Lausanne and the Sundering of Italian Evangelicals

https://evangelicalfocus.com/europe/10047/italian-evangelicals-warn-of-support-for-populism-amid-political-instability

It is tragic to me that this sort of politicising and division has emerged within Italian Evangelicalism. When I lived in Italy in the 1990's it seemed (at least to me) that Italian Christianity (by which I exclude Roman Catholicism) was wonderfully free of political concern. A tiny minority, there were no contrived narratives of a 'Christian Nation' or any real concern for politics that I detected. Politics was inherently corrupt, had nothing to do with the Church, and this was understood. Christians could go about their lives and focus on Kingdom-related issues. They talked about the Bible and life in a fallen world. Obsessing over politics and control of government was not an issue for them.

And yet even then seeds (or more properly tares) had been planted that were starting to bear fruit.

In the 1970's the Lausanne Movement began to sweep across Europe and presented a real challenge to the already existing Brethren-type models of Christianity. Undoubtedly wooing some into their camp and gaining converts through the methods and style of Billy Graham-influenced American Evangelicalism, Lausanne changed the equation and ultimately the nature of European Evangelical Christianity.

American money and even political influence would play a role and it would seem that the groundwork was laid that would start to bear real fruit by the 2000's. I had some inkling of the change in the 1990's. I was disturbed by some trends I witnessed in places like Italy and Austria but now this talk of Christian nationalism, anti-immigrant sentiment and the like – this is foreign to me and my European experience. Something has changed and I believe similar changes have taken place in the UK.

Lausanne brought a Dominionist definition of the Kingdom to Continental Europe and eventually the globe. It has affected not just old Fundamentalist-style churches and Evangelicalism but it has also played no small role in transforming the global Charismatic movement – teaching it to pursue politics and indirectly (in teaching them to embrace power) the Dominionist movement has helped to foster the Prosperity heresy. This error already reigns supreme in Western Evangelicalism but it has taken a particularly wild and obscene turn in Charismatic circles and it has caught on in the global south.

In addition to redefining the nature of the Kingdom, the Lausanne Movement has re-cast the nature of Roman Catholicism on the basis of Francis Schaeffer's notion of Co-Belligerence. Instead of viewing Catholicism as a false church, the movement views Catholics as allies in the culture war, fellow Christians in the fight against secularism.

Undoubtedly this too has played no small role in generating the confusion in Italian Evangelical circles. If Catholicism is embraced then the whole narrative and posture toward Italian government and society is bound to shift – and apparently it has. The Catholic peninsula that has long been an enemy to the gospel is transformed into a Christian bastion. The Kingdom is redefined to mean 'Western Civilisation' and 'Christendom' and thus Rome itself is transformed – once a spiritual Mordor or Tartarus, now a Zion of yesteryear.

The warnings sounded by the Lausanne-affiliated Evangelical Focus website are hollow and hypocritical. Alarmed at the beast they have helped to unleash, they attempt to temper it by placing the blame on eschatological extremism, a tepid appeal to worldviewism, and even social pluralism.

Never as politically extreme as the Christian Right in the United States the movement is nevertheless in danger of losing control of its own base – the propaganda streams in the Internet age are not easily managed or controlled.

Blind leaders of the blind they think the solution is found in Church-State partnership and the like. They have no solutions to offer. They have poisoned the well and have no means to deal with the consequences. Slight correctives in thinking aren't going to succeed. Basic questions have to be revisited but ultimately such an endeavour will not only lead to schism but to the elimination of their movement – and as such cannot be seriously entertained.

They unleashed destructive forces and now unable to contain them – they risk their own destruction. It's hard to feel pity. Rather I wrestle with feelings of anger.

Thank you Lausanne for doing the enemy's work.