'Exvangelicals': why more religious people are rejecting the evangelical label

[applegrove]

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/03/evangelical-christians-religion-politics-trump

By Josiah Hesse at the Guardian

"SNIP........


"I don’t identify myself with that term any more,” Boz Tchividjian said recently. He was talking about being “evangelical”, the movement his grandfather, the Rev Billy Graham, helped popularize in America. “Words matter,” Tchividjian said, “and ‘evangelical’ isn’t like Baptist or Episcopalian, which can be clearly defined. The minute you use that term to someone,, “you’re defined by how they interpret it.”

Tchividjian is among a growing number of religious people and groups in America who have stopped identifying as evangelicals in order to distance themselves from the more extreme elements of Christian society, while remaining true to their principles.

This fall, the 80-year-old Princeton Evangelical Fellowship dropped “evangelical” from its name. William Boyce, executive secretary of what is now the Princeton Christian Fellowship, explained the move, saying: “In recent years … we are seeing that more students either do not recognize or they misunderstand the term evangelical.”

And in a recent interview, Tony Campolo, a pastor and founder of the Red Letter Christians movement, said succinctly what others have alsosaid publicly: “We feel uncomfortable calling ourselves evangelicals any more, because the general public assumes things about us that aren’t true. We are not for capital punishment, we are not pro-war, we don’t hate gays, we’re not anti-feminist.”

........SNIP"

[Drahthaardogs]

1. But you're still the looniest of the loonies

A rose by any other name...

[get the red out]

2. They broke it

They need to own it. Christian leaders like Falwell got their power because a lot of Evangelicals liked what they were selling, now numbers of them are trying to rebrand. Maybe they should have fought this current, hideous brand a bit harder if they didn't want to be looked at as homophobic, sexist, and theocratic. I find it hard to have sympathy.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

3. You can polish a turd all you want,

but you still have a turd.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. Yes.

When I hear them disown the prosperity gospel and building of megachurches, then they may begin to have some credibility.

In my view, these outfits have done enough damage to our communities and social fabric.. They are the Walmarts of faith.

[dembotoz]

5. Agree with article was raised an evangelical united brethren.. later denomination swallowed by

Methodist...
I am a proud eub'er
From what I have seen, eub was about as lefty as the come.
At least my church was.

[Maeve]

7. With the exception that we weren't supposed to play cards

I sat down and read the rules one time (and most of the congregation went to euchre parties, so take it for what it was worth)...that was dropped when we became United Methodists. So many of the songs I remember from childhood were about helping others, being thoughtful as well as prayerful, and kindness as the major virtue.

from a former EUB, too!

[dembotoz]

8. Ain't that the truth...cards

Remember the scandal when the old foggie senior Sunday school class saw the teenagers playing hearts before an outing.

My church made me the crazy lefty I am today..that and my socialist mom...but she was that way because of the church as well

[Hortensis]

6. Labels matter. There're reasons radical left leaders don't label

themselves that way, finding it much more advantageous to adopt the newest of an endless series of new labels, and why they are willing to accept the label of reassuring liberalism, even if they despise liberals.

There're reasons why it's critically important that the extremists currently running Congress not be called out for what they are.

And those are the reasons a corrupted media help groups hide behind false labels. Extreme conservatives are called...conservatives. Strong conservatives are called...moderate. Moderates are called...nothing. There is no longer a genuinely moderate conservative faction in congress.

The radical left is undifferentiated by the media. From extreme to radical lite, all are called...liberal. And they're called Democrats. Even when they're not. Even when their very identity is defined by their hostility to Democrats. And if that gives the nation a very negative view of liberals and the Democratic Party, well that is the point and the purpose.

The systematic misuse of language is the biggest tool of deception of all.

In this case, the evangelical problem was that they weren't hiding behind a false label or being mislabeled, just that they damaged it so badly that, as is so typical, the label itself needs changing.