As said, it seems obvious that this is an attempted hit job against evangelicals (enemy #1 for conservative Catholics who can only wish their church voted as conservative as evangelicals) that has backfired. The basis for use of the term "evangelical here is the issue, for while a broad use of the term can be used, as the sole proffered criteria for uncritically classes this negative fringe church to be Evangelical makes the NT church to be so - which they were - but in isolation from other fundamental beliefs then cults like the Mormons could be called Christian and evangelical. However, such isolationist basis is not allowed by Catholics as regards themselves, many of whom ("true Catholics") even reject Francis as Catholic, based upon their understanding of what faithful Catholic teaching is and means.
But while Catholicism autocratically defines what a Catholic is, thus Catholics are to be considered Catholic if Rome manifestly considers them to be so, yet the term "Christian" should be defined based upon the definitive source of that term, which disallows Mormonism as well as full-assenting Catholics from being so. Likewise while the term "evangelical" can be broadly used (and many pollsters I reference do so), yet it is best defined upon what it originally meant. We are told, "The terms fundamentalist and fundamentalism originally referred to a particular movement of conservative Protestants in early 20th-century America. But in recent decades, they have been frequently applied far beyond this context." (https://www.christiancentury.org/review/books/will-real-fundamentalists-please-stand)
While pollsters I know of usually (wrongly) class respondents as evangelical by combining "born again" with that term, or (more rarely) based upon their own self-description, to its credit Barna has traditionally used nine questions to categorize people as evangelicals:
“Evangelicals” meet the born again criteria (described above) plus seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church attended. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as “evangelical...”
Using the nine questions about their beliefs produces a much smaller figure: just 8% of the adult population in 2006 fit the criteria. In other words, the number of self-defined evangelicals outnumbers the 9-point evangelicals by a margin of nearly five-to-one. (The nine factors examined are listed in the Research Details section at the end of this report.)
When extrapolating these percentages across the entire adult population, the difference is staggering: 84 million adults based on self-report versus 18 million using the nine-point theological filter.
Also intriguing is the fact that 86% of the 9-point evangelicals also call themselves evangelicals. In stark contrast, just one out of every five self-proclaimed evangelicals (19%) meets the Barna Group’s nine-point definition.
Demographic Profiles Differ
Those who consider themselves to be evangelicals differ in their demographic background from those who meet the more stringent Barna Group definition. The self-proclaimed evangelicals are less likely to have graduated from college (29%, versus 39% among the 9-point evangelicals); less likely to be married (63%, versus 77% among the 9-point segment); less likely to be white (66% vs. 76%); and have much lower average household incomes ($40,250 for the self-reported evangelicals, compared to $49,194 among the 9-point evangelicals). On the other hand, self-defined evangelicals are more likely to emerge from the Northeast or West (35% of the self-defined groups is from those two regions combined versus 27% among the 9-point evangelicals residing in those two areas) and are more likely to be 60 or older (38% versus 31%).
There are huge gaps between the two groups in terms of political inclinations. For instance, those who are self-described evangelicals are much less likely to say they are mostly conservative on social and political matters (45%, compared to 65% among the 9-point evangelicals). They are also considerably more likely to be registered to vote as a Democrat (35%, compared to just 26% among the 9-point evangelicals) and less likely to be registered as a Republican (42%, compared to 51% among the 9-point evangelicals). Seen in a different light, there is only a seven percentage point difference in the number of Democrats and Republicans among the self-defined evangelicals, but a 25-point difference among those who are deemed evangelical by virtue of their beliefs.
Radical Differences in Beliefs
The most striking differences relate to the beliefs of each group. Compared to the 9-point evangelicals, those who say they are evangelicals are:
In fact, the Barna research also noted that one out of every four adults (27%) who say they are evangelicals is not even born again, based upon their beliefs. (The Barna Group defines someone as born again if they say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicate that they believe when they die they will go to Heaven because they have confessed their sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents are not asked to describe themselves as “born again.”)
you call it a hit job against Evangelicals. Why?
When it is clearly talking about an evangelical pastor in Brazil you then see it as an attack on you. Why?
As clearly seen in the Reichskirche (the German Evangelical Church) — there are loads of other instances where evangelical groups holding to the solas + “born again” have other, beliefs.
Do you share their beliefs? Probably no - neither do you share the beliefs of Oneness Pentecostals or pretty much any other “evangelical group”
You even have people saying Paula White and Joel Osteen aren’t Evangelicals.
The Lutherans are called the Evangelical church of Augsburg
As regards the evangelical self-definition and differentiation in the USA based on what they think is "born again" -- and based on that, this Brazilian pastor is an evangelical pastor as the article points out
So perhaps instead of the term "evangelical" you should use the term "the church of dan 12" instead of the "no true evangelical" argument?