Excellent points. One can talk about Evangelicals vs. Fundamentalists all day and never get around to talking about The Lord Jesus. He is the point, not any of the labelled schools of faith.
God’s creativity is limitless. He can use a fire breathing brimstone type and a gentle dove type with aplomb. “Consider, therefore, the kindness and the sternness of God.” Sometimes sternness is just the right kind of medicine needed to attack unbelief. Let the attack commence! Once the “patient” breaks, let the doves do their gentle work.
I cannot be alone in being sick to death of Christian camps of thought that try to cut the Living God down to human size. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and harden whom I choose to harden”. The Lord is not asking for Baptist, Pentecostal, Reformed, Catholic, or other permission to show mercy or harden. Period.
He decides. So call on His name, people! He is rich in mercy.
Yes. As I said, it cut both ways. But there was a time when many Evangelicals simply stayed home on election day, and a moment when they got together and decided that they would try to get out the vote, even if none of the candidates were real Christians. But a right-to-lifer was better than an abortion lover.
Regretably, the RINO GOPe has done its best to mock and suppress that movement. It got Bush into office twice, yet Rove persuaded him to turn his back on his base after the second time. Still, I think that was a positive step.
I agree that, in the old phrase, Christians should be in the world but not of the world.