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The Defector.. Religious Right Rob Schenck Regrets His Time in Christian Nationalism.
https://www.au.org/church-state/november-2021-church-state-magazine/cover-story/the-defector-for-decades-rob-schenckSchenck’s memoir, Costly Grace: An Evangelical Minister’s Rediscovery of Faith, Hope, and Love, tells the story of his transformation from strident Religious Right activist to moral theologian. He now runs the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute in Washington, D.C. You can learn more about him at www.revrobschenck.com.
Schenck was interviewed recently by Church & State Editor Rob Boston.
Q. Tell us about your work at the Bonhoeffer Institute. What are your goals? What can Americans learn from the legacy of Bonhoeffer?
Schenck: Bonhoeffer was a young, brilliant and brave church leader in Nazi-era Germany who challenged the racialized dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and paid for it with his life. But before he was killed, Bonhoeffer left us a wonderful corpus of literary material on ethics, moral philosophy and the proper role of the church in society. We use his insights to help shape ethically courageous leaders to meet similar challenges today, and we curate what we call prophetic voices who are already speaking effectively to these issues. We chose Bonhoeffer because he is equally admired by liberals and conservatives, left and right, traditionalists and progressives.
Q. A Washington, D.C., police officer testifying before Congress about the Jan. 6 insurrection spoke of seeing people in the mob who “perceived themselves to be Christians.” I was struck by that language. What went through your head that day as you saw the symbols of a faith you love being pressed into the service of insurrection and violence?
Schenck: I found it abhorrent, disheartening, outrageous and lamentable. At the same time, it confirmed what I have been saying about the demoralization of American evangelicalism. Jan. 6, and the subsequent evangelical support for the insurrectionists, is more than heretical, it’s really a form of apostasy. American evangelicals have rejected the model, method and ministry of Jesus Christ, who is called “the author and finisher of our faith.” I believe the support for Trump and the violence at the U.S. Capitol indicate a moral collapse in American evangelicalism, perhaps a fatal one. If we recover from this spiritual crisis, it will only be after a very long and painful process.
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