Evangelical has become a bad word.

The word brings terror to those who remember the fire and brimstone words that pushed them into the margins. It brings images of hateful peoples screaming judgments to anyone who doesn't fall into their normative understanding of a Christian life. The white evangelical church at best has ignored the nationalism and bigotry that clings to its congregations, and at worst has fostered hate and systematic racism. Evangelical is a term so fraught with negative stereotypes that those of us that identify as evangelical are often ashamed of the word itself or ashamed of others evangelicals.