Evangelicals also have a consistent problem with their public voice, which can be off-puttingly apocalyptic. \u201cWe are on the verge of losing\u201d America, proclaims the evangelical writer and radio host Eric Metaxas, \u201cas we could have lost it in the Civil War.\u201d Franklin Graham declares, a little too vividly, that the country \u201chas taken a nosedive off of the moral diving board into the cesspool of humanity.\u201d Such hyperbole may be only a rhetorical strategy, employing the apocalypse for emphasis. But the attribution of depravity and decline to America also reflects a consistent and (so far) disappointed belief that the Second Coming may be just around history\u2019s corner.<\/p>\n
The difficulty with this approach to public life\u2014other than its insanely pessimistic depiction of our flawed but wonderful country\u2014is that it trivializes and undercuts the entire political enterprise. Politics in a democracy is essentially anti-apocalyptic, premised on the idea that an active citizenry is capable of improving the nation. But if we\u2019re already mere minutes from the midnight hour, then what is the point? The normal avenues of political reform are useless. No amount of negotiation or compromise is going to matter much compared with the Second Coming.<\/p>\n
Moreover, in making their case on cultural decay and decline, evangelicals have, in some highly visible cases, chosen the wrong nightmares….<\/p>\n