The heads of one of the most prestigious theological colleges in the US have restated its commitment to evangelicalism following the presidential election which many believe saw the term fatally compromised.
The president and president emeritus of Fuller Theological Seminary, Mark Labberton and Richard Mouw, issued a statement yesterday acknowledging that many had felt forced to abandon the description because of its associations with elements of the presidential campaign.
They say: "Over the course of the campaign, the press increasingly referred to evangelicals as politically conservative, and predominantly white Christians. For some evangelicals, abortion and future Supreme Court appointments were of primary concern, placed over and against concerns for women, people of color, Muslims, and LGBT persons. This polarization, even among evangelicals, led some to conclude that evangelicals on both sides were increasingly and inextricably bound to and complicit with scandalizing words and actions that degrade people and contradict and betray the gospel of Jesus Christ."
They continue: "At times, these associations have not just been attributed by the press, but clearly and repeatedly captured through evangelicals' own witness. The reported influence of the evangelical vote in the post-election surveys only intensified this view."
For some, they say: "Only by distancing themselves from the now pervasive and destructive associations with evangelical do they feel they can reclaim or maintain their identity and integrity as followers of Jesus."
As president and president emeritus, they say, "we lament and reject the disgrace that hateful words and actions by some evangelicals have heaped specifically upon people of color, immigrants, women, Muslims, and LGBT persons in our nation, as we uphold the dignity of all persons made in the image of God. We grieve and condemn the racism and fear, rejection and hatred that have been expressed and associated with our Lord. Such realities do not in any way reflect the fruit of God's Spirit and instead evoke the sorrow of God's heart and of our own."
Labberton and Mouw say Fuller will "continue to identify itself as evangelical" but that the term "has value only if it names our commitment to seek and to demonstrate the heart and mind of God in Jesus Christ".
This commitment "leads us to repudiate and resist all forces of racism, misogyny, and all other attitudes and actions, overt and implied, that subvert the dignity of persons made in the image of God".
