In Moscow, Idaho, conservative ‘Christian Reconstructionists’ are thriving amid evangelical turmoil

Professor Crawford Gribben, author of Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America, recently wrote an article for The Conversation on the evangelical Christian movement in northern Idaho, in which classical Christian education plays a part. The full article is linked below. If you would like to purchase a copy of Crawford Gribben’s book, Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America, click here.

Interesting and thought provoking, here are excerpts from his article.

Evangelical groups in the U.S. have for years faced dwindling numbers. And a messy cultural fight over the direction of the movement might serve to drive further defections.

But while some of the largest Protestant denominations in America, such as Southern Baptists, continue to hemorrhage members, one small group of conservative evangelicals appears to be bucking the trend – despite numbering only around 1,300 or so . . .

In Moscow, the community has established churches, a classical Christian school, a liberal arts college, a music conservatory, a publishing house, and the makings of a media empire. With books published by major trade and academic presses, and a talk show on Amazon Prime, the community is setting the agenda for a theologically vigorous and politically reactionary evangelical revival . . . The community has established a K-12 school, a member of an association of hundreds of classical Christian schools . . .

. . . The community’s liberal arts college sends students into doctoral programs in various disciplines at Ivy League and leading European universities – it isn’t an insular educational world. Its small and closely connected group of authors has worked with publishers such as Random House and Oxford University Press.