Understanding white evangelical nihilism
It’s now been more than six months since the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. As many noted at the time — including me — the excessive presence of evangelical symbols and language among the flags and weapons was shocking, but not surprising.
Those of us who came out of this subculture have watched for years with increasing dismay as “the center” of white American evangelicalism lurched toward fundamentalism and increasingly outlier political positions. In the aftermath of January 6, the term Christian nationalism immediately took on renewed urgency in our political discourse. Christian nationalism isn’t the only explanation for why January 6 happened, but you certainly can’t make sense of the crimes committed that day without it.
Shortly after January 6, some white evangelicals seemed genuinely interested in examining how their theological beliefs and the application of those beliefs were connected with the crimes committed that day. A number of commentators — both within and outside of evangelicalism — claimed that this moment would bring white evangelicals to a much-needed reckoning.
Six months on, that reckoning is practically non-existent. There are few real efforts by white evangelical leaders to rein in the darker forces of their movement. Another wave of refugees who desire to follow Jesus are fleeing white evangelical churches, abused and heartbroken, as fundamentalists and more extreme elements seize power.
Instead of a reckoning, another strain of American evangelicalism is emerging before our eyes. And it is perhaps the most dangerous one yet.
White evangelical nihilism, explained
The past few years, I’ve watched the rhetoric coming out of the dominant strain of American evangelicalism grow increasingly dire. I’m not just talking about the raging Eric Metaxas types, or nut-job pastors like Greg Locke who are so unhinged that they’d be funny if not for the danger they posed.
No, shortly before the 2020 election, even more “centrist” evangelicals I knew were acting like the world would end if Trump lost. America would collapse if Joe Biden won and the persecution of Christians would take off. I saw this reality up close and personal at the church we have since left. Many of my friends and connections at other churches around the country shared similar experiences before leaving as well.
A noticeable amount of this rhetoric reduced in the aftermath of January 6. Some white evangelicals who trafficked in this manipulative fear realized they had gone too far, swept up in the heat of the moment. Others simply looked at reality and embarrassingly noticed America had not come to an end and there was no persecution. Just as noticeable though was that there were few apologies offered to the people they hurt, just less noise.
But some of this rhetoric continues, and it is creating ample space for extremism to thrive in certain pockets of white American evangelicalism. There are those who still claim the election was stolen. Others constantly cry wolf that the socialist-CRT-cancel culture-BLM-Antifa bogeyman is coming to close their churches and steal their Bibles. To these particular white evangelicals, the persecution of Christians in America worsens every week, although they struggle to present actual evidence that supports their claim.
What’s really happening here is that the United States is changing in ways that weaken white evangelical cultural power, demographically, politically, and religiously. As conservative evangelical writer David French notes, many white evangelicals have wrongly confused their loss of cultural power with a loss of basic rights. Some white evangelicals behave this way because they believe America belongs to them and them alone.
Trump’s most vehement white evangelical supporters are the obvious ones who show us this truth. For them, bowing to Trump was as much about retribution (own the libs!) as it was grasping for the coveted power slipping from their hands. As Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress said about Trump in 2016:
“I don’t want some meek and mild leader or somebody who’s going to turn the other cheek. I’ve said I want the meanest, toughest SOB I can find to protect this nation.”
This is what white evangelical nihilism boils down to: the country they believe is rightfully theirs to dominate is increasingly rejecting them on the basis of that domination. Only brutal, un-Christlike actions can temporarily stem the bleed-out of their cultural power, so they pledge their allegiance to strongmen who lash out at those they believe are responsible for their fall.
There’s actually a term for this: ressentiment. Although the word doesn’t have a clean definition — it stems from the fields of philosophy and psychology — it is helpful in understanding the increasing nihilism found in white American evangelicalism. Oxford Reference describes it as:
A vengeful, petty-minded state of being that does not so much want what others have (although that is partly it) as want others to not have what they have.
The concept of ressentiment became noticed largely through the writings of — you guessed it — Friedrich Nietzsche. It’s a process by which a group pushes its self-ascribed persecution, perceived endangerment, and loss of power outward as a means to assert itself and punish their supposed enemies.
Words of domination like the above quote from Jeffress aren’t new. White American evangelicalism has long had an authoritarian streak and entitled mood at its heart. The obsession with strict gender roles, idolatrous worship of a militant masculinity, and push for consumerism-based living over love of God and neighbors has led to gross power imbalances and severely damaged the American Church’s public image. Core to this group identity is the need for enemies, otherwise the entire ideology begins to fracture.
