Americans Can't Define 'Evangelical'

What do you think are the implications of these poll findings to reporters and those who would write for mass media?

A new report released today from Ellison Research (Phoenix, Arizona) show that even though evangelical Christians are a group that gets a lot of attention from journalists, marketers, and politicians, it's a group that most Americans struggle to define - and many admit they don't have the slightest clue what an evangelical actually is.

The findings are from a new Ellison Research report titled "America's Definition: What Is an Evangelical?" The study was independently designed, funded, and conducted by Ellison Research among a representative sample of over 1,000 American adults. Ellison Research is a full-service marketing research firm.

The study asked Americans to define in their own words just what an "evangelical Christian" actually is. For starters, 36% of all Americans say they have no idea at all what an evangelical Christian is. They could not even hazard a guess as to what defines an evangelical.

The most common perception is that evangelicals are Christians who place a special emphasis on spreading their faith to other people. Sometimes this is phrased in a negative light (the word "proselytizing" comes up frequently), and sometimes in a neutral or positive light (e.g. "spreading their faith," "telling others about Jesus," or "evangelizing others").

No other response category accounts for even one out of every ten answers. Nine percent say evangelicals are just a specific type of Christian, such as a non-denominational Christian, a born-again Christian, or a Protestant Christian. Another 9% believe evangelicals are Christians who are particularly zealous or devoted to their faith.

Eight percent feel evangelicals are defined largely by their focus on the Bible: their reliance on it, their belief in it, and/or their more literal interpretation of it. Another 8% have some sort of specific theological definition of what an evangelical is: they are saved by grace, they believe in a born-again religious experience, they believe in eternal life through Christ, etc.

Only 6% define evangelicals by their worldview or politics, even though evangelicals are often discussed in the public arena in a political context.

After this category, things become particularly fragmented and often sharply critical. Five percent say evangelicals are not just devoted or zealous, but are actually defined by fanaticism. Four percent don't really have any specific definition, but make highly critical (and often quite ugly) characterizations: that evangelicals are racist, stupid, hate-filled, illiterate, etc. Another 4% believe they are defined by being completely closed-minded. Three percent define evangelicals as being greedy or entirely focused on money, and 3% say part of what defines an evangelical is their drive to impose their beliefs on other people.

There are other definitions held by small numbers of Americans: that evangelicals are flashy or showy, that they are ministry professionals (confusing the terms "evangelical" and "evangelist"), that they are defined by activities such as attending church or Bible study, that they attempt to follow Christ, and even some extremely off-base theological definitions, such as the belief that evangelicals closely follow the Torah or that they are a type of Mormon.

Throughout all of the individual definitions, there are a number of broader themes revealed by the research. One is that only 56% of all Americans can give any sort of substantive definition of "evangelical," beyond a simple "I don't know" or just criticism or invective. Keep in mind that this 56% includes people who are way off in their definitions, such as saying evangelicals are particularly strict Catholics or that they worship angels. The other 44% - almost half of all Americans - have no substantive perception at all of what an evangelical Christian actually is.

Another broad theme is that there is almost no consensus among Americans as to what evangelicals are, even though this population is so frequently discussed. Evangelicals are variously defined by their activities, their theology, their politics, their level of devotion, their view of the Bible, their efforts to tell others about their faith, their style - but none of these definitions is embraced by even one out of every five Americans. Almost half of Americans have no real clue what an evangelical is, and those who do have some definition of the term usually can't agree on that definition.

This even includes members of the evangelical community. In this study, 11% of all Americans called themselves "evangelical Christians." Among those who did, 14% later admitted in the study that they actually have no idea just what an evangelical is. And 28% of the people who regularly attend a church that is generally considered to be part of an evangelical denomination say they do not have any guess as to what an evangelical is.

Definitions of "evangelical" vary some by age, gender, religious involvement, and religious perspective, but the greatest variation is by political affiliation. Self-described political moderates are especially unlikely to have any clue what an evangelical is, while political liberals are particularly likely to have disapproving comments about this group.

Liberals are nine times as likely as conservatives to define evangelicals as being closed-minded, more than three times as likely to feel they are fanatics, four times as likely to level assorted criticisms at them (e.g. that they're stupid or racist), and over three times as likely to say they are defined by their drive to impose their beliefs on others.

Political conservatives, on the other hand, much less frequently level harsh criticisms at evangelicals, and more frequently define evangelicals according to things such as their theology, their evangelistic efforts, or their focus on the Bible.

Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, noted that one of the surprises of the study is how much abuse is aimed at evangelicals. "Some people used language in describing evangelical Christians that we can't even reprint in the report," Sellers said. "Evangelicals were called illiterate, greedy, psychos, racist, stupid, narrow-minded, bigots, idiots, fanatics, nut cases, screaming loons, delusional, simpletons, pompous, morons, cruel, nitwits, and freaks, and that's just a partial list. The insults and anger directed at this population group by a surprisingly large proportion of Americans was truly shocking. Some people don't have any idea what evangelicals actually are or what they believe - they just know they can't stand evangelicals, whatever they might be."

Sellers pointed out that as much popular attention as evangelicals receive, there's little understanding among Americans about just what an evangelical is. "Evangelicals are defined every which way, and that is among the people who even attempted to define them. When the media reports something about 'evangelical leaders' like Rick Warren or James Dobson, or describes a political candidate as meeting with an evangelical group, or polls likely voters and reports that evangelicals are backing a particular candidate, many Americans honestly don't have the faintest notion of just who belongs to that group that is being described, while others are completely off-base in their assumptions of who the report is describing," Sellers explained.

He also noted that other studies by Ellison Research have shown that only 35% of all Americans believe they know someone very well who is an evangelical, while 51% don't personally know any evangelicals even casually. Sellers added, "Americans are less likely to know an evangelical Christian than they are to know a Jewish person, an American Indian, an Asian person, or a gay or lesbian person - all of whom represent populations that are considerably smaller than the evangelical population in this country, no matter how it is defined."

One thing that proved to be a bit surprising to the researchers was how few people specifically define evangelicals according to their politics or worldview. "Especially during election time, we often hear about evangelicals in connection with candidates, or with political or social issues. Yet Americans usually don't define 'evangelicals' by their voting habits or politics. There's at least some basic understanding among the American population that evangelicals are defined by religion rather than by politics, even if many people don't really know just what that religious definition is," Sellers commented.