What exactly IS an evagelical in the polling? What makes THEM different than, baptist, prespeterian

[napi21]

Lutheran, or any other Christian group? Are they different than "Born Again"? I keep hearing about the Evangelicals in Iowa, or but Why are they always in their own group in the polls?

[caraher]

1. I imagine it's a self-identified label

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Batshit reactionary right wing religious fundamentalism.

It is a distinct voting block.

[TexasProgresive]

3. A sub sect of Protestantism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism, Evangelical Christianity, or Evangelical Protestantism[a] is a worldwide, transdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity maintaining that the essence of the gospel consists in the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ's atonement.[1][2]

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 to humanity, and spreading the Christian message.

Evangelical Protestantism gained great momentum in the 18th and 19th centuries with the emergence of Methodism and the Great Awakenings in Britain and North America. The origins of Evangelicalism are usually traced back to the English Methodist movement, the Moravian Church and the theology of its bishop Nicolaus Zinzendorf, Lutheran Pietism. Today, Evangelicals may be found in many of the Protestant branches, as well as in Protestant denominations not subsumed to a specific branch.[3] Among leaders and major figures of the Evangelical Protestant movement were John Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham, Harold John Ockenga, John Stott and Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

There are an estimated 285,480,000 Evangelicals, comprising 13.1% of the Christian population and 4.1% of the total world population.[4] The Americas, Africa and Asia are home to the majority of Evangelicals. The United States has the largest concentration of Evangelicals.[5] Evangelicalism is gaining popularity both in and outside the English-speaking world, especially in Latin America and the developing world.

[napi21]

5. Hmmm, so that's why I never hear of a prticular religion in reference to them.

They are part of many different sects. Interesting. Apparently most of them reside in Iowa. OK, thanks. I always thought that evangelicals were those who believed it was deigned that THEY had to go forth and preach the bible...you know, evangelizing.

[REP]

8. That's part of Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs (that they must witness, i.e., spread the gospels)

Evangelicals have witnessing as a smaller part of their tenets, but the "born again" part is what makes an Evangelical sect Evangelical.

Oddly enough, most Northern (at least) Methodist churches do not practice the "born again" baptism or other Evangelical rites (except for the non-alcoholic communion; Methodism was founded as a temperance sect). I'm not familiar with Southern and non Central Methodists. My family were Welsh Non-Conformists, and the Methodist churches in the areas they settled were pretty much Non-Conformist churches with the Methodist name.

[LuvNewcastle]

9. No,most evangelicals don't live in Iowa.

As a percentage of the population, the South has the most evangelicals.

The denominations include most Baptists and Methodists, some Presbyterians and Lutherans, Pentecostals, Assemblies of God, and any others that believe that the Bible is the inspired and literal word of God.

Most believe that some sort of salvation experience is required to make it into heaven, and most also believe that unbelievers go to hell.

[napi21]

19. I'm really no religious scolar but don't Catholics believe the bible is the literal wordbof God,

and that salvation is necessary to get to heaven? I was raised Catholic, and thast's what we were taught, but I sure never considered myself an Evangelical.

[LuvNewcastle]

22. I think Catholics have a more

nuanced belief about the Bible. Evangelicals are mostly fundies when it comes to the Bible. Catholics also have other documents and traditions that make up their doctrines. For Evangelicals, the Bible is the only authority on doctrine. Evangelicals aren't necessarily fundies, but I believe that most of them are.

[jberryhill]

26. The zone between fundamentalists and evangelicals

Evangelicals are what happens when fundamentalists move up the economic ladder a bit into middle and upper middle class, and want to participate in the broader culture. Actual fundamentalists keep to themselves, dress plainly, and don't bother other people as much. Black-suited, plainly dressed, grim and in small close-knit congregations, fundamentalists expect that the broader culture is not redeemable, and live apart from it socially and culturally. Evangelicals, on the other hand, participate in the broader culture, but have an annoying tendency to want it to conform to conventions and norms which suit them.

It's a fuzzy line, with a lot of overlap as you suggest, depending on how far they will compromise to avoid being perceived by others as insular.

Pentecostals are another constellation with overlap in both categories, but place a higher degree of emphasis on "direct revelation" and emotive manifestations of divine goings-on in their everyday experience.

