from Christian Today
The European Evangelical Alliance (EEA) has issued a statement intended to dispel the belief that evangelicalism is shorthand for right wing and potentially nationalist politics.
The EEA said that the term “evangelical” is being “wrongly linked to political movements and narratives that do not reflect the reality of evangelical communities in Europe”.
This stems largely from American influence, where for decades evangelicals and the “Christian Right” have been seen as a significant voter base for the Republican Party, it says.
Polls suggest that at least three quarters of white evangelicals vote Republican at presidential elections. While black Protestants tend to vote Democrat, there are at least twice as many white evangelicals as black ones.
In their statement, the EEA said, “Recently, the term ‘Evangelical’ has become increasingly associated in public discourse with radical Right politics, including dynamics that originate outside our continent.
“Many factors contribute to the confusion, including some media coverage from the United States, the use of ‘evangelical’ as a political label and exclusionary nationalism sometimes being fused with Christian identity.”
This confusion, the EEA argued, has caused politicians and media in Europe to assume that evangelicals on the continent are “dangerous extremists”.
The EEA emphasised that to be an evangelical is first and foremost about faith, rather than politics.