Potentia Deo ad Destructionem

Evangelical? by Javier

I’m at a crossroads. Evangelicalism has continued to be a total failure, a failure in the sense that like many other movements all we see is redefinition of what was once a beacon of hope for American Christianity.

Today, if you’re evangelical you can be Rob Bell, or Albert Mohler. If you’re evangelical you can be Roman Catholic, or Protestant. Evangelicals can be both Calvinist and Arminian. Irrespective of traditions we can be pentecostal, baptist or lutheran.  Evangelicals are only republican although many voted for Obama. Evangelicals talk about ‘salvation’ without justification and ‘asking Jesus into your heart’. They walk the aisle, bark like dogs, or have big tent revivals. They are Pelagian or Calvinist. They don’t celebrate halloween, can’t dance, don’t smoke, or drink alcohol. They are aware of the evils of pop culture only to reinvent it ten years later themselves. They like to talk about how Britney Spears wears skimpy clothes, but don’t mind incorporating the aesthetic elements of her concerts in their worship. They seek social justice without justification, they want to feed the poor but are not fed by God. This leads me to ask; what exactly is an evangelical?

I attend an evangelical church, at least that’s how we identify ourselves. But lately, I’ve been wondering if I should even continue to call myself evangelical. I surely don’t identify with a transformational, theonomic-lite evangelical relation to society. I drink beer and use tobacco products. I’m not going to feed the poor without sharing the Gospel, but I want to make sure that the poor at my church are fed first. I don’t believe that the Trinity, and the deity of Christ are the only articles of faith that a Christian can hold to be called a Christian. I’m not a mystic, and I didn’t ask Jesus into my heart to be saved. I don’t believe prayers are magical and I believe God is sovereign.

Now, it would seem that I fit the profile of an evangelical, at least an evangelical from decades ago. Today, however; I don’t. It would seem its time to abandon the term.

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