“The Evangelicals”: who are they? (Walther: it depends)

      Today's newspaper "Advice column" "Ask Carolyn", ostensibly for personal problems, was entitled “Atheist feels guilty for putting evangelical friends on ‘mute’.”  Of course these columns are always against the true religion, but the title shows how common the term "Evangelical" is in America today.  When national elections are held, the news media will at times mention the voters who are considered "Evangelical".  But who really are the "Evangelicals"?  That question has been on my mind for some time since historical articles on theologians of centuries ago were sometimes identified as "evangelical" when they were known to be "Lutheran".  But in today's world, the term is used quite loosely, and I assume that it now excludes true Lutherans. 

      In 1870, C. F. W. Walther in Der Lutheraner published a letter, from the 1600s, from a Lutheran father to a prodigal son who had turned "Catholic." In this letter the father used the term "evangelical" and Walther was compelled to add a footnote to explain the father's use of that term.  We quote that short footnote, from vol. 26, p. 91: 

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†) Until the beginning of this century [1800s], the name “the evangelicals” was understood to mean the Lutherans. Now, of course, the United [Prussian Union] and Albrechtsleute [pre-Methodists], who are nothing less, call themselves as evangelical. W. [Walther]

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So Walther answers the question: “When did the meaning of the term ‘Evangelical’ change from Lutheran to those of the sects such as the Methodists and other non-Lutheran ‘Protestants’, so-called?” —> At the beginning of the 1800s.  The 1800s saw the sects takeover that label "Evangelical", when in fact they were not.  The same is true for the term "Protestants" who were known in the early days only as Lutheran.  And so we see again that Walther's statement that “All Reformed sects were first Lutheran” is proved by the terms they use for themselves: “Evangelicals”, and “Protestants.”