ehBeth wrote:Maybe I better find out what Americans consider the term evangelical to mean. (don't want to get into a debate where it turns out we're on the same side of things but using different language)
Quote below
from here:
Quote:First, the term "evangelical." The American population cannot have more than one or two percent true evangelicals--that is, Christians who actively work to bring converts to their faith. There may be larger numbers who attend churches where the term "evangelical" is used approvingly or that have the word "evangelical" in their formal denomination name, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. But the number of true evangelicals, i.e., those who evangelize, simply is not that great. Nor are evangelicals necessarily political conservatives. Jimmy Carter is a true evangelical, having gone on missionary trips and knocked on doors, and is also a political liberal. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is centrist; it does not, for example, maintain that the Bible is inerrant. Yes, true evangelicals tend toward political conservatism, especially in the South. But you can find evangelicals who are pacifists, who strongly oppose the death penalty, who believe that Christians must not serve in government positions, and who hold other beliefs that don't fit the standard caricature of the "Christian right."
On the other hand, the always interesting beliefnet.com, in its section of discussion boards, reserves the
Evagelical Christian section for "Christians who believe that the Bible is literally true, inerrant, and the only authority for Christian faith, and that that accepting Jesus Christ as one's only Lord is the only way to salvation" - which however still should not
necessarily determine one's partisan preference (tho its likely to).
