In a call to action, representatives of "An Evangelical Manifesto" complained that the term "evangelical" has become too political, watered-down or distorted in other ways. They urged those who identify themselves as evangelical to support the grassroots effort to restore the original meaning of the term.
"When you have best-selling authors that appear on public television with feel-good Gospel, who have to apologise to their own churches that they diluted the faith when they get home, something is profoundly wrong," said Os Guinness, a highly respected evangelical scholar and a drafter of the document.
"When you have evangelical leaders who make predictions in the name of God which by biblical standards are openly false prophesies, something is badly wrong," he continued. "When scholars and writers can look at the evangelical political movement and describe them as theocrats, or worse as fascists, something is badly wrong."
Fellow drafter the Rev Dr John Huffman, pastor of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church - a megachurch in Pasadena, California - told Christian Today that the controversy surrounding prosperity gospel preachers was one of many concerns for the manifesto's drafters. Huffman pointed to the life of Jesus Christ, who he said went to the cross and died for mankind's sin, as the Gospel.
God does promise blessings to his followers, but it is different than "consumerism material blessing", Huffman stated.
Representatives of the manifesto said they started working on the statement three years ago after several members expressed frustration with the confusion in and outside of the church about what defines an evangelical.
Several panel members on Wednesday said people they talked to were embarrassed to describe themselves as an evangelical because of the negative stereotypes associated with the term.
