What is an "Evangelical " ??

[kentuck]

C-SPAN just had a witch on from Washington Times discussing religion and how Bush and his followers are "Evangelicals". I always thought that Evangelicals believed their religious mission in life was to spread the word of Christ and try to convert the world to Christianity? Is there any truth in that ?

The guest was asked a similar question but she slithered around it. Ironically, the subject discussed before she came on was about "uninformed" voters. It all seemed so deceitful and fake to me.

[JimmyJazz]

1. I believe that is the correct definition

Evangelize:

To preach the gospel to and
To convert to Christianity. (from dictionary.com)

[Bronco69]

2. bush* and his minions are NOT evangelicals,

they are fundamentalists! Don't ever let them tell you any different. Basically, they will use the bible to their advantage and take snippets out of it to use to further their agenda.

[annabanana]

3. they are "evangelizing" for BUSH.......He is now bound up in their

belief system. They consider it their duty to convert us to Bush-Worship.

[izzie]

4. I think the fundamentalists are the same in both. Who wants them?

Middle East or American. Both are scary.

[BlueNomad]

5. she was chilling

the harry potter equivalent of Miss Umbrage....

She stated that Evangelicals are 100% Bush supporters. I have read numerous times that they break 75% Bush not 100%.

[sam sarrha]

6. Well actually you have to really be there to appreciate it all.. i find it

very scarry.... he Fundies actually believe that every word in the Bible is the actual dictated WORD of God.

there is no interpretation allowed of the 'Word'.. except for the authorized representative of the Church or the Council of Churches.

this makes it a VERY MUCH like Islam.

I feel that it was actually the Southern Churches reactionary zealous that actually caused the Civil War. The Unitarians had taken over Princeton University and as a result there was a Renascence of Thought and Science in the East.. this was just the just the cavorting of Sinners and the works of Satan's Minions to the Southern Churches..

We can get into the historical separation here between the Byzantine Church and the Roman church, because of an Interpretation of a Greek Dipthong... which can be "is" or "as".. depending on the context.. So Jesus 'IS' God... or Jesus 'AS' God... resulted in how much suffering and death..?? The Fundies believe that Jesus IS GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! don't get sucked into that debate. but that always seemed so very schizophrenic to me..i could never reconcile the Quandary.. I grew up with these Extremist Fundamentalists, i suffer PTSD because of it.. IT has only been in the last few years of my 56 years that i have been able to let go of the anger for the abuse and torture i experienced as a child because of them.

[FlaGranny]

12. Your story sounds a bit like my father's

story. He was raised in a "hell and damnation" kind of religion and grew to hate all religion and become an atheist in reaction to his childhood. He always had, what seemed to me, an unreasoning hatred for religion. But he was more wise than I at the time.

[noamnety]

7. Carter was evangelical

But he didn't use it to force religion down our throats.

Being evangelical has more to do with strictly believing the first 4 books of the new testament than with believing it's your mission in life to force your religion down other people's throats.

One of the problems is that some fundamentalists have misinterpreted "spreading the belief in God" to mean "imposing the laws of God onto nonbelievers."

[doni_georgia]

8. According to BARNA research group

An evangelical Christian is one who believes that Jesus was the Son of God (God incarnate) who was born of a virgin, crucified, and rose again on the third day; evangelicals believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God (no room for discussion) and is true in all it says; evangelicals believe in the Trinity - father, son and holy spirit, and all are one God. They also believe in a literal heaven and hell, and they believe that Satan is a real being who opposes God. According to Barna (Christian research group) evangelical has nothing to do with believing in evangelism, it is more a belief in fundamentalism. The big deciding factor is the belief that the Bible has no error and is 100% true in all it says, that it was authored by God himself - through earthly writers.

My paraphrasing here, for their complete definition go to
www.barna.org

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. There are liberal evangelicals too. So I prefer the term "fundagelical"

when referring to the more conservative churches that are trying to convert AMerica into a theocracy.

[hexola]

10. Beware the self-fulfilling prophesies of millenarians

Here's a good article about the danger of having these folks in charge...

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=3884

Why should the rest of us care about religious views of a few million Christians in America? Because Bible prophecy may very well become self-fulfilling prophecy. Religious predictions of the end of the world are not exclusive to Christianity; nor are they always self-fulfilling - or else we wouldn't be here to question them. Only under certain conditions are such beliefs likely to affect the actual course of history.

The danger is that those conditions obtain in the case of American millenarians. Millions of politically organized and single-minded believers have come to expect that the world will end in a devastating global war within their lifetime. They do not merely attempt to read political developments around the world as signs of the fulfillment of their end-of-time scenario. They also try to stir these events in the direction of their chiliastic scenario of an impending Armageddon using their considerable political influence in US. Hence there is cause to fear that eager and resourceful "end-of-timers" may, indeed, "will" worldwide strife into existence.

[Dob Bole]

11. Ask an evangelical dude!!!

I started this thread in the Meeting Room, to answer as many questions about evangelicals as possible. Maybe it will help you in your quest for knowledge....or whatever.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=111&topic_id=29899&mesg_id=38021

It's pretty comprehensive so far, and still ongoing...