Our political crisis is actually a religious crisis. Specifically, it is a crisis within white Christianity, as Donald Trump is our president primarily because of white Christians. And if white Christians got us into this mess, then we white Christians need to do our part to get us out by redefining the relationship between Christianity and politics in how we talk about our faith.
Two white Christians in particular are showing us the way: Senate candidates James Talarico, a seminary student, and Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor.
The Black church has shown us the way for hundreds of years, consistently and firmly on the side of democracy, fighting to expand civil rights for all. The Black church remains a powerful example for all Christians.
Still, given how faith has been tied up with white identity in America, it’s an example dismissed and ignored by too many white Christians, particularly the white evangelicals who have powered the MAGA movement. So the sad fact is, we are going to need more white Christians to step up and speak out to erode the long-standing authoritarian hold on white Christianity.
Here are some key lessons from Talarico and Hamilton on how we can do just that.
- Be loud, proud, personal and authentic about your faith.
The evangelical stereotype is that liberal Christians have “nominal” faith that is only skin deep. To be honest, I myself have found liberal Christians to be overly reticent to discuss how their faith shapes their lives.
Not only have both Hamilton and Talarico openly talked about what their faith means to them, but they have also done so in specific, personal terms. Hamilton even has a conversion story: He became a Christian as a teenager after reading the Gospels and being compelled by the character of Christ.
Talarico doesn’t have the kind of “born again” story that evangelicals typically look for. Still, he has convincingly talked about how his faith led him into politics.
- Know the Bible and how evangelicals use it.
Having grown up evangelical and now moving in theologically liberal circles, I have to admit that evangelicals know their Bible much better than liberals. Or, rather, they know the words on the page. Their understanding of biblical context and church history is rather lacking.
Talarico and Hamilton, who, granted, are seminary-trained, often quote the Bible and are prepared to respond in detail to evangelicals’ favorite passages. They understand how evangelicals commonly pluck individual verses out to make their points rather than speak to the broad sweep of the Bible’s themes. For example, when opposing Texas legislation mandating the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools, Talarico quoted Matthew 6:5, in which Jesus warns his followers about hypocritical, ostentatious faith.
- Avoid loaded, unnecessary terminology
Talarico has recently said he regrets some of his past statements that employed progressive jargon to talk about his beliefs, for example, saying God is “non-binary.” In a recent CNN Town Hall, he said that was an unnecessarily provocative way to express the basic, widely held Christian belief that God cannot be described in human terms.
Similarly, many progressive Christians are increasingly declaring themselves “socialists” or “anti-capitalist,” terms with vague and disputed meaning, when they could simply say that as a society we should care more for the poor, as Hamilton has done. “When did it become ‘woke’ to care for your neighbor?” he responded to his opponent’s labeling him as “too woke for Kansas.”
- Use evangelical language when it’s authentic to you; seek common framing when it isn’t.
Hamilton’s faith seems much closer to an evangelical understanding of Christianity. He describes his faith in Christ in relational terms, as “knowing” Jesus and being saved by him.
Talarico’s faith is less theologically orthodox by evangelical standards, so when asked, he doesn’t disingenuously describe it to evangelical satisfaction; instead, he reframes it to emphasize commonality. For example, when an evangelical voter at a CNN town hall pressed him on why he doesn’t talk about eternal salvation, he responded that he believes Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
In addition, both Talarico and Hamilton also constantly appeal to their opponents’ “common faith” and refer to them as “fellow Christians” or “brothers and sisters in Christ.”
- Complex-ify, complex-ify, complex-ify.
Too often liberal Christians avoid hot-button, morally complicated issues like abortion in discussion with evangelicals, whose overly simplistic framing can be hard to counter. But evangelicals’ limited exposure to moral complexity also means that approach can be disarming.
Talarico and Hamilton show that deliberately wading into complexity through stories and empathy— acknowledging evangelicals’ concerns and earnestness and saying that good Christians can disagree on many topics— can make for a more productive conversation. Hamilton, for example, has talked about his mother getting pregnant with him as a teenager and considering abortion while also discussing counseling victims of rape. “I feel both of these things at the same time,” he has said.
- And then simplify, simplify, simplify.
Both Talarico and Hamilton often pivot from controversial topics to emphasize the foundation of the Gospel, which is “love God, love others.” They contrast how clear and unequivocal those commandments are throughout the Bible with how hard it is to parse specific, present-day issues on which the Bible has few or contradictory things to say.
- Acknowledge the limits of partisan politics.
Both men essentially talk about being Democrats as incidental to who they are and about how both parties come up short. Hamilton was once a Republican and emphasizes his enduring independence. Talarico has said that “Jesus isn’t a Democrat or Republican” and has criticized Christians of all kinds for “baptizing their partisanship.” They both describe politics as the practical, messy process of living out their values and loving God and neighbor.
- Make the Christian case for democracy.
Both Talarico and Hamilton make it clear that their faith shapes how they engage in government, including affirming the faiths of all Americans. They describe Christianity as a religion of love, not compulsion, and pluralism as an expression of “loving thy neighbor.” Talarico has repeatedly addressed the separation of church and state as not only a bedrock American principle, but one that has been beneficial to the health of the church.
In sum, Talarico and Hamilton are refusing to cede their faith to the dominant, white evangelical version that has become synonymous with the Republican Party. They have shown they have strong Gospel legs on which to stand. Whether their approach will win remains to be seen.
But there’s no doubt their campaigns are part of a generational project that is essential to the future of our democracy. It’s one all of us, who are white Christians, need to take on, too.
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Holly Berkley Fletcher is a PhD historian, former CIA analyst, and author of the award-winning book, The Missionary Kids: Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism. She writes on Substack at A Zebra Without Stripes.