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If "Evangelical" means believing in the euangelion (good news in Greek), the Gospel—that Jesus Christ gave himself to be executed for my sins and rose from the dead in fulfillment of Jewish prophecy, then I am an evangelical Christian, and I am not ashamed of it. And anyone who knows me knows that I am a progressive for the most part. I still believe there is such a thing as sexual morality, but I am opposed to legislating it on non-believers; if progressives won't let me label myself as one on this count, we'll just have to agree to disagree; on every issue, from environment, to gays serving in the military, to health care reform, to socio-economic equality, I have come with progressives since becoming an "ex-con" (ex-conservative), and this was because of my values as informed by my faith in Jesus.

A person with a progressive "strong social conscience" may just as well have had that social conscience informed by their faith in Jesus; the Bible has a very strong social justice aspect that, while being ignored by the "Christian Right", is still there. There are many flavors of "Evangelical" that don't get as much press as the right-wing. Focus on the Family's political activities should not be the sole definition of "Evangelical". Evangelical should not be a dirty word.

And to be honest, as much as I am disgusted and angered by Focus on the Family's distasteful right-wing excesses (like one of their pastors calling on people to pray for it to rain on the Democratic National Convention in 2008) and James Dobson's seemingly unquestioning support for the Republican Party and the Israel Lobby, I must give credit where credit is due: to their credit, Focus on the Family's strong emphasis on parental responsibility and their parenting ministry are not bad things; having listened in on the radio to see what sort of horrifying stuff they were preaching, I found that they have a remarkable amount of really good agreeable stuff--teachings on how parents should have the humility to admit their errors to their children, and how not to end up overbearing and embittering strong willed children, and how marital intimacy between the parents is beneficial to the children and an antidote against divorce, and a lot of other things. But the way this article talks about Mycoskie's speaking at an FotF event as if she were speaking at a Neo-Nazi rally, and honestly, that's just not a fair characterization of FotF. They're not a hate group that's all about persecuting gays, as some might have you believe; the vast majority of what they're up to is teaching people not to be assh**es/bitches towards their wives/husbands and to raise their children well.

If you were disgusted by how the right wing tried to exaggerate and smear Obama with guilt-by-association because of his attendance of Jeremiah Wright's church using a few choice quotes of objectionable material or by his early contact with Saul Alinsky, please try lend that same sort of benefit of the doubt for Blake Mycoskie. This article really does come across as a hit-piece, even following up with what appears to be an implied recommendation to buy from TOMS competitor.

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