As some Christians pursue domination, Jew calls on them to embrace pluralism
Book review: ‘Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy’ by Jonathan Rouch, ★★★★★
Jonathan Rauch believes that the writings and philosophy of James Madison have much in common with the teachings of Christianity. Furthermore, he sees the founding of the United States as having religious underpinnings, holding that neither religion nor democracy can thrive unless they are, to use his words, “reasonably well aligned.”
He also believes that the United States’ liberal establishment has been too dismissive of religious faith, especially Christianity, even to the point of being discriminatorily intolerant.
But Rauch is no Christian nationalist.
In fact, he might be considered the opposite: He’s a secular Jew who finds himself unable to believe in a personal God. And he’s a gay activist.
Yet, Rauch’s new book, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy, is likely to end up as the most important book written to Christian leaders in 2025. (He also briefly addresses the secular left.)
Rauch wrote the book as a patriot — he never uses the word to describe himself, but it’s clear that he wrote the book as a way of advocating for his dream of an American democracy that supports “the modern tradition of freedom, toleration, minority rights, and the rule of law on which the American republic was founded.”
At one time in his life, Rauch found himself hostile to Christianity — something that might be expected as a non-Christian gay man. But his perspective on Christianity began to turn around when he had a college roommate who “did not proselytize but shone by example” and “never let politics preempt kindness,” treating Rauch with grace.
Eventually Rauch came to see how the people who believe in God have a “world [with] a dimensionality, a layer of meaning, that my world lacks.” He came to see Christianity as something that provided a necessary support for the U.S. democratic system — but now American Christianity has collapsed or otherwise changed in a way that it is either unwilling or unable to help provide a social stability and other types of support that democracy needs to function well.
A Christianity characterized by fear
Rauch’s critique of American Christianity, particularly the white evangelicalism that was key in Donald Trump’s ascent to power, is unequivocal: It “has become a divisive, fearful, partisan, and un-Christlike version of Christianity with dangerously illiberal1 implications.”
“Don’t be afraid2 is one of the Bible’s most frequently repeated commands,” he notes. “Yet today’s white evangelical world seems consumed by fear.” Similarly, he says, white evangelicalism seems to have forgotten about the Christian duty of forgiveness.
And, so it is that Rauch finds that Christianity has lost its power to be a positive influence, and thus it cannot fulfill the “broken bargain” of the book’s title to help provide a social climate where democracy can function:
And can we blame the secular world for losing confidence in Christianity if so many Christians have lost confidence in Christianity?
But Rauch believe there is still hope that Christianity can function in a way that supports democracy, and Rauch points to efforts such as those by evangelicals David French (a former religious-rights attorney and now New York Times columnist), Curtis Chang (a theologian, professor and former pastor) and Russell Moore (editor of Christianity Today) to promote civility in politics as potential examples. But Rauch’s main inspiration for this book came from an unexpected source: Dallin Oaks, a member of the governing First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Although outside the evangelical fold, the LDS church has long been known for its conservative sexual moral code essentially identical to that of evangelicals. In 2008, the church was strongest backer of California’s Proposition 8, which overturned the state’s law authorizing same-sex marriage. But less than a decade later, the church struck a different tone: The church returned to its pro-pluralism roots, negotiated with the Utah’s LGBT leaders and helped persuade the conservative Utah Legislature to outlaw employment and housing discrimination against LGBT persons in exchange for some religious-freedom protections. To this day, Utah is the only red state to have a statewide LGBT anti-discrimination law.
Here’s how Rauch explains the Oaks philosophy that led to the agreement:
Oaks argues for an alignment between God’s moral constitution and Madison’s political one. Speaking for the church, he sees patience, negotiation, and compromise not as means to some end, to be jettisoned if the results are unsatisfying, but as social and spiritual ends unto themselves. At the risk of exaggerating or oversimplifying (but only a little), one could put what he is saying this way: Never dominate, always negotiate — because that is God’s plan.
The LDS church has since gone on to lend its support to the Respect for Marriage Act, which aimed to protect the national legality of same-sex marriage even if the Supreme Court were to reverse the Obergefell decision that declared anti-same-sex-marriage laws unconstitutional.
What Oaks’ thinking offers U.S. Christianity, Rauch argues, is a way to embrace negotiation with a robust faith without sacrificing theological principles:
You need not surrender your religious faith or identity in order to embrace Madison’s constitutional pluralism. You need not regard compromise as defeat and opponents as enemies. Better still, tearing down the wall of separation between personal and public Christian values strengthens both. Seeking to “moderate and unify” in civic life is both pious and public-spirited.
Rauch similarly calls on secularists to be willing to compromise, and not just tolerate religion in life but to welcome it.
Rauch is optimistic enough to believe that the American system isn’t completely broken, and that Christians willing to replace the quest for secular power with traditional Christian virtues such as love and humility can provide a better way forward. Even for those unable to muster up such optimism, Rauch offers a convincing case that American Christians can find a better path than they are on now for both themselves and the non-believers among us.
Throughout the book, Rauch does not use “liberal” to prefer to one end of the right-left political spectrum, but much in the sense of “classical liberalism,” which includes Western ideals such as economic freedom and civil liberties.
Emphasis used in quotations in this article are from the original.