Evangelicals Place Great Emphasis on the Experience of Being Born Again




	What does it hateful to be an evangelical? Is George W. Bush an evangelical? Here are the views of Wheaton College historian Marking Noll; Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals; Steve Waldman, editor-in-chief of Beliefnet; and Amy Black and Alan Jacobs, professors at Wheaton College.


	National Association of Evangelicals …I think that George Gallup's definition is probably pretty good. He says that evangelicals are those who, first of all, believe the Bible is authoritative. It's infallible. This is a theological distinction which separates evangelicals from, say, mainline Protestantism, which generally veers from that kind of designation of the Bible as the authoritative word of God. I call back there's one way to understand the evangelical view of the Bible. It is viewed as the objective authoritative give-and-take of God, equally opposed to the mainline Protestant view called neo-orthodoxy which holds, y'all come across, that the Bible becomes the word of God in a kind of existential encounter with information technology. And so that'south the distinction. It doesn't only get the word of God when y'all have an experience with God or an experience with the Word. It is objectively, authoritatively the word of God. That'due south what distinguishes evangelicals from, say, mainline Protestants. Permit's talk about the second tenet. Evangelicals are also people of religion in the American Protestant community who believe that you must be born again. As Jesus said to Nicodemus in John iii:3, "You lot must exist built-in again." And Nicodemus said, "Well, should I go dorsum into my mother's womb?" And Jesus said, "No. Simply y'all have to be born of the water and the spirit." In other words, you lot accept to have your heart changed past him, by Jesus. Frankly, millions of Americans, unbeknownst to some people in New York and other elitist institutions, actually have had this kind of feel. Their hearts "have been warmed," equally John Wesley said, past Jesus Christ, who lives today and reigns over matters individual and matters public. That's what evangelicals believe.	+ A Survey on America's Evangelicals This April 2004 survey offers the views of evangelicals on society, civilization, and politics. Conducted for PBS's "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly" and U.South. News & World Report, the survey found: • Evangelicals feel ambivalent toward American society. Three-fourths say they feel part of the mainstream, just an equal number feel they have to struggle to become their bespeak of view beyond. • 72 per centum of evangelicals believe the mass media are hostile to their moral and spiritual values; 48 percent believe evangelical Christians are looked downwardly upon by about Americans. • 71 pct of evangelicals polled said they would vote for George W. Bush if the ballot were held now. + America's Evangelicals An in-depth four-part series by "Religion and Ideals Newsweekly" on evangelicals and their growing political and social influence.


	Assistant professor,Wheaton Higher When I call up of a definition of evangelical, one of the things that makes an evangelical faith look unlike, perchance, than others, [is] in that location's an emphasis on the personal. There'southward an emphasis on the private nature of salvation. There are different phrases for having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But it'south ultimately near each person as an private making what we would call a religion decision; deciding if indeed you lot ascribe to this theology or non, if indeed you lot believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be, and that he is divine, and if that makes a difference in your life. … 2d, another hallmark of evangelicals is you get a sense that there is one source of religious truth. Again, this gets back to biblical say-so. But there'southward that thought of the Bible is the truth and the Bible is the one path to eternal life. Evangelical Christians are going to be much more than, I think, in unison telling you that Christianity is the truth, and information technology is the way to eternal life, and information technology's not one of multiple options. So if y'all believe Christianity is truth by definition, from an evangelical perspective, it means that other understandings of the divine are false. I think that's, again, a authentication. And so finally -- and this is where the term comes from -- the whole idea of evangelizing, that you need to tell others. If you believe that you know something is truthful and y'all believe it has eternal consequences, then you desire to share that with other people. You don't want to simply hold that to yourself and exist silent near information technology. Then in that location is a sense of wanting to brand converts, wanting to let people know the Gospel, the skillful news, so that they would be a part of it, as well.


