"Evangelical means following, teaching and believing in the four gospels."
...that isn't quite the case. While the Greek term for what we call "Gospel" is
Ευαγγέλιο (
evangelio), the word just means "good message," as in the proclamations by Roman emperors to their people that they had won a major victory. It's often referenced in English as "good news" or "good tidings." Evangelical is an adjective meaning "carrying the good message," and that's the meaning as generally-used: "Evangelicals" are Christians who feel moved to "preach the good news" to others, whose goal is to convince more people to become Christians, as opposed to those who think their role is to practice personal piety, or work for social justice. Evangelicals put a premium on "saving souls" above all else. Although this is not explicit in their label, they tend to come predominantly from outside the mainstream denominations, usually in "non-denominational" Protestantism that doesn't recognize a hierarchical structure beyond the individual local congregation.
I find it ironic that, for a long time, those in that camp were referred to as "fundamentalists," as most of them subscribed to the extreme Protestant positions of the series of tracts known as "The Fundamentals," published in the early twentieth century. But, over the past couple of decades, those in that particular Protestant camp who were not tied to the "religious right" movement led by the Falwells and Robertsons objected to being characterized by that label, as it appeared to imply far-right political leanings, and so that group proposed that the label "evangelical" be adopted by them instead. A decade or so later, what has happened? The label has been co-opted by the people from whom they were trying to distinguish themselves, so that, now, "evangelical" implies just as ultraconservative and politically-tied to Republicanism as "fundamentalist" ever did. Go figure...
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