In my early 30s, I would have claimed to be a Republican and an Evangelical, though I was starting to feel uncomfortable with both labels. Twenty years later, I feel no comfort with either. I’m not sure how much I moved away from those labels, or how much they moved away from me.
@johnchandler I've certainly seen a shift in American Evangelicalism but even 20 years back I found people like Wayne Grudem's insistence that gun rights were biblical to be bizarre.
@ChrisJWilson Yeah. I was never in that more rigid Grudem/Reformed stream, but that does kind of touch on some of what has happened I think. Some of the more rigid and certain perspectives have redefined (American) Evagelicalism to more rigid and certain.
@johnchandler I think it’s Russel Moore who said that basically fundamentalists have adopted the evangelical name and pushed it fundamentalist (despite the name evangelical being a move away from fundamentalists). I don’t know the veracity of the claim but it would explain some of what you’ve seen. Although, there is the growth of the non church attending evangelical which is a bit of a crazy thing.
@johnchandler I don't know. There are a lot of people who identify as evangelical with no obvious theological commitments at all except to a political party.
@JohnBrady Well, yeah I can't disagree with that. It's almost as if the term is entirely political now.