	Editor-in-Chief, Beliefnet Evangelicals merits President Bush as their own. Yet Bush-league is a member of the United Methodist Church building. Is Bush an evangelical or is he a Methodist, or is he both? Can you be both? You certainly can be evangelical and Methodist. I remember a lot of people assume that evangelical means Baptist. But evangelical is a style, and an arroyo to your personal religion that really cuts across a lot of different Christian denominations. In fact, a lot of evangelical churches now are not-denominational. Distinctions like Methodist, or Presbyterian are less of import than they used to be. And and so yous can exist evangelical and exist a Methodist. Would yous say Bush-league is an evangelical? I recall if you look at the definition, the characteristics of an evangelical, he pretty much fits information technology. He talks most having a personal relationship with God. He talks about having had a transformational experience. He talks about the centrality of the Bible in his life. The just characteristic of evangelicals that he probably wouldn't say he has is the obligation to deliver. And every bit he has appropriately said, that's not really the proper role for the president of the United states. But in iii out of four of the characteristics that you lot often see of evangelicals, he fits the neb. Why doesn't he phone call himself an evangelical or a built-in over again? I think for political reasons, probably. That he knows that the discussion "evangelical," in some sectors, is a scary word. And that the discussion "born over again," I some sectors, is a scary word. So he talks near the importance of God, which is actually kind of a pop concept, without talking nearly existence evangelical or a born once more, or office of the religious right, or anything like that, that carries baggage.


	Professor, Wheaton College Tell me what it means to be evangelical. Ane of the jokes that evangelicals similar to tell is that y'all know you're an evangelical if liberals recollect you're a fundamentalist and if fundamentalists think y'all're a liberal. There is something of that middle ground character to evangelicalism. One of the things that people often say is that in that location are 4 characteristics that marker evangelicals. Simply it seems to me that there are two that you tin catch concord of that are most important. Ane is the belief that the Bible is the word of God, that information technology is authoritative, it'south binding upon us, that we demand to be obedient to it. The other thing is an accent on evangelism on the idea that the Gospel is non just for a few, but for everyone, and that information technology's the job of anybody who is a Christian to let everyone else know near the practiced news of Jesus Christ. I think all of usa would be committed to that in ane way or another. Now, of form, we will and then have some interesting conversations nigh what the Bible means. The fact that we are all committed to the authority of Scripture doesn't mean that we accept exactly the same ideas about what every passage and Scripture means. We might have very dissimilar ideas about how it is that you're supposed to carry out the task of evangelism. Some people are happy to stand up on street corners and pass out tracts. Other people would like to infiltrate organizations like PBS and work from within the structures of power in our club. Just those two commitments, I think, are really at the centre of what it means to be an evangelical. … You said that a joke amid evangelicals is -- liberals recall you're a fundamentalist and fundamentalists think you're a liberal. And then what is information technology almost being evangelical that makes evangelicals moderate? I'm not certain that many evangelicals would want to be chosen moderate. But if you lot practise look at a range of Christians, in which you have liberal Christians at one end and fundamental Christians at another end, I approximate we're sort of in the middle there, and therefore occupy a kind of moderate position. Allow's take a couple of examples that would illustrate this moderate grapheme. Evangelicals are going to emphasize the authority of Scripture far more than than liberal Christians will. Yet, they are not and then strict and not so unanimous in their belief in how to interpret Scripture. Amidst fundamentalists, in that location would exist almost universal consensus that the Book of Genesis is a literal historical narrative, that the creation was done in half dozen days. In fact, that's ane of the things that has historically marked fundamentalists -- this belief that Genesis is a very straightforward historical narrative. Evangelicals are non likely to be and then quick to come up to that conclusion. In fact, these days perchance most evangelicals would not. That'due south hard-- I really don't take the information to back that upward. But I think that is a fair estimate. Notwithstanding we however believe the Genesis is non a completely mythical story, information technology's not a completely fictional story. It is a story which is rooted in sure kinds of historical truth. Only it'south not necessarily the 6-day creation. I don't believe it's a half-dozen-day creation. I don't believe information technology'south that sort of historic narrative. But I think that at that place'southward nevertheless that commitment to reading Genesis every bit the word of God that you would non necessarily notice in liberal Christians. So at that place's one example in which there is this kind of moderate-- Maxim that the Bible is the truth, something that was written and gathered together then many years ago -- doesn't that feel a chip primitive to you as a professor, as an bookish intellectual thinker? How do you lot actually say that that's the truth? I think everyone who claims that the Bible is truth lays hold of that claim by organized religion. But it'due south no uninformed faith, and it's not religion that is unmarked by reflection and serious intellectual engagement. Simply it would be quack not to say that there is a very stiff element of making a commitment to the authority of Scripture and testing it out, seeing how information technology works. Information technology'due south not something that very many people would come to automatically or easily. Only information technology is something that's worth a attempt, is what we would say. Then there is that chore of measuring it, testing it to see if information technology does answer to your feel and your behavior, but also, the other side of the coin -- testing your own beliefs and your own experience against what Scripture says. These are ancient books. They are very old. They come from a very strange culture. It may seem odd to say that books that are then erstwhile can be authoritative for usa today. But I recall one of the things that evangelicals tend to believe, or believe pretty strongly actually is in what K.K. Chesterton chosen the "democracy of the expressionless," the idea that we, in the early xx-first century Western globe, do not have a monopoly on truth. We're very aware of all the ways in which nosotros have learned things that are unknowable to previous cultures and peradventure fifty-fifty to other cultures that exist today. We're very aware of all the knowledge that we have that our predecessors and that our neighbors in other parts of the earth don't have. But it's very difficult for near of us to imagine that there may be things that other cultures knew, that other cultures know, and that past cultures knew that we accept lost or that we have forgotten. And so it seems to me that there is something very consistent with existence a serious intellectual and request the question, "Exercise I actually know everything? Do people in my fourth dimension and my place and my culture accept a monopoly on the truth? Or might it not exist possible that, if I really written report advisedly these aboriginal writings, that I may discover that there is a wisdom in that location that is not accessible to me through any of the means that I usually utilize to get information in modern America?"


