Abstract
International relief and development agencies consistently rank among the largest evangelical organizations, and in recent decades, they have gained increased exposure and influence within the greater humanitarian community. World Vision, the largest evangelical agency, is also the largest Christian humanitarian organization in the world. Themes of politics and culture wars have led many to scholars to categorize American evangelicals into distinct conservative and liberal parties. Yet the history of American evangelicals’ humanitarianism demonstrates how they often resisted such dichotomies. As evangelical humanitarian agencies expanded exponentially over the past five decades, they came to embrace a “holistic gospel” that helped shape evangelical mission debates concerning the relationship between evangelism and social action; they engaged international evangelicals that forced Americans to reconsider their own categories; and many modeled a practical ecumenism that allowed evangelicals to expand beyond a limited subculture to work alongside other religious and even secular NGOs. While other evangelical progressives fragmented over identity politics or remained tethered to small alterative communities, the leading aid agencies have achieved broad support across evangelicalism, making them some of the most influential voices.
Highlights
As evangelical humanitarian agencies expanded exponentially over the past five decades, they came to embrace a ―holistic gospel‖ that helped shape evangelical mission debates concerning the relationship between evangelism and social action; they engaged international evangelicals that forced Americans to reconsider their own categories; and many modeled a practical ecumenism that allowed evangelicals to expand beyond a limited subculture to work alongside other religious and even secular NGOs
While social conservatism remains fairly entrenched within American evangelicalism, at the same time, a cottage industry of books and op-eds has emerged in recent years touting the rise of the ―new evangelicals‖ [3,4,5,6]
With the attention scholars and journalists have paid to American evangelicals‘ political and theological wrangling, they often overlooked the impact of international humanitarianism
Summary
Evangelical relief and development agencies grew among broad evangelical constituencies, received increased government funding, as well as partnered alongside a diverse international civil society They avoided the culture wars at home as they promoted relief and development abroad. They resisted labeling themselves as a part of an evangelical left or Christian Right Instead, they positioned themselves as a popular voice with support across the theological spectrum in hopes of uniting a broad evangelical center. They positioned themselves as a popular voice with support across the theological spectrum in hopes of uniting a broad evangelical center Such an approach allowed them to exceed the reach of other progressive evangelicals in turning the attention of a large segment of American evangelicals toward global humanitarianism
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