1

Many people mistakenly believe that most evangelicals (75%) watch, or at least find substantial common ground with, the folks on Trinity Broadcasting Network.

2

People link the term with "fundamentalist", which brings to mind televangelists like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. I think people tend to see evangelicals as pushy "Bible-thumpers." At least that's what I thought before I became a believer.

In reference to TBN, many of the people on the show who profess Christ preach a gospel other than the one in the Bible. Benny Hinn, for instance, is a false prophet.

3

http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/Start.asp?P_Article=12363

...In the 1920s, conservative Protestants were on the margins of politics. Now they surround the president, as they did on 5th November 2003 when George W Bush signed a new law outlawing a surgical technique called (by its opponents) "partial-birth abortion." Such prominent conservative Christians as Falwell, Louis Sheldon, chairman of the traditional values coalition, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and Adrian Rogers, former head of the Southern Baptist Convention, were invited to the ceremony. People who once picketed the White House have a new home inside.

No wonder, then, that many Americans, and nearly all Europeans, believe that the Bush administration signals the arrival to power of people who are drowning in dogma, fundamentally intolerant, and at war with the modern world. It stands to reason that an administration beholden to people like Moore and Boykin would call the war against Islamic terror a "crusade," support so strongly a state of Israel that conservative Christians believe has to flourish for Christ to make his return to earth, seek to criminalise abortion, and tear down the wall separating church and state. After all, there is an election on the horizon - in America, there is always an election on the horizon - and to win it, the Bush administration must mobilise the huge base of conservative Christians for whom Moore, Boykin, and Falwell speak.

As persuasive as this picture of evangelical influence may seem, it is also significantly distorted. Moore, Boykin and Falwell, alas, are real. But they do not speak for nearly as many followers as most people, including even President Bush, believe. The demonstrators in the Alabama courthouse were small in number and quickly left when the statue was, in fact, removed. The truth is that they did not have all that much support. Southern Baptists, the largest denomination in the conservative Protestant camp, were founded on the principle of church-state separation and tend to view public displays such as Moore's as idolatry. Richard Cizik, vice-president of governmental affairs for the national association of evangelicals, an organisation that lobbies on behalf of America's born-again Christians, was one of many prominent evangelicals to view Moore's actions as embarrassing and irresponsible. "Most of the public knows how we feel about the role of God in public life," he said. "We have to substantiate that we are willing to work with non-Christians, secularists and others to achieve a common respect for each other."

Boykin's comments on the Muslim faith have not been similarly denounced by evangelical organisations. But nor do they capture the degree to which American evangelicals have moved in the direction of religious pluralism and toleration in the past few decades. Sociologist Christian Smith of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who has surveyed them extensively, finds that American evangelicals do believe in the idea of America as a "Christian nation," but when asked what that term means, 40 per cent said that America "was founded by people who sought religious liberty and worked to establish religious freedom." In addition, they are nearly unanimous in their conviction that evangelicals should not try to force their views on others. It remains the case that evangelicals are less tolerant than mainstream Protestants and Jews, but they are clearly more tolerant than the old-time fundamentalist religious movements out of which they emerged.

Smith's research is part of an ongoing effort to examine evangelicals themselves, rather than the activist clergy and ideologically-driven interest groups that speak in their name. What this research shows is that when religion and American culture come into conflict, as they often do, culture tends to shape religion far more than the other way around. And because US culture is individualistic, populist, entrepreneurial and experiential, old-time religions that stand for unchanging truths, rigid dogma, and strict conceptions of sin do not have much chance. ...

...Individuals associated with the Christian right want to believe that they can help save America from a slide into moral despondency. But in reality, Christians in America find themselves experiencing what I call "salvation inflation": the trend, very much like grade inflation, in which less is expected but more is rewarded. People whose taste for immediate gratification leads them to conclude that they can be saved just by pronouncing their faith in Jesus are unlikely to save themselves, let alone save their country.

...Evangelicals are certainly more prevalent in American society than they were decades ago. They have their man in the White House: President Bush, after all, is not an old-fashioned religious traditionalist but a born-again and recovered alcoholic who turns to Jesus not to wrestle with his soul, but to discover how right he has been all along. And they will, as democracy gives them every right to do, push for legislation that reflects their views on such issues as abortion or therapeutic cloning....

4

I think that most evangelicals, if not most people, believe that the "Christians," are either Calvinist, Methodist, or Baptist denominations, thus forgetting completely about such "fringe" groups as the conservative Christian Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod (not to mention truly small groups like Anglican Catholics). Dang it, don't make us Lutherans take our name back.
But perhaps this is my own misperception too.
A truly undeserved misperception of evangelicals is their devotion to money money money, perhaps created by the above mentioned belief that evangelicals are into tv preachers. In fact, of course, they outgive more "liberal" Christians.

