Why I am no longer a conservative evangelical: part 1: definitions

I feel like I have taken quite a spiritual journey over the past 20 years or so: from kind of an uncommitted, nominal Christian of sorts, to a quasi-fundamentalist, to a thoroughly conservative evangelical, to I guess a post-evangelical of sorts.  I'm hoping to explain a little of what has changed and why in this series.  But, first, there's a lot of terms that I have already thrown out that may not make much sense, so I thought I would help give a little background to them.

"Nominal" - By this I'm referring to adherents of a particular religion who appear to be simply "going through the motions."  Whatever the tenets of their faith may hold, they don't seem to affect the actions or beliefs of the individuals all that much.  At the church I currently attend, this is the "C and E" crowd (Christmas and Easter).  These people show up a couple times a year, perform their religious duty, and go back to business as usual.

"Evangelical" - This deserves way more space than I can give it here.  And, there is not one simple definition or definitive history that fits the term.  Also, it's best not to explain a foreign term with more foreign terms.  But, bear with me.  The account I like holds that evangelicalism emerged as a historical development in the 17th and 18th centuries from Pietism and Puritanism.  It burst on the scene in the form of the Great Awakening in the early 18th century with the preachers and spiritual fervor associated with John Wesley and George Whitefield.  One scholar believes that it essentially has four core beliefs and practices: (1) a high regard for Scripture, (2) a focus on the atoning work of Christ, (3) a belief that human beings are in need of conversion, and (4) expressing the gospel through actions (i.e. evangelism and good works).  This isn't the most clear explanation of evangelicalism, but hopefully more of what I think of it today will be made clear in future posts.

"Fundamentalist" - Near the end of the 19th century, U.S. evangelicals and Christians of other stripes were challenged in new ways by the claims of biological evolution and higher criticism of the Bible.  Some responded by largely embracing these new innovations and came to be known as "modernists."  These modernists were opposed by "fundamentalists" who drew their name from a series of books that were published in the early 20th century which claimed to remain true to the "fundamentals" of the historic, orthodox Christian faith.  As the 20th century wore on, fundamentalists came to be associated with ultra-conservative theological positions and cultural disengagement.  They essentially withdrew from "the world" and focused on ways that they opposed elements of popular culture (i.e. drinking alcohol, dancing, playing cards, listening to popular music, etc.).  This was later modified as a new breed of evangelicals emerged from the fundamentalists in the 1950s who sought to engage culture in new ways.

"Post-evangelical" - Whatever comes after you are an evangelical.

I should also add that my view of evangelicalism is based pretty much on the small sample of churches that I have attended: growing up until 8th grade in a mainline church, then switching in 9th grade to a nearly-fundamentalist Baptist church, leaving in my early 20s for a nondenominational church, spending some time in my 30s at an evangelical Baptist church, and finishing it up so far at another mainline church.  Some of these churches I have worked in, while others I have just attended.  So, my views of evangelicalism are far from representative of the entire movmement.  But, I'm going to sacrifice some accuracy in order to actually say something.  I guess it's the price you pay.