Evangelicals should examine how they may have helped fuel the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol, Ed Stetzer, head of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, told NPR in an interview published on Wednesday.
Many people "sold out their beliefs," he said, asking how did evangelicals “get here? How were we so easily fooled by conspiracy theories? We need to make clear who we are. And our allegiance is to King Jesus, not to what boasting political leader might come next."
Stetzer lamented that evangelicals appeared to have changed their view of morality in order to back President Donald Trump, stressing that “I think we just need to be honest.”
He added that it needs to be asked “why were so many people drawn to somebody who was obviously so not connected to what evangelicals believe by his life or his practices or more.”
Stetzer said that “as this presidency is ending in tatters as it is, hopefully more and more evangelicals will say, 'You know, we should have seen earlier, we should have known better, we should have honored the Lord more in our actions these last four years.'"
He stressed that evangelicals in leadership positions “need to ask the question: How are we going to disciple our people so that they engage the world around them in robust and Christ-like ways and I think part of the evangelical reckoning is we haven't done that well.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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