What a faith earthquake we’ve been through this last week. I’ve had more people reach out to me with hurt, pain, anger, and doubt in their faith than any other week ever. I can’t think of any single event in my lifetime that caused such a faith-crisis in my immediate friend-circle and beyond. And I feel it too. I’m carrying the weight of my own disappointment and frustration.

The church has lost a lot of credibility with many people (and for some it didn’t have a lot left) and I fear it will take a long time to earn any of it back. Large portions of the evangelical church will never earn it back. We’ve likely witnessed the “final straw” event for many people in their relationship with church.

Of course it had to do with the election. But not because a “republican” got elected. This isn’t about normal republican/democrat debates.  It’s not about thinking that Harris was the “Jesus” candidate. Anyone who assesses the fallout of this faith crisis as just liberals crying over a political loss won’t ever understand why people are leaving the church and will have no hope to rebuild credibility with them. 

People aren’t leaving the church because they identified Kamala Harris with Jesus and she lost. People are leaving the church because they saw the church identify hate, indecency, cruelty, racism, sexism, sexual assault, insurrection, and crude public sex jokes with being the champion of Jesus. They saw the church not just hold its nose and vote for a person in spite of that message (which might be bad enough), but in many cases give it a full-throated endorsement! They saw a church that wanted the “strongman” and felt justified in his cruel tactics, often cheering it on. 

People aren’t dumb. They know “love your neighbor” and “love your enemies” doesn’t look like that. They hear evangelicals talk about Jesus and how morals and character matter, but they no longer trust that evangelicals actually believe what they say. And why should they? 

Evangelicals may have mobilized to win an election, but they’ve lost their credibility to speak in any meaningful way into the lives of most of their neighbors. It’s why I mourn and lament. Not simply because I’m sad about what this election cycle means for our country, but because of how much damage it has done to the Christian witness. 

Those of us left who do want to advance the message of the peaceable, loving, compassionate Jesus have a lot of work to do. But at least the winnowing work has been done. The civic religion that often co-opts Jesus’ name has been exposed. We won’t have to do much work to distinguish ourselves from it anymore. Demonstrating basic love, decency, kindness, and compassion will be all it takes. It will stand it stark contrast to what passes as “Christianity” in most places today. And once the ground stops shaking as badly, I hope it’s a safe place for many to put their feet as they start to rebuild. 

So to those of who you who have been through a disaster zone this week, we see you. There are those of us who feel it too. We carry your hurt along with our own. And whenever you are ready, we are ready to join you in clearing out the rubble, picking up the pieces, and rebuilding something new.