Barry's Blog

While for years many evangelical Christians have lamented their lack of influence in the world of politics, business, and media, in recent years this seems no longer to be the case. Michael Lindsay, a professor at Rice University has recently published his research findings of evangeiicals in high-profile leadership positions in his book, Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite. 

In an interview with Christianity Today last November, Lindsay, a former consultant on religion and culture with the Gallup Institute, made some interesting observations about the role of faith among some of America's executives. Here are a few of the notable points from the interview, somewhat lengthy but worth reflecting on:

Question: The media's portrait of evangelicals has focused on the obvious-popular evangelicalism. Yet you found something distinct, a hidden evangelicalism...

Lindsay: I wouldn't say hidden, so much as one that's less understood, more behind the scenes...what one person I interviewed called "move-the-dial" Christianity --folks who have their hands on commanding positions of American society...I found a cohort of folks who identify with American evangelicalism, but who are not quite the bombast or the placard-bearing Christianity that is sometimes associated with evangelicalism. They were subtler and quieter, but frankly higher-ranking and more powerful...The big story line is that evangelical influence in America is a lot more than people think, and yet a lot less than people think. It's more than people think, because evangelicalism is a faith that penetrates to the core of the believer's identity in such a way that if one wants to be faithful and be an artist or a producer in Hollywood, then invariably, his or her faith has to come to bear on those kinds of things. It's something you can't check at the door. So evangelical influence is not just pervasive in Washington, but at Harvard, in Hollywood, and in Silicon Valley.

Question: How are these evangelicals different from more "populist" evangelicals?

Lindsay: The cosmopolitan evangelicals I write about are people who are just as committed to their faith...By and large, they are very orthodox in their beliefs. Yet they rub shoulders with a much more diverse population. They're far from insular or inward-focused. The majority of their working day is spent with people of different faiths or of no faith...I was really struck by how these cosmopolitan evangelicals in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago look more like each other that they do the folks who go to church with them. They might go to a regular congregation, but their faith is broader, or at least espouses a greater appreciation for pluralism and diversity. I would say one of the key differences is that populist evangelicals are very interested in converting the other. That's a real driving mechanism-trying to persuade others that Christianity is right. I didn't find that quite as prominent among cosmopolitan evangelicals. they were more interested in legitimacy. They wanted their faith to be seen as valid, something that smart, intelligent people could embrace, that you didn't have to check your brain at the door to accept. You've got this more intelligent, savvy, well-traveled experience that naturally shapes the cosmopolitan faith.

Question: How do these leaders connect with each other:

Lindsay: For many of these leaders, local church involvement is not the principal source of spiritual solidarity. Rather, it comes from being involved in small groups, often among peers...There are two major constellations of networks. One of those is constituted by board membership on parachurch evangelical organizations.

Question: That entrepreneurial spirit (of these cosmopolitan evangelicals) matches well with parachurch organizations, which are constantly innovating, but it may not fit so well with the ethos of a local church.

Lindsay: Parachurch board members told me, "I relate more deeply to the people on this board than I do to anyone at my church. We live in the same world and we face the same kinds of problems. That's usually not true of the members of my church." Most evangelical elites continue to attend a local congregation, but they're often not involved or engaged in the way they are with parachurch ministries. They get impatient with what they consider incompetence. They go to a committee meeting that may be poorly run, and they can't stand to waste so much time getting so little accomplished...So they engage elsewhere, where things are run with a higher degree of professionalism. 

Question: You write that evangelicals practice "elastic orthodoxy." Can you explain what you mean by that?

Lindsay: It's what separates evangelicals from fundamentalists. The two groups share their beliefs about the Bible, about Jesus, about God and the church. But they differ in how they respond to those shared convictions. Fundamentalists tend to separate from pluralistic society, while evangelicals actually engage it. Both share a core set of beliefs, this notion of orthodoxy. But evangelicals, and particularly those of the most recent generation, have an elasticity to their faith that compels them to build bridges and alliances with many groups. 

Question: You infer a palpable distaste among the elite for evangelical culture--for its music, for its Thomas Kinkade artwork, for its suspicion of intellectualism and science.

Lindsay: That's right. I would say two things go hand in hand that have the potential to cause deep divisions. One is the divide between mainstream cultural consumption and subcultural consumption--only listening to Christian radio, only buying your books from Christian bookstores. And the other track is church versus non-church spiritual nourishment...I think it's too early to decipher what is going to happen. I don't notice, for example, that this distaste for evangelical kitsch goes to a deeper level where there is a distaste for fellow Christians. Many of the evangelical leaders would couch their comments in saying, "You know, these folks are so sincere about their faith." They talk about going to Christian conferences where there are the Peter and Paul salt and pepper shakers, and they are dismissive about it. Later on they'll come back to that as though their conscience is working on them. They'll say, "You know, I went to one of those conferences and the couple told me about how those salt and pepper shakers meant something very important to them."

For FinishingWell,

Barry Morrow