Self-identified evangelicals are defined more by culture and politics than by theology

Evidence

In truth, what it means to be an evangelical has always depended on the world beyond the faith. In recent years, evangelical leaders themselves have come to recognize (and frequently lament) that a “pop culture” definition has usurped “a proper historical and theological” one, such that today many people count themselves “evangelical” because they watch Fox News, consider themselves religious, and vote Republican. … Moreover, many who do subscribe to these distinctives do not in fact identify as evangelical. This is the case especially when it comes to Christians of color: just 25 percent of African Americans who subscribe to all four distinctives identify as evangelical. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 14

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the working definition of evangelicalism used in this book: cultural/political self-identification rather than the four theological distinctives.
• XREF: Connects to sociological research on religious ‘nones’ and the gap between belief and identity labels; also to Christian Smith’s work on evangelical subcultural identity. — connects to: Christian nationalism is not an exclusively evangelical ideology — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 213; “Evangelical” now functions chiefly as a Republican Party identity label — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 280; Evangelical identity alone predicts almost no political behavior once Christian nationalism is accounted for — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 100
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: by what mechanism did ‘evangelical’ get captured by Fox News identity? The book argues consumer culture — how does that interact with media ecosystems?