{"id":291,"date":"2011-08-29T21:31:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T21:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem\/"},"modified":"2012-03-20T21:36:03","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T01:36:03","slug":"attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html","title":{"rendered":"Attention Evangelicals: You Have A Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
To everyone who claims the label \u201cevangelical,\u201d I have something to tell you. You have a major <\/em>public relations problem.<\/strong> I\u2019m not sure what you\u2019re doing wrong, but it really does look like you\u2019re doing something wrong. Let me explain.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When I grew up as an evangelical, I was taught that being an evangelical was about trusting Christ\u2019s sacrifice for salvation, about helping others have conversion experiences and pray the sinners prayer, about reading the Bible, about having a relationship with Jesus, and about love and service to others. We were to win others to Christ by showing them Christ\u2019s love for them. Yes, my parents followed a legalistic sort of evangelicalism that emphasized the patriarchal family order over freedom in Christ, but we nevertheless saw the things mentioned above as the foundation of our faith and our religion.<\/div>\n
Once I left evangelicalism I realized that those outside of it frequently didn\u2019t view it very positively, or even understand it. However, until today I had thought that people generally understood that evangelicals emphasized things like Jesus, the Bible, and the centrality of the cross. Today came as a bit of a surprise. I attended the first meeting of a college class on evangelicalism. Twenty-five students, nearly all of them undergraduates, were asked to share how they would define evangelicalism, or simply what came to mind when they heard the term \u201cevangelicalism.\u201d As the students listed off various answers, the professor wrote them on the blackboard. Here you go:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What is evangelicalism? <\/strong><\/div>\n
Radical<\/div>\n
A culture<\/div>\n
Extreme<\/div>\n
Someone who pushes their beliefs on others<\/div>\n
Political activism<\/div>\n
Apocalypticism<\/div>\n
Literalism<\/div>\n
Anti-intellectualism<\/div>\n
Conservative politics<\/div>\n
Branching<\/div>\n
Fundamentalist<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I was the last person in the room to answer the question, because I was sitting in a corner. As I looked at the board, I was totally flabbergasted. I mean, I expected someone to say \u201cextreme\u201d and someone to mention the politics or anti-intellectualism, but what I was not prepared for is what was missing<\/em>.<\/div>\n
Jesus. The Bible. The cross.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cI tend to follow Bebbington\u2019s definition of evangelicalism,\u201d I started, \u201cand somehow none of the things he mentions are even on the board.\u201d I\u2019m afraid that this is where I started to sound indignant. \u201cAll evangelicals, no matter where they are on the spectrum, hold four beliefs: the centrality of Christ\u2019s sacrifice<\/strong> on the cross, the necessity of individual conversion<\/strong>, the importance of the Bible<\/strong>, and the call to activism<\/strong>, be that social justice or the conversion of souls. I\u2019m sorry, I just can\u2019t believe that \u201cBible\u201d is not on the list, or the cross \u2013 or for that matter, why is \u2018Jesus\u2019 not on the board?!\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The professor added everything I mentioned, smiling and nodding, and told me that she would be discussing Bebbington\u2019s definition of evangelicalism on Wednesday. \u201cOh dear, I\u2019ll probably find out you don\u2019t like it or something!\u201d I said, but she shook her head and replied that \u201cactually, I find it\u2019s the best definition out there.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I have to say, today has me completely floored. How was the Bible not on that list? How was Jesus not on that list? How was conversion and salvation not on that list? Somehow, twenty-five college students asked to define \u201cevangelicalism\u201d could not come up with any of those things. This might make sense if these were students from a \u201cliberal bastion\u201d like New York City, but they weren\u2019t. These were students from the heart of the Midwest.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This bothers me because even though I disagree with evangelicals, I do understand where they\u2019re coming from, and I know what beliefs are most important to them. But somehow, even with all of evangelicals\u2019 emphasis on converting others, other Americans have absolutely no idea<\/em> what beliefs evangelicals see as central.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In conclusion, if you describe yourself as an \u201cevangelical,\u201d whether conservative or liberal, you have a serious problem. Somehow, you aren\u2019t getting your message across. Somehow, people have no idea that you see Jesus or the Bible or Christ\u2019s sacrifice as central and most important. Instead, they see you as crazy and pushy. I\u2019m really not sure exactly where you went wrong, but I would posit that some serious rethinking of tactics might be in your best interests.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To everyone who claims the label \u201cevangelical,\u201d I have something to tell you. You have a major public relations problem. I\u2019m not sure what you\u2019re doing wrong, but it really does look like you\u2019re doing something wrong. Let me explain. When I grew up as an evangelical, I was taught that being an evangelical was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism"],"yoast_head":"\nAttention Evangelicals: You Have A Problem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To everyone who claims the label "evangelical," I have something to tell you. You have a major public relations problem. I'm not sure what you're doing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Attention Evangelicals: You Have A Problem\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To everyone who claims the label "evangelical," I have something to tell you. You have a major public relations problem. I'm not sure what you're doing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-29T21:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-21T01:36:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html\",\"name\":\"Attention Evangelicals: You Have A Problem\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-29T21:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-03-21T01:36:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"To everyone who claims the label \\\"evangelical,\\\" I have something to tell you. You have a major public relations problem. I'm not sure what you're doing\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Attention Evangelicals: You Have A Problem\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \\\"purity culture,\\\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Attention Evangelicals: You Have A Problem","description":"To everyone who claims the label \"evangelical,\" I have something to tell you. You have a major public relations problem. I'm not sure what you're doing","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Attention Evangelicals: You Have A Problem","og_description":"To everyone who claims the label \"evangelical,\" I have something to tell you. You have a major public relations problem. I'm not sure what you're doing","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html","og_site_name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","article_published_time":"2011-08-29T21:31:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-03-21T01:36:03+00:00","author":"Libby Anne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Libby Anne","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html","name":"Attention Evangelicals: You Have A Problem","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-29T21:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-03-21T01:36:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2"},"description":"To everyone who claims the label \"evangelical,\" I have something to tell you. You have a major public relations problem. I'm not sure what you're doing","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/08\/attention-evangelicals-you-have-a-problem.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Attention Evangelicals: You Have A Problem"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/","name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2","name":"Libby Anne","description":"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \"purity culture,\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}