What Do You Mean By "Evangelical?"

I have followed the career and writings of Dr Thomas Kidd for years and grown to trust and appreciate his thoughts.  As a result, I was delighted to see his recent article "How Evangelical are Iowa's Evangelicals?" in the Wall Street Journal.  CLICK HERE to read the full article.

As an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, I have observed the sudden redefinition and confusion around the term "Evangelical" with personal interest.

Dr. Kidd writes in his January 12 newsletter:

The 2024 presidential campaign begins in earnest on Monday, with the Iowa caucuses. On the religion front, this means a new round of reports by journalists, pollsters, and scholars about how “evangelicals” support the twice-divorced Donald Trump.

But who exactly are these evangelicals? It’s difficult to know. Some self-identified evangelical voters don’t even attend church. Many in the media seem to define “evangelicals” as white Republicans who consider themselves religious. Such a definition, in both a spiritual and a historical sense, is ludicrous…

For technical reasons related to sample sizes, most pollsters ask only white people if they are evangelicals. The result is that the news media’s label mostly refers to white Americans who respond to polls and identify as evangelicals. In a time when conservative churches are booming in Latin America, Africa, East Asia and elsewhere, this white Republican cohort is a thin slice of the world’s evangelical community. Globally, most born-again churchgoers aren’t white and they certainly aren’t Republican, because they aren’t American.

For those of you who have read my book Who Is an Evangelical? these may be familiar themes. That book was one of the reasons the Journal editors asked me to write this piece.  CLICK HERE for the Amazon Link.

(My) column was also prompted by Ruth Graham’s excellent story at the New York Times, which actually profiles some of the nonchurchgoing “evangelicals” in Iowa. This is one of the only attempts I have seen in the media to identify and understand nonchurchgoing voters who still call themselves evangelicals.  CLICK HERE to read that article.

I don’t expect that my column will “move the needle” much in terms of intelligent discussions about evangelicals and politics. Journalists and scholars who simply want to trash evangelicals will continue to do so. But I have actually seen some improvement since 2016 in the relative nuance of some reporting on evangelicals.

I talked to a writer for a major national magazine in 2016, for example, who had no idea that polls about “evangelicals” usually only ask white people if they are evangelicals. That level of basic unfamiliarity with the subject may be receding a bit. Still, we can expect that in certain quarters “evangelical” will continue to be used as an all-purpose slur, especially in an election year.

What does it tell us that in current survey polling only white people are given the option of identifying as "evangelical?"  What does it tell us that a significant percentage of those whites that choose to identify as evangelical in those polls never attend church? 

This is life where the "Church of Self-Definition" predominates.  Words loose meaning when self-expression takes over.  Journalism using those polls can no longer inform or clarify, but becomes instead an exercise in advocacy.

 Dr Kidd points out that aross the globe, churches that fit the historic and classical definition of the label "evangelical" are growing dramatically.  The Gospel of Jesus continues to move and transform lives.  Thank God for that.  Frankly, I'm no longer sure what term to use in order to best introduce myself if "evangelical" is redefined to become a political category for white people only but increasingly filled with non-church-going people.  But this I know, I'm doing my best to stay centered in the Gospel of Jesus.

Consider The National Association of Evangelicals

I find few people are aware of an organization called The National Association of Evangelicals.  CLICK HERE for their site.  Formed in 1942, it represents the movement with historical roots back to the 1500's.  CLICK HERE for their video What is an Evangelical? for their answer to the question.   And note how different that answer is than what you hear in the cultural conversation of the moment.