THE QUESTION:
One more time: What is an "evangelical"?
THE RELIGION GUY S ANSWER:
Last month the Public Religion Research Institute reported that its latest
polling shows white U.S. Protestants who identify as "evangelical" are now
outnumbered by whites who do not do so. That upended the usual thinking on
numbers, and analysts raised doubts. The discussion led Terry Shoemaker of
Arizona State University, writing for theconversaation.com, to again mull
the perennial question of what "evangelical" means.
In the American context, this term essentially covers the conservative wing
of Protestantism, a variegated constellation of denominations, independent
congregations, "parachurch" ministries, media outlets, and individual
personalities that is organizationally scattered but religiously coherent.
There are three ways of defining and counting U.S. evangelicals by
belief, by church affiliation and by self-identificati
The revival at Asbury University in Kentucky remains a head-scratcher for Christian insiders and agnostic outsiders alike. Indeed, the Asbury revival has even mystified Protestants who stress a “born-again” experience the very type of life-changing moment that revivals are supposed to produce.