How many millennials are Evangelical in name only?

By Chelsen Vicari, Juicy Ecumenism.

Too many influential Evangelicals are willing to compromise anything that current culture dictates. This is cause for concern since the future of the family, missions, cultural health and success will be shaped by the worldview of Millennial Evangelicals. Current trends, unfortunately, suggest that much of the next generation of leaders is Evangelical in name only.

Liberal ideology under the cloak of Evangelicalism is a growing trend. Just this month, the Evangelical magazine Christianity Today founded by Rev. Billy Graham published a blog post whitewashing Margaret Sanger —the infamous racist and eugenicist founder of Planned Parenthood. The article, “Contraception Saves Lives,” was written by Rachel Marie Stone, who also serves on Christianity Today’s editorial board, and champions Sanger as a women’s rights advocate while touting harmful hormonal contraceptives. Not exactly the Evangelical sentiments you’d expect for a flagship Evangelical magazine.

Also this month “Evangelical” writer Rachel Held Evans “defended” her “exit from Evangelicalism” in an interview with Religion News Service columnist Jonathan Merritt. While Evans resists characterizations that she has abandoned Evangelicalism, and talks about embracing the liturgical tradition of the Episcopal Church (her new home), she also indicates that that denomination’s evolving attitude on homosexuality was part of the reason for her move. In her book A Year of Biblical Womanhood, she had already distanced herself from Evangelical views of salvation and biblical authority.

Though she speaks as if she’s abandoning a sinking ship for the wave of the future, her new denomination has been in catastrophic decline because orthodox believers are abandoning it in droves.

Evans should be commended, however, for admitting her change of mind and heart. The real harm is done when liberal, heterodox Christians continue to masquerade as Evangelicals, a term traditionally used to refer to those who hold the Bible as inerrant and authoritative, accept the urgent need to share the gospel with sinners and seek to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

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