Hi Billy, Sent from my iPhone
> On Mar 18, 2016, at 11:10, BILROJ via Centroids: The Center of the Radical > Centrist Community <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Not "the end" but something dubious is happening and its not good. Not good. Great! I don't say this lightly. Our church is perilously close to being ripped apart by this very issue. Already spent eight hours this week counseling people on various sides of the issue. I couldn't be happier. It is finally forcing us as a church to confront what we really mean by humility, Sin and authority. About time. God will use this, if we let him. I will. Love, Ernie > BR note > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > Patheos > > The Anxious Bench > > > > The End of American Evangelicalism > > March 16, 2016 by johnturner > One of the big surprises of 2016 is the extent of evangelical support for > Donald Trump. As I mentioned several weeks ago, judging by historical > precedents, evangelicals might well have divided their support among a number > of candidates who spoke persuasively about their Christian faith, including > Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and the now-defunct Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, and Jeb > Bush. Nevertheless, in many early primaries, Trump attracted a plurality of > the Republican evangelical vote. > > This past Tuesday, things were more mixed. Trump nearly won an outright > majority of the evangelical vote in Florida, but Ted Cruz out-performed him > among such self-identified voters in Missouri (by quite a bit), Illinois > (very narrowly), and North Carolina (even more narrowly). Kasich narrowly > carried the evangelical vote in Ohio. > > Many journalists and other commentators have noted the fracturing of the > evangelical vote in 2016 and sought to explain Trump’s success among this > demographic. Stephen Prothero offers a good starting point for assessing > these developments: “America’s evangelicals just aren’t all that evangelical > anymore.” > > So, what does it mean for someone to be an “evangelical?” Prothero suggests > that “what made an evangelical an evangelical was a born-again experience > that included accepting the Bible as the inspired word of God and giving > one’s life over to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. To a born-again > Christian, following Jesus came first. Everything else came in a distant > second.” He suggests, though, that this is no longer true for most > self-identified “evangelicals.” It’s the Republican Party or whatever > political savior appears that takes priority over Jesus. > > I’m not convinced without further evidence that self-identified > “evangelicals” are less evangelical than they were in ca. 1980. The positions > of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, after all, did not flow straight out of > the New Testament. > > The bigger issue here in my view is that journalists and pundits invest > “evangelical” with overly broad meanings. First of all, most exit polls ask > respondents whether they are “evangelical or born-again Christians.” If the > question were simply, “Are you an evangelical?” many respondents might well > be confused, and journalists would probably identify fewer Americans as such. > > In the 1950s, the term “evangelical” or “new evangelical” had a particular > meaning, identifying a camp of theologically conservative Protestants led by > Carl F. H. Henry, Harold J. Ockenga, and, above all, Billy Graham, that > wanted to create a more attractive version of fundamentalism. Over time, > though, “evangelicals” won this internecine, intra-fundamentalist conflict. > As the ranks of self-identified “fundamentalists” narrowed, “evangelical” > became shorthand in many quarters for all theologically conservative > Protestants, especially those who placed a central importance on the > born-again experience of conversion. > > Scholars, meanwhile, often define evangelicalism in terms that are > simultaneously specific and vague. Following the lead of David Bebbington, > they define evangelicals as Protestant Christians who place strong emphases > on conversion; on biblical authority; on activism; and on the meaning of the > crucifixion for the atonement and human salvation. For example, in my history > of Campus Crusade for Christ, I defined evangelicals as “Protestant > Christians who readily talk about their experience of salvation in Jesus > Christ, regard a divinely inspired Bible as the ultimate authority on matters > of faith and practice, and engage the world in which they live through > evangelism and other forms of mission.” Of course, many Christians who would > not think of themselves as “evangelical” or “Protestant” could own such > language. Historians, though, have particular groups of Protestants in mind > from the eighteenth-century through the present day. > > Nowadays, the term “evangelical” has morphed into something far more diffuse > and confusing. As Stephen Miller observes, “its footprint has extended far > beyond the number of people who might fairly be called evangelical.” Many > conservative Protestants recognize and lament this reality. For example, D.G. > Hart has argued that theologically conservative Protestants should discard > “evangelical identity” for confessional identities more closely tied to > historic Christian movements. > > As an antonym of sorts for “liberal Protestant,” “evangelicalism” is still a > reasonable way to identify factions within a range of American denominations > and an umbrella term that brings together a host of parachurch organizations, > nondenominational churches, and other institutions. > > At the same time, “evangelicalism” as imagined by many journalists does not > exist, nor is there an “evangelical” movement akin [to] the one led — albeit > loosely — by Billy Graham in the decades following the Second World War. To > claim that a quarter of Americans are “evangelical” or “born-again” says > rather little. And if we want to examine the appeal of Ted Cruz or Donald > Trump to different sorts of American Protestants, we need far more precision. > American evangelicalism, in short, no longer exists the way that many > journalists and scholars imagine it. > > -- > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. 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