Why is 'Evangelical' an insult in the UK?

[Flangelica]

I've lived abroad for a few years now, but from what I've seen online, 'Evangelical' seems to be a very loaded word, which i only see used as an insult or in a negative way

Can anyone tell me why?

Especially keen to hear from people who belong to this type of church, their feelings about this.

My existence of Evangelicals is from Reformed/Calvinist background. Among other things unique to their grouping within Christianity, they believe they are Elected by God to be saved and are Christians. All other churchy followers of Christ are not Christians... and I presume created by God to go to Hell. A lot of their teaching is against the nature of God, and sets God up as something that created people destined to Hell.... and in my mind made the Devil the Victor if the vast majority of people "created in God's likness" were always destined by God to go to Hell. There is also an attitude that if you are not the Elect then God hasn't chosen you to reveal His truth, so you may not understand what God has really revealed.

Ithink that goes some way to answering the question. * *

Sorry! I've neglected this thread and just come back to it. I love this post, it's really interesting! So many things to think about! I tried to reply a couple of times now but I think I need to sit down with a notebook and think about all this! Thank you 😊

Hello!

As for schools, I would ideally like to send them to a Christian school but have seen on other threads here that C of E schools aren't especially Christian (in that they don't really teach anything religious and the religious aspect isn't really a big deal?) Wasn't sure if there were Christian schools in the UK?

Could I make a couple of points?

1. You can believe what you want, but keep those beliefs to yourself. Many years ago I worked with a perfectly pleasant chap who, with his wife, joined the happy clappies. In an instant he became very difficult to work with, everything he did was framed as WWJD? A bit difficult as our work was governed by legislation and there wasn't wiggle room for thinking that Jesus might have different thoughts on the subject.
2. He also tried to convert his colleagues for a while until he was taken to one side and told that he just could NOT do that. His beliefs didn't enhance the work environment; it actually made our lives harder, as no-one wanted to be converted ( especially those who had other faiths) and we just wanted to do the best we could under very difficult circumstances.

I think, in the UK at least, we generally feel that your religious beliefs are private and best kept that way. The colleague mentioned above wasn't the only person who was like this; I have worked with more. I did find however that no Jew ever tried to convert me, neither did the Buddhists or Sikhs, neither did lots of Christians,only the happy clappies were keen to tell me the error of my ways .

Sorry, don't know why the spaces appeared!!!

Of course c of e schools are Christian. Schools in the name. There are plenty of Catholic schools too.

C of E schools are Christian, but they follow C of E teaching - so you will have morning prayers and hymns in assembly, celebrate Christmas and Holy Week, learn the bible stories.

But no, they won’t teach that the earth is flat, that dinosaur fossils were placed in the ground by Satan to test our faith, that women are subordinate to men just as Eve was taken from Adam’s rib, that homosexuality is a sin, or anything like that. They will follow the national curriculum for science and PHSE, as all state schools have to.

We don’t really have many Pentecostal or Baptist state schools in the UK - the people who follow those denominations either send their children to C of E schools and rely on church/Sunday school/Bible study to teach their children more about the faith. Or they homeschool, if C of E teaching is completely repugnant to them (we had a Christian Scientist family in my school for about two years, until the family pulled them out in a snit because we had a term theme on dinosaurs in Year 1, and space in Year 2).

Church of England schools are often the default or only schools in some places - before the late 19th century education wasn't really seen as the state's business and was generally provided by charitable foundations or by the church. Even the most famous private schools often have a foundation history of being created as a charity to provide an affordable means of education for those who couldn't afford to employ a private tutor, and the church provided schools for those who couldn't afford that. In 1870 the state started to provide a few non-church schools in places where the church didn't have enough provision, but it wasn't until 1944 that the church of england schools became fully integrated into the state system. The deal was that the state would take over the running and staffing costs, but the church would keep ownership of the buildings. The church could mandate a broadly Christian ethos but couldn't (and wouldn't want to) enforce a highly religious style of education.

Separately there are a few actively enthusiastically Christian schools which can be readily found with a quick Google. They tend to be run by quite disturbingly culty enclaves of evangelical christian movements that are very far from mainstream christianity and they tend to have very poor academic results, presumably because they don't teach great thinking skills for fear of teaching children to question the Word.

I am evangelical Anglican and we are just a part of the Church of England's three-legged school.

We don't get any insults.

That's not an accurate descriptions.

Evangelicals are Christians who put more emphasis on biblical teaching, as opposed to the traditions of the early church, or more recent human experience.

We are all called to be evangelists and tell other people about God.

We are all called to be evangelists and tell other people about God.

as I said. Generally not really concerned as to whether other people want to hear about God or not.

"Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words."

No, please leave people alone

OP, this is why "evangelical" has negative connotations. Pushy fuckers.

"Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words."

Which is the problem, because it shows a fundamental disrespect for the beliefs of others. And that is why it is offensive.

And if people aren't interested, do you keep pestering them?

I mean, to be fair, that quote means that you should show your faith in your deeds and 'preach' by being a good Christian, but I do actually agree with the generality of objections to overt 'evangelism'. It's presumptuous and irritating and awkward.

Our CU at university did this hideous thing called 'Firestarters' on Wednesday afternoons. They saw it as evangelism; I saw it as pestering people who were just trying to get cheap drinks at the SU bar. I did not last long with the CU.

@crwnhgow @MolliciousIntent @pointythings @voldr you all misunderstand the quote. It is a call to Christians that the vast majority of their "witnessing" to the world should be done by quietly getting on with the basic business of living as good a life as possible, and not actually banging on aboit it to anyone who isn't interested. If 99.9% of what Christians did was just following Jesus's commandments to feed the poor, heal the sick, bring relief to captives and help all in distress, loving everyone as much as their own self, and only ever actually spoke of why they do so and Who gave them this mission on the occasions when someone directly asked them to explain their motivations (which would be the only time that it was necessary to use words) then that would be an evangelism that was never pushy, disrespectful or taking a moment of anyone's time who wasn't interested.

Which 'god' are we talking about? Thor?

Ooh I hope so, he sounds like fun.