There are many Christians who describe themselves that way...perhaps a more salient clarification could come from a group of them?

I've read that the protestant denominations are roughly devided into two categories: Liturgical ( Lutheran, episcipalian(sp?), Presberterian) and Evangelical; mostly non-denominationals, penticostals and southern baptist.
I assume that evangelicals are those who take the "great commision" seriously so as to get on the rest of our nerves.
I'm not sure how Latter-Day-Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses fall into either of those categories.
Not being Christian myself I break it down into those who want their religion to be the law I have to live by and those who don't. Evangelicals seem to fall into the first category.

As a "Liturgical Lutheran" I also consider myself an "evangelical." In fact, so does my denomination. I think it's just a way to differentiate worship and liturgical styles. "Born Again" is the same way. The Bible says all Christians are to be born again, the term seems to be used to mean non Catholics and more staid Protestants. In fact, I once heard a Catholic priest say that he told a parishioner who had said "we're not born agains," Oh, yes we are!

So in effect all these terms the different groups use for themselves are to be applied to all
Christians. You can't be much of a Christian if you aren't a "Bible believing" Christian, or "born again," or "evangelical."

Don't think that "evangelical" means theocrat, that's just a liberal political term for those who oppose liberal policies.

Jehovah's Witnesses are not considered Christians. They are an anti Christian denomination. Mormons are considered a non Christian cult by most mainstream Christian churches. If I recall.

So.. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a non Christian cult, but a church named after John the Baptist and another one named after Martin Luther are Christian?
Doesn't Catholic mean universal? And aren't all of the rest of you appostate Catholics?
I seem to recall that the Catholic bishops in England just presented a list of chapters in the bible that weren't nessecarily to be taken as literal. Does that mean that Catholics aren't really Christians either?
As near as I can tell the conservative argument against abortion, assisted suicide and Gay marraige all boil down to "but it's against my religion for you to do that". Since evangelicals all seem to want laws against all of these acts it is reasonable to assume that some large subset of evangelicals are indeed theocrats.

let me try to help as it seems that i are one: 'evangelical christians' tend to see that as an identifier for born again christians living a lifestyle evangelism. not only do they sometimes go on outreach but support others who do. they see certain aspects of their daily life as ministry, be it at home, work, or with casual acquaintainces. their priorities are God first, family second, ministry and/or work third, and jobs fourth although that is usually woven into the third. they pray a lot based on their personal relationship to Jesus and if you visit their churches you will usually see them holding their bibles open and hear the pastors teaching directly from scripture. to break it down further, some teaching is "isogetical" meaning a scripture is chosen and taught on. some teach via the "exegetical" approach, meaning an entire book of the bible is studied from beginning to end. there are some churches, such as presbyterian churches, who have gone their own way from the organized church to teach this way rather than stick with the traditions of the mainline church. (and get ready for this. . . whisper, whisper. . . they even use a lot of contemporary music with guitars and praise bands and stuff. . . ) hope that helps clarify some of the evangelical christian 'definition' for you. (it amazes me that the george w bush and laura can do such a good job of balancing their faith with their political lives. they definitely live their faith but do so without throwing it around or shirking it when it would be more convenient to do so.)

Well, first off, all them laws you are talking about have been on the books forever. Until 5 years ago, it had never crossed anyone's mind that all of a sudden two guys named Bob might want to "marry". And now you have courts saying that they can't see any reason why two gay Bobs can't marry despite that no vote ever taken has allowed for Homosexual marriage. My question to you is why can't 4 Bobs, 3 Mary's, a hung doberman, and a partridge and a pear tree not all get married into one big happy family unit??? After all, if marriage is strictly a religious construct, who's to say that we can't just redefine marriage as "anything you happen to think works for you"??? Sorry, but if we are going to have to define it, let's do so at the age old, timeless meaning of it, shall we? Otherwise, anything goes, and even the G&L community doesn't seem to think that you are up for that one.

On to the Evangelical. I see it thusly. An Evangelical Christian is one that thinks that Jesus Christ is relevant in their lives, and happens to be relevant to those around them. In other words, somebody that has a real faith in Jesus cannot help but to want to share that good news in a loving way. I certainly won't tell you that some folks won't go bible thumping, but those people are redirected quickly by the community of faith. An Evangelical Christian is one that follows God commandments, Love God, and Love Others. If you seeing them do something other than that, (and in that order) they ain't.