Thursday, December 03, 2009

the post-evangelical impossibility

So a musician who builds a successful career on the backs of evangelicals, gives up on evangelicalism, but then does an evangelical gig. Why? The more cynical take could be summed up by misquoting Bono: "The evangelicals I know aren't short of cash, Mister." But in this case the cynic would be both witty and wrong. Helen Rittelmeyer takes the more charitable angle, and certainly the more accurate one. In short, "Bazan couldn't run away from evangelicalism even if he tried." Good blog, hers.

You'll recall that D.G. Hart tried to get at this as well:
How can something like evangelicalism, which looks so real and has so many apparent outlets, be so difficult to leave? How does one, even if qualified as a card-carrying member, receive the membership card? And if an evangelical decides... to become something other than an evangelical, to what address does he or she return the card?
Evangelicalism is sort of like quicksand. Try to get away through adjusting it to your newfound political or philosophical tastes, converting to something else or even apostacizing, and you often just sink in deeper. Better course of action: Relax.