Sabo: Big Eva’s missteps may marginalize the potential influence of a massive Christian evangelical voting bloc
Despite the data on voter demographics in the 2024 election that 81% of evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump, evangelical elites will likely leverage this information as yet another way to criticize white evangelicals for attending church, writes Mike Sabo, a contributing editor of the American Reformer.
However, Sabo argues this approach may backfire dramatically and could result in evangelicalism losing its voice in Trump’s administration altogether. For example, he says the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission may find itself even more sidelined than it has been – adding it’s a running joke in D.C. that meeting with the ERLC is one of the least productive uses of time for congressional staff. Instead, Sabo says that the President-elect and his team will most certainly focus on appealing to expanding voter bases and enacting their priorities.
Sabo points out that the large evangelical voting bloc continues to be marginalized due to the growing awareness that the poor biblical interpretations from evangelical elites (Big Eva) and others that confuse and discourage political engagement, create an environment of uncertainty, and shift extreme viewpoints into the realm of acceptability. “Big Eva” is a network of large evangelical organizations and churches that attempt to shape the thinking and strategy of American evangelical churches but are considered by some to be more theologically liberal.
“More organizations like the Center for Baptist Leadership that hold to orthodoxy and are politically savvy are needed to hold Big Eva accountable and ultimately replace them,” Sabo writes. “The Russell Moores and David Frenches of evangelicalism, along with their After Party cronies and movements like Evangelicals for Harris, need to be marginalized. Fortunately, that already seems to be happening – the 2024 election is another example of their waning influence over the evangelicals they purport to be leading.”
Christians should express gratitude for the mercy shown by God in the wins of Donald Trump and J.D Vance in 2024, which helps keep detrimental influences at bay at the presidential level – a significant victory that Christians can leverage to promote positive change in the nation, Sabo concludes.
Read “Evangelicals Should Capitalize on Trump’s Victory” by Mike Sabo