5

Do you have any data for what the eschatalogical beliefs of Evangelicals are? I'm a solid amillenialist myself, but it seems like a lot of the people I know have been reading Left Behind graphic novels to get their eschatology.

A popular misconception of Evangelicals among seculars seems to be that we're weak-minded and unable to understand nuance, and therefore need "absolute truth" to tuck us in at night. I have some highly unnuanced things I could say in response to that, but I'm an easy-going guy. :-)

6

Disco,

Do you have any data for what the eschatalogical beliefs of Evangelicals are?

I wasn't able to find anything definitive but I did find an article that uses the research of Christian Smith, who Scott referred to:

Evangelicals talk about millennialism of all sorts. The great majority of them are pre-millennialists, who think that Christ will return to earth before the millennium, a period when peace and righteousness will prevail on earth. Some are post-millennialists, who think he will return after the millennium. A few are a-millennialists, who believe that the millennium is in the heart rather than being an actual time on earth.

7

I was afraid this thread would degenerate into "the misconception is that we are wrong in any way".

8

I'm not sure if these qualify, but I hate:
1. Always hearing that evangelicals believe church history began at the Reformation.
2. Hearing the "division/chaos argument" against our fabled 26,000 denominations.

Granted, both of those usually come from Catholics, not seculars. But they are still tired stereotypes of evangelicals.

9

It's interesting to note that you think that's a misconception. Does it matter if Evangelical churches hold divergent views on eschatology?

10

One of the biggest misconceptions is that we all march to the beat of one un-fun drummer looking down on others while we stay in a closed knit society that prohibits drinking and dancing while whipping ourselves with the 5 points of Calvinism, whether or not we are Calvinists.

I don't know about y'all, but I put the fun in fundamentalist pre-destination Presbyterian (PCA) types.

11

One more point. I do think think that as evangelicals grow in Christ and put Christ as the center of our lives, we do become increasingly separated from non-Christ follows. It makes it harder to witness and really requires an extra dedication to get out there and serve as a witness. It is hard to connect with and build friendships with non-Christ followers after wrapping up in close friendships with solid Christ followers. It is something I struggle with. I think that builds on the image of evangelicals roping themselves off from society.

By the way, I try to make a conscious effort to use Christ follower as opposed to Christian, because there are a whole lot of people who call themselves Christians, but have never found or followed Christ.

12

Astralis,

Does it matter if Evangelical churches hold divergent views on eschatology?

I think in some ways it does matter. For example, some people assume that evangelicals only support Israel because of the role that country plays in pre-mil eschatology. Therefore, they are a bit suspicious whether such support is a good thing or not.

I'm not pre-mill but I support Israel so I would rather clear up the misconception in order that my motives aren't misunderstood.

13

Differing views on end-times issues are secondary ones that we as Christians can disagree on. We can discuss these things without dividing. But we must agree on essential Christian doctrine, for example, the deity of Christ. If one meets a "Christian" who doesn't believe that, he is not a Christian.

If we meet others who profess Christ but believe, let's say, that believers will be taken up before the Tribulation, whereas we may believe it'll occur after, this is only a secondary issue. But any deviation from the essentials of Christianity marks that demonination as a cult. Remember that most heresies begin with the denial of Christ's deity. This a great discussion!

14

As to the importance of eschatology, I concur that it is a secondary issue, in relative terms, but it is an important one in terms of living out our faith. I don't know if most evangelicals are dispensationalist, but certainly a large number (even within Presby "amil" demoninations like the PCA) are "futurist" in their eschatology, meaning the interpretation of events foretold by Christ in Matthew 24 are yet to be seen in the future. This affects two aspects in the practical living of such evangelicals.

First, as mentioned by other commenters, the persistent support of the state of Israel because of its prophetic significance in the future.

Second, is what I call the "it's all gonna burn" mentality, which basically assumes things are in a downward spiral and we gotta save as many as possible before the cataclysmic end of all things. Those in the more optimistic camps (some amils and most postmils) are more focused on building Christendom than on conducting rescue operations before its demise. I've known folks over the years who have rationalized a childless marriage because of the former mentality. Very sad, indeed.

15

I just realized that I had a(nother) misconception. I thought that evangelicals were defensive enough to have posted lots and lots of comments here, but they haven't.

16

Re: Kati's post

That's because of another misconception: that we evangelicals care what non-evangelicals think about us.

17

I think you're right, Mr. Walmsley. I think non-evangelical but devout Christians believe that evangelicals are more media-savvy and media-aware, (what with the television shows and overhead projectors) and thus must always be trying to keep up their image... Also perhaps because everyone is supposed to hate evangelicals. Doesn't that distress y'all?