Evangelicalism’s supposed core beliefs are culturally and racially specific, not neutral

Evidence

Black Christians have long resisted embracing the evangelical label because it is clear to them that there is more to evangelicalism than straightforward statements of belief. Survey data indicate that on nearly every social and political issue, black Protestants apply their faith in ways that run counter to white evangelicalism. The differences may be rooted not just in experience but in the faith itself; in practice, the seemingly neutral “evangelical distinctives” turn out to be culturally and racially specific. Although white evangelicals like to point to the existence of black “evangelicals” to distance their movement from allegations of racism and associations with conservative politics, black Christians themselves have attempted to draw attention to evangelicalism’s “problem of whiteness,” and to white evangelicals’ inability or unwillingness to confront this problem. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 15

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on white evangelicalism as a racialized identity (e.g., Anthea Butler’s ‘White Evangelical Racism’, Jemar Tisby’s ‘The Color of Compromise’).
• QUESTION: What exactly are the ‘evangelical distinctives’ and how are they racially coded? Useful to pin down for the reader’s project of contesting whether this strand is THE white evangelicalism or a dominant strand within it.