Over the weekend, I drove our trusty red minivan from Kentucky across the Appalachian Mountains to Virginia to check out the action. I attended the revival Friday night, took a three-hour campus tour of Liberty on Saturday morning, and then returned to the revival on Saturday afternoon. As you might expect, the contrasts between the two evangelical sites\u2014just five minutes apart\u2014were fascinating and stark. (For a photographic essay of both sites, click here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The Red Letter Revival, however, did not seek revival as the answer to Islam and political liberalism. It instead sought evangelical repentance for Christian nationalism, racism, sexism, and homophobia. Pastor David Anderson called for love of enemy. \u201cThe gospel is beautiful for the jailed and<\/em> the jailor,\u201d he declared. \u201cYou can fight for freedom without killing for it,\u201d rapped Micah Bournes<\/a>. The crowd\u2014strikingly diverse and multi-generational\u2014responded enthusiastically.<\/p>\n What made Falwell\u2019s blood boil was that the Red Letter Revival indicted Liberty, a broader Christian nationalism, and Falwell himself. The revival organizers did not choose Lynchburg at random. The geography was meant to be prophetic and oppositional. Anderson declared, \u201cSome evangelicals are more committed to the amendments than to the commandments.\u201d William Barber, leader of the Poor People\u2019s Campaign in North Carolina, described Falwell\u2019s leadership style as authoritarian. Falwell, he said, is \u201cjustifying the GOP\u2019s immorality\u201d in the \u201csame way\u201d slaveholders used the Bible to justify slavery. Calling himself a \u201ctheological conservative,\u201d Barber scolded right-wing religious leaders<\/a>, saying that \u201cthey call themselves conservative, but they liberally resist so much of God\u2019s character.\u201d<\/p>\n The Red Letter revivalists represent a small (though possibly growing) segment of the religious population. Many are compelled by Barber\u2019s vision that combines a more progressive politics, a broadly evangelical ethos, and a more multicultural vision. Could young evangelicals be attracted to a revival that features only two white men out of the 18 preachers on stage? Could a revival movement that hands out response cards on which you can check a box to learn more about \u201cfollowing Jesus,\u201d \u201cfinding a local church,\u201d and \u201ccontributing to the Poor People\u2019s Campaign\u201d appeal to young evangelicals who want to shake up established categories?<\/p>\n As the Red Letter Revival prophesied in the direction of Liberty, however, campus didn\u2019t appear to be listening. As our family (along with 2,700 prospective students and parents on campus that weekend) took a tour, winsome student guides were just doing their thing, brightly telling us about the campus bowling alley, the Snowflex Park<\/a>, the caring faculty, and the supportive spiritual atmosphere. Interpreting the \u201cLiberty Way\u201d with both grudging admiration and eye rolls, one guide exclaimed, \u201cModest is hottest!\u201d They showed us the very impressive cafeteria filled with happy students (including a young woman wearing a #blessed t-shirt). My elementary-school-aged son was so impressed with the shiny cafeteria that he declared Liberty his college choice. Minus an irritated Jerry Falwell, Jr., Liberty was too busy praying, reading their Study Bibles, and eating Chick Fil-A to even notice the Red Letter Revival happening two miles away at a local high school.<\/p>\n Compared to the Red Letter Revival, Liberty was enormous. There were construction cranes everywhere. As the student tour guide described Falwell\u2019s vision for the longest academic lawn in the country, she said, \u201cIf it\u2019s Christian, it has to be better!\u201d Most of the buildings lining the lawn were less than five years old. The newest of them, the divinity school building called Freedom Tower, rose 14 stories in the sky, making it the tallest building in Lynchburg. Promotional literature described how Liberty went from $100 million in total assets in 2008 to over $2 billion in 2018. Its endowment rose from practically nothing in 2008 to $1.4 billion in 2018.<\/p>\n Liberty, as any observer of American religion knows, is not just big; it famously practices a vigorous Christian nationalism. This was readily apparent during our visit. We observed video footage of Trump at the 2017 commencement exercises and camouflaged ROTC units prowling through the hills surrounding campus, American flags in staged student dorm rooms, and busts of American presidents. Computer screens, posters, and promotional videos fused the language\u2014and even the font\u2014of the Constitution to the university\u2019s identity. Just outside the Jerry Falwell Museum, the university founder\u2019s portrait was flanked by the Christian flag and the American flag. The tagline \u201cChampions for Christ\u201d was plastered all over campus, and promotional literature boasted that Liberty students have access to the highest levels of American government. Liberty trains its graduates to \u201cchange the world.