Premillennialism let even moderate evangelicals defer racial justice to the Second Coming

Evidence

Sociologists Michael Emerson and Christian Smith noted a striking example of the social apathy this theological worldview evoked even in white evangelical leaders who were racial moderates. When Billy Graham was asked about Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he evoked a vision of his children playing with white children, Graham replied with resignation: “Only when Christ comes again will little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children.” — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 267

Categorization

• XREF: Billy Graham deferring to the eschaton echoes the logic in the earlier chapters linking doctrinal end-time frames with the failure to act on race; also connects to Ambedkar/Dewey critiques of otherworldly religion over present moral action. — connects to: Premillennial eschatology structurally undermines social justice commitment — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 265; Belief in Christ’s imminent return absolved evangelicals of duty to reform society — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 55; Nineteenth-century evangelicals adopted British premillennialism as a theology of social disengagement — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 54 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Premillennial eschatology structurally undermines social justice commitment #expands (0.85) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 265
• Belief in Christ’s imminent return absolved evangelicals of duty to reform society #expands (0.80) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 55
• The Second Awakening drove determined evangelical mobilization toward equality despite imperfect methods #contradicts (0.80) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 48
• Nineteenth-century evangelicals adopted British premillennialism as a theology of social disengagement #corroborates (0.75) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 54
• Civil War defeat drove southern evangelicals from postmillennialism to premillennialism #qualifies (0.72) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 264