The difference now though is that these supposed enemies aren’t just being blown out of proportion, they are being threatened with more violence. Here’s just one recent example from Sean Feucht, a well-known white evangelical nihilist who traffics in conspiracies, far-right outrage, and open calls for executing people who don’t agree with him.
Screenshot from Twitter showing Sean Feucht with members of his “security team,” which included Proud Boys, a group of self-described “Western chauvinists” who often engage in paramilitary-lite activities. Mr. Feucht seems to have missed the well-known Bible story found in John 18, in which Jesus rebukes Peter for committing an act of violence in defense of faith.
I don’t think I need to explain why Sean Feucht and his ilk are so dangerous to public safety and how they are blocking people’s access to the Gospel. Frankly, that’s less interesting to me than the behavior of other white evangelicals who aren’t invading public spaces armed and in search of violence.
The most common response has been…well…nothing. The stark silence of most other white American evangelicals in the face of those like Feucht and the January 6 insurrectionists is deafening.
One is left to wonder if more white evangelicals than we realize are secretly supportive of violence as a means to reclaim their own cultural power. As long as someone else is doing it on their behalf, they can always claim “Oh, but we’re not like those people.” This wouldn’t be the first marriage of convenience between mainstream white evangelicals and more extreme elements in their movement, or right-wing outsiders altogether.
Why is white evangelical nihilism on the ascendant?
This brings us to the heart of how we arrived at this moment. The decades-long battle to control American culture instead of living for the Gospel of Jesus Christ set white evangelicals up for the nihilist strain emerging in their ranks. With cultural domination increasingly unattainable, more and more white evangelicals are retreating into fundamentalism. Churches are becoming so inward-looking that they are engaging in open idolatry to themselves. And in this cultural moment, it’s only a short spiral into nihilism from there.
Without repentance across the broader white evangelical spectrum, nihilism will continue to become one of the louder strains of American evangelicalism. There are five primary reasons for this. It’s helpful to view the first four as a sort of broad backdrop that white evangelical nihilism emerges from. The fifth should be viewed as an outflow that leaves a power vacuum in its wake, a hole that the nihilists eagerly hope to fill.
First, the theological dualisms at the heart of white American evangelicalism leaves space for nihilism to thrive. They pave the way to some of the sociological dualisms that I’ve laid out here and elsewhere. This plays out in many ways in various pockets of white American evangelicalism. There are two common ones worthy of quick examination, although they are certainly not alone.
For some, Jesus is simply not enough and the nation-state must also be a savior and protector. This is the dualism that is perhaps the easiest to feel right now. The Gospel is twisted into a legalistic us vs. them political and cultural mentality, leading to unChristlike beliefs such as people needing to be “sanctified” in political and cultural conservatism before being allowed into the Church (1 Peter 3:15–16), rather than coming to Jesus as you are and then figuring things out within a community that loves God and their neighbors (Matthew 11:28–30). Trumpism is just the latest example of this dualism in action, as is the ongoing white evangelical obsession with the mostly manufactured religious liberty wars.
For others, white American evangelical eschatological views can make this world meaningless without some even realizing it. If you believe the only important thing is what happens after you die, then life here on Earth is trivial at best or literally doesn’t matter at worst. Getting your personal ticket to Heaven TM can easily render this life meaningless, which is nihilism. This creates an escape from any cognitive dissonance by outsourcing to God what the Bible calls us to do (Proverbs 31:8–9, Isaiah 58:6–7, Philippians 2:1–4, Matthew 28:16–20). Legalism, selfishness, and idolatry to American Individualism also thrive in this mentality, as does COVID-19 denialism and rants against mask mandates and vaccines.
Second, the nihilists get one thing right: white evangelicals have lost the country. Americans from many backgrounds — including a lot of Christians — are openly rejecting white evangelicals and their ideology because it has fractured the country in deeply personal ways, torn communities apart, and destroyed countless lives. The damage is so deep and widespread that it simply can’t be ignored.
Third, some white evangelicals — specifically those who rarely venture out of evangelical social bubbles — just don’t have the language or interpersonal skills to engage productively with the more severe issues and changes cutting across American society. To provide just one example, understanding the very concept of systemic racism often isn’t possible because white evangelical teachings are overly preoccupied with personal sin and rarely examine the Bible’s powerful emphasis on justice and the common good (Isaiah 1:17, Mark 12: 28–31).
