 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006That "evangelical" vote
The question came up recently of how "evangelical" is actually defined, with respect to generalizations about U.S. religious affiliation. I mentioned that political pollsters often ask about this, as "evangelicals" are often considered to be the core of the Republican Party's constituency, but that I couldn't find a poll that actually showed how this was determined. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll <http://www.c-span.org/pdf/20061031_poll.pdf> shows the exact question that those organizations asked: > Some people think of themselves as evangelical or born again > Christians. Do you ever think of yourself in either of these ways? So the answer seems to be that the term "evangelical" is another one of those adjectives primarily defined by self-description. (The results, by the way, were Yes 27%, No 72%, don't know 1%; for this survey, N = 1084.) A companion question asked respondents how often they attend religious services; 27% said "every week", and 18% said "never". -GAWollman  SignatureGarrett A. Wollman | The real tragedy of human existence is not that we are wollman@csail.mit.edu| nasty by nature, but that a cruel structural asymmetry Opinions not those | grants to rare events of meanness such power to shape of MIT or CSAIL. | our history. - S.J. Gould, Ten Thousand Acts of Kindness > The question came up recently of how "evangelical" is actually > defined, with respect to generalizations about U.S. religious [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > So the answer seems to be that the term "evangelical" is another one > of those adjectives primarily defined by self-description. ... In my research into "Jerry", I came across this comment in Wikipedia on the Rev. Jerry "No Full Name Given" Falwell: "He changed affiliations from the more traditional Baptist Bible Fellowship International to the mainly conservative Southern Baptist Convention, and ended his self-identification with fundamentalism in favor of evangelicalism." <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Falwell> First I'd heard that there was a difference--not to mention a difference between "more traditional" and "mainly conservative". Speaking of Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/evangelicalism> might interest you. For instance, "In foreign languages, words derived from ευαγγελιον evangelion should not automatically equated with 'evangelical(ism)'. In the German language, the word 'evangelisch' means protestant, contrasted to 'evangelikal' (borrowed from English)." SignatureJerry Friedman -- Jerry Friedman >In my research into "Jerry", I came across this comment in Wikipedia on >the Rev. Jerry "No Full Name Given" Falwell: [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > First I'd heard that there was a difference--not to mention a >difference between "more traditional" and "mainly conservative". For those engaged in the batrtle, the battle lines between evangelicalism and fundamentalism are clearly drawn, the polemics are fierce, and there's no love lost between them. But a lot of fundamentalists might be included by the "born-again" option, even if they don't think of themselves as "evangelical". But it might also include Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Episcopalians, who might be aware that the official doctrine of those bodies includes baptismal regeneration, ie that everyone baptised is a "born-again Christian". I would think that "evangelical Fundamentalists" would be about as common as Catholic Serbs or Orthodox Croats. >Speaking of Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/evangelicalism> >might interest you. For instance, "In foreign languages, words derived >from ?????????? evangelion should not automatically equated >with 'evangelical(ism)'. In the German language, the word 'evangelisch' >means protestant, contrasted to 'evangelikal' (borrowed from English)." SignatureSteve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa http://people.tribe.net/hayesstw E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk > >In my research into "Jerry", I came across this comment in Wikipedia on > >the Rev. Jerry "No Full Name Given" Falwell: [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > lost between them. But a lot of fundamentalists might be included by the > "born-again" option, even if they don't think of themselves as "evangelical". .... > I would think that "evangelical Fundamentalists" would be about as common as > Catholic Serbs or Orthodox Croats. I'm afraid all this theological small print, intelligible to insiders only, has zilch to do with everyday language use. One fraction of rabid religious fundamentalists (in this case that of Ayatollah Falwell, no less), in the street sense of term "fundamentalist", calling another one "Fundamentalist" is not likely to change the acception of the term for the outsiders. As for the exact definition of "Evangelical", how relevant is it to this survey? What the outsider wants to know out of such a poll, in a pre-election period, is if the religious-reactionary part of the population is more or less likely to support the administration. Fine-tuning concerning this question would be in order, of course, but defining "Evangelical" doesn't seem helpful to that purpose. >> The question came up recently of how "evangelical" is actually >> defined, with respect to generalizations about U.S. religious [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > with 'evangelical(ism)'. In the German language, the word 'evangelisch' > means protestant, contrasted to 'evangelikal' (borrowed from English)." You have to be careful even in American English. The "evangelical" in "Evangelical Lutheran Church in America" (ELCA) basically means "Protestant", too, for instance. This is a "mainline" denomination, in full communion with the Episcopal Church USA, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the United Church of Christ. About 20% of their ordained clergy are women. SignatureRoland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food. NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it. Jerry Friedman wrote: > In the German language, the word 'evangelisch' > means protestant, contrasted to 'evangelikal' > (borrowed from English)." Yes, the connotation is "Protestant." The exact meaning is "according to the Gospels or the teachings of the New Testament." "Protestant" acquired a pejorative meaning in Germany in the 16th century when it was used to describe those who adhered to Reformation doctrines, rejecting efforts by the Roman Catholic Church and parts of the German nobility to stop the Reformation. Since those days "evangelisch" has been the regular word and is mostly used to mean "Lutheran." If a German says, "Ich bin evangelisch" (I am evangelical), it should be translated into English as "I am Lutheran." The German adjective "evangelikal" to describe evangelical Christians in the US has a negative tone to it, especially in the wake of extensive reporting by German media on their activities in the United States. Many Germans today still see Christianity in Germany divided equally into Roman Catholics and Lutherans, and some, especially the older generation, can be heard to refer to other Protestant churches like the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians etc. as "sects." Efforts in Germany to show that the usage is discriminatory and to urge people not to use "sects" in this context have been only partially successful. Regards, ----- WB. >The question came up recently of how "evangelical" is actually >defined, with respect to generalizations about U.S. religious [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >A companion question asked respondents how often they attend religious >services; 27% said "every week", and 18% said "never". Well that poll certainly does it by self-description, but it would be hard to determine what the "evangelical" vote would be, because the self-description is broader than "evangelical" alone. SignatureSteve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa http://people.tribe.net/hayesstw E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.