“Who Are You Following?”: U.S. Evangelicals, Social Media, and Theologies of Influence

This paper investigates internal debates within the U.S. evangelical community about how Christians should best relate to social media technologies and social media influencers.  While some argue that influencing is as old as Christianity itself and that Jesus was the first influencer, others critique the gathering of followers and likes as distracting and even idolatrous.  I show that in these spaces we can see evangelical influencers attempting to articulate new theological justifications and standards for proper self-regulation and engagement for themselves and their followers.