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Just a point of clarification - evangelist.
I know that people round here are concerned, often to the point of adamancy, about the definition of words. Personally this is one that is a pet peeve of mine.
I continue in my status as a lapsed presbyterian, raised by strict(ish) Presbyterians, but now married to a Roman Catholic.
When I was going to church on a regular basis, and attending Sunday School, I was raised to be aware of the distinctions among all the many branches of Christianity.
One distinction was evangelism.
Evangelism is actually an ancient word. It has a Greek origin and was commonly used by the hellenic Christians as a noun, as in John the Evangel, or the Evangelist. It meant the bearer of the Good News, specifically, in their terms, about Christ.
In the mid nineteenth century, during one of the periodic Awakenings that characterized the development of the protestant churches, it became popular as both a term and practice among certain churches. Arguably it started with Congregationalists, whose political organization within their congregations permits local flexibility in belief, and spread from there through other Churches like the Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians. Eventually there were even evangelical Anglicans, Lutherans and Catholics (occasionally called Charismatics).
The defining difference of the evangelical of any church was the belief in the need to proselytize, to go out and spread the good news, to convert, to redeem, to save.
This driving force was the driving force that encouraged other Churches to encourage their own evangelists. They needed to compete to keep bums in the seats. Church roofs need to be repaired from time to time.
Now, my Grandfather, strict Scots Presbyterian, Elder of the Kirk and Member of the Kirk Session .... and Mason ..... was wont to offer "Beware of the man with the Bible bigger than his pocket". Evangelists didn't just wear their religion on their sleeves they carried their Bibles in public and referenced them at the drop of a hat.
Grampa, was of the firm conviction that religion was a personal thing. He kept his Bible at home. He never discussed his religion outside the home. He never tried to convert anyone to his beliefs.
On the other hand he lived his beliefs and his personal understanding of his religion, as he interpreted it from his own reading of the Bible, formed those beliefs.
He was only too well aware, having grown up in the west of Scotland, of the real consequences of religious strife. The Killing Times, when the government forces rode down and killed dissenters from the established church (the Episcopal Church of Scotland) and the Highland Host, the billeting of Catholic Highlanders on Presbyterian Lowlanders (equivalent in time and function to Louis XIV's anti-Huguenot Dragonnades) were not just folk memories. They were as real as yesterday. Those memories bought a toleration of the other of a different type. Toleration based on keeping religion out of the public square - and the Evangelicals threatened to upset that working principle.
As an aside - that working principle was at the core of the Masonic belief: that any man of any religion could be a Mason. The fact that some Churches forbade their members from joining the Masons was immaterial to whether or not the Masons were an open society. The only thing my Grandfather's Masons could not accept was an Atheist, unlike the European Masons. His Masons would only accept someone who subordinated themselves to some understanding of a Higher Power.
What am I trying to say?
Not all Protestants are Evangelicals. Not all Evangelicals are Protestants. In fact not all evangelicals are even Christian or particularly god-fearing.
Most of the most fervent evangelicals, proselytizers, that I encounter these days are not Protestants, largely a dying array of sects, but are in fact socialists, atheists, environmentalists and Muslims. They seem to be the people most interested in spreading the good news, converting me, redeeming me, saving me, invading the public square with their beliefs.
By the way Grampa was also the product of the Ayrshire coal mines. His family were actively engaged with Keir Hardie in forming the Labour Party and he was a lifelong supporter of the South Ayrshire Labour Party. And he treated his political membership exactly the same way he treated his church and masonic associations. Circumspectly and privately.
I know that people round here are concerned, often to the point of adamancy, about the definition of words. Personally this is one that is a pet peeve of mine.
I continue in my status as a lapsed presbyterian, raised by strict(ish) Presbyterians, but now married to a Roman Catholic.
When I was going to church on a regular basis, and attending Sunday School, I was raised to be aware of the distinctions among all the many branches of Christianity.
One distinction was evangelism.
Evangelism is actually an ancient word. It has a Greek origin and was commonly used by the hellenic Christians as a noun, as in John the Evangel, or the Evangelist. It meant the bearer of the Good News, specifically, in their terms, about Christ.
In the mid nineteenth century, during one of the periodic Awakenings that characterized the development of the protestant churches, it became popular as both a term and practice among certain churches. Arguably it started with Congregationalists, whose political organization within their congregations permits local flexibility in belief, and spread from there through other Churches like the Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians. Eventually there were even evangelical Anglicans, Lutherans and Catholics (occasionally called Charismatics).
The defining difference of the evangelical of any church was the belief in the need to proselytize, to go out and spread the good news, to convert, to redeem, to save.
This driving force was the driving force that encouraged other Churches to encourage their own evangelists. They needed to compete to keep bums in the seats. Church roofs need to be repaired from time to time.
Now, my Grandfather, strict Scots Presbyterian, Elder of the Kirk and Member of the Kirk Session .... and Mason ..... was wont to offer "Beware of the man with the Bible bigger than his pocket". Evangelists didn't just wear their religion on their sleeves they carried their Bibles in public and referenced them at the drop of a hat.
Grampa, was of the firm conviction that religion was a personal thing. He kept his Bible at home. He never discussed his religion outside the home. He never tried to convert anyone to his beliefs.
On the other hand he lived his beliefs and his personal understanding of his religion, as he interpreted it from his own reading of the Bible, formed those beliefs.
He was only too well aware, having grown up in the west of Scotland, of the real consequences of religious strife. The Killing Times, when the government forces rode down and killed dissenters from the established church (the Episcopal Church of Scotland) and the Highland Host, the billeting of Catholic Highlanders on Presbyterian Lowlanders (equivalent in time and function to Louis XIV's anti-Huguenot Dragonnades) were not just folk memories. They were as real as yesterday. Those memories bought a toleration of the other of a different type. Toleration based on keeping religion out of the public square - and the Evangelicals threatened to upset that working principle.
As an aside - that working principle was at the core of the Masonic belief: that any man of any religion could be a Mason. The fact that some Churches forbade their members from joining the Masons was immaterial to whether or not the Masons were an open society. The only thing my Grandfather's Masons could not accept was an Atheist, unlike the European Masons. His Masons would only accept someone who subordinated themselves to some understanding of a Higher Power.
What am I trying to say?
Not all Protestants are Evangelicals. Not all Evangelicals are Protestants. In fact not all evangelicals are even Christian or particularly god-fearing.
Most of the most fervent evangelicals, proselytizers, that I encounter these days are not Protestants, largely a dying array of sects, but are in fact socialists, atheists, environmentalists and Muslims. They seem to be the people most interested in spreading the good news, converting me, redeeming me, saving me, invading the public square with their beliefs.
By the way Grampa was also the product of the Ayrshire coal mines. His family were actively engaged with Keir Hardie in forming the Labour Party and he was a lifelong supporter of the South Ayrshire Labour Party. And he treated his political membership exactly the same way he treated his church and masonic associations. Circumspectly and privately.
:cheers:
