JohnPalmieri.com

Reconciliation

I recently read Michael Emerson’s and Christian Smith’s book; Divided by Faith – Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America. I resonated with Emerson’s conclusion that evangelicals tend to live and thrive in the land of the urgent. Evangelicals revel in the activism of the imperative, crusade, rescue and therefore have little time to reflect inward and think through processes and systems that contribute to systemic societal ills – like racism. As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to appreciate the slower and more contemplative approach – before taking action. Emerson quotes Mark Noll in, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, effectively stating; “The evangelical ethos is activist, populist, pragmatic and utilitarian. It allows little space for broader or deeper intellectual effort because it is dominated by the urgency of the moment.” (171). Emerson also quotes N.K.Clifford’s poignant take on the evangelical mind; “The Evangelical Protestant mind has never relished complexity. Indeed its crusading genius, whether in religion or politics, has always tended toward an oversimplification of issues and the substitution of critical analysis and serious reflection for inspiration and zeal.” (171)