	Historian and professor, Wheaton Higher How would you lot define the give-and-take "evangelical?" "Evangelical" designates both a trait of churches, religious practices, networks. Information technology designates a sure series of convictions or actions, practices. The beginning of the modern motility and its American phase is in the mid-18th century, with revivals in the British Isles, North America, the Westward Indies. Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield are cardinal outset figures. From those movements accept descended a wide assortment of religious organizations, churches and voluntary groups, and they are the evangelical motility. But in that location are also a serial of characteristics and designations, beliefs and practices -- of which 4 have been designated past the British historian, David Bebbington, and provide a very skilful summary designation of what evangelicals do and believe. His four characteristics are: a very strong belief in the Bible as the primary religious authorisation; a commitment to the practice of conversion, so that people demand to be changed in a Christian direction as a ground for participation in the life of God. The third characteristic that he mentions is activism, specially a willingness to tell other people about the message of salvation in Jesus Christ. The 4th characteristic is a special assessment of the piece of work of Christ on the cross. The death and resurrection of Christ is the centre of the Christian faith. These four characteristics practice piece of work quite well to designate a wide family of religious interest. Are there certain denominations that fit underneath this, and others that don't? Evangelical is a slippery word, because information technology tin can be used to designate certain religious groups or denominations. Merely then it also can be used to transcend denomination. So in that location would be in the United States evangelical Presbyterians, evangelical Episcopalians, evangelical Lutherans. But at that place would besides exist lots of individual congregations that would be evangelical in some general sense. The Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, would certainly be evangelical. Although considering it is its own affair, and it's and so big in the southeastern part of the country and large in other parts of the country, many Southern Baptists practise not use the discussion "evangelical" for themselves, though anybody outside knows that they are. So the word is plastic. The concept is not precise. Evangelical movements have been identified and identifiable. Evangelicals recognize each other, frequently by how they sing hymns, and what hymns. But it's not a hard and fast designation. The word "evangelical" does designate a limited range of beliefs and practices. But it's not a word similar Baptist or Presbyterian or Roman Catholic, because its designation is for a certain feature fashion of existence religious. Evangelicals tend to operate against tradition, but there are some traditional evangelicals. Evangelicals historically have been opposed to the Roman Catholic Church. Today, in that location are Roman Catholics who call themselves evangelicals. So the word is flexible, but it does have a core of meanings that have been associated with it.

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