No Such Thing as “The Evangelical Church”

No Such Thing as “The Evangelical Church”

There, I heard it again. A talking head, a scholar, commentator, on MSNBC uttered the phrase “the evangelical church.” There is no such thing as “the evangelical church!”

One of the reasons I suggested that we here discuss the video series “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory” (Randall Balmer, PBS) is that it well illustrates the diversity of American evangelicals.

There never was and is not any evangelical headquarters  or human head, not even a figurehead, of all evangelicals.

Evangelical Christianity is not a church or denomination or even organization. It is a spiritual-theological ethos shared in different ways by various people, organizations, churches, denominations.

How do I get this fact out to the talking heads who should know better and who are making fools of themselves by talking AS IF evangelicalism in America is “a church?”

If anyone out there can get a message to them, journalists, commentators, news readers, etc., please do it.

Now, back to a subject I wrote about here earlier. The word “community.” Why do the (critical) talking heads never say “the evangelical community?” Well, some might. But I haven’t heard or read it. It’s notable that they almost exclusively use the word “community” when they favor or at least sympathize with the group with a common interest they are labeling a “community.”

Are American evangelicals a “community?” Well, yes, in the rather lame sense in which the word is used now. A “community” is any group of people being talked about that is perceived to have a common interest, even if they don’t know each other, are really very diverse, and cannot all be lumped together.

I have heard news readers and commentators on the news label as “communities” bikers, bird watchers, New Agers, migrants, liberals and conservatives, etc., etc.

Yes, I know I’m a curmudgeon. Yes, I know I’m pedantic. Yes, I know I’m a contrarian. All that especially in the faces of ignorance being spoken or written. Someone has to do it.

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