Because that is her nature. Evangelicalism as a social movement sought to find a compromise between the academically muscular theological liberalism of the twentieth century and the bold orthodoxy of the fundamentalism of the same era. This was not merely the strategy of the movement but the very nature of it. Such compromises, however, have trajectories that go in only one direction, downhill.
Consider God’s people in the Old Testament. Syncretism was their besetting sin. They would blend a little of the false worship of the locals with the true worship of God by setting up high places He did not command, to worship Him. Soon they added pagan “liturgy” to their worship of the living God. From there it was just a hop, skip and a jump before they were sacrificing their own, or rather God’s own children to Molech.
Or, consider what Paul said as the compromise between Judaism and Christianity infected the church at Galatia, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Gal. 5:9). Many evangelicals, from the beginning, compromised on the creation account and Noah’s flood. Was it because of their passion for the Bible? No, it grew out of that hunger for respectability. Next up was the Bible’s teaching on the grounds for divorce. Many evangelicals cast that aside. Because of some new great insight into the Greek prooftexts? No, it grew out of a hunger to be deemed just as compassionate and understanding as the theological liberals and the broader culture.
By the time abortion became an issue evangelicals staked a claim to the middle ground between pro-choice and abolition, supporting candidates, legislation and the ideology that said babies conceived during a crime were fair game for butchers to hunt down and kill. Anyone surprised by the lemming rush to join, somewhere reasonably in the middle, the LGBTQ+ parade hasn’t been paying attention. One can only wonder where the middle ground will be when pedophiles finally get their cultural moment to shine.
Here is the devil’s simple trick. He tells us that in order to minister well to those outside the kingdom we must not become offensive to those outside the kingdom. It sounds like wisdom to us because we hate being hated. Jesus, however, the very One who loved us while we were yet sinners, says if we’re not hated like He was hated, we’re doing it wrong. He tells us that if we are not hated by them it is a strong sign that we are not loving them. If we are loving them enough to tell the truth, we will be hated and scorned.
And once again, Big Eva is just like them. Tell her the truth and she will hurl the same epithets that the world throws. Tell her her compromises have left her tainted and abused by her lover and she will blame you. The spectrum is not from the smart liberals to the ignorant fundamentalists with the evangelicals somewhere in between. No, the spectrum is from the cowardly lions of the mainline churches to the heroic courage of the fundamentalists with the evangelicals somewhere in between. Which means we don’t need better spokesmen, better scholarship, better strategies. What we need is courage.