‘Evangelical Elite’ – can those two words really go together? Apparently they can, and increasingly they do, according to Michael Lindsay’s new book, Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite. You can read a full and fascinating interview with Lindsay about his new book in Christianity Today at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/november/33.35.html.
Lindsay has conducted an astonishingly wide-ranging and penetrating research into the ‘elite evangelicals’ who function in small cabals at the top of the greasy pole of such institutions as Harvard, Hollywood, Fortune 500 companies, and Washington DC. He finds that they are consistently orthodox in their faith, by his definitions, despite being exposed to such a high level of the power that corrupts. Frequently they encourage one another in invitation-only small groups that meet once a month, like the Boston First Tuesday group convened by Tom Philips, former CEO of Raytheon.
They seem to have a high degree of awareness of each other, sometimes networking through membership of the boards of national evangelical parachurch organisations like World Vision. They apparently tend to have a low commitment to the local church, finding them inefficient, and not conducive to fellowship with like-minded souls. He says that such evangelical elites may have a rather high degree of conflict with their pastor. And, while there are those who live on a lower lifestyle than their success could accord, many still enjoy the traditional avenues of power, staying at the Ritz Carlton and having conferences at fancy resorts.
