Stretching the Evangelical Tent Right and Not Left

Last updated on: July 5, 2015 at 8:47 am by Roger E. Olson

Stretching the Evangelical Tent Right and Not Left 2015-07-05T08:47:24-05:00 Roger E. Olson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’ve long advocated a “big tent” view of “evangelical Christianity”—here and in my published writings. My tendency has long been to accept as authentically evangelical any Christian who claims to be evangelical and who fits the basic profile generally accepted by evangelical historians of the movement: George Marsden, Donald W. Dayton, Mark Noll, David Bebbington, Randall Balmer, et al.

Some people naturally want to know why it matters. Who cares who’s authentically evangelical? Well, for many people it doesn’t matter. However, in the U.S., anyway, there exists a large community of influential administrators of colleges, universities, seminaries, publishing houses, publications, non-profit organizations, etc., who need to know who belongs to the evangelical community and who doesn’t. They don’t have time to interrogate every applicant or potential author (etc.) and they want to hire and publish fellow evangelicals. But being “evangelical” is not tied to any specific denomination or church. It is, as John Stackhouse likes to say, a “transdenominational movement.” So even denominationally affiliated evangelical schools and other organizations will often hire and work with “other” evangelicals—persons affiliated with denominations other than their own—so long as they are genuinely evangelical.

This need to distinguish authentically evangelical persons and institutions from liberal and fundamentalist (extreme left, extreme right) Protestants arose in the early 1940s as a “felt need” as former fundamentalists preferring to call themselves “new evangelicals” coalesced to form a coalition for cooperative purposes—an alternative to the American Council of Christian Churches (separatistic fundamentalists) and the Federal Council of Churches (later the National Council of Churches) (“mainline” liberal). The main organizer of the new evangelical movement that gave rise to the National Association of Evangelicals was Harold Ockenga. Out of his organizing work arose (some indirectly) Fuller Theological Seminary, the NAE, Christianity Today and numerous other moderate (non-fundamentalist, non-liberal) cooperative organizations.

The NAE adopted a very broad statement of faith that did not include (for example) biblical inerrancy, premillennialism or young earth creationism. Some of the new evangelicals believed in these, but they generally agreed to permit disagreement within evangelical ranks over these secondary doctrines. Among the ranks of the NAE and the new evangelicalism generally were Protestants from many traditions: Holiness-Pentecostal, Reformed-Presbyterian, Anabaptist-Baptist, Lutheran etc. It was an amazingly diverse coalition of non-fundamentalist, non-liberal Protestants who agreed on basic Christian orthodoxy (biblical authority, deity of Jesus Christ, a supernatural worldview, Trinity, resurrection of Christ, salvation by grace alone through Christ’s atonement alone, and the necessity of personal decision of faith [conversion] for authentic Christian existence).

As I was growing up in the “thick” of American evangelicalism (my uncle served for many years on the national board of the NAE and our home and church were filled with evangelical publications, music, books, etc.) I was taught to believe that “we” were different from two other groups of Protestants who were possibly saved but were very wrong about the contours of authentic biblical-evangelical Christianity: fundamentalists and “mainline churches.” The fundamentalists were not evangelicals in our sense of the word because they elevated secondary doctrines to essentials (e.g., young earth creationism and premillennialism), refused to have Christian fellowship or cooperate with non-fundamentalists, and were generally cranky, divisive, separatistic people who specialized in splitting and dividing.

As I look back on my own spiritual-theological tradition (that I grew up in) I now realize we were somewhat fundamentalistic ourselves insofar as we tended to privilege the most literal interpretation of the Bible possible. But at least the leaders of our denomination emphasized that we were “irenic” whereas true fundamentalists were not. A kind of informal litmus test for distinguishing evangelicals from fundamentalists was Billy Graham and his associate evangelists (John Wesley White, Leighton Ford, etc.). The fundamentalists were those hyper-conservative Protestants who would not cooperate with such evangelistic endeavors. (I remember attending a Billy Graham crusade when I was twelve and seeing a group of Baptist fundamentalists picketing the event and handing out tracts to those entering the stadium from the parking lot. I asked my father about them and he replied they were fundamentalists who considered Billy Graham “dangerously liberal.” Later he explained they also thought we, Pentecostals, were possibly demon-possessed because we spoke in tongues.)

