and nationalism, you treat us as if we are just politically misguided rather than gospel determined.



You taught us that all life is sacred, yet talk as if it only applies to the the unborn. We care about the unborn too, but we also care about all other ways human life exists and is cared for; even the earth itself, it’s climate, it’s animals, and it’s future.



You told us relationship was the way of the gospel and it had nothing to do with works or legalism, yet we hear so much talk about working to get the right people in political power and to shape the legal system in favor of what we value.



You taught us to worship God alone and see scripture as our primary authority, yet you act as though this country and it’s constitution is on their same level.



You called my generation lazy, entitled, and shame us for leaving the church. While some of your criticisms are accurate, some not, we feel like you’ve abandoned so much of what you’ve taught us, become lazy as the church and entitled over political power.



Maybe there’s less and less room for my generation in evangelicalism because there’s more of a desire to be a Christian nation than there is to be a Christian church. We want to be the church more than anything.

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