Medieval Romanism formulated its notions of law and justice in terms of a fusion between old Roman jurisprudence and the tribal codes and customs coming out of the Germanic world. Over time this would be re-tooled by other influences. The point being - Scripture had little to do with it.
Likewise, Evangelicalism finds its social and philosophical grounding not in Scripture but in Enlightenment idealism and epistemology along with Classical Liberalism's concepts of equity, individualism, and social contract. In terms of economics, American Evangelicalism embraces Social Darwinism and Libertarianism - all under the aegis of Capitalism's supply-demand paradigms and their ethical outcomes.
Modern Westerners see feudalism as a restrictive even ridiculous system but those who know the history understand how it filled a need and how it fit within its context and a culture that rested on concepts such as the Chain of Being.
But these same moderns can scarcely conceive that Christians in another context or time might look at their culture and testimony and find it equally absurd, blind, and backward - not to mention fundamentally anti-Christian.
In both instances the proponents are/were certain that their system was godly and an expression of applied Biblical theology and ethics. In fact neither system is remotely Christian, both resulting in evil and corrupt fruit.
When we think of medieval Catholicism we think of corruption and an ecclesiology run amok. We think of tradition trampling Scripture and the gospel message being drowned in a morass of innovation. And this is true.
But it's no less so with American Evangelicalism. We see not only endless examples of corruption in terms of wealth and the abuse of power but in terms of ecclesiology we see (like with Rome in the Middle Ages) the endless creation of offices, titles, and ecclesiastical (and para-church) structures. We see denominational hierarchies often wed to political power in which a president like Bush or Trump is able to exert great influence on ecclesiastical leaders. The Church itself is redefined often in terms of a business model and run (de facto) as a for-profit enterprise in keeping with Enlightenment Liberalism and its approach to epistemology and ethics. Of course in the American context a great deal of plain old fashioned pragmatism is at work - but the arguments for such undermine Biblical authority which itself is watered down if not rendered meaningless by a functional denial of the concept of Sufficiency - without which Sola Scriptura becomes but an empty slogan.
In Evangelicalism we have a proliferation of denominations, each with its own bureaucracy and institutional structures. The same is true of 'ministries' and the myriad para-church structures which now so dominate Evangelical life. These same ministries are often connected to and overlap with political umbrella groups and political leaders (and the monied interests they serve) overlap with the Church. And this state of affairs leads to a compromised morality. This is increasingly the case as these Christians look to the state to 'secure' Christian standing and status in society. The moral degenerate Trump is viewed as not only Cyrus, but for many he takes on the authority of a pope or even a messiah with dissent being tantamount to heresy. Not all go this far but most are happy to associate with such hardliners and ally with them - despite the heresy and ethical collapse. The ends justify the means.
In the Evangelical world the structures are less formal but no less corrupt and this has been especially the case since the 1980's. Once again it must be stressed that this wealth is deeply embedded in Wall Street and the Evangelical movement has (since its late 1940's alliance with the GOP) laboured assiduously to promote the ethics and interests of Capitalism. This money is invested in all the evils of the modern world - the Evangelical Church and its members are in the thick of it and more often than not are more than willing to justify their participation in the banking and insurance industry, the weapons trade, and the murderous for-profit healthcare system.
Many are struck by how far astray Rome's worship went in the centuries after Constantine. The world of vestments, organs, candles, stained glass, and Gregorian chant would have been foreign to the apostles as well as the worship of relics, praying with beads, and the liturgical calendar. This is in addition to the complete reversal on questions of ethics and economics.
And yet many of these elements, tendencies, and impulses have crept into Evangelicalism - but with a different cultural context, the style is very different. Gregorian chant is not going to be popular or deemed spiritual as it would have been to Roman Catholic ears in past centuries. But the apostles would undoubtedly raise a sceptical eyebrow at the spiritual sensibilities driving Evangelical CCM, not to mention worship which increasingly relies if not on light shows then certainly on lighting to create an ambience -as does the historical high Church. In keeping with consumer culture and the decadent nature of American society - the marketing approach to 'Church' promotes 'have it your way' casualness and consumer-driven relaxation. As such, the Hawaiian shirts and sandals can be said to represent a kind of 'vestment' for a liturgical style that is every bit as misguided and unscriptural as medieval Romanism - though certainly more irreverent. Both are of course absurd.
