There is a guy named Steve. He was raised a Methodist and is still a member of The United Methodist Church. On Sunday's he attends an Episcopal church. When he visits his Catholic brother he attends a Catholic church, where he is friends with the priest there. He has never spoken ill of another Christian denomination. He has never claimed to be a part of the Christian-right, nor has he ever affiliated himself with any evangelical group. He has never belonged to an evangelical church in his life.
He does however pray regularly, and is open about his faith. He often seeks guidance in the Bible. For this he is accused of being a fundamentalist wacko, a follower of Robertson and Falwell.
Is he evangelical?
Well, no, since the definition of an "evangelical" is one who is "a member of an evangelical church or party" and you explicitly stated that he wasn't.
I wouldn't care if he was, though. An evangelical church, as defined in Dictionary.com, is simply one "that stresses personal conversion and salvation by faith." It sounds from the look of it that that group would actually be against converting other people, making the label very false when it's attached to people like Jerry Falwell.
Of course, there's another definition of "evangelical" that says, "Characterized by ardent or crusading enthusiasm; zealous", which would fit Jerry Falwell, although I'm not sure which came first: the label or the defintion.
At any rate, I hate labels. Labels are overrated. Labels mean nothing. Labels are the antithesis of rational discourse, and, as such, I go out of my way to make sure that I neither use them nor make judgements based upon them.
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