Tangent to the Haggard story: I just read a report in the LA Times with a video link to one of the local LA stations on the Ted Haggard story. They called Haggard an “evangelist”. Now, I confess to not knowing a bunch about the guy, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t an evangelist. He is an evangelical though.
The media can’t seem to keep these terms straight. I remember hearing a story on NPR about the Pope (can’t remember which one) being evangelical. Ha! I wish. I think they mean that he was evangelistic as in reaching out to others.
Just for clarity sake. Evangelistic/evangelist: the process of or one who propagates the gospel and calls people to faith in Christ and has noteworthy success.
Evangelical: A broadly defined term that essentially includes all Protestants who believe in the inerrancy of the Scriptures.
Back to the media frenzy already in progress…
3 Comments
About what you said on my board in comment to the post about what Kirk said, I couldn’t agree more. It reminds me of a quote by GK Chesterton –
“I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.”
Tim, SP caught my comment as Spam…
I have GOT to read some Chesterton when I get done with school. What have I been missing?