Though some see the old rites as austere and rich with symbolism, the truth is they represented a kind of stage-show drama or even entertainment for the people of a very different cultural context. Evangelicalism makes no apologies for its light entertainment and comedic approaches to the worship of God. On these points Evangelicalism (it could be argued) is even further removed and more repugnant than the Catholicism that has offended New Testament Christians since Late Antiquity.
Rome certainly lost its way when it comes to the sacraments, though with Evangelicalism they have been replaced by gimmickry, and reduced to more or less meaningless tokens. Like Rome, the Scriptural teaching has been set aside and replaced with something else - rites and practices rooted in culture and cultural sensibilities. For modern Americans the worship that attracts and draws a crowd entertains, embraces, and expresses the ideologies of psychology and pop culture. In Evangelicalism the 'worship music' (so-called) is the only real means of grace - the form by which the Spirit works. It is their only true sacrament. Another possible contender is the flag, and other tokens of patriotism. Generally speaking I find most Evangelicals are far more reverent when it comes to patriotic expression than anything to do with the Church. How often do I drive by houses in my area with Trump signs in the yard, the so-called Christian flag, with an American flag set higher. It's telling to say the least. Sadly, I have also recently encountered this grouping augmented by a third flag - that of Zionist Israel. It's a real study in idolatry and doctrinal error.
Medieval Romanism produced a corpus of bogus 'sacred' architecture and with it a great deal of 'sacred' music - both notions that have no basis in the New Testament. Rome's examples are again the result of synthesis, utilizing the aesthetics of Hellenistic-Roman culture and its concepts regarding flow, structure, and hierarchy.
Evangelicals have also resorted to a cultural sensibility that has nothing to do with Scripture. Their buildings express their utilitarianism, decadence, and the values of both the Enlightenment and pop culture. But perhaps more than anything their aesthetics are dominated by the ethos of business culture - down even to management approaches and strategies for growth. This is reflected in the architecture and how these 'churches' attempt to market themselves.
Roman Catholicism has been marked by large-scale impiety among its members and its clergy have been beset by scandal and corruption and displays of perversity and debauchery. The scandals of recent years are actually nothing new. They've been going on for centuries and were well known long before the days of mass media and investigative journalism.
And what of the Evangelicals? The gospel of cheap grace has also produced worldliness and lives that do not demonstrate or evidence the work of the Holy Spirit. In terms of clergy and other respected cultural leaders connected to the movement, there are almost daily reports and revelations regarding affairs, abuse, and corruption of all kinds, financial, sexual, and otherwise. Greed is another form of perversion and corruption that long characterised Rome - less so in recent generations. Or rather we should say it's obscured. Rome is still functionally a multi-billion (or even trillion) dollar corporation.
But in Evangelicalism such sin is not only winked at, it is justified and even cultivated and cast in terms of piety. From ostentatious mega-churches to personal fortunes, to the stock portfolios of both individuals, ministries, and denominations, the Evangelical world is just as given over to mammonism as Rome ever was. And with this comes power and all the corruption it represents. There's a reason so many of the medieval dissenters were associated with poverty - a protest against the mammonism and corruption of Rome. Unfortunately at this point in time we have no such dissident movement standing in opposition to Evangelicalism. What little there exists is found in theologically compromised churches that have put the Enlightenment and 'human values' over Scripture or in small sections of the Roman communion where some are still keen to embrace the poor and often the principles of non-violence.
Rome is known for its numerous expressions of extra-scriptural and false piety. From its ascetic practices, hair shirts, and pilgrimages, to its innovations with regard to the rosary and the liturgical calendar with its holy days, to even darker innovative turns such as indulgences and the Crusades, Rome clearly has abandoned the authority of Scripture and replaced it with its own traditions and reasoning associated with them. And it has a very long track record of doing so. There's a reason why dissenting groups were (now a thousand years ago) calling out Rome and the Papacy as the Antichrist.
Evangelicalism has emerged from a very different cultural context and yet the very same spirit is at work. In the context of modernity, the same impulse produces a false piety centered on psychology and the various practices associated with it. Instead of bogus pilgrimages we have the modern vacation-mission trip. Was medieval Romanism given over to superstition? One can easily find a parallel in the gimmicky spirituality that Evangelicals so easily fall prey to - WWJD bracelets and the like. They too have their holy days. The calendar is different and while Rome's innovations must be rejected, the Evangelicals have their own holy days (or functional saint's days) with everything from Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, to Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, Veteran's Day, and so forth. Many are now rapidly embracing Rome's old calendar and variations of its practice with Advent, Lent, and more.
