The demise of 'evangelical'

Almost exactly two years ago I wrote an article about the words 'charismatic' and 'pentecostal' having reached their use-by dates. Well, here goes another one, although I believe its demise will hardly be news to many people. In USA Today we read:

Who's an evangelical? Until last year the answer seemed clear. Now the word may be losing its moorings, sliding toward the same linguistic demise that "fundamentalist" met decades ago because it has been misunderstood, misappropriated and maligned.

In fact, as well as it becoming difficult to now discern just who are the evangelicals in the Church, 'evangelical' now applies to many non-church activities, such as politics and business, though to look at the behaviour of some large denominations, perhaps 'non-church' isn't accurate. It is also increasingly used among a variety of religious groups (I refuse to count Christianity as a religion).

Some of the most evangelical people I have encountered are those atheists who are so 'convinced' that there can not be a God that they never seem to be able to stop talking about him. In a recent interview on Front Row, as reported by KesterB at The Complex Christ Signs of Emergence, rock musician Brian Eno admits:

... to being an 'evangelical atheist' but that he is 'jealous of the spiritual experiences the religious have access to.' His recent work seeks to provide 'Secular Spiritual places.'

Richard Dawkins is another that immediately comes to mind, with his book The God Delusion. The Publishers Weekly review is interesting:

For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe. ... While Dawkins can be witty, even confirmed atheists who agree with his advocacy of science and vigorous rationalism may have trouble stomaching some of the rhetoric: the biblical Yahweh is "psychotic," Aquinas's proofs of God's existence are "fatuous" and religion generally is "nonsense." (Publishers Weekly, Oct 18, 2006)

As well as an evangelical atheist, perhaps Dawkins could also be described as a fundamentalist, in the modern misusage of the word.