what is an evangelical?

"we cannot, therefore, separate our lives in christ from the situation in which god has placed us in the united states and the world."
"we confess that we have not acknowledged the complete claims of god on our lives."
"we acknowledge that god requires love.  but we have not demonstrated the love of god to those suffering social abuses."
"we acknowledge that god requires justice." (gonzalez, 386)


this is an excerpt from the "chicago declaration" adopted by a group of evangelical leaders in 1973.  i will be the first to admit that much of the time i have looked down on "evangelicals."  not necessarily individual people who identify as evangelical, but the group.  the group that is so very visible as the "moral majority."  the group that seems to really be another word for republican fundraising.  this is not something i'm necessarily proud of, but it is an accurate description of my most recent attitude.


one of the people that began to change this view is jim wallis.  he is the head guy for sojourners, a evangelical group/company/magazine that is deeply rooted in social justice work.  according to dr. hendel, he would fall under the category of neo-evangelical.  this is a group of people who take seriously scripture (in terms of engaging intellectually with scriptures and taking seriously their authority and the locus of their authority), social justice, and evangelization (bringing the good news).  evangelicals locate themselves across christian denominations and have been around for decades.  different aspects of evangelicalism can trace back to the reformation, the great awakenings, and the pietist movement.


evangelicals have a bad reputation because of some particularly vocal evangelicals who also seem to be tied closely to the purse strings and voting constituency of the republican party.  this is very sad, but it's not completely inaccurate.  there are many evangelicals who vote republican because a well-known evangelical leader tells them to.  there are, however, many evangelicals encourage voting for issues rather than famous people, no matter what a person's political party might be.  


this is all in addition to a rather large group of evangelicals who happen to also call themselves "lutheran" (we are, after all, the evangelical lutheran church in america).  the elca calls itself evangelical, yet are we?  at its heart, perhaps evangelical truly is "one who affirms the centrality and cruciality of christ’s work of reconciliation and redemption as declared in the scriptures" (from donald bloesch as stated during class).  do we, as a lutheran church affirm this?  do we affirm it in our actions or simply in our words?  the elca has some pretty great statements (on human sexuality, incarceration, etc.), but what about our actions?  is christ's work of reconciliation and redemption evident in the actions and life of the church?  


perhaps, but sometimes that's hard to see.  how am i seeking reconciliation and redemption?  are we bringing good news to those who hunger for it?  is our hunger for the good news found in others?  how rooted are we in the radical love and grace of god?  are we bold to proclaim god's love to all people?  to fred phelps, to prostitutes, to white, middle-class suburban churchgoers?  to the world?  how do we engage with the world?


so, though i am still working on changing my attitude towards evangelicals, i'm working really hard on taking a page out of their book and engaging with the tough questions of what it means to be evangelical and keep christ fully integrated and implicated in my unique position in this world