Often, evangelism involves Christians showing what it means to live a good Christian life through helping those in need. Saint Paul was another crucial figure in spreading Christianity as he travelled to the Mediterranean. Today, Catholics continue trying to spread Christianity in order to help the Church grow. Evangelical work can be performed both locally and across the world. International evangelism is usually referred to as missionary work. Not to be left out, more conservative evangelicals who diverged from Carter politically began mobilizing under new organizational banners like the Christian Coalition and the Moral Majority—collectively labeled the religious right.
These politically active conservative Christians were well funded and media savvy, but they were able to become synonymous with evangelicalism only with the help of American pollsters.
When the NAE was founded, Wuthnow says, new reports estimated the organization represented about 2 million people. Ten years later, in , the NAE claimed it represented 10 million. Lack of data made the number impossible to verify at the time. In , one New York Times reporter estimated the number to be about 20 million. Conservative Christian leaders embraced the spotlight and their newfound legitimacy, and pastors began showing up on the nightly news and in major magazines to endorse candidates and push forward policy proposals.
Over time and in the minds of many, evangelical became a catchall term for politically conservative Christians. In recent years, however, a range of definitions for evangelical have been proposed. And Molly Worthen, a University of North Carolina professor and the author of Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism , defines evangelicals as Christians who are wrestling with a set of specific questions.
The evangelicals follow three core beliefs such as rebirth or conversion to Christian by connecting with Jesus Christ through spiritual encounter, all Christians must communicate their faith with other Christians and non-Christians, and the bible is the holy book that directly connects Christians with God. In American, evangelicals are also known as fundamentalists, conservatives, and liberals. In evangelical churches, evangelicals interpret the scriptures as per present meaning, and they do not refer to the traditional or past interpretations.
During the interpretation, if some evangelicals interpret differently from others, then they simply form another group of evangelicalism and follow their interpretations. Evangelical Protestants believe that everything is written in scriptures and the holy book is genuine and error-free. The evangelicals worship in the church by reading the scripture, singing, and an oration. Catholics are the western Christians who believe that bible is a holy book that contains the words of God.
They believe every Christian is a sinner and is protected by Jesus. According to a study from the Pew Research Center , about 76 percent of evangelical Protestants are white. About 11 percent are Latino, and six percent are black. Two percent identify as Asian and five percent identify as mixed.
Another Gallup poll, however, showed that 61 percent of non-Hispanic blacks identified themselves as born-again or evangelical. Forty-four percent of Hispanics said the same, and 38 percent of non-Hispanic whites also identified as born-again or evangelical. While there is disagreement about the term evangelical, there are a few people that have been lauded as significantly influential to the faith.
As noted above, one of those people is the late Billy Graham, who became one of the most prominent evangelicals of all time. Many evangelical leaders have faced criticism for their success, wealth, or beliefs, but these Christians have largely found a voice for Christianity. This article is part of our Denomination Series listing historical facts and theological information about different factions within and from the Christian religion.
We provide these articles to help you understand the distinctions between denominations including origin, leadership, doctrine, and beliefs.
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