Has the term ‘Evangelical’ been hijacked and robbed?
Up until a few years ago, I used to proudly self-identify as an evangelical; not any longer.
It’s not that I don’t consider myself an evangelical in the ‘proper’ sense, but that I don’t recognise how the term is often employed nowadays.
In view of this, a recent blog post written by Professor John Byron, resonated deeply with me:
As you may know, I am uncomfortable with the Evangelical label. I often bristle when I or something I am associated with is labeled as “Evangelical.” While I would describe my faith as historically evangelical, I do not subscribe to most of what is attributed to Evangelicalism today. I have sometimes suggested that we need a new label since this one has been hijacked.
I totally agree. I often observe on Christian forums those espousing the strangest of views; self-declaring themselves as evangelical. In some blog lists on the Internet, this blog is listed under the heading ‘evangelical’ and quite frankly that makes me cringe.
The good professor is dead right; we do need a new label to describe ‘Evangelical Proper’.
October 19th, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Tony Campolo described this same problem a few years ago and used the term “Red letter Christians” instead.
October 19th, 2011 at 1:55 pm
In Scotland we had a Liberal Evangelical tradition prior to the growth of the Celtic/Iona style liberalism. This was different from normal liberalism in that it was based on or grew out of biblical scholarship. It grew out of what they saw as a better understanding of the bible rather than from the side of social issues or spirtitual tradition (like the celtic movement).
See this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Barclay_(theologian)
October 20th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
I’m no expert but isn’t it one of those labels that has for a long time been used and misused by people with very contrasting beliefs.
And I think there’s also a difference between evangelism and evangelicalism which often gets confused. I think I could call myself a Humanist evangelist, but not a Humanist evangelicalist. (But of a mouthful anyway!) Have I got that right?