As others have noted, these three groupings which tend to get broadly classified as 'evangelical' in popular reporting (because they are the noisiest), do not directly map onto denominational divides (although some protestant denominations are expressly one or the other). In some denominations, it's a matter of regional or congregational differences. Among, say, Methodists, there are some churches which are distinctly more of an evangelical bent, while others are indistinguishable from other mainline protestant congregations.

[LuvNewcastle]

29. You put it much better than I did.

I've noticed the same thing about Methodists. The United Methodist Church is due for a split, I think. There seems to be a lot of leeway given to individual congregations on what is and isn't allowed. Some Methodists want to ordain gay ministers, while others are very much like Southern Baptists. Even tiny issues can cause ruptures in a denomination, but the Methodists are all over the place.

[roody]

4. They are born again and they want you to be too.

Baptists are usually evangelicals.

[JoePhilly]

7. Your post and the one prior handle it pretty well.

Evangelicals also tend to want to impose their brand of religion on everyone else.

[juxtaposed]

6. i call them evagenitals

[Kip Humphrey]

10. i call them rapturists. I'm so stealing yours though!

[juxtaposed]

11. It just seemed fitting way back when.

[olddots]

23. I am waiting for the Rupture

[cheapdate]

12. It's not a precise term, but I think it means

one who believes that every word in the Bible is the literal word of God. A fundamentalist, if you will.

[spanone]

13. they are an advanced level of crazy

[Marr]

14. They're a voting block, while those other groups are not.

Lutherans, Protestants, etc. cannot be expected to vote as a group. Some will go this way, others that.

Evangelicals are very uniform, politically.

[czarjak]

15. Evangelicals...

Are like all other denominations. They believe everybody else is GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL.

[Downwinder]

20. As long as I don't go where they are.

[HughBeaumont]

18. They kiss God's ass better than all others.

[libodem]

21. Maybe this:

[Recursion]

24. The term dates back to the 30 Years War, describing an uneasy alliance

among the Calvinists and the more radical part of the Lutherans; the Evangelical League's implicit security guarantee played a crucial role in Elector Frederick's decision to accept the throne of Bohemia. In the result, the security guarantee evaporated and Frederick was driven into exile after the Imperial juggernaut (led, interestingly, by a Protestant general) routed his troops at White Mountain.

In a modern American context, "evangelical" describes a type of Christian theology that is on the one hand more "immediate" (in the theological sense) than mainline Christianity but less immediate than charismatic Christianity. Ironically, Sarah Palin is not actually an evangelical, as she belongs to a charismatic church.

As an administrative question, most non-charismatic Protestant denominations have an evangelical and mainline sub-denomination (their actual administrative structure makes this vary greatly, though). So, for instance the Presbyterian church has the evangelical PCA synod system, and the mainline PCUSA system; the Lutheran church has the ELCA and the Missouri Synod; etc.

Whether a given person who considers herself "evangelical" actually belongs to an administratively evangelical church is a different question, of course.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. Most Evangelicals are not really in a demonination at all. They are in a Church.

. Part of the point of the whole thing is that there is no hierarchy.

Much of evangelical Christianity is comprised of congregations that self started and exist without any sort of administrative oversight from any other body. Rick Warren founded Saddleback Church by himself with 40 in the congregation, they have no 'denomination' and no higher or outside administrative authority nor theological oversight. It's Rick. That's it. Among the largest of the evangelical congregations 20K a week.

[Recursion]

30. Well, *that* particular description is more common among charismatics (nt)

[jberryhill]

27. That's a really good breakdown

[bklyncowgirl]

28. To make it even more confusing Evangelical Lutherans for example can be quite liberal.

I was raised Catholic and feel quite at home in my husband's evangelical Lutheran Church. More at home than in the Catholic Church with it's nonstop focus on sexual and gender issues.

I suppose when thy are talking about evangelicals they are talking about conservative fundamentalists.

[Recursion]

31. Good point; that's the "E" in "ELCA"

The Catholic Encyclopedia has an interesting side comment in its article on the differences between the Orthodox and Catholic chuches: "or course, all churches consider themselves both catholic and orthodox."

[Tanuki]

32. You may find this transcripit of a PBS interview with "Religion and the Culture Wars" author

John Green a helpful place to start in understanding this complex subject. "John Green has done extensive research and polling on the demographics and politics of evangelicals and is director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, Ohio and..... offers an overview of America's evangelicals -- from their movement to the Republican Party over the past three decades to the mainstreaming of evangelicals in U.S. society today, and their growing political and cultural influence":

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/interviews/green.html