In Defeats, Evangelicals' Political Unity at All-Time High

I understand, and will try to give my perception of it.

As “Christian” much lost its distinctive meaning, the use of “born again” become a way for converts to separate themselves as souls who had experienced the new birth versus the institutionalized they typically had been, or from those who had no testimony of conversion (usually simply having been sprinkled as an infant, and given intellectual assent to some questions later).

Born again was more of a personal tag which was used by souls in many denoms, including those who were not what we call evangelical, esp as result of the charismatic movement within such.

The term “evangelical” became used to describe more of a doctrinal movement, in distinguishing btwn those who held to fundamentals doctrines behind the new birth and such things as the social gospel and institutionalized religion, although “evangelical” also was used to distinguish btwn “fundamentalists” who were even more committed to doctrinal purity, but which tended to overreact as in rejecting social work,

And of course, “born again” itself has been used much broader than the use of term originally hope to denote. Think Jimmy Cater.

Few people actually ID themselves as evangelical, and for polling purposes most pollsters do not distinguish btwn “born again” and “evangelical,” and placing one in the evangelical block is based on which denom the subject IDs with, and which are defined as evangelical based on evangelical distinctives. See http://www.peacebyjesus.com/RC-Stats_vs._Evang.html#Evangelical

exit polls did not ask as many voters about being a "born again or evangelical" Christian.

Apparently most pollsters don't have access to bibles, and probably wouldn't read it if they did have access to one. If they did they would know that the terms "born again" and "evangelical" don't constitute an either-or proposition. Every authentic Christian, evangelical or otherwise, has been born again or else he/she would not be a Christian.

Jesus himself said to Nicodemus "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God", the doctrine that is to me the very essence of biblical Christianity. Good works are worthy of reward after salvation is secured through belief in Jesus' claim that He is God's own divine Son, 2nd personage of the Holy Trinity come to earth in human flesh yet without sin. But good works have no part in the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone as the sinless virgin born Son of God who gave His life on mankind's behalf to pay the death penalty for our sin.

Maybe I'm being too picky about this seemingly trivial matter. However, so much has been said about and written about the term "born again" in disparaging terms by enemies and critics of biblical Christianity and those of us who believe in the veracity of Holy Scripture that I may have become overly sensitive to the implication that all Christians are ignorant hillbillies who are too simple minded and/or uneducated to realize that God is a mythical being who was venerated by many people in the past, but is now known to be nothing more than a pre-Darwin myth by all people everywhere other than a few southern America backwoods folk who topped out at 5th grade or below before dropping out to help Pa feed the hogs and tend the moonshine still.

“Every authentic Christian, evangelical or otherwise, has been born again or else he/she would not be a Christian.”

This is indeed the truth, and i understand your contention, but the problem remains that “Christian” came to denote most anything that calls itself that, and thus such as those who were converted out of mere forms of that word sought to distinguish themselves.

And while I do not think the pollsters have much use for the Bible, yet they did not make these distinctions, but as they existed with manifest distinctions, then it is within their purview to report these and quantify them, although calling anything Christian that is not “born again and evangelical” is misleading.

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