Evangelicalism is a cultural-political movement, not chiefly a theological community.

Evidence

Despite evangelicals’ frequent claims that the Bible is the source of their social and political commitments, evangelicalism must be seen as a cultural and political movement rather than as a community defined chiefly by its theology. Evangelical views on any given issue are facets of this larger cultural identity, and no number of Bible verses will dislodge the greater truths at the heart of it. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 671

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the book’s central definitional claim the reader will contest — white evangelicalism as a cultural movement where theology is downstream of identity.
• QUESTION: Is the strong form of this claim defensible? Du Mez argues no Bible verses will dislodge the cultural identity, but the reader wants to scrutinize whether this defines ALL white evangelicalism or just a dominant strand.
• SEED: Sharpens the ‘/dominant strand vs. whole’ contest: a piece on whether cultural-history methods that track commercial artifacts can ever establish that a movement IS its consumer culture, versus merely being dominated by it.
• XREF: connects to: Christian nationalism is a political ideology, not a religious creed. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 28