Evangelical Populist Internationalism and the Politics of Persecution

Abstract

This article explores the rise of the US movement for persecuted Christians as a form of evangelical internationalism. This internationalism is built on a moral geography that highlights the ties between US evangelicals and Christians in other parts of the world, challenging the isolationist self-regard that American evangelicals are often accused of. This article argues, however, that some important components of the persecuted Christians movement mobilize a common populist trope of an in-group facing attack from outside. Rather than organizing around religious freedom broadly, they construct a narrative of American Christians as part of a victimized and marginalized group, based on their ties with a global Christian community defined as persecuted. Rather than being part of a binary of populism versus internationalism, key parts of the persecuted Christians movement use internationalism to support Christian populism.

Keywords:

• evangelicals
• populism
• internationalism
• persecuted church
• international religious freedom
• Turkey
• Nigeria

Notes

1. The list includes Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, plus North Korea and Venezuela.

2. Brownback’s nomination to the Ambassador position was fiercely contested by LGBTQ groups and he was only approved when VP Pence cast a tie-breaking vote.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melani McAlister

Melani McAlister is Professor of American Studies and International Affairs at George Washington University. A historian of the US in the World, she has recently completed The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals (2018). She also authored Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and US Interests in the Middle East (2005, o. 2001), and is co-editor of volume 4 of the Cambridge History of America and the World. She is on the ACLS Board of Directors.