Evangelical

Yesterday (Aug. 21) an article ran on the CNN.com website.  It was about the 'crusade' against pornography among evangelical churches.  If you haven't noticed the term 'evangelical' has now become the equivalent of what 'fundamentalist' meant 30-40 years ago.  Now some people proudly wear the label fundamentalist, but the label of 'Evangelical' was intentionally adopted so as to avoid all the negative connotations associated with 'fundamentalist.'  In my youth I was blessed by having had direct contact with some of the early founders of the 'Evangelical' movement.  They were clear about what they wanted to do.  They intended to help define a group of Christian believers who were faithful to reformation orthodoxy but who were willing to use their minds.  They were specifically desiring to put distance between themselves and the sort of narrow minded thinking about science and religion that led to the infamous "Scopes Monkey Trial" of the 1920's.
     What has happened is that the term evangelical has been co-opted by fundamentalists.  Indeed, this has been so effective that in the understanding of most of the world, the two words mean exactly the same thing.  This is why the article at CNN.com was so derisive in its tone.  People assume that if Evangelicals adopt a position, it must be less than scientific, must somehow be simplistic, irrational and silly.  Of course, the authors of the article were able to find people who fit the mold and who use the name within the so-called "crusade against pornography."
     This means that once again, anything helpful that may be said about the subject from the Evangelical point of view is simply considered worthless. Now, as a church within the broad spectrum of Evangelical commitment, this affects us.  We are, after all, a member congregation of the Evangelical Covenant Church.  Just how this affects us depends on several things and it results in a variety of responses.  Perhaps the most obvious way this affects us is with reference to our name.  Most Covenant churches I know really don't use the word "Evangelical" in their name anymore.  Not that we have changed our doctrine.  We haven't!  Jesus and faith in him is still our core and always has been (this is what the word actually means:  'committed to the good news of Jesus Christ' ).  So our character hasn't changed.  Our awareness has.  Many of us realize that using the word 'Evangelical' only raise people's hackles.  Mention the word, get shut off instantly.  Don't use the word, get a hearing.  It really is that simple.  Faith in Jesus is still what it is all about, but we need to be heard first.
     Second, how we define ourselves will either get us a hearing or not.  If someone asks me what kind of church we are and I use the special word, they will be 1) confused, or 2) having heard that that group of people is weird, I get shut down again. So maybe I choose to define what sort of church we are by using different words.  We come from the Lutheran wing of the great Protestant Reformation.  Equally confusing to most people, this doesn't automatically turn people off (unless they are ex-Lutherans!).  Then we can define ourselves any way we wish.  'Really nice theological conservatives,'  'Center-focused believers' (Jesus is the center and that is our focus), 'Really Hip Pietists' (the inner life really matters and we address it in cool contemporary ways), 'Christ-followers/Jesus-followers' (After all, it is what we do!).  There are others as well.  The point: our church fathers chose a word for a name that carried the idea that we were thinking, caring, intelligent, Christ focused, Jesus loving, people loving people.  Today the meaning of the word has changed so much that when you use it, it turns out to mean everything opposite of what our spiritual fathers intended.  So why continue to hang on to a name that only makes it harder to do what we set out to do?
     Coming Next:  Can a sin be an addiction?  Can an addiction be a sin?  And why is it so hard to admit that we sin?