Evangelical: a beautiful word
What is the genius of evangelicalism, David Goa asks, and how do we live well with our evangelical and fundamentalist neighbours?
David Goa fits the image of a wise philosopher with his flowing white beard, curly pipe and book-lined study. However, his focus is not so much on the academy as on the public square. He was, for some 15 years, founding director of the Chester Ronning Center for the Study of Religion and Public Life at the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta. Goa also worked with Arlette Zinck of Kings University and others to develop the Ephesus Project, which arose out of Zinck’s concern for the education and rehabilitation of former child soldier Omar Khadr.
Goa hosts monthly Philosopher’s Cafés, where he explores what it means to walk with and learn from people of different faith traditions. One of these was titled, “Walking with Christian Evangelicals/Fundamentalists.” When I asked him, somewhat tentatively, if he considered himself to be an evangelical, he answered: “I’m certainly not willing to give that beautiful word away to people that are not bearers of good news. To the extent that I pray that I have good news to speak on occasion to people, I am, of course.”
Beautiful evangelicals
Noting the title of his café, my next question was whether he made a distinction between evangelicals and fundamentalists. “Oh, I do indeed. In my philosopher’s café, I looked at both of them because I was interested in primarily helping people see what I call the genius of evangelicalism. And for them to have to hesitate in assuming that all evangelicals are fundamentalists. And secondly, that the word evangelical as it’s used these days, so often as a political identifier, is a kind of blasphemy.”
Goa began his café by referencing Tim Alberta’s The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, which explores the way in which the term “evangelical” has been hijacked by the political right, especially in the United States. He “wanted to help [participants] understand that, first of all, the tradition itself as a movement has given us some remarkable things. Secondly, there are wonderful people that have understood their life, and had their lives transformed and touched by that movement within the Christian church.”
I asked if Goa could mention some “wonderful people” who would identify as evangelicals. He did, but most are not well known outside the province. One was Ted S. Rendall (a fellow-Scot of the author’s!) who served as president from 1986-92 of the Prairie Bible Institute (now Prairie College) in Three Hills and whom Goa invited to collaborate on a museum exhibition in 2000. Goa describes Rendall as “such a lovely human being [who] had, in my experience, a fine sensibility. Not the same theological world that I live in, but a beautiful human being.”
An answer of absolutes
A more troubling side of the evangelicalism/fundamentalism spectrum emerged in a deathbed conversation Goa had with Herb Jamieson, after whom the Jamieson Centre in Edmonton is named. Goa’s parents shared community connections with Jamieson in Meeting Creek, Alberta. As a child, Goa thought of Jamieson as a humorous person but also as the ‘fighting fundamentalist.’ After Goa’s parents died, he did not see Jamieson again until they met at a funeral and, soon after, in a hospital palliative care ward where Jamieson was dying.
At Goa’s invitation, Jamieson shared his faith journey. He confessed, “you know, David, when I was a young man, I used people, because I had no conscience.” Goa recalls: “I said to him, ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘When I was 30 years old, I met a pastor who I was able to tell all this to. And he set out the path for me, told me what I had to do. I had to do this, this, this, and never deviate.’”
“When I left that hospital room that day,” Goa remembers, “I was so moved by this. . . I had the feeling I was on precious ground that day. . . Herb Jamieson gave me a gift, because I understood that here was a man who was deeply, deeply wounded, and that his only option, like an alcoholic, is absolutism.”
Now, when Goa thinks about fundamentalists, he wonders “if this [fundamentalism] isn’t a result of a deep, deep issue, and the best they can do is some kind of absolute certainty, which turns them, in this case, into hyper-moralists.” In this way, evangelicalism can turn into a “kind of fundamentalism.”
“But the more I thought about it, the more I also thought, isn’t it tragic that when this happens, some churches elevate that person? You end up having a moralist, a moral absolutist, in a position of leadership. . . . But it can be tragic for the church, because it’s not the gospel.”
Albertan Politics
Given Goa’s passion for religion and public life, it was natural that our conversation should turn to the state of Alberta’s politics and its relationship (if any) to evangelicalism/fundamentalism. Here, Goa made a surprising observation: “It’s interesting. I don’t know the most recent examples, but back some years ago, B’nai B’rith would do a survey of Canada . . . And much ignored in the rest of the country, Alberta always was much better as a place to live than Ontario, much less racist, all that sort of thing!”
Goa also opined that, “until at least very recently, you couldn’t get elected in Alberta, unless you were really a liberal dressed up in the clothing of a conservative.” Naming some past leaders, he added, “I think our political leadership has done us a substantial disservice by defining themselves cheaply, always against the central government.”
Referencing the NDP, typically a minority party in Alberta except for the years 2015-19, Goa noted that it has completely forgotten its religious roots: “They refuse to consider them. I have tried to have conversations with some in the NDP about how to engage evangelicals, and how to engage conservative Catholics. But they don’t care. And that’s kind of a pity to me.”
On the conservative side, “it is so easy to bring a large group of evangelicals to vote for you, if you just have a couple little code words and never live up to it. And I think that’s a shame. They should be ashamed of themselves for doing it. But the people that vote for them, and do it over and over again, should be even more ashamed that they’re so easily sucked in.”
Walking forward
A shame indeed. But I agree with Goa that “evangelical” is a beautiful, gospel-centred word, and worth preserving, despite its misuses. I also found that David Goa is, as he described others, “a beautiful human being” and I look forward to future conversations.
