Degrees of consumer participation define evangelical belonging better than doctrinal tests

Evidence

Rather than seeking to distinguish “real” from “supposed” evangelicals, then, it is more useful to think in terms of the degree to which individuals participate in this evangelical culture of consumption. There are those who rarely consume media produced outside of this world; when it comes to music, news sources, books, and radio, these individuals inhabit a separate and sanctified consumer space. … Still, by partaking in a common culture, individuals form bonds with other like-minded consumers, and these affinities form the basis of a shared cultural identity. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 20

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the methodological redefinition the reader explicitly wants to contest — evangelicalism reframed as a spectrum of consumer participation rather than doctrinal orthodoxy, which is exactly what enables the ‘dominant strand’ argument.
• SEED: Possible essay angle: how ‘evangelical’ as a category is itself a manufactured consumer demographic rather than a theological one — and what that means for polling that treats it as religious.