{"id":1587,"date":"2009-10-05T07:07:34","date_gmt":"2009-10-05T12:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/10\/what-exactly-is-an-evangelical\/"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:04:22","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:04:22","slug":"what-exactly-is-an-evangelical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/10\/05\/what-exactly-is-an-evangelical\/","title":{"rendered":"What, Exactly, Is an Evangelical?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Scot asked a good question<\/a> last week: How come people who are clearly not evangelical keep getting upset about what evangelicals do?<\/b> He asks this in response to the semi-furor around Rob Bell\u2019s (seemingly off-handed) remark to a newspaper reporter about why he abjures the \u201cEvangelical\u201d label.<\/p>\n

Like many others, Rob has felt disenfranchised from the term \u201cevangelical\u201d because of the political activity in that name, as well as the general cultural distrust of that word, detailed in the book, unChristian<\/i><\/a> (and others).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting right now is watching younger Christians alternatively embrace and shun the label \u201cevangelical,\u201d which has been happening a lot longer than people have been wrangling over \u201cemergent\/-ing.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, there might be some parallels between the two.<\/p>\n


\nLooking back now, I wish that those of us in the emergent movement would done some brand management about 5-7 years ago.\u00a0 We called it a conversation, because it was, and we held the name and even the logo with an open hand.\u00a0 No trademarks or copyrights \u2014 more of an open source mentality ruled.<\/p>\n

<\/span>But that didn\u2019t serve us well.\u00a0 Our theological opponents outflanked us (to the right) \u2014 first the academic types, like Al Mohler and David Dockery, then the crazies, like Ken Silva and Lighthouse Trails \u2014 and, having outflanked us, they defined us.\u00a0 So now the popular definition of emergent among anyone right of center seems to be that emergent has forsaken truth, de-deified Jesus, and use pages of the Bible to line our bird cages.\u00a0 All lies, of course, but the internet noise around such things is now to loud to overcome.\u00a0 (Notably, Rob Bell has also repeatedly said that he\u2019s not emergent, even though those listed earlier in this paragraph don\u2019t believe him.)<\/p>\n

So I can see why Scot and others fight for the term \u201cevangelical,\u201d against both the apathy towards that term of people like Rob and the popular use of the term in the media.\u00a0 Personally, I have never considered myself an evangelical, though many others do consider me one, but I can understand those who embrace that term and their loyalty to it.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Scot uses the following definition, taken from a book by evangelical scholars,<\/p>\n

an evangelical is a Christian Protestant for whom the central ideas
\nare the leading authority of Scripture, the necessity of personal
\nconversion, the centrality of the death of Christ on the cross as a
\nsubstitutionary atonement<\/i>, and the importance of a life of active
\nfollowing Jesus, seen in such things as Bible reading, prayer, church
\nattendance, and deeds of compassion and justice.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve added italics around what I consider the most curious phrase.\u00a0 I get every other point, but does one really need to submit to an Anselmic interpretation of the crucifixion event to be an evangelical?\u00a0 That seems odd to me, since I know lots of Weslyans and Anabaptists who are fiercely evangelical, but think of the atonement through other lenses.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scot asked a good question last week: How come people who are clearly not evangelical keep getting upset about what evangelicals do? He asks this in response to the semi-furor around Rob Bell\u2019s (seemingly off-handed) remark to a newspaper reporter about why he abjures the \u201cEvangelical\u201d label. Like many others, Rob has felt disenfranchised from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-emergent-church","category-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat, Exactly, Is an Evangelical?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scot asked a good question last week: How come people who are clearly not evangelical keep getting upset about what evangelicals do? 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