Contemplating Culture in a Southern Citadel

President Obama’s election and inauguration has accelerated a long period of evangelical navel-gazing. The quest to define evangelicalism is a long-standing if quixotic tradition. But during this tumultuous first decade of the 21st century, evangelicals have published volumes of literature and convened myriad conferences to discuss the crisis of this age: How should evangelicals relate to the American culture that surrounds them?

Even the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) feels the tension that raises this question today. The Louisville, Kentucky, school was founded 150 years ago as a beacon of biblical truth amid a culture that valued pastoral ministry. In pockets of the South, evangelical churches retain respect. But SBTS is a school with a national and global vision, and American culture has shifted. How should churches and theological education thus respond?

This was a key question during discussion and lectures at the “Southern Seminary and the History of American Christianity” conference, held February 18—19 at SBTS. Grant Wacker and Russell Moore took the lead by answering this question in their presentation during the session on “Religion and American Culture in the 20th Century.” Wacker, professor of Christian history at Duke University, presented “Billy Graham’s America,” also the title of his forthcoming book. It’s no surprise that Graham was a focal point of the conference: No Southern Baptist in history is as famous as Graham. Having preached live to 215 million people in 185 countries and territories (not to mention the millions who watched or heard him through electronic media), he is the natural namesake for the SBTS School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth.

And yet Graham’s evangelism was not the reason why three living U.S. Presidents attended the 2007 dedication of the Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. As “America’s pastor,” Graham befriended and counseled several Presidents, namely Nixon and Johnson. According to Wacker, historians find Graham wanting on precisely this point. Where was Graham’s prophetic voice during the Vietnam War? During the Watergate crisis? In retrospect, evangelicals might judge Graham as being too savvy for his own good. If every President likes you, isn’t something wrong?

“When the prayer meetings ended,” Wacker said, “Graham knew how to play political hardball.”

Evangelicals saw in Graham’s powerful friendships a symbol of respect they desperately desired. Then in 1976, one of their own, Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter, won the presidency in the Watergate aftermath. Through political power, evangelicals had recovered a share of their long-lost American influence. The experience has prompted evangelicals to reflect on this period of political ascendancy from 1976 to 2004 and readjust their posture toward culture.

Following Wacker, Moore addressed “American Culture and the Reshaping of Southern Seminary.” Moore, dean of the SBTS School of Theology, spoke as a partisan supporter of the SBC’s conservative resurgence during the late 20th century. But Moore credited moderates (sometimes labeled progressives) for successfully stoking “prophetic populism” to lead the SBC out of the segregationist wilderness. Too many Southern Baptists defended biblical inerrancy alongside segregation. Meanwhile, “progressives forced conservatives on the basis of authorities already established — the Bible and Great Commission — into a choice between Jesus Christ and Jim Crow,” Moore said.

These moderates may have quoted German higher critical scholars in their books, but they also delivered altar calls when they preached. Moore detailed how the moderates cast the civil rights movement in terms of individual sin and regeneration. How, they asked, can Southern Baptists demonstrate a heart for the nations in their annual Lottie Moon offering while refusing to accept African Americans in their church membership?

Thanks in part to these theological moderates, the SBC is no longer fighting a culture war on race, Moore noted. Some might say that’s because American culture has become more progressive on race relations, dragging the church along. But that viewpoint neglects ongoing SBC opposition to other progressive changes such as legalized abortion and same-sex marriage. What accounts for this difference? Moore answered by returning to his theme of prophetic populism. Even before evangelical theologians had worked out a coherent life ethic, Southern Baptist laypeople felt an “intuitional moral revulsion” to abortion that helped shift their political leanings.

Still, evangelicals strive for the respectability conferred by politicians. If anything, the taste of political success made the temptation stronger. Once the “Confederate States of America at prayer,” the SBC must not define conservatism as “Fox News with prayer requests,” Moore warned.

“If we want to reshape American culture, we need to give up on reshaping American culture. We need to turn to reshaping Southern Baptist churches. In order to save our influence, we must lose it.”

Graham began to learn this lesson toward the end of his ministry. He alienated many supporters when he lamented the arms race of the 1980s, Wacker said. Due in part to his experience in politics, he declined to join or endorse organizations affiliated with the Religious Right. When asked in 2005 if he expected a clash of civilizations, Graham said, “I think the big conflict is with hunger and starvation and poverty.” And in the end, his moves away from politics and culture-war rhetoric cemented his influence in the culture.

Collin Hansen is a CT editor at large and author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists.