I saw this in a Christian newspaper on Sunday, and i thought it very interesting. Everybody talks about a controversial voting bloc, Evangelical Christians. A research group in Arizona asked 1,000 people, "What is an Evangelical?" The question was free-answer, which means that the participants had to come up with their own answers.
The results were astounding. 36% of those asked, including 14% of those who stated themselves as "Evangelical", stated that they didn't know. Over 50% couldn't come up with more than criticisms.
A link to the article and to the official report from the researcher are here...
Evangelical Christians branched off the Swedish Covenant Church many years ago. I used to go to an Evangelical Church. While I was there, I didn't see much doctrine that was different from most denominations.
Evangelical can be a loaded term. It is also one that is hard to define. It could mean any Christian (or one could say anyone at all) who sees evangelism as an important part of their religion. When used in the media it often means the more conservative, right-wing (politically) Protestant Christians, perhaps sometimes used synonymously with fundamentalist. One author points out that there is a broad pluralism in the use of the term, and in order to get to a useful definition highlights "four enduring emphasis" of evangelicalism. These are: 1) The normative value of Scripture in the Christian life 2) The necessity of conversion (whether or not dramatic or even remembered) 3) The cruciality of the atoning work of Christ as the sole mediator between God and humanity 4) The imperative of evangelism, of proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation to a lost and hurting world. (Kenneth Collins, The Evangelical Moment; Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, MI, 2005; p. 21)
I think it is clear from those points that 'Evangelical' can apply to any Christian (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, anything) whether they are liberal, conservative, or whatever.
But I'm not really surprised that people didn't know how to define it.
