Aschism seems to be emerging among Evangelicals, one that may be fateful for the future role of Evangelicalism in American politics.
Exhibit A: During his address to the Southern Baptist Convention(SBC), Vice President Pence called America a “nation of faith” and claimed that the phrase was a favorite of President Trump's. Pence praised Southern Baptists for working “to bring about renewal of America, and new beginnings,” and confessed his belief that “our nation is in the midst of a time of renewal. And we are in the midst of a new beginning of greatness in America.”
There was a time when Pence's boilerplate Christian Americanism would have been an easy applause line among Baptists. It was a Baptist pastor, Jerry Fallwell, who founded the Moral Majority, and for decades the SBC has had a reputation for being a branch of the Republican Party at Prayer.
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