Judy Valente has a special report on who evangelicals are, how they worship and what they believe.
UNIDENTIFIED PASTOR: Dear Jesus, we remember what you have done for us.
VALENTE: The core belief of evangelicals is that they are saved because Jesus died for their sins. They believe it's their duty to share their faith with everyone. They try to live according to the commands of Scripture.A variety of factors have galvanized American evangelicals in recent decades, among them the election to the presidency of Jimmy Carter, a born-again Christian, and the polarizing debate over abortion on demand. Also, evangelicals have proved adept at using radio and television to spread their message.
BILLY GRAHAM: Do you love God? Do you love him with all your heart? With all your soul?
The majority of evangelicals are white, and most of them are politically conservative. African Americans make up about one fifth of the total. Most black Protestants share many of the same religious practices as white evangelicals, but they are much more liberal on a number of social and political issues.
Hispanics make up a smaller percentage. Many attend Pentecostal churches, heavy on emotion and faith healing. They are not as conservative as white evangelicals, nor are they as liberal on some issues as African Americans.
Evangelicals are a little more Southern, rural, and older than Americans as a whole. But what distinguishes them most is the intensity of their beliefs, and how actively they try to live them out.
Dr. MARK NOLL (Historian and Professor, Wheaton College): Evangelicals often focus upon their spiritual lives and on the good they can do in a community.VALENTE: Mark Noll is a historian and professor of Christian thought at a leading evangelical liberal arts institution, Wheaton College in Illinois. According to Noll, evangelicals are still looked down on by some people.
Dr. NOLL: Often, to those who don't appreciate evangelicals, they're seen as rednecks, as crypto-fundamentalists, as people without education.
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VALENTE: But in fact, nearly half of all evangelicals say they have some college education or a college degree. Increasingly, they see themselves as part of the mainstream.
Margaret Turner is a court reporter; her husband, Noel, a mortgage company officer. Theirs is a traditional congregation: the Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama.
Ms. TURNER: Everybody thinks Baptists are just Bible-thumping people that don't ever have any fun, and Baptists don't dance, and Baptists don't drink, and Baptists don't do this.
We had a supper club last night here at our house, and we had 12 people here and we laughed and cut up and listened to music just like everybody else does. It's not a bunch of "do nots." The Bible is not a bunch of "do nots."
VALENTE: But to a greater extent than most Americans, evangelicals say they are concerned about moral values, including sex and violence in the media.
And they worry about the secularization of society. For example, Dauphin Way Baptist Church was very active in trying to keep a monument depicting the Ten Commandments on display at the Alabama Supreme Court building. The specific issues that concern evangelicals: abortion rights, prayer in schools, and same-sex marriage. And when it comes to personal moral behavior:
Mr. TURNER: The things that we don't participate in that other fellow employees might participate in ...
Ms. TURNER: They might go out for a drink after work, and we would not go.
Mr. TURNER: Participating in e-mails ...
Ms. TURNER: Right, dirty jokes, we might walk away from that.
UNIDENTIFIED PASTOR: Look at verses three to five.
VALENTE: Margaret goes to Bible study on Thursdays, and again on Sunday mornings, with her husband.
Mr. TURNER: We view the Bible as the inspired word of God.
Ms. TURNER: If we want answers, that's where we get it. We can go to the Bible, and we can find our answers there.
VALENTE (To Ms. Turner): The story of creation, the story of Adam and Eve, how the world was created -- literally true?
Ms. TURNER: Absolutely. Yes.
Dr. NOLL: I think evangelicals may still feel marginalized and as minority members in a hostile culture.
Ms. TURNER: That doesn't bother me that I'm in the minority. I'm not offended that I'm in the minority. I'm not ashamed that I'm in the minority. If anything, I'm proud that I'm in the minority.
VALENTE: Like 90 percent of evangelicals, the Turners describe themselves as born again.
Ms. TURNER: If you're non-Christian, then you're not saved.
Mr. TURNER: You're basically a nonbeliever.
Ms. TURNER: You're a nonbeliever.
VALENTE: But according to our survey, less than half of evangelicals feel it is necessary to be a born-again Christian to get to heaven -- perhaps an indication of a more accepting attitude among some evangelicals toward other believers.
UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: Where's your Bible, Jenna?
VALENTE: Bible study begins early in life at the Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas. The church is trying to give its youngest members a head start.
At Oak Hills, as in other megachurches, a person's denomination is not considered important. Overall, about one quarter of evangelicals say they are nondenominational. And a third of them say they have converted to evangelicalism.