Throughout college and seminary nothing was drilled into my mind more firmly by my teachers than this: fundamentalists and evangelicals are different tribes of generally conservative Protestants. I went around asking my teachers, denominational leaders and as many scholars as I could find to pin that down more precisely. Most of them answered that fundamentalists were not evangelicals because evangelicals were cooperative and irenic and distinguished between “essentials” and “non-essentials” of the Christian faith. Also, fundamentalists, I was told, were separatistic in refusing to have Christian fellowship with other Christians whom they considered tainted by fellowship with liberals, Catholics, and worldly nominal Christians. This was called “secondary separation.”

Repeat: During the 1950s and 1960s into the 1970s “evangelicals” and “fundamentalists” were different tribes of conservative Protestant Christians. They shared many beliefs in common, but they had different ethoses.

Imagine my shock and surprise, then, when I attended the 2001 Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail conference at Beeson Divinity School and found among the keynote speakers a self-proclaimed fundamentalist who was very critical of Fuller Theological Seminary and “neo-evangelicals” in general for “compromising the gospel.” NOT on the roster of speakers were any progressive evangelicals or what I had come to call “postconservative evangelicals” such as Stanley Grenz, Clark Pinnock, Greg Boyd, Miroslav Volf or Scot McKnight. Also NOT on the roster of speakers (as I recall) were any Pentecostals. The tenor of the event was retrieval of traditional-conservative evangelicalism leaning toward fundamentalism. I interpreted it as an attempt to broaden the evangelical tent to include fundamentalists who, in my experience as an evangelical, had traditionally excluded themselves from so-called “neo-evangelicalism.”

(One reason I interpreted the conference that way was the appearance around the same time of a volume by keynote speaker Richard Mouw entitled The Smell of Sawdust: What Evangelicals Can Learn from Their Fundamentalist Heritage [Zondervan].)

Then, a few years ago, I was invited to contribute a chapter to an edited book on The Spectrum of Evangelicalism (Zondervan). Again, imagine my surprise to see included as one of the “four views” on evangelicalism a “true blue” fundamentalist. True, I was also included to represent “postconservative evangelicalism,” but the two very conservative authors were permitted by the editors to suggest that my account of evangelical faith was a betrayal of authentic evangelicalism even though I did not deny and even affirmed all the hallmarks of historical-theological Christian orthodoxy and evangelical faith broadly defined. (I suspect the fundamental issue that caused the fundamentalist and conservative evangelical authors to deny my status as authentically evangelical was inerrancy, but, as I pointed out, even Carl F. H. Henry, the “dean of evangelical theologians,” denied that belief in biblical inerrancy is a “superbadge” of evangelical identity.)

Other events, publications, caused me to conclude that influential forces within the evangelical movement were attempting to broaden the “evangelical tent” to include fundamentalists—separatistic biblical literalists who had traditionally made a habit of harshly criticizing “neo-evangelicals” for compromising the gospel because they (we) did not interpret Genesis or Revelation as they did and for having Christian fellowship and cooperation with non-fundamentalist Christians. These were the heirs of the fundamentalists I grew up knowing as anti-Billy Graham and anti-Pentecostal! Now they were being embraced as standard evangelicals.

My own tendency has long been to embrace as fellow evangelicals fundamentalists insofar as they want to play nice with other evangelicals and not specialize in pointing an accusing finger at other evangelicals for having a “compromised gospel.” But that was part of the DNA of American fundamentalism and, to a certain extent, still is. But major movers and shakers of American evangelicalism now want to broaden the evangelical “tent” to include true fundamentalists who don’t want to play nice with other evangelicals while at the same time narrowing the evangelical “tent” to exclude postconservative/progressive evangelicals who believe in generous orthodoxy. In other words, the center of the evangelical movement is shifting and has been since about 1980. And the evangelical “tent” is gradually being broadened to include fundamentalists and narrowed on the other “end” to exclude progressive evangelicals.

If there is ever to be another “Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail” conference (or something like it—a kind of “summit” of evangelical scholars) what I would like to see is a broader spectrum of evangelicals represented on the roster of keynote speakers. If the conference includes separatistic-literalist fundamentalists it should by all means also include progressive/postconservative evangelicals (at least one) and a Pentecostal. I won’t hold my breath, though.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 3, 2015

An Oldie But Goodie: Nationalism Distinguished from Patriotism

Next Post

July 8, 2015 Reconsidering My Statements about Pope Francis

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Against Liberal Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does Paul say in Philemon he would have liked to keep Onesimus to do?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Help him while he is in chains for the gospel Care for the poor Preach the word Serve in the church