Occidental Mindoro 1983

In the 1970s the relief organization World Vision “de-Americanized.” Recipient nations from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa became full partners of World Vision International. These new global voices urged a more structural approach to world hunger and poverty. By the early 1990s, World Vision, a behemoth NGO of one hundred entities overseen by 6,000 full-time staff, had transformed, in fits and starts, from an American-dominated, relief-oriented charity to an international organization that stressed partnerships and long-term solutions to world poverty. This chapter, which charts the trajectory of evangelical social justice work in the postwar era, describes the promise and limits of development work on the Filipino island of Occidental Mindoro.

Conclusion

This conclusion evaluates the prospects of the global reflex going forward. On one hand, some global voices have bolstered Christian Americanism. Westerners have used Christians from the Global South to maintain established views and practices, and populists have resisted cosmopolitan trends. On the other hand, declining Western church attendance, rapid growth in the Majority World, immigration patterns, and flourishing theological work from the East and South suggest persistent influence on a range of issues such as race, missiology, social justice, sexuality, and spirituality. If moderate wings—such as Christians of color, Majority World immigrants, and younger churchgoers—choose to identify as evangelical, they represent the future more than practitioners of Christian Americanism who wax nostalgic for the past. Whatever the case, this book calls for global narrations of evangelicalism that include nonwhite voices engaged in both mutuality and resistance.

Boston 2045

The global encounter continues apace. Not only are American evangelicals fanning out throughout the world, but immigrants are moving into the United States. Some come with hopes of revitalizing the American church. Though underreported because of its origin among nonwhite populations, New England has been the home of a spiritual awakening called the “quiet revival.” Tightened borders and persistent racial separation limit immigrant influence at present. But the synergy of the Immigration Act of 1965, the Evangelical Immigration Roundtable, and the southernization of global Christianity is accelerating the global reflex as 2045, the year the United States may become a minority-majority nation, approaches.

Introduction

American evangelicals facing West from abroad have reshaped important elements of their religious tradition. Migration and demographic realignments intensified the impact on issues as varied as humanitarian work, civil rights, missiological strategies, sexuality, supernatural practices, and immigration. There were, however, limits to this global reflex. Transnational encounters often did not fit American categories. They did not cleanly map onto conservative or progressive sectors, and their influence often was limited to establishment evangelicals. Populists, many of whom voted for Donald Trump in 2016, have resisted the global reflex. This book, while narrating important demographic shifts, shows that evangelical cosmopolitanism is not pervasive at present.

Chiang Mai 2017

The antitrafficking movement in Thailand suggests shifting approaches to social justice. Initially seeking to end trafficking through traditional missionary work and by rescuing victims from brothels, evangelical antitraffickers in Thailand began halting journeys away from a methodology of “rescue.” Many have moved toward prevention, protection, policy, partnership, and indigeneity in their methods. This trajectory, however, is resisted by many American evangelical populists at home. Antitraffickers, who must participate in the humanitarian marketplace, are thus compelled to narrate rescue, even though it contradicts the message they want to communicate about their work. Neocolonial sensibilities still persist as donor maintenance prevents humanitarians from fully describing on-the-ground realities. Nevertheless, the campaign for human rights in Southeast Asia reflects the ways in which the social justice work of American evangelicals continues to be challenged by international contexts.

Almolonga 1999

Evangelicals from abroad, even as they pushed for rationalized development, urged American evangelicals to recover supernatural aspects of the Christian faith. During the 1980s and 1990s, Almolonga, Guatemala, was transformed into a predominantly Pentecostal—and a very prosperous—mountain town. Town boosters and missionaries declared that spiritual renewal was key to the social transformation. In 1999, the video documentary Transformations described the “Almolonga miracle” as the result of prayer, miracles, and spiritual warfare. Supernatural stories from Latin America, Africa, and Asia led not only to the rise of a substantial neo-Pentecostal movement in the United States, but also to a broader sensitivity among evangelicals to the miraculous in a reenchanted West.

Mbarara 2007

The typical narrative of American evangelical influence on sexuality laws in Uganda does not tell the whole story. In the first decades of the twenty-first century, some global evangelicals leveled a vigorous critique of sexual libertinism in America, specifically on abortion, contraception, homosexuality, and divorce. Many, in fact, accused the West of exporting these practices to Africa. Coordinating a reverse mission, a formidable Anglican transnational network radiated out from Uganda and beyond, abetting the American traditionalist stand on sexuality. These critiques, which also appeared in conservative sectors of other denominations, demonstrate that the global reflex has not always traveled in a progressive direction.

Lausanne 1974

At the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, which brought together major figures such as Billy Graham and Samuel Escobar, American evangelicals were stunned by the intensity of global critiques. Sparked by the Latin American Theological Fraternity and a wildcat “Discipleship Caucus,” over 500 dissenting evangelicals from the Global South denounced American imperialism. They cited devastation caused by Western armies and corporations, and they described attempts to separate evangelism and social action as demonic. Their advocacy was successful; the resulting Lausanne Covenant underwent telling revisions in the wake of global dissent, and their activism began to reshape American institutions. Going forward, missiology would no longer develop in North American isolation.

Sat Tal 1958

In the 1950s and 1960s, significant numbers of missionaries and converts began to object to evangelical Cold War triumphalism. Describing racial segregation in the American South, they pointed out the limits of American democracy. One of these critics, E. Stanley Jones, was a long-time missionary to India, member of the evangelical wing of the Methodist Church, and trustee of Asbury College in Kentucky. During revival meetings at his alma mater—and in speeches around the world—he preached against segregation. With critiques birthed from his involvement in the Sat Tal Ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas, his interactions with the Indian caste system, and his friendship with Mahatma Gandhi, he pointed out how racism sabotaged Christian missions and the reputation of American democracy abroad.

Seoul 1952

Evangelical activism took international shape at the height of the Cold War. Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision, arrived in Seoul to save Korean souls from hell and the world from communism. World Vision coupled evangelistic efforts with substantial relief efforts on behalf of orphans. Based on interviews conducted in Seoul, this chapter describes American evangelical Cold War activism in third-world sites contested by capitalistic Western and Marxist spheres. Most significantly, it argues that Pierce and World Vision borrowed heavily from Korean pastor Kyung-Chik Han. Nearly absent from American evangelical memory, Han should be considered the cofounder of World Vision.