America's wars are holy wars, it's soldiers are saints and martyrs and treated as such. They may not pray directly to them, but it is a mark of piety to revere these persons, to have their pictures in your home, and books by them or about them on your shelves. The larger history of the 'Christian West' has also been embraced to a greater degree in recent years and as such there's been a spate of revisionist histories regarding the Crusades, colonization, the world wars, and the Western empires. Others make what are basically pilgrimages to sites associated with the likes of pop-culture charlatans Chip and Joanna Gaines, the Ark Encounter, the Bible Museum, as well as other American history sites which are re-framed and re-cast in terms of their mythological narratives. Others venture to the so-called Holy Land at which point many are 'moved' to be baptised or even re-baptised revealing the confusion and poverty of their theology - and failing to realize how association with such 'holy places' is taken straight from Rome's theological playbook of superstition. This pilgrimage of course is done in the grand decadent style - air conditioned buses traveling between luxury hotels. The same is true of the popular and equally decadent 'cruise' ministries wherein rich Evangelicals can cruise the tropics or the Inside Passage of Alaska while being taught by a supposed Bible teacher or celebrity theologian.
Both camps are utterly vile and anti-Christian on these points.
Roman Catholicism has always held to the notion of a higher sanctified life which is typically expressed through monasticism and contemplative prayer. Since forms of self-denial and both prayer and contemplation are downgraded in Evangelicalism, the higher Christian life is (these days) expressed in terms of political activism and the accumulation of wealth so one can be a donor to the various causes. Some pursue this life of sword and mammon-coin with total (even militant) devotion and are admired as modern saints. Soldiers are treated in much the same way. It is viewed a kind of holy life or living martyrdom. As one who lamentably spent time wearing the uniform of the American forces I cannot describe to someone from the outside how absurd and laughable this notion is.
Everything done for the troops is a mark of piety. The flag is treated in sacramental fashion. I know of one local Fundamentalist father whose son was killed during the invasion of Iraq (justifiably I must say according to their own ethical metrics) - and his father has devoted his remaining to life to the legacy of his son. He's made his life and military death (as an invader and part of a mass murder) into a kind of martyrdom. He's integrated it into a gospel tract, got a local bridge named after him, and works assiduously in order to recruit and celebrate military enlistment. The local veterans in a nearby town stand at the end of a bridge (where the Veteran's Park is located) every Friday afternoon and wave flags trying to get people to honk their horns as they drive by. They do this even in the rain. My wife is always baffled as we drive by (and do not honk or wave) at their persistence. I insist it is viewed by them as an act of piety very much akin to what Roman monks might do - in wearing a hair shirt or reciting psalms in a freezing stream. In this case, the religion is not Christianity but a hybrid idolatry that uses Christianity only insofar as it contributes to or reinforces the Americanist ideology which is nearest and dearest to their hearts.
Evangelicals also support genocide in Israel and whitewash American genocide and atrocity in places like Vietnam, Korea, and Iraq. These are treated as holy wars and the crusader ethos holds true even if it is not cast in exactly the same dubious theological terms. The Crusader had a papal indulgence forgiving him of sins. American Evangelical Crusaders are treated as saints and if killed - they are functional martyrs.
Evangelical support for gun culture, the deutero-canonical status given to the Constitution and 2nd Amendment give these notions a patina of divine inspiration. They defend those who stand for these things. The unrepentant murderer Kyle Rittenhouse was not only supported by Evangelicals like Charlie Kirk, but celebrated. Likewise they worship the police with some churches even having special 'blue light' services for them. Soldiers are frequently venerated right in the context of worship.
Medieval Romanism at least held these things in a dynamic tension. Both wealth and austerity both found a place in the Roman order but austerity and poverty were always elevated. Poverty and nonviolence were the ideal and revered in the popular mind.
The Evangelical Church follows the Enlightenment and views economic maxims and means as Divine Laws. Wealth, individual fulfillment, and flourishing are enshrined as the ideal. Poverty is despised and viewed as a moral deficiency. In this case it's clear enough that even though the Middle Ages were wrong, there was actually a better understanding of these questions - one a bit closer (if still distant) from New Testament ideals.