Who Are The Evangelicals?
The term “Evangelical” is usually used erroneously by the secular press and even by much of the Christian media to identify the “Religious Right” and televangelists such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. In fact, the Evangelical movement has always been diverse, found primarily but not exclusively in Protestant Christianity. Derived from the Greek Euangelion (to proclaim the Good News), the word Evangelical was first applied to the churches of the 16th Century Protestant Reformation (Lutheran, Reformed/Presbyterian, Anglican, etc.). In much of Europe and the Middle East, “Evangelicals” are still understood as the mainline Protestant Churches. However, in North America and parts of western Europe, Evangelicals are a modern (18th-19th century) pietistic movement within Protestantism that has stressed the “born again” conversion experience, along with evangelizing (proselytizing) activities, often as a purifying reaction against more liberal or established branches of Christianity. In a
