Christian, Evangelical, & Democrat?

A leading evangelical questions the easy identification of the message of the gospel with the agenda of one political party.

This book grows out of George Hunter’s lifelong passion for the evangelistic mission of the church. Evangelism, he notes, means both bringing individuals to faith in Christ and working to bring society into closer conformity with the coming Kingdom of God. It means that all Christians are called to be missionaries to those persons and groups among whom they find themselves. It means engaging with the culture around us to bring the saving word of the gospel to those who need it. When Hunter looks at the increasingly close relationship between evangelical Christianity and the Republican party in the United States, he sees a danger that the witness to the gospel will be compromised. Appreciative of the Republicans’ emphasis on personal responsibility, he still worries that identifying the Christian message with the Republican party platform will lose the social dimensions of the gospel. Seeing how evangelicals cast their lots in increasingly exclusive ways with one party, he asks if we have forgotten the gospel injunction to be salt and light among all elements of society, including political parties. Supportive of the fight against abortion, he is concerned nonetheless that evangelicals are attempting to form an enclave with the power to force a decision about abortion that leapfrogs the hard–and necessary–work of bringing hearts and minds into conformity with the Christian message. And so Hunter, one of the country’s most noted evangelicals, has written Conservative, Evangelical . . . and Democrat? to call his brothers and sisters in the evangelical movement back to a more holistic practice of the gospel and a more effective witness to the faith.