http://www.eppc.org/newsletters/newsfa99.html
>...Nathan O. Hatch of the University of Notre Dame shed light on this often
misunderstood group by focusing on the "populist impulse" that has long
pervaded American Protestantism, and Grant Wacker of the Duke University
Divinity School explored the complex motion of the contemporary "evangelical
kaleidoscope."
Hatch pointed out that the early Republic, which had inherited colonial America's unusual and untidy diversity of religions, was swept by a wave of sectarian invention and enthusiasm that appalled the Founders. In a society without hardened distinctions of class or religious denominations, religious liberty spawned a "free market of religion" that challenged the dwindling authority of traditional churches and came to characterize America's subsequent religious history. Other professions, such as law and medicine, remained the province of the elite, Hatch said, but this country's religious leaders have come from all classes because "high culture was too weak to inhibit popular religiosity." The "virtually unlimited social space" of the United States provided an ideal climate for churches growing out of the popular culture. Methodists and Mormons, for instance, thrived despite--or even because of--their origins as fiery outsiders. Their movements embodied several enduring features of American evangelical Christianity. Flourishing first at the margins of power, evangelical denominations are unpredictable, uncontrollable, market-oriented, dynamic, spiritual, anti-elitist, sometimes intolerant, and ultimately determined to win respectability.
Grant Wacker presented a "cultural profile" of evangelical Protestants today. Most importantly, he said, evangelicals are defined by their belief, established for them by the authority of the Bible, in "Christ's redeeming sacrifice." They emphasize individual autonomy as well, holding that every Christian needs to make a personal decision about religious commitment and to seek religious guidance directly from Scripture. But not only does "belief count," Wacker noted; "time counts." All evangelicals feel "an urgency about doing the Lord's work." Driven by this set of beliefs, they develop "distinctive behavior patterns." They feel obligated to "share the good news" through evangelization and, because they reject the distinction drawn between public and private endeavors, to undertake social reform. In the last twenty years, evangelicals have also adopted an adversarial posture toward the "duplicitous" outer culture. They are reacting, Wacker explained, to modernization, which has brought intrusions by the federal government, assaults by the mass media, and forced social interaction. Defending themselves with a variety of pragmatic and symbolic tactics, evangelicals are sustained by their firm belief that they are "here for a reason."...>
Michael Pugliese