Labels. We all live with them. We can be white, black, hispanic, democrat, republican, etc. The Barna Group recently released some new research about evangelicals. Here are their criteria for being a “nine-point” evangelical. I didn’t even know that label existed. How do you “rate”? Or maybe the better question is how do you rate their rating system?
An evangelical is a person who:
- Has made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today.
- Indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.
- Says their faith is very important in their life today.
- Believes they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians.
- Believes that Satan exists.
- Believes that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works.
- Believes that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth.
- Asserts that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches.
- Describes God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today.
The article also says, “Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church attended. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as ‘evangelical’.”
My guess would be that since there was a “barna” tongue lashing published on Christianity Today’s website a few weeks ago… they felt the need to try to vindicate themselves.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/001/5.11.html
While not mentioned by name… and technically “The Bridger Generation” (which the article notes) was a publication of a NAE staffer… it’s clear that the gloves are coming off.
Interesting stuff!
just found you site … putting an HT back from ours. enjoyed reading about your work. hopefully we can meet sometime.
thanks
wayne gooden