Where Does (Online) American Evangelicalism Go From Here?
Moving beyond the movements that dominated the last decade.
Several online and IRL movements and trends influencing American evangelicalism are coming to a close or transforming all at once.
🚫 Woke Is a Joke
The Moral Panic That Couldn’t Sustain a Movement
Woke, or at least woke as we knew it, is over. Some are attempting to make Woke Right and Soy Right a thing during the second Trump Administration but this seems to be more of a social media taunt than a substantive observation of a real phenomenon. The jury is still out. Whether this new iteration actually catches on or not, the wokeism of the past decade has certainly run its course. We are now in a time of woke fatigue.
🕳️ Exit, Stage Right: The Death of the IDW
They Were the Heroes We Didn’t Deserve, Until We Didn’t Need Them
The Intellectual Dark Web (IDW) is over. The loose association of former leftists, free speech enthusiasts, and non-political independents who had the stones to question and resist the worst excesses of the woke movement (and had something to lose because of their outspokenness) have melted into the new MAGA/MAHA coalition, joined Conservative, Inc., lost steam, or simply stayed put as the Overton Window shifted around them. The successes of these lightning rods have taken the Dark out of the IDW.
🏛️ Christian Nationalism: Point Made?
Not a Theocracy—Just a Tired Strawman
Christian Nationalism is over. Is this another movement victimized by its own success? “Christian Nationalist” as an epithet has lost its sting and is embraced as a badge of honor. Pietistic withdraw has been properly tarred and feathered. The fear of embracing natural law in general, and Christianity in particular, in the political realm is fading. CN was never about forcible religious conversions. The claim is as preposterous in hindsight as it was when it was first made. The relationship of Christianity and politics continues to be, as it always has been and always will be, debated.
🤡 Third Way No Way
The Decline of the Respectability Gospel
Spineless accommodationism is over. Or is it? Spineless accommodationism is the approach of the Regimevangelicals. The Third Wayists standing above the fray. The evangelicals who are always posturing to gain the approval of our cultured despisers. The byline chasers. The “blow kisses left, throw haymakers right” evangelicals. The elitist “we’re not like those Christians” constantly denigrating us rabble to chase wordly approval. Its too much to think this movement is over. We’ll always have this bunch among us, but they’ve been knocked down a peg or two.
🪦 The Manosphere’s Midlife Crisis
From Hustle Culture to Quiet Strength
The Manosphere is over. According to Will Spencer,
“The movement was populated with influencers who approached the complex subject of ‘masculinity’ from different angles. This began with perennially popular topics like wealth creation, physical fitness, and sex. But with the development of the concept of a ‘personal brand,’ the topics of discussion became secondary to the personalities discussing them.” And, “it [the Manosphere] stumbles through X as zombified version of what it once was.”
The rise of the Manosphere helped spur needed conversations about manhood, masculinity, and men’s place within Christianity and the church. What has arisen in the place of the Manosphere among young Christian men may not have a cool name but a growing number of them are confidently reengaging spaces they once withdrew from. Warranted complaining about society’s ill treatment of men is being replaced with poised, purposeful Christian masculinity.
🐑 "Jesus > Politics" Was Always Fake
The Myth of Neutrality Has Been Exposed
Pretend neutrality is over. The Christian left used to hide behind cute phrases like, “We don’t follow the Donkey or the Elephant, we follow the Lamb!” Yet somehow their talking points always mirrored the current agenda of the Democrat Party. You could always tell what the Democrats wanted to emphasize that election cycle by the subject of Jim Wallis’s latest book.
After the 2024 election, the left is doubling down on the ideas that led them to defeat. The Christian left is spiraling down with them. Trump has broken the brains of many a Christian leftist and now they cosplay as valiant resistance fighters boldly standing against an authoritarian dictator. They’ve also become more open in their embrace of Gay Race Communism. In fact, GRC is the truest expression of Christianity and anyone to the right of them is not a Christian at all. Likewise, conservative Christians are explicitly becoming more rightwing.
🚀 So...Where Do We Go From Here?
The cultural movements that defined the last decade of online American evangelicalism are sunsetting, devolving, or reabsorbing into broader paradigms. But that doesn't mean the future is void—it just becoming post-label, post-brand, and possibly post-cringe. The next phase won’t be spearheaded by platforms, personalities, or elitist-endorsed coalitions. It’ll look like rooted men and women doing slow, unfashionable work: becoming who God made them to be, living their faith in every corner of life, and building what lasts. We’ve seen online movements rise and fall. What comes next isn’t just a new vibe—it has to be a new foundation.
