Overwhelming silence in the wake of public black deaths (i.e., George Floyd, Ahmad Arberry, and Breonna Taylor), the ongoing justification and public support for Donald Trump, and the attempt to maintain power through theological gatekeeping and public policy have highlighted the social ethics of the contemporary American evangelical movement over the past decade.
As a result, there has been a mass exodus of black Christians from evangelicalism, causing the American evangelical movement to fracture. This exodus has occurred primarily for two reasons: 1) the struggle of white evangelicals to seriously grapple with the racialized economic and socio-cultural issues raised by their minority brothers and sisters, and 2) the continued revelation of the American Evangelical movement’s proximity to whiteness and Republican politics. As scholars David Bebbington and Mark Noll have noted, the historical record shows the evangelical movement’s attempts to grapple with racism and its logics have been expedient at best. This expediency is reflective of ethical egoism.
Despite the movement’s history with racism, the 20th century saw the rise of black evangelicals. Admitting connections to the broader evangelical movement based on missional and theological grounds, the number of black evangelicals grew. By the 1970s, a new ‘type’ of black evangelical emerged. These new black evangelicals were committed to personal salvation through Jesus Christ, challenging racism within evangelicalism, and addressing racist social structures and institutions in society. Furthermore, they did so with a conscience that the Civil Rights and Black Power movements and Black Liberation Theology had influenced. These black evangelicals became known as The Black Radical Evangelicals. By the end of the 1990s, the prominence and visibility of the new black evangelicals began to fade.
When considering American evangelicalism’s ongoing ethical egoism, its allegiance to partisan politics, and its failure to rid itself of racism, several questions emerge for black evangelicals: Do Black Radical Evangelicals exist today and what is their role? Can a New Black Radical Evangelical emerge within the ethical egoism of American evangelicalism? Can prophetic ethics animate a new consciousness for Black Radical Evangelicals? This paper argues prophetic ethics can counter evangelicalism’s ethical egoism and animate a new 21st-century Black Radical Evangelicalism. First, this paper will examine ethical egoism and prophetic ethics. Second, it will survey how American evangelicalism has operated with ethical egoism. Next, it will survey the rise and hope of 20th-century Black Radical Evangelicals. Lastly, it will consider the possibility of a new Black Radical Evangelical movement animated by prophetic ethics.