Evangelicalism has been one of the most dynamic forces in American religious life, emphasizing personal conversion, the authority of Scripture, and the necessity of evangelism.
By Dr. Tim Orr
Evangelicalism has been one of the most dynamic forces in American religious life, emphasizing personal conversion, the authority of Scripture, and the necessity of evangelism. Yet, woven into its history, particularly in the American South, is a persistent theological and cultural blind spot regarding justice. A truncated gospel — narrowed to personal salvation without social renewal — combined with hyper-individualism to fuel a legacy of racial injustice and political conservatism that continues to shape evangelical identity today. At the same time, newer movements such as Critical Theory have arisen to challenge injustice but offer alternative frameworks fundamentally incompatible with the gospel’s vision of human sin, redemption, and restoration.
At the heart of evangelical theology lies the biblical truth that individuals must be born again through faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:3–7; Ephesians 2:8–9). However, especially during the 19th century, American evangelicals increasingly narrowed the gospel’s focus to personal piety and private morality. Timothy Keller (2020) observes that American evangelicalism often reduced Christianity to "personal moral improvement and private devotional life," neglecting the profound biblical call to justice, mercy, and social renewal rooted in the coming Kingdom of God (Keller, 2020).
Rather than seeing the gospel as the power of God to renew all things — individuals, communities, and creation itself (Romans 8:19–23; Colossians 1:19–20) — evangelicals tended to view salvation exclusively as the rescue of individual souls from eternal punishment. This reduction unintentionally enabled massive blind spots concerning social injustices such as slavery, poverty, and systemic racism. By privatizing salvation, the church unintentionally baptized the status quo, leaving societal evils largely unchallenged.
This theological truncation harmonized almost seamlessly with the American ideal of radical individualism. Historian Mark Noll (2006) notes that evangelical preaching often stressed that "God judged individuals, not societies," allowing white Christians in the South to avoid confronting the collective evils underpinning slavery and segregation (Noll, 2006, p. 48). If salvation were purely personal, then sin — and by extension, racism — could also be framed solely as a matter of personal prejudice, ignoring structural systems designed to marginalize and oppress.
In the post-Civil War South, evangelical churches championed personal morality while largely ignoring the brutal reality of Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and systematic disenfranchisement. Albert Raboteau (1995) highlights how this intense focus on private virtue allowed white Christians to claim spiritual faithfulness while participating in and benefiting from racial injustice (Raboteau, 1995, p. 212). Faithfulness became about private morality rather than public righteousness.
This theological individualism enabled Christians to preach the love of Christ while maintaining segregated congregations and opposing civil rights reforms. By detaching personal salvation from societal justice, evangelical theology was weaponized to preserve an unjust social order rather than confront it.
During the Civil Rights Movement, many white evangelicals viewed calls for desegregation and systemic change with suspicion. Civil rights leaders, many of whom rooted their activism in a biblical vision of justice (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr.), were often opposed by conservative white Christians who framed such efforts as political overreach rather than gospel faithfulness.
This posture led to a deeper entanglement of evangelical faith with conservative political ideologies. As Randall Balmer (2006) argues, the Religious Right was largely catalyzed not by concerns over abortion or religious liberty initially, but by opposition to federal mandates on desegregating Christian schools (Balmer, 2006, p. 15). Political conservatism became a safe harbor for evangelicals concerned about the pace and scope of societal change, reinforcing a vision of Christianity that prioritized personal morality, small government, and traditional social hierarchies.
Jerry Falwell Sr.'s early resistance to integration exemplifies this fusion. Although he later softened his public positions, blending evangelical identity with cultural conservatism left a profound imprint that endures today (Williams, 2010).
In recent years, a new challenge has emerged: the rising influence of Critical Theory within evangelical discussions of justice. While Critical Theory rightly emphasizes that injustice often manifests within structures and systems, it fundamentally redefines the human problem in ways that are incompatible with the gospel.
At its core, the Christian gospel teaches that original sin resides within every individual heart (Romans 3:23; Jeremiah 17:9). Human beings, regardless of race, class, or background, are all equally fallen and equally in need of redemption through Christ (Romans 5:12–19). In contrast, Critical Theory relocates the primary source of evil not within individuals but within systems and structures. Sin is reframed not as rebellion against God from the heart, but as participation (often unconsciously) in systems of oppression.