\u201d Jerry Falwell, Jr., presides over an empire of Christian Americanism.<\/p>\n None of this, of course, is new. Long before Falwell\u2019s political courtship with Trump, Billy Graham and a host of other American evangelical leaders practiced Christian Americanism, cozying up to presidents and seeking to transform the world using American power. And the evangelical left, never fitting comfortably in either political party, has always lacked a political or cultural home. It has always suffered from a lack of money. In contrast to a religious right that settled in the Sunbelt and tightly aligned with the burgeoning Republican Party, the evangelical left labored in the rust belt, a region burdened by high oil prices and the failures of the auto industry. Nor did most even want to benefit from the spoils of federal defense contracts.<\/p>\n This small-is-beautiful sensibility was easily apparent at the Red Letter Revival. The crowd was so small that I was bumping into famous luminaries of the evangelical left every time I turned around. In his signature style, Tony Campolo during the offering time begged for evangelical scraps from school teachers, pastors, missionaries, pastors, and social workers. As the talented Micah Bournes sold only a few albums<\/a> in a high school lobby, Liberty put the finishing touches on preparations for a Toby Mac concert in their 10,000-seat arena. If the weekend were judged as a contest of numbers, Liberty was the easy winner: a behemoth swatting at an annoying gnat.<\/p>\n So what, then, explains Falwell\u2019s outsized reaction to Claiborne? All the religious actors involved seemed to recognize that power also comes from the margins, not just Washington. Oceans rise and empires fall, King George III acknowledged in verse when the pesky colonists began to revolt. Indeed, Falwell\u2019s empire may not be as secure\u2014or as uniformly nationalistic and right-wing as observers think. Groups of Liberty students sat together at the Red Letter Revival. Students I talked with on campus generally sighed when asked about Falwell\u2019s politics. They described considerable diversity within campus.<\/p>\n Nor did the Red Letter revivalists seem particularly disheartened or surprised by the low numbers (only about 350) of their gathering. Speakers noted that God always works from the margins to challenge empires. The evangelical left has long sought to build micro-societies that would prefigure coming justice\u2014that of Jesus\u2019 second coming but also of a more just and humane society. They reason that a corrupt world obsessed with bigness could be reached only by creating alternative social structures that would shine as a beacon to the world. This does not require a \u201cquiet in the land\u201d approach, but a rational and social toughness that forges solidarity with those who suffer.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/168\/2018\/04\/DSC_3016-1-Jweb-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>If not for much of the content, Falwell might have felt quite comfortable with the Red Letter Revival. Preachers called for more piety and generous giving. They warned of sin pervading the land. They told churchy jokes (Claiborne said he wasn\u2019t in Lynchburg to protest, but instead to \u201cpro-testify!\u201d), using humor along with lament to drive a spirit of old-fashioned revivalism. Attendees responded, raising their hands and exhorting the preachers from their seats. Exclamations of \u201cWe need a revival!\u201d carried along extended periods of biblical exposition. As the gathering ended, Tony Campolo presided over an altar call.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/168\/2018\/04\/Chick-Fil-a-225x300.jpg\")
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<\/a>Teachings on the renunciation of wealth and criticisms of capitalism led progressive evangelicals away from high-paying business and industry jobs, and their strident rhetoric against affluence alienated evangelicals who did take those jobs. Attempts to corporatize the movement were often hesitant and tardy, befitting its anti-technocratic origins. \u201cWhenever I go and meet a wealthy person,\u201d complained David Hubbard, a moderate evangelical leader at Fuller Seminary in the 1980s, \u201cI find that [Campus Crusade CEO] Bill Bright has been there first.\u201d Cal Thomas, a disgruntled former lieutenant of Jerry Falwell, Sr., who in 1984 renounced the religious right, explained, \u201cSince I started living a simple lifestyle, I can\u2019t afford all the stamps I once could when I was a captive of the profit motive and working for Falwell!\u201d A commitment to simple living militated against the development of a well-funded, large movement.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/168\/2018\/04\/RLC-300x225.jpg\")
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