Gabriela Gomez, for example. She came to the U.S. from Mexico as a young girl. She had been raised Catholic. Now she teaches one of the Sunday school classes at Oak Hills.
GABRIELA GOMEZ (Sunday School Teacher, Oak Hills Church, San Antonio, Texas): The core values are in the Bible. Your children are involved in Bible study and Bible lessons, and I think that's very important, for our children to be growing with spiritual values.
Margaret Turner is a court reporter; her husband, Noel, a mortgage company officer. Theirs is a traditional congregation: the Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama.
Ms. TURNER: Everybody thinks Baptists are just Bible-thumping people that don't ever have any fun, and Baptists don't dance, and Baptists don't drink, and Baptists don't do this.
We had a supper club last night here at our house, and we had 12 people here and we laughed and cut up and listened to music just like everybody else does. It's not a bunch of "do nots." The Bible is not a bunch of "do nots."
VALENTE: But to a greater extent than most Americans, evangelicals say they are concerned about moral values, including sex and violence in the media.
And they worry about the secularization of society. For example, Dauphin Way Baptist Church was very active in trying to keep a monument depicting the Ten Commandments on display at the Alabama Supreme Court building. The specific issues that concern evangelicals: abortion rights, prayer in schools, and same-sex marriage. And when it comes to personal moral behavior:
Mr. TURNER: The things that we don't participate in that other fellow employees might participate in ...
Ms. TURNER: They might go out for a drink after work, and we would not go.Mr. TURNER: Participating in e-mails ...
Ms. TURNER: Right, dirty jokes, we might walk away from that.
UNIDENTIFIED PASTOR: Look at verses three to five.
VALENTE: Margaret goes to Bible study on Thursdays, and again on Sunday mornings, with her husband.
Mr. TURNER: We view the Bible as the inspired word of God.
Ms. TURNER: If we want answers, that's where we get it. We can go to the Bible, and we can find our answers there.
VALENTE (To Ms. Turner): The story of creation, the story of Adam and Eve, how the world was created -- literally true?
Ms. TURNER: Absolutely. Yes.
Dr. NOLL: I think evangelicals may still feel marginalized and as minority members in a hostile culture.
Ms. TURNER: That doesn't bother me that I'm in the minority. I'm not offended that I'm in the minority. I'm not ashamed that I'm in the minority. If anything, I'm proud that I'm in the minority.
VALENTE: Like 90 percent of evangelicals, the Turners describe themselves as born again.
Ms. TURNER: If you're non-Christian, then you're not saved.
Mr. TURNER: You're basically a nonbeliever.
Ms. TURNER: You're a nonbeliever.
VALENTE: But according to our survey, less than half of evangelicals feel it is necessary to be a born-again Christian to get to heaven -- perhaps an indication of a more accepting attitude among some evangelicals toward other believers.
UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: Where's your Bible, Jenna?
VALENTE: Bible study begins early in life at the Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas. The church is trying to give its youngest members a head start.
At Oak Hills, as in other megachurches, a person's denomination is not considered important. Overall, about one quarter of evangelicals say they are nondenominational. And a third of them say they have converted to evangelicalism.
Gabriela Gomez, for example. She came to the U.S. from Mexico as a young girl. She had been raised Catholic. Now she teaches one of the Sunday school classes at Oak Hills.
GABRIELA GOMEZ (Sunday School Teacher, Oak Hills Church, San Antonio, Texas): The core values are in the Bible. Your children are involved in Bible study and Bible lessons, and I think that's very important, for our children to be growing with spiritual values.
Ms. GOMEZ: My kids have a better life than the life I had when I was growing up. But I also want them to see that life is not just here at home, that there's children that don't have homes, that lack going to school, that lack food.
RANDY BOGGS (Congregant, Oak Hills Church): We are evangelicals and we are, I believe, much wider and deeper than some stereotypes would indicate. We represent a broad spectrum of political views.
VALENTE: June Forbes calls herself a "prayer warrior." At six a.m. every day of the week, she arrives at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church in the central Illinois town of Bloomington. For an hour, along with anyone else who shows up, she prays.
Ms. FORBES: You put on your very best clothes, you went, and you smiled and you were nice to everybody because everybody was nice to you. But you might truly have had a real problem in your heart, but you just didn't feel free to share it with other people.
Dr. NOLL: To be a Christian of any sort, and certainly to be an evangelical Christian, is to remain confident in the work of God and Jesus Christ. So long as evangelicals are secure in that confidence, then whatever happens, they will be secure in the future.
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