It’s worth hanging on this third point for a moment. It is easy to blame the white evangelical rank-and-file for this, but doing so isn’t the full picture. We can’t forget that their leaders — pastors, elders, and influencers — often make fear-based cultural claims, pushing their followers into increased insularity. If you’re constantly being told year after year things like the post-Christian culture is using political correctness to control you or the liberal media is trying to scare and distract you, eventually it’s going to have a negative impact in the way you see the world, read Scripture, and approach others who don’t look, think, or believe like you. And right-wing media such as Fox News, The Daily Wire, and others obviously play an outsized role here as well.
Fourth, a common theme across the white evangelical spectrum is that many leaders simply do not have the ability to accept criticism from within their own communities, much less embrace outside critique. While this too stems from the insularity of white evangelical culture, it is also deeply rooted in the widespread white evangelical belief that they are the true believers in Christianity. We see this all the time in churches that commit idolatry to themselves, silence victims of abuse, or make people who have different ideas and approaches feel unwelcome. The Baby Boomer white evangelical way is the only way — leading to an extreme arrogance even as they decry the supposed arrogance of others — and no amount of Bible verses, stories of abuse, or logic will change that.
The last reason why nihilism is on the ascendant has to do with the spiritual and cultural refugee crisis flowing out of white evangelicalism. As more and more neo and post-evangelicals are pushed out of neo-fundamentalist and mainstream evangelical churches, there are fewer and fewer guardrails to prevent the spread of fundamentalism and nihilism. Diversity of thought, different lived experiences, and basic listening skills are powerful checks on extremism and authoritarianism. More and more white evangelicals are at increasing risk of self-radicalization as what little diversity left in their movement evaporates.
The disappearance of this last firewall is only magnified when we notice that many white evangelical leaders often blame people leaving their churches on the culture stealing them away. Rather than view the growing number of exvangelicals citing abuse, hypocrisy, and unkindness as an opportunity to repent, many white American evangelicals see the destructive results of their cultural domination as reason to double down on their ideology.
Closing Thoughts
If you feel depressed now, I don’t blame you. White evangelical nihilism is a dark reality that is easier to look away from than deal with, but averting our eyes won’t make it disappear. Doing so will only give more fertile ground for white evangelical nihilism to thrive. Christians can’t afford that. The country can’t afford that. Those of us struggling toward a better common good can’t afford that.
My sincere hope is that enough white evangelicals repent and pull their movement back from fundamentalism and nihilism to such a large degree that everything written here ends up being disproven. History suggests this is unlikely to happen. The past five years have lifted the veil and shown us what the dominant strain of white evangelicalism really is: an authoritarian movement, one deeply rooted in conservative white identity politics rather than the love of Christ, seeking to control the country for their own gain.
When we see white evangelicalism in this way — for what it is — everything that has happened the last five years makes perfect sense. But we are still left with an obvious question.
Will white evangelical nihilism take over American evangelicalism in the coming years?
I honestly don’t know. The radicalization will continue creeping forward; however, for now at least, many mainstream white evangelicals seem to feel that the actions stemming from this nihilist streak are still a bit too much. Even some neo-fundamentalists are smart enough to know that some of the more absurd and dangerous expressions of evangelical nihilism are bad PR. Disturbingly though, few in the mainstream seem keen to voice out loud any concerns they have for fear of retribution or out of a false sense of “protecting the witness of the Church.”
We should take little comfort in this. Even a small group of white evangelical nihilists can cause tremendous damage. The January 6 insurrection is the most obvious example. Well-known nihilists such as Sean Feucht are clearly itching for violence as they aggressively invade public spaces and seek to disrupt peace, block paths to biblical justice, and replace Jesus with themselves.
But the destruction also plays out every week in ways that are more subtle, especially inside of white evangelical churches. The culture wars are louder now than any point I can remember. Conspiracy theories and misinformation careen through churches with as much speed as the gossip that is causing loving pastors to throw up their hands and walk away. In callous displays of power, older white evangelical leaders crush younger generations simply because they want to live for Jesus.
Grievance politics stems from a grievance theology that is rooted in white supremacy, and not even the legacies of white evangelicals’ most well-known leaders are safe from the destruction that is now unfolding.
Nihilism can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. White evangelicalism is going down in America, wounded and bleeding from within. If the nihilists in that movement have their way, they’re going to take the country down with them.
God have mercy on us if we fail to see this danger as the obvious threat to us all that it is.
I explore faith and American church culture from Memphis, TN. Never miss an article by signing up for my free newsletter or becoming a member. You can also subscribe to my podcast.
