EVANGELICAL MANIFESTO II

For the umpteenth time evangelical characterizations incessantly fall into the hands of secular pundits who know little about, nor possess the spiritual eyes to comprehend, evangelical faith. Liberal Christian historian extraordinaire Martin Marty, uses the recently publicized Evangelical Manifesto as a springboard for offering a salient description of this often maligned group. From a historical perspective Marty summarizes evangelical beliefs this way:

1. Always central is focus on Jesus Christ, affirming that the human Jesus, the rabbi of Nazareth, is also the ascended Lord. Unitarians respected Jesus but did not keep the Jesus-focus, and many liberal Protestants wavered or wandered or progressed beyond it.

2. Evangelicals have high views of biblical authority. In the fundamentalist and neo-evangelicals many attached this to a philosophical view which contended that there could be no "errors" in God's word. They disagreed with each other on many things that should have been agreeable-to in the inerrant Bible, but they agreed on its inerrancy. Today's evangelicals continue to have a high view of biblical authority, but many find the inerrancy approach confining and not true to the scriptural teaching itself.

3. The key theme of the "evangel" is God' grace, the call for faith, and not depending upon human "works" to please God.

4. Evangelicals stress a conversion experience--each believer certifies an experience or at least a process of turning, powered by the Holy Spirit.

5. Fundamentalists knew how the world would end, and wanted no one "Left Behind." Many evangelicals have apocalyptic views and all believe that the End of History is in God's hands, in Christ. But they don't hold to a single defining and confining literalism about the end.

6. And this is huge, and being recovered: evangelicals believed and believe that, after being "saved by grace through faith" they were and are to make faith active in love, through works of mercy and, though less clearly, works of justice. Today many new energies--including embrace of environmental and justice issues--moves evangelicals.

That's a short list, but I think I can find these wherever people call themselves evangelical or get called that.

Marty's description sounds more like traditional Biblical Christianity than it does 1920's fundamentalism. Elsewhere I commented that evangelicals inherit a tainted label from the secular media's political encounters with the group. Having associated with evangelicals now for more than 30 years I would venture to guess, and this is simply a hunch mind you, that approximately 98% of the group cares very little for involving themselves in any political endeavor. Most go about their daily routines, working, worshipping, and quietly voting without anyone other than family and business cohorts ever hearing a peep from them. Furthermore, end times pundits such as Tim LaHaye and John Hagee represent a shallow pop cultural form of religion called dispensationalism that makes for good high-tech movies, but receives no credibility among evangelical scholars. For more on Marty's fair and balanced assessment go here.