The words “evangelical” and “fundamentalist” have very little
meaning. For some, a “fundamentalist” is anyone who believes in
miracles. For others, it necessitates a King James only Bible or a
pre-trib Rapture or even a certain sort of public posture. At an
American Baptist Churches General Assembly, I’d be considered a hardcore
fundamentalist. At a KJV-only independent Baptist Bible camp, I
probably wouldn’t be counted.
And “evangelical” includes, for some people, everyone from J.I.
Packer to T.D. Jakes to Brian McLaren. That can get confusing,
especially to those on the outside of our circles.
A few years ago, a friend of mine, the inimitable John Mark Reynolds,
attempted to explain, simply, some of the differences for our friends
on the outside of conservative Protestantism. Picking up on the old
definition, “An evangelical is a fundamentalist who likes Billy Graham,”
Reynolds said, “An evangelical is a fundamentalist who watches The Office.”
I tried my hand at explaining the spectrum, with tongue in cheek, using Halloween as a Rorschach test. I posted it over at the First Things group blog. Here goes. Continue at Russell D. Moore
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