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<\/span><\/span>I am an Evangelical.
But what does that label even mean anymore?\n<\/h4>A few days ago I was sitting around chatting with a few new friends at my Bible college. One of them was a young Canadian and another was a middle-aged former U.S. soldier. In our long conversations, we ended up on the topic of politics and how many companies and businesses in the United States give millions of dollars to political and social causes and somehow we ended up talking about McDonalds. (go figure?)\n<\/p>
My USAF friend made the statement: \u201cMcDonalds is terrible because it gives millions to causes and organizations that you [speaking of me] directly oppose: LGBTQ rights campaigns, Planned Parenthood, etc.\u201d I was taken back because my new friend simply\u00a0assumed\u00a0that because everyone in this conversation was an evangelical meant that we all held a certain set of political ideals and social standards. For him \u2014 and millions of others \u2014 evangelical meant something far more than a theological persuasion.\n<\/h4>
\u00a0In the midst of this awkward moment, I decided to reveal my identity as a politically progressive\/liberal evangelical, which automatically caused an immense amount of tension to arise in our conversation. How could I, a Bible-believing evangelical, possibly support the LGBTQ community\u2019s right to marry? How could I think that Planned Parenthood was doing\u00a0any\u00a0good and that President Obama\u2019s plan to rapidly decrease the numbers of abortions in the United States was progress in any way?<\/p>\n
This encounter really caused me to re-reflect on the magnitude that the term evangelical has been hijacked by political and social agendas over the past decade and how a new generation of evangelicals is emerging that does not at all identify with any of the social and political baggage that has come to represent evangelical Christianity. Which brings me back to my original question: What does the label evangelical even mean anymore?
I can tell you this \u2014 it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0mean that I am a Republican. It\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0mean that I am a Democrat. It doesn\u2019t mean that I am pro- or anti-anything.<\/p>\n
Evangelical, as a label, has absolutely\u00a0nothing\u00a0to do with political affiliation or social agendas. The term literally can be translated, \u201cPeople of the Good News.\u201d People of the Gospel. That is\u00a0truly\u00a0what an evangelical is \u2014\u00a0a person who believes that Jesus Christ is truly \u201cgood news of great joy for all people\u201d (Luke 2:10)! An evangelical is someone who is committed to the message and methods of Jesus Christ \u2014 someone who thinks Jesus\u2019 pronouncement that the Kingdom of God is in our midst is a statement of a growing reality, and that we have been commissioned by Jesus to go into the world and proclaim this Good News to everyone we encounter \u2014 from the halls of Capitol Hill to the projects of south Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
My generation (the millennials) no longer identify with divisive partisan politics of our country done under the guise of \u201cevangelicalism.\u201d We have seen and heard the long and dirty history of evangelical politics. We are not only disenchanted with this \u201cversion\u201d of our faith, but also disillusioned. Neither side seems to look at all like Jesus. Both sides of the evangelical political spectrum seem to have sold out Christ\u2019s commitment to love our neighbor, our enemies, our God, and ourselves and turned radically inward, only desiring to further their own self-interests, no matter how noble or seemingly important they may be. We all know that both the political and religious structures in America are severely damaged. The millennial generation is optimistically working reform both. We envision an evangelicalism that is truly marked by a radical commitment to follow Jesus in every arena of living and to once again be people that live, breathe, and speaking good news of great joy for all people.<\/p>\n
We also want to be politically engaged and don\u2019t think that involves removing our faith from our politics, but rather allowing our faith to inform every area of our political engagement \u2014 not in an attempt to \u201cbring America back to her Christian roots\u201d or to legislate the Bible \u2014 but rather because we have come to believe that true discipleship requires us to seek to love our neighbors and work for the common good of all people. That requires us to be faithful stewards of our personal and corporate finances, but also to seek the good of those who find themselves below in poverty and provide health care to the least of these.<\/p>\n
The fear is that this new generation will be theologically liberal. My friend, upon hearing my confession that I was a Democrat, initially began to run me through the theological ringer. My theology of the Bible was immediately called into question, and my friend was stunned to find that in general, our theologies were identical. It is simply a false understanding of millennials to think that we are nothing more than theological relativists. In fact, most millennials are returning to very traditional churches with very orthodox and traditional Christian theologies. It\u2019s a direct response to the aloofness of decades of evangelicalism that moved away from deep theological tradition and truth to what became known as \u201cseeker-sensitive,\u201d which offered nothing more than an inspirational exposition of some random Bible passage. We desire more than that. We desire a faith that isn\u2019t, contemporary per se, but rooted. We need to know that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. Most of us have very little desire to create \u201cnew\u201d ideas about God; instead, we want a faith and a tradition that connects us both back toward our ancient lineage as Christians and moves freely forward \u2014 able to adapt and endure the ebbs and flows of our culture. \u00a0<\/p>\n
As my generation rises to the positions of influence and leadership in the church and world, I believe we are motivated to work for the common good of all people, the good news that comes from and through following Jesus Christ. We are moving toward a more Christ-like mode of living, one that cares more for the person than their political persuasion or belief about certain issues. While we are going to be increasingly more difficult to nail down with a simple set of theological labels or political propositions, we are increasingly going to be passionate about looking like and living like Jesus \u2014\u00a0embodying the good news that he proclaimed. And that is\u00a0incredibly\u00a0good news.<\/p>\n
I am an evangelical. No, that isn\u2019t a political label. It\u2019s my life orientation \u2014 centered on and motivated by the good news of Jesus Christ. Good news for my friends, my neighbors, my enemies, myself, and my God. May it be so.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am an Evangelical.But what does that label even mean anymore? A few days ago I was sitting around chatting with a few new friends at my Bible college. One of them was a young Canadian and another was a middle-aged former U.S. soldier. In our long conversations, we ended up on the topic of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1830,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Removing the Political Baggage from Evangelicalism (Sojo Post)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I am an Evangelical.But what does that label even mean anymore?A few days ago I was sitting around chatting with a few new friends at my Bible college.\" \/>\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\/revangelical\/2014\/05\/02\/201393removing-the-political-baggage-from-evangelicalism-sojo-post-html.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Removing the Political Baggage from Evangelicalism (Sojo Post)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am an Evangelical.But what does that label even mean anymore?A few days ago I was sitting around chatting with a few new friends at my Bible college.\" \/>\n<meta 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I can tell you this \u2014 it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0mean that I am a Republican. It\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0mean that I am a Democrat. It doesn\u2019t mean that I am pro- or anti-anything.<\/p>\n