Confessions of a closet "evangelical" - part 1

I am taking a class on church planting at VTS this semester. I feel compelled to write about one topic that seems to have emerged over the past couple weeks, my fellow classmates general dismay and distaste at being labelled "evangelical." Our teacher has obviously noted our discomfort because the title of our class next week is "Why evangelism is NOT a dirty word (emphasis added)." He is trying to challenge us with this, and so I am going to beat him to the punch by writing out my thoughts ahead of next class period.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I grew up in what is commonly referred to as the "Evangelical Christian Right," listening to such leaders as James Dobson, Josh McDowell, and my personal favorite, Alan Keyes. I have since grown disillusioned and frustrated by what I perceive as a narrow form of judgmental and exclusive Christianity. Whether this perception is fair or not, it is the one I have and the one that I use to comfortably sit back and dis-engage myself from interacting with this group as much as I can. On a very general level, Evangelicals believe in an inerrant interpretation of the Bible, place high emphasis on a life of piety, and stake out concrete stands on what they perceive to be moral problems in (American) society as a whole - opposition to Abortion, opposition to gay rights, standing up for the traditional nuclear family - and fighting the increasingly secular nature of society in general. They are also known for approaching people and asking such questions as:

"If you died right now, do you know for sure that you would go to heaven?"

"Have you asked Jesus to be your personal Lord and Savior?"

"Are you saved?"

As well as variations on the above.

Now, I do not want to sound as if I am coming across extremely negative concerning "Evangelicals", because I work hard at NOT being negative towards them. I disagree with them on many issues, and can easily find myself frustrated when in conversation, however I still recognize that they are my brothers and sisters in Christ. We may understand everything differently - from morals and values, to the nature of the church and scripture - but to me we still worship and follow the same God, and same Lord, Jesus Christ.

So this brings me to my point. Over the past several years I have slowly started making my peace with the term "evangelical." Four or five years ago, I began to use the term when talking about the Christian faith and way of life, but would not have applied the term to myself. Sometime during the past couple years I began to realize that though my understanding of Christian theology and way of life has changed, it really hasn't. At my core, I still believe in an evengalical faith because I truly know that the message of God in Jesus Christ IS Good News! "Evangelical" is simply a word coming straight from the Biblical Greek that means, "good news". Whether I am comfortable with it or not, I am an evangelical.

I am ending now with a couple questions especially directed towards my fellow Episcopalians. Why do the majority of those of us left in the Episcopal Church have such a negative reaction to the term evangelical? Who are we focusing on in our use of that word - James Dobson or Jesus Christ? What does an "evangelical" Episcopalian look like? My own attempts to answer those questions will be the subject of my next post.