Who is an Evangelical?

In the United States, the word “evangelical” is often confused with a political designation. Though associated with a particular brand of Christianity, it is perhaps more popularly paired with conservative policy views, Republican registration, and an overwhelming whiteness. For several decades, white evangelicals have positioned themselves as moral arbiters calling for decency and godliness. From the Moral Majority to the Christian Coalition to the values voters who elected George W. Bush, this religious-political-racial demographic has asserted its faith in the public square, often within the confines of the Grand Old Party. In 2016, when it was widely reported that 81 percent of white evangelical voters had cast a ballot for Donald Trump, many critics—and more than a few allies—dismissed the movement’s longstanding claims to moral authority, concluding that its ambitions were squarely here on earth and not in heaven. But is this really who evangelicals are? And are these evangelicals representative of the whole?