(Christianity Today) — As someone who has written hundreds of thousands of words about faith and culture over the past decade, who has strained to understand this contradictory and baffling movement called evangelicalism, who has studied and dialogued about the rise of Christian nationalism in America, I’ve still found myself, again and again, at a total loss for words as the election drew near.
In my mind, the lyrics of an old Over the Rhine song play nearly constantly, like a heavy sigh: “I just don’t have much left to say. / They’ve taken their toll, these latter days.”
We are facing huge problems as a culture. Stories of violence and war blare from the headlines. Human life—of an embryo, a refugee, a Jewish or Palestinian child, or an immigrant—is devalued and left unprotected. It feels like we’re all exhausted by the past decade and the noise, chaos, polarization, and vitriol it has brought.
We are also facing huge problems as Christians. The evangelical movement has become unrecognizable to me, as many evangelicals hold seemingly inexhaustible loyalty to the MAGA movement. My theology hasn’t changed, but I am more confused by, alienated from, and concerned about American evangelicalism than I have ever been.
More broadly, I’ve never been as discouraged as I am now by the state of the American church, which often reflects the same polarization we see in American culture. And as I look around and speak to other writers, pastors, and leaders, it seems no one quite knows what to do. No one knows how to fix a culture and church that are so broken.
We are not in control of what happens in the election. We are not in command of international events. We cannot wave a wand and solve the problems facing the church. Many days it feels I can barely get dinner on the table, much less understand and help heal our hurting, complex, and multipolar world. But as I’ve sat with my own grief and anxiety about this stark reality,
I’ve found hope and inspiration in the strangest of places: turtle rescuers.
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Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. She is the author of the award-winning books Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life and Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work, or Watch, or Weep. Her articles and essays have appeared in Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Comment Magazine, The Point Magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere. For over a decade, Tish has worked in ministry settings as a campus minister with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries, as an associate rector, and with addicts and those in poverty through various churches and non-profit organizations. She is a founding member of The Pelican Project and a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum.
