THE EVANGELICAL CHANGING?
"White evangelicals see themselves losing ground to an American mainstream they once bestrode like a colossus."
Sooner or later they're going to have to get over it.
They'll be better Americans when they do."
SO SAYS ONE PBS ARTICLE...
WHY?
WHAT IS AN EVANGELICAL?
So,
what is an evangelical? I wonder how many evangelicals would be able to define
that word?
Well
they had better start learning what it means!
I
copied a piece actually a couple of paragraphs out of the conclusion of an
article in PBS that I just read. I put an emphasis on a few phrases, but this
is the way it reads verbatim:
"In the moral, ethnocultural world that constitutes their (evangelicals) belief system, white evangelicals see themselves losing ground to an American mainstream they once bestrode like a colossus. Sooner or later they're going to have to take the advice of (ex-)Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and "get over it." They'll be better Americans when they do" (My emphasis)
In this article, there seems to be a
focus on "white evangelicals". Apparently, the writer is making a
distinction between white evangelicals and black evangelicals or for that
matter Hispanic evangelicals.
In my experience. I've always understood an evangelical was based on belief, Gender, nationality, or skin color had nothing to do with it.
I've been an evangelical since accepting Christ in 1950 in a Billy Graham Crusade in Portland, Oregon--I've been an attendee and been a counselor in numerous Billy Graham Crusades. I've known many in the Association. Billy Graham was an Evangelical. Billy Graham makes a point of the Crusade being non-racial. And, as an Evangelical, I totally agree.
Evangelicals "losing ground?" I don't think so.
In my experience. I've always understood an evangelical was based on belief, Gender, nationality, or skin color had nothing to do with it.
I've been an evangelical since accepting Christ in 1950 in a Billy Graham Crusade in Portland, Oregon--I've been an attendee and been a counselor in numerous Billy Graham Crusades. I've known many in the Association. Billy Graham was an Evangelical. Billy Graham makes a point of the Crusade being non-racial. And, as an Evangelical, I totally agree.
Evangelicals "losing ground?" I don't think so.
Wikipedia makes a claim of not being
bias and this is what they say about evangelicals:
"Evangelicalism), evangelical
Christianity or evangelical Protestantism,[note 1] is a worldwide, trans-denominational
movement within Protestant
Christianity which maintains the belief that the essence of
the Gospel consists
of the doctrine of salvation by grace alone, solely
through faith in Jesus's atonement.[1][2][3] Evangelicals
believe in the centrality of the conversion or "born again"
experience in receiving salvation, in the authority of the Bible as God's
revelation t
Its origins are usually traced to
1738, with various theological streams contributing to its foundation,
including Pietism, Puritanism, Presbyterianism and
the Moravian
Church (in particular its bishop Nicolaus
Zinzendorf and his community at Herrnhut).[4] Preeminently, John Wesley and
other early Methodists were at the root of sparking this new movement during
the First Great Awakening. Today, evangelicals are found
across many Protestant branches, as well as in various denominations not
subsumed to a specific branch.[5] Among
leaders and major figures of the evangelical Protestant movement were John
Wesley, George
Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham, Bill Bright, Harold Ockenga, John Stott and Martyn
Lloyd-Jones. The movement gained great momentum during the 18th and
19th centuries with the Great Awakenings in
Great Britain and the United States.
In
2016, there were an estimated 619 million evangelicals in the world, meaning
that one in four Christians would be classified as evangelical.[6] The United States has the largest concentration of
evangelicals in the world.[7] American
evangelicals are a quarter of the nation's population and its single largest religious group.[8][9] Evangelical
movements can be found in nearly every Protestant denomination and tradition,
particularly within Reformed, Baptist, Wesleyan, Pentecostal, Churches
of Christ, Plymouth Brethren, charismatic
Protestant, and nondenominational Protestant churches.[10][11]" Evangelicalism From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
, "In 2016, there were an estimated 619 million evangelicals in the world, meaning that one in four Christians would be classified as evangelical.[6] The United States has the largest concentration of evangelicals in the world.[7] American evangelicals are a quarter of the nation's population and its single largest religious group",
The statement that Evangelicals are "losing ground" is not accurate.
Categorizing Evangelicals having some racial component is missing the point of what an Evangelical is. (see my page for another look.)
As a white Evangelical pastor, I remember sharing a hotel room with a black Evangelical pastor that believes just like I did, and this Billy Graham Crusade was in the city where the Confederacy began. And, for that matter, I also remember a crusade in Asia that had over a million Asians in attendance. And I don't think I'd be mistaken to say that the "house church" in China are evangelicals.
To the contrary, the Evangelicals are not "losing ground"--they are gaining new ground, but they may be moving to other places.
Categorizing Evangelicals having some racial component is missing the point of what an Evangelical is. (see my page for another look.)
As a white Evangelical pastor, I remember sharing a hotel room with a black Evangelical pastor that believes just like I did, and this Billy Graham Crusade was in the city where the Confederacy began. And, for that matter, I also remember a crusade in Asia that had over a million Asians in attendance. And I don't think I'd be mistaken to say that the "house church" in China are evangelicals.
To the contrary, the Evangelicals are not "losing ground"--they are gaining new ground, but they may be moving to other places.
Frankly, I don't like to bring in
politics with my Christian witness but obviously, this article does and raises some issues and brings
a lot of points that Christians should know. I'd like to focus on those in another page.
One can say that Evangelicals are increasing in number exponentially, in some places--in China, in Africa, but are they doing this in America?The writer says so, and
The writer says to Share this (his article)--so I have on the 2nd page.
DO EVANGELICALS NEED TO CHANGE
--NEED TO BE BETTER AMERICANS?
EVANGELICALS BRINGING CHANGE
SO WHO ARE THE EVANGELICALS AND THEIR NEEDING CHANGE
(EVANGELICALS)
"Its origins are usually traced to 1738, with various theological streams contributing to its foundation, including Pietism, Puritanism, Presbyterianism and the Moravian Church (in particular its bishop Nicolaus Zinzendorf and his community at Herrnhut).[4] Preeminently, John Wesley and other early Methodists were at the root of sparking this new movement during the First Great Awakening. Today, evangelicals are found across many Protestant branches, as well as in various denominations not subsumed to a specific branch.[5] Among leaders and major figures of the evangelical Protestant movement were John Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham, Bill Bright, Harold Ockenga, John Stott and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. The movement gained great momentum during the 18th and 19th centuries with the Great Awakenings in Great Britain and the United States"
the above block type is a quote from Wikipedia, the unbiased encyclopedia.
As a "white"evangelical", I never knew anyone of these people personally. But I did personally act in the organizations founded by two of these men. With Billy Graham, I was personally in numerous Billy Graham Crusades--both as a spectator, as an active participant, and is a church pastor participant. Bill Bright, took part in the organization that he founded Campus Crusade in all the categories that I personally took part in an Billy Graham Crusades.
Obviously, in both the mentioned organizations above, there were hundreds if not thousands of individual evangelicals who were active participants.
I feel compelled to mention other world-renowned evangelical leaders that had organizations much like those mentioned above. One person.
One person, whom I've never met, was Dawson Trotman, who founded the "Navigators". I came to accept Christ as my Savior due to the Billy Graham associations, but I came to recognize him and the Lord due to the ministry of the Navigators.
Another person, whom I've met was Dr. Francis Schaeffer. Francis August Schaeffer (January 30, 1912 – May 15, 1984) was an American evangelical theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is best known for establishing the L'Abri community in Switzerland. In the mid-1070s, Dr. Schaeffer held a number of Crusades in America, and one of the Crusades was in California where I was a pastor and took part in.
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