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Who are Evangelical Christians, Anyway?
Who are “Evangelical Christians”?
“Evangelical” is an important word to Christians. The root of the word comes from the Greek word that means “good news” or “Gospel”. Thus, an Evangelical is one who shares the Good News of Jesus Christ. But when we look closer, we find that Christians use the word in three specific ways.
- The oldest and narrowest use of the word comes to us from Germany. The German priest Martin Luther applied the word to describe his followers and to distinguish them from the Catholic Church, the Reformed Churches founded by John Calvin, and the Protestant Church of England, as well as the Eastern Orthodox Church. Thus, in Germany, the denomination we call “Lutheran” is known as “Evangelische”, or “Evangelical”.
When these Germans came to America, many chose to call their churches “Evangelical”. In many cases, this means that the church has a specific connection to Luther’s doctrines, or is “Lutheran”. These groups are extremely strong in a belt extending from Ohio west through Montana and south to Missouri, all areas that were settled by Lutheran Germans, Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians.
- In the broadest usage of the word, “Evangelical” refers to an outgoing style of church, where a core teaching is that each Christian should demonstrate love for others by helping outsiders come to an understanding of the Gospel. This outward focus can occur in any church. So, there can be “Evangelical Baptists”, “Evangelical Methodists”, “Evangelical Catholics”, “Evangelical Anglicans”, and “Evangelical Lutherans”. There is even an article in the December 2006 issue of Christianity Today that was written by an “Evangelical Orthodox”.
(In some sense, I have even seen usage pointing towards “Evangelical Jews”, or “Evangelical Islam”, but this usage of the word leaves out the essential Christian Gospel meaning of the word.)
- The most common and least technical meaning of the word “Evangelical” is closely associated with Billy Graham. At the end of World War II, American Christianity was divided into four major groupings. The first group was the Roman Catholic Church, which gradually became more open to talking to other Christians, particularly with the significant reforms pushed by the Vatican II Council in 1960.
In the second group were the liberal denominations, known in the press as “mainline denominations”, such as the Episcopal Church, the United Methodists, liberal Presbyterians, Congregationalists, the United Churches of Christ, and Unitarians (the Christianity of Unitarians is in dispute, particularly by Unitarians). This group generally tended to uphold tradition in ceremony. Members were encouraged to attend church once per week. Bible reading was not encouraged (it wasn’t necessarily discouraged, but it was not a key part of an individual church member’s life.) Social welfare programs – both in the church and in government – were a key focus of the congregation’s energy.
Politically, the leadership of many of these groups began to move toward the very liberal, indeed socialist, viewpoint. It became difficult to tell which was more important – Christ or political power. By the 1990’s these groups were researching convoluted “Biblical” support for abortion, as the political position began to come before the historical clear message of the Bible and Christianity against child murder.
At the other end were the Fundamentalists, a collection of many small denominations that found a focus around a literal reading of the Bible, particularly around the first chapter of Genesis. Fundamentalism also emphasized a separation from the secular world, with various groups opposing television, movies, government social welfare programs, and most modern science teaching, particularly in the biological and geological sciences. Many of these groups founded schools to teach their worldview to their children.
Fundamentalist groups moved politically toward the right, increasingly equating liberal politics with the work of the Devil. Just as their liberal opponents had lost their focus on spreading the Gospel, the fundamentalists began to look towards conservative politics first and Christ secondly. Despite clear support by Christ for rulers showing justice to the poor, these groups frowned upon anything that looked like such an idea as the approach of Communism.