Will Real Evangelicals Please Stand Up?

When I became a Christian at the age of twelve, I was quickly informed that I was a “fundamentalist” and we were the “true” Christians who stuck to the fundamentals of the Christian faith. For the next six years I would wear the title with a sense of pride. I was a fundamentalist- yes, a bible thumping, street preaching, republican voting (even though I couldn’t vote…) fundamentalist, just like Jesus.  After six years of hardcore devotion to fundamentalism, I was forced to leave my community of faith because I had become a cause of discomfort to the pastor and many others. (I began asking theological questions about Calvinism which they considered heretical- amidst a number of other issues) After departing from my fundamentalist community, I ended up in a large evangelical mega-church and was informed that I was now an “evangelical.” At first, I was very apprehensive about adopting this new label, but as I began to see that many of the people I had come to admire as a fundamentalist seemed to use “evangelicalism” interchangeably with “fundamentalism”, I happily adopted this sleek new label. Thus began my journey of faith into evangelicalism.

Fast forward six years. I have just graduated from one of the leading evangelical Bible Colleges and have attended and been on staff at a number of evangelical churches yet over the last few years, Yet, I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the once cherished label evangelical. As I have grown intellectually and spiritually, I have moved further and further away from my fundamentalist roots. I have adopted progressive theological, political, and social views on many issues and find that many of my evangelical peers are landing in the same place as I am. We’re all really uncomfortable with evangelicalism as we know it. Not because we don’t value, love, or resonate with our tradition, but because the tradition has come to represent a brand of faith that seems more about FOX News than it does the Good News of Jesus.