Dan STRINGER, Struggling with Evangelicalism. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2021, pp. 197. $16.99 pb. ISBN 978-0-8308-4766-2. Reviewed by Wilburn T. STANCIL, Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO 64110.

So, here’s the dilemma:  you play guitar in the worship band.  While Communion is being served, you continue to play, but when the trays of bread and thimble-sized Communion cups are passed, how do you continue playing and at the same time receive Communion? Moreover, for a guitar player, unlike a pianist, there is no suitable surface on which to set the bread and cup. You are up against the problem of “awkward sacraments,” as author Dan Stringer calls them.

This book is part jeers and part cheers for evangelicalism. Dan Stringer, a biracial Asian/white millennial, struggles with both the trivial (see example above) and the serious issues faced by evangelicals today. Having grown up as a missionary kid (MK) outside the U.S., Stringer has a broader view of the movement than most American evangelicals. Few of his criticisms are theological, though he does chide evangelicals for their thin ecclesiology, their celebrity dependence, and their propensity to schism. He also takes on evangelical’s capitulation to current ideologies such as systemic racism, Christian nationalism, consumerism, conspiracy theories, political polarization, and others (pp. 64-67).

Stringer recognizes the problem with the label “evangelical,” or what he calls the “brand.”  For many today, the word “evangelical” implies ignorance, obscurantism, and prejudice. Stringer’s solution is to make a distinction between the brand and the space one inhabits.  “I continue making my spiritual home in the place known as American evangelicalism. It’s not my brand of choice, but it’s the space where I live” (p. 13). Stringer argues that “evangelicalism” is a brand that is disposable and essentially useless for those who don’t like it.  A shared space, however, is a home for a wide range of people who build relationships across differences and divisions.
Does this distinction make sense? Not in my mind. I liken it to those who claimed, “Donald Trump is not my president.” The fact is, if you are a U.S. citizen, he was your president for four years, for good or ill, no matter where you situated yourself politically. Trump wore the label even if you chose to share a space differently from those who supported him. American evangelicals have morphed into something quite different from their historical origins, and no amount of refusing the label will change that.

Moreover, to describe evangelicalism as a shared space “for a diverse range of people, including those who don’t fit the brand” (p. 13) is more fantasy than reality. I personally know men and women who ministered in evangelical institutions but were tossed out and treated as heretics for disagreements over such matters as the nature of the Bible, the role of women in the church, the treatment of the LGBTQ community, and other issues.  Is it really enough to simply say, “that’s not the space I share?”  

Most readers of Catholic Books Review will not find Struggling with Evangelicalism to be helpful.