Evangelicals are beginning to support gay marriage. That is what Jim Hinch claims in the Politico.

His evidence? A liberal Methodist church, the declining mainline Presbyterian Church (USA), and a lady who left a Methodist Church for a UCC Church. Anyone who knows anything about Christianity in America knows the Methodists, PCUSA, and UCC are not evangelical churches.

Oh, but there is that one preacher at a Baptist Church in California whose son is gay so he’s now decided he’s for gay marriage. But the Baptists are taking action there.

Yes, it is true that a growing number of people who like to call themselves “Christians” are coming out in favor of gay marriage. Yes, it is true some people in evangelical churches are coming out for gay marriage and, as Hinch shows, leaving evangelical churches for liberal main line churches. Few if any evangelical churches in the United States, the only churches with significant growth in the country, are not abandoning the idea of marriage between one man and one woman.

Interestingly, Hinch interprets the tone of people like Rick Warren and Russell Moore to make the case that evangelicals are embracing gay marriage. That’s media fan fiction. The tone is less hostile than older generations and there is a recognition that the battlefield is shifting in the culture. But changing a tone and recognizing a shifting battlefield does not mean evangelicals are abandoning legitimate marriages for the latest secular definition.

And Hinch and the Politico, would do well to remember those churches that can be considered evangelical, instead of writing stuff like this:

Just last month, the Presbyterian Church, a Protestant denomination with a significant, though declining, minority of evangelicals, voted to allow ministers to perform same-sex weddings in states where they are legal.

There are multiple Presbyterian denominations in the United States and the Presbyterian Church USA does not consider itself an evangelical church. Jim Hinch and the Politico should not either.

What this really is, is a PR piece for Matthew Vines, a twenty-something who has decided that he is smarter than 2000 years of Christian scholarship and, consequently, has given the itching ears of the press a mediagasm with his recycled nonsense. But kudos for the public relations effort.