The images and footage of the rioters who stormed the capital this past week were incontrovertible evidence that politics, including loyalties to political figures and unquestioning belief in conspiracy theories, is a full-on religion for people on the political right as well as the political left. Human beings are wired to believe in something bigger than themselves, and in the wake of an increasingly ineffective church for the past few decades, things that are less true, less eternal, and less honorable will inevitably fill the void. It should especially trouble evangelical leaders that many of those taken in by the latest conspiracy theories have been self-described evangelicals. Something is amiss in the American church.

Many American evangelicals will see the final election outcomes – the loss of all three branches of government to the Democratic party – as God’s judgment on America. I think they’re at least partially wrong.

I wrote two years ago that I believe there’s a judgment coming upon the church. (You can read that post here). I believe this is the beginning of that judgment.

Though this problem had been brewing for quite a while, American evangelicals mostly fell into two basic camps over the past four years: those who vocally supported and defended a mean-spirited, narcissistic, unrepentant serial adulterer as their champion, and those who quietly – almost silently – said they didn’t approve of his character, though they liked his policies. But their refusal to publicly call out his clearly (almost daily) unbiblical behavior betrayed their belief – clearly visible to an unbelieving world – that temporary, worldly political power was far more important to them than eternal biblical truth. The biblical term for this is “idolatry”. Really, at its core, it’s essentially an updated version of indulgences: You give us something we want, and we’ll look the other way and stay silent about your clear and obvious sin.

And the bad news is – which is actually good news from a biblical perspective – God is not the idiot that many evangelicals clearly believe Him to be. While they’ve engaged in a great deal of rationalization within and amongst themselves, they can’t rationalize their way out of their fickle allegiances and idolatry before the Almighty, who sees and knows all things.

What American evangelicals need to do now is don whatever the 2021 version of sackcloth and ashes is, and publicly repent. While I believe we will not escape judgment, we may yet find that judgment shortened.

Unfortunately, the least likely thing American evangelicals will do is publicly repent, because much like the people of God throughout biblical history, they’ve become an arrogant and stiff-necked people. And much in the spirit of their adulterous champion for the past four years (who’s said repeatedly that he’s never needed to ask forgiveness for anything), they actually believe they have nothing to repent of as a church.

I pray for humility and repentance among God’s people. God is righteous and just, but also merciful for those who seek his mercy. May His church do so, quickly.