Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

ButterflyBlood

(12,644 posts)
20. Defining "evangelical" is pretty tricky, but the closest thing to a litmus test is the 5 solas
Sun Apr 29, 2012, 02:53 AM
Apr 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_solas

Fundamentalists on the other hand are those who put a big emphasis on biblical literalism, and thus things like Young Earth Creationism, subjugation of women, etc. Not all evangelicals adhere to this, far from it. Another standard that can be used is that evangelicals see it as their duty to as the name implies evangelize and preach to others to recruit others to follow Jesus rather than view religion as just a traditional thing that is part of one's culture, a friend of mine is a good example of this who actually started his own church...which is also a self-described progressive and LGBT-affirming church at where he has given sermons actually attacking the idea of being "saved" and that this is the whole message of the gospel. Yet the church's mission statement is all about "awakening and empowering people" to "spread the love of Jesus through the world" which is a pretty unquestionably evangelical statement. And the church services are very evangelical in nature, just preaching and songs with no complex liturgy, the clergy don't wear ceremonial robes or stoles (and in fact usually just a normal shirt and jeans), worship is pretty charismatic in nature (think of people swaying and raising hands), they see communion as just a symbolic ritual and believe in baptizing only people who can understand the purpose and not infants (not to the exclusion of those baptized only as infants though, many not only attend but have been invited to preach). Yet it's about as non-fundamentalist as churches get (he's shared some amusing hate emails they've received from actual fundies.)

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Sorry to be beating a dead horse, but again by November everyone wil know all about Mormonism. dimbear Apr 2012 #1
How do you think they will change? Do you think the evangelicals are going to abandon cbayer Apr 2012 #2
I think they will stay home. Goblinmonger Apr 2012 #3
We can hope. Either stay home or run a third candidate works for me. cbayer Apr 2012 #4
Stay home or vote Libertarian. Ron Paul is a Baptist, IIRC. dimbear Apr 2012 #5
Raised Lutheran. Now a Baptist. cbayer Apr 2012 #6
Think so. Only detract would be embarassment for his son. dimbear Apr 2012 #7
Great polling disasters TrogL Apr 2012 #8
Remember the primaries? Every poll different and few of them right in the long run. cbayer Apr 2012 #11
Encouraging! .. because Romney pulls Bozo moves every day of the week. oilpro2 Apr 2012 #17
Why do they always group all Protestants as a single demographic? longship Apr 2012 #9
That's part of the point of her article. The lumping that Gallup does gives results which cbayer Apr 2012 #10
My point was that it's difficult to break it up, too longship Apr 2012 #12
There's something on the order of 42,000 Christian denominations laconicsax Apr 2012 #13
Even "evangelicals" are a rather diverse group ButterflyBlood Apr 2012 #14
I am not sure I even understand the differentiation between evangelicals and fundamentalists cbayer Apr 2012 #15
There is a significant difference. Thats my opinion Apr 2012 #16
Defining "evangelical" is pretty tricky, but the closest thing to a litmus test is the 5 solas ButterflyBlood Apr 2012 #20
I, for one, would love to see a poll of progressive church/temple-goers. oilpro2 Apr 2012 #18
Good points. I agree that there is often not enough breakdown in these polls cbayer Apr 2012 #19
You left out the link to Sarah Posner's article bananas Apr 2012 #21
Thanks, added it to OP (and note that you were the first to notice that, lol) cbayer Apr 2012 #22
Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Religion»New Gallup Poll on Religi...»Reply #20