Born-Again Versus Evangelical: Does the Difference Make a Difference?

Although it has long been recognized that treating “born-again” and “evangelical” as equivalents is problematic, little scholarly effort has been made to assess whether the difference makes a difference. This study seeks to do so, assessing, in part, the extent to which the “born-again or evangelical Christian” survey question captures evangelical identities and whether the question has merit for capturing evangelical respondents. By analyzing surveys in which respondents were asked separate questions related to a “born-again” and an evangelical identity, this study addresses several issues related to such identities, including whether “born-again” and evangelical identities are the same, and, if not, whether the difference makes a difference. In the end, significant political differences emerge between those who identify as evangelicals and those who identify as “born-again,” suggesting that scholars and surveys would be better served to ask separate “born-again” and evangelical identity questions than to merge the two into one.