Are evangelicals in the mainstream?

Religion News Service (USA), Apr. 16, 2004

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/6815-.html

Three-quarters of U.S. evangelicals view themselves as part of mainstream American society, but believe they have to fight to be heard by mainstream Americans, according to a new survey.

The results, pollsters said, indicate tensions between those who consider themselves evangelical Christians and other Americans. [...]

Forty-eight percent of evangelicals said they thought only "born-again" Christians would go to heaven. Forty-five percent said they disagreed with that proposition. (Fewer black evangelicals than white - 42 percent compared with 50 percent - said they believed one had to be born again to enter heaven.) [...]

Michael Cromartie, director of the Evangelical Studies Project of the Ethics & Public Policy Center, said the overall survey confirms the state of evangelicalism, but he questioned if some of the findings related to theological views are actually those of evangelicals.

"There is a certain point where you are no longer evangelical," he said.

"Part of the definition of being an evangelical is its exclusivity of the Gospel, and that the way of salvation is through Christ. And when you start saying ... 'I believe everybody goes to heaven,' what are you, a liberal Protestant now? What are you?" [...]

Results of the survey are included in a four-part series, "American Evangelicals," that began this week on Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and continues through May 7. The findings will be also discussed in a story in the May 3 edition of U.S. News & World Report.

Some other survey results:

- 66 percent believe the Bible is the actual word of God - 84 percent believe the only hope for salvation is through personal faith in Jesus Christ

Links to survey results and to the video of "America's Evanglicals: Part One. Evangelicals and Identity" included: http://www.religionnewsblog.com/6815-.html