Jonathan Rauch. Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2025.
Reviewed by John R. Vile
An atheist, a Jew and a homosexual walk into a bar (actually a lecture hall) where they discuss the virtues of liberal democracy, evangelical Christianity and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
However, the atheist, the Jew and the homosexual are one and the same person, namely Jonathan Rauch. Rauch is a senior fellow in the governance studies program at the Brookings Institution who has also authored “The Constitution of Knowledge.”
His new book, “Cross Purposes,” originated in a series of lectures at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia.
Rauch’s reflections are informed by deep reading and conversations with a variety of evangelical pastors, many of whom are grappling with congregations split over Christian nationalism. In his “Notes on Sources,” Rauch notes the particular influence of Russell Moore, David French, David A. Hollinger, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, and Mark A. Noll. They have convinced him that, however separate church and state are in the US, the latter is strengthened when the former promotes Christian and civic virtues, including the willingness to compromise.
Liberalism, Christianity, and Democracy
Rauch once celebrated what he called “apatheism,” or “not carrying very much one way or the other about religion” (p. 5). He has since concluded that John Adams, James Madison and Alexis de Tocqueville were correct in perceiving how religion and freedom could be mutually reinforcing. Moreover, they could do so without violating the First Amendment either by establishing an official church or sacralizing the state and its values over religious free exercise.
Rauch divides his book into successive chapters on Thin Christianity, Sharp Christianity, and Thick Christianity.
Thin Christianity
The chapter on Thin Christianity discusses how Christianity (especially white evangelical Protestantism) and democracy have gotten out of alignment as the former has shrunk in size and influence and abandoned its key role in character formation. Rauch believes that there are four critical questions, involving mortality, morality, murder (the problem of evil), and miracles that humans confront. He believes that Christianity provides a stronger basis for confronting human mortality and purpose and cultivating morality than does liberalism, whereas he believes that liberalism has highlighted the inadequacy of Christian explanations of evil and the impossibility of miracles, the latter of which Rauch still equates with magic.
Working together, however, he believes that Christianity and liberalism have successfully preserved democracy and freedom in the U.S. He thus considers the decline of Christianity to be troubling.
Sharp Christianity
In his chapter on Sharp Christianity, Rauch identifies what he believes to be a “battlefield mindset” of evangelical Protestantism (p. 37), which blames liberal secularism rather than itself for its decline. As he sees it, the real problem is not capitalism, consumerism or liberal individualism, which are so frequently associated with liberalism, but the church’s own partisanship, in which evangelicalism has been conflated with Republicanism. In the process, evangelicalism has become more of a political, rather than a religious designation. Falsely viewing themselves as a persecuted minority at a time when the Supreme Court has given a string of victories to free exercise rights, evangelicals have rationalized and compromised their civic virtue by seeking the end of power through non-Christian means.
Drawing from James Alison, a Roman Catholic priest and theologian, Rauch believes that Jesus’ three key teachings in the beatitudes and elsewhere can be summarized by “Don’t be afraid. Imitate Jesus. Forgive each other” (p. 69). By contrast, what Rauch identifies as Sharp Christianity, “is literally a Church of Fear” (p. 70), which has too often subordinated the Christ-like practice of civic virtues and concern for the downtrodden for worldly political success. As Christians have been more influenced by Fox News than by Holy Scriptures, they have been seduced by Donald J. Trump’s claim that “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution” (p. 71).
Rauch believes the way forward is to renounce Christian nationalism — which he thinks might better be described as “authoritarian reactionary Christianity” (p. 78) — and combine respect for Madisonian political institutions with the virtues taught and practiced by Jesus. This involves mutual “forbearance, civility, and compromise” (p. 85), which church leaders can cultivate within their congregations.
Thick Christianity
Rauch equates what he calls Thick Christianity with strong character formation and political compromise, which he illustrates through the manner in which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Utah was able to recognize the rights of the LGBTQ community while preserving religious freedom through the Fairness for All Act (p. 100). Rauch believes it is possible to establish what he calls “a godly pluralism” (p. 112), which respects the rights of LGBTQ citizens and others, based on the recognition that Christianity recognizes free will, or what Mormons call agency.
As ironic as it seems, an atheist, Jewish, homosexual believes that “Christian revival and spiritual formation” (p. 123) is ultimately not only the best for Christianity but also for the preservation of liberal democracy — whether such a revival is possible without a belief in miracles (and particularly the resurrection of Christ with its hope for eternal life and the role of the Holy Spirit in conversion) that Rauch dismisses is perhaps an open question. Proponents for liberalism, in turn, must recognize that “faith-based concerns” are not “trivial, superstitious, or bigoted,” and should, when there are disagreements, seek to meet them “with persuasion” rather than “condemnation” (p. 130).
Prologue and Epilogue
Rauch begins and ends his book with a touching prologue and epilogue. They explain how a longtime friendship with a straight Christian, Mark McIntosh, who exemplified grace and became an expert on Christian mysticism, enabled Rauch to overcome some of his own prejudices and recognize the positive elements of Christianity that can enhance both private and public life. The example of friendship across religious divides gives hope that Christian witness is best furthered and exemplified by the sacrificial example of the cross (which, despite its role in the title, is not otherwise addressed in the book) rather than the Christian nationalist use of the sword.
John R. Vile is a political science professor and dean of the Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University.