This redefinition has several devastating theological consequences. First, it divides humanity into categories of oppressor and oppressed based not on personal sin but on group identity, undermining the gospel's universal offer of grace to all sinners. Second, it flattens moral agency, suggesting that individuals are primarily products of their social location rather than responsible moral agents made in God's image. Third, it distorts the doctrine of repentance. In Critical Theory, repentance is less about turning from personal sin toward God and more about renouncing one’s identity as part of an "oppressor" group, often based on immutable characteristics like race or gender.
Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer (2023) warn that Critical Theory’s framework represents a "rival worldview" to Christianity, one that displaces sin from the heart and locates it in social structures, thus altering the nature of both sin and salvation (Shenvi & Sawyer, 2023, p. 58). Suppose the fundamental problem is systemic oppression rather than human rebellion against a holy God. In that case, the solution is not redemption through the blood of Christ but political activism aimed at dismantling power structures.
This leads to a pseudo-gospel where salvation is no longer received through grace by faith but achieved through perpetual activism and ideological conformity. Such a framework is incomplete; it is anti-gospel, undermining the universality of human sin and the sufficiency of Christ's atonement.
Evangelicals today face a twin danger: either retreating into a hyper-individualized faith that ignores systemic injustice, or embracing secular theories like Critical Theory that distort the biblical narrative of sin and redemption.
The way forward is neither political co-option nor uncritical adoption of worldly ideologies. It is a robust return to the full biblical gospel — a gospel that proclaims:
As Esau McCaulley (2020) rightly insists, faithful Christian engagement must recognize that the gospel is "both personal and social, both spiritual and material" (McCaulley, 2020, p. 112). Yet this engagement must remain firmly grounded in the truth that Christ’s saving work, through his death and resurrection, is the ultimate hope for both individuals and societies.
The story of evangelical engagement with justice is a complex tapestry of revival, resistance, and renewal. Evangelicals must confront their history of truncating the gospel and baptizing individualism, which enabled Southern racism and distorted political engagement. Yet they must resist modern attempts to replace the gospel’s framework with Critical Theory’s rival understanding of sin and salvation.
The hope for evangelical renewal lies not in political movements or ideological trends but in a return to the full, glorious gospel of Jesus Christ—a gospel that saves sinners, reconciles enemies, renews societies, and proclaims Christ's lordship over all creation.
In this, evangelicals can move beyond past failures and bear faithful witness to the transforming power of the Kingdom of God, both in individual lives and in the public square.
Balmer, R. (2006). Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America. Basic Books.
Keller, T. (2020). How to Reach the West Again: Six Essential Elements of a Missionary Encounter. Redeemer City to City.
McCaulley, E. (2020). Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope. InterVarsity Press.
Noll, M. A. (2006). The Civil War as a Theological Crisis. University of North Carolina Press.
Raboteau, A. J. (1995). A Fire in the Bones: Reflections on African-American Religious History. Beacon Press.
Shenvi, N., & Sawyer, P. (2023). Critical Dilemma: The Rise of Critical Theories and Social Justice Ideology—Implications for the Church and Society. Harvest House Publishers.
Williams, D. (2010). God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right. Oxford University Press
Tim serves full-time with Crescent Project as the assistant director of the internship program and area coordinator, where he is also deeply involved in outreach across the UK. A scholar of Islam, Evangelical minister, conference speaker, and interfaith consultant, Tim brings over 30 years of experience in cross-cultural ministry. He holds six academic degrees, including a Doctor of Ministry from Liberty University and a Master’s in Islamic Studies from the Islamic College in London.
In addition to his ministry work, Tim is a research associate with the Congregations and Polarization Project at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University Indianapolis. His research interests include Islamic antisemitism, American Evangelicalism, and Islamic feminism. He has spoken at leading universities and mosques throughout the UK—including Oxford University, Imperial College London, and the University of Tehran—and has published widely in peer-reviewed Islamic academic journals. Tim is also the author of four books.