Thread by @scott_m_coley

Textbook DARVO: the real victims in all of this, according to @RevKevDeYoung , are “his people”—namely, average white evangelicals like those he pastors.

Not those harmed by the conduct or political preferences of white evangelicals, but white evangelicals themselves—forced to live under a cloud of castigation for their alleged epistemic and moral shortcomings.

The real victims are none other than (arguably) the single most powerful political constituency in the most powerful empire in human history—whose obstinate indifference to others’ well-being threatens everything from public health to the survival of our democratic institutions.

And Kevin is having none of it. If “his people” need to hear hard things, they’ll hear those things from men like Kevin. We’ve all heard quite enough from academics, experts, professional critics and other evangelical elites.

The irony here, of course, is that critics of white evangelicalism aren’t in fact criticizing average white evangelicals—not for the most part. Rather, critics of “white evangelicals” are primarily criticizing white evangelicalism’s self-appointed spokesmen: men like Kevin.

In fact, I agree with Kevin’s assessment that average white evangelicals are victims—not of their detractors, but of men like Kevin himself.

I’ll explain.

Do critics of white evangelicalism think the average white evangelical could do better? Of course. That’s the point of the criticism.

But is the average white evangelical *to blame* for not doing better? I’m not entirely sure what to say about that.

I suppose I wish average white evangelicals asked more questions about the economic paradigm underpinning the Torah, or why God’s prophets are so angry in the Hebrew scriptures, or why Christ quotes those prophets in the contexts he does.

It bothers me that average white evangelicals in Kevin’s sphere of influence don’t seem to know or care that the rationale he uses to legitimize the subordination of women is more or less *identical* to that used by white supremacists to legitimize chattel slavery.

And I’m troubled by the fact that a lot of white evangelicals appear to lack the modicum of self-effacement required to see why it’s problematic that every time someone objects to the established order, they have a just-so story to tell about the virtues of the status quo.

That said, I understand that ideology is seductive: humans everywhere have a tendency to construct stories that legitimize the social arrangements into which they’re born—especially when those arrangements work to their own advantage.

So my concerns about the average white evangelical are primarily epistemic: I wish they’d ask more questions and spend more time reflecting on the perspectives of those with very different life experiences. But I understand why they don’t.

The fact is, white evangelicals have needed to hear hard things for some time now. And they haven’t, because feckless white evangelical leaders like Kevin have proven unwilling or unable to say those things.

Quite the opposite, in fact: Kevin exacerbates these epistemic infirmities with talk of “winning the culture”—which only legitimizes the toxic ideology that holds so many white evangelicals captive.

That’s what most concerns the critics of white evangelicalism. Yes, the average white evangelical can do better. But the principal complaint is that they don’t, in large part, because men like Kevin sear their consciences with culture war rhetoric.

* (The irony being: his tone communicates that he’s protecting “his people,” when in fact he’s the one being criticized—so he assumes the posture of a protector, while simultaneously deflecting criticism away from himself and onto the very people he’s ostensibly protecting.)