An awkward subject: Evangelical power

The pundits are focused on evangelicals these days, with a Baptist preacher in the Republican race and everyone else reminding the media how much religion and Jesus means to them. (This can backfire if you're caught nodding off in church).

But Michael Lindsay has gone a step further. He interviewed more than 300 evangelicals in politics, media, Hollywood and corporate head offices to find out how they are handling their positions of power. Then he put their answers in his book, Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite, described as "the nation's largest and most comprehensive study of public leaders who are people of faith."

Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University, is an evangelical himself. His book has been reviewed favorably as well as criticized.

Tonight he spoke to a small gathering at the Baptist Media Forum near Austin, Texas, and a couple of points he made disturbed me.

He said the real divide among evangelicals is not left- and -right-wing politicos, or fundamentalists and moderates. It's between "cosmopolitans" and "populists."

Cosmopolitans "try to distance themselves from populist cultural trappings-- the Left Behind books, Thomas Kinkade paintings, etc."

"Cosmopolitan Christians are disconnected to local churches," he said, but work great with parachurch groups and megachurches. Because they're flying all over, doing business deals, "they're not in town every Wednesday for the deacons meeting. They're disappointed with local pastors as leaders, and they think the local deacons and elders are navel gazing, not doing anything important."

With parachurch groups (and now megachurches), they can lead Bible studies and have prayer meetings on the west coast with "leadership peers" one day and then fly off to the east coast the next. It doesn't interfere with their business lifestyle.

But something is lost in that relationship--true fellowship, not to mention accountability.

"Church used to be the one place where the bank teller could know the bank president," Lindsay said. "We're losing that."

There are other consequences. He noted that if he'd written his book 10 years ago, he would have also interviewed Ken Lay, disgraced former head of Enron and a Christian bigwig before his fall.

"Evangelicals can certainly commit fraud too," he said (Duh!). "But many times it's Christians who are brought in to clean up messes like that."

All in all, he said he thinks most evangelical CEOs lead a "moral" lifestyle-- they're honest in their business practices, faithful to their wives. But they struggle with a cultural temptation that affects us all.

"Lots of books are written about how Christians should deal with personal finances," Lindsay said. "Nothing is written about how Christians should handle power."

Uh, now wait a minute. I don't have any power!

Not so, Lindsay says.

"We're the world's elite. Even average Christians have tremendous power. Think about it. Most of the world makes only $2 a day. We spend more than that on a Starbucks coffee. How do we handle that kind of power?"

A few executives he talked to had deliberately decided to live a more humble lifestyle-- giving away more than they made, driving older model cars, living in smaller homes. But only a few. And they still had substantial incomes.

"Executive compensation is an awkward subject for some of the people I interviewed. Their sin is that they-- and we-- are driven by materialism and consumerism," he said. "They have trouble controlling their lifestyles."

Emblematic of this is an annual, invitation-only meeting of high-dollar Christian donors. The purpose, Lindsay said, is to encourage giving and philanthropy. But it's always held at the Ritz-Carlton or some other outlandishly expensive venue.

"They told me no one would come if we held it at the Hyatt."

UPDATE: Since our meeting, Lindsay has expanded on this topic in a column in USA Today.


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God as lifestyle conscierge

The online magazine Slate examines Houston megachurch preacher Joel Osteen and finds him lacking.

In the article "Pentecostalism for the Exurbs," Chris Lehmann is mystified by the kinds of things Osteen's God takes an interest in:

"Even many good, godly people have gotten into a bad habit of slumping and looking down," Osteen writes in his best-selling self-improvement tract Become a Better You. "[Y]ou need to put your shoulders back, hold your head up high, and communicate strength, determination, and confidence." After all, "We know we're representing Almighty God. Let's learn to walk tall."

Stand up straight... like God does?

And I sure didn't know that "If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be up on it."

Bottom line: Lehmann says Osteen "downgrades the divine image into the job description for a lifestyle concierge."


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The Master's Four Hour Work Week

The speaker --touted in the media as the trendiest motivational life coach of the moment-- sat cross-legged before his disciples as they waited to catch his first words. This was supposed to be a seminar on time management and life changing insight into the quality of living. There were all kinds of people here too-- sales executives, ministers, politicians, CEOs and even some "creative" types and people off the street.

But why were we all sitting on the ground?

Someone whispered that the guy had taken all the management and how-to knowledge of the past 1,500 years (and possibly of the future, too, if you buy into the spiritual stuff) and distilled it into a few succinct statements that could rearrange your priorities forever. If he wanted us to sit on the ground, that was fine.

The speaker lifted his hand and the buzzing died down.

"Point No. 1," said the speaker, gazing at his audience. "Swear not."

There was silence for a full 30 seconds.

What the ... is that it? I hate these 'zen' kind of things speakers do.

A hand went up. "What do you mean by swearing? " asked an earnest-looking minister.

"I mean, don't promise anything, and you'll never disappoint or be disappointed. Let your yea be yea and leave it at that. Never have a goal. People will understand--in fact they'll thank you for it, they'll be free of expectations, so will you, and everybody will get more done."

There was some nodding, but it was clear no one was really getting it.

"Point No. 2. Don't lay up treasures here on earth."

There was furious whispering among the group. A man in a blue sports jacket raised his hand.

"I'm pretty sure that would wreck the economy. I mean, the banking industry would crumble and we'd be in a Depression for sure. Maybe if you elaborated a little..."

"Point No. 3. Take no thought for your life."

Now there was real buzzing. One elderly gentleman got to his feet and walked away. Finally someone asked, "If we took no thought for our lives, we'd probably never even come to a seminar like this."

"Now you're getting the idea," the speaker said. "Which brings us to point No. 4. Love your enemies."

The tension seemed to break and the crowd relaxed. Surely he was joking. Maybe this whole meeting was some kind of reality TV show set-up. A few started looking around for the cameras.

A harried looking woman executive motioned to speak.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but we expected some direction in how to live. Like... maybe you could evaluate our "lifestyle quotient." I actually brought some notes on what my dream lifestyle might be. Aren't you going to explain about how we need to take a mini-retirement and outsource our lives?"

"Actually, that was going to be my final teaching today. Point No. 5. Die to yourself."

The effect was as if he had adjourned the meeting. Several people got up and left. One rich young man protested: "Come on, that's not a mini-vacation, that's a permanent vacation... forever. You can't be serious."

"As a heart attack," the Master deadpanned.

As the space around him emptied, a bird landed on the tree branch to his left. He smiled and thought to himself, "A prophet has no honor in his own country. Must be time to move on."

Ungrateful young people see Christians as "judgmental"

A poll by the Barna Group reveals that most young people regard Christians as "judgmental and hypocritical."

The lying little pagans' opinions are recorded in a new book called UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity by David Kinnaman.

Like we care!

I'm surprised the little hedonists took time out from their non-stop self-gratification and indulgence to put pen to paper. And whatever thoughts spill out from the addled brains of this morally stunted generation probably has the combined intellectual weight of monkey flatulence.

Sheesh! Don't they value the trouble we went through to give birth to these mewing, gurgling little eating machines? What gives them the right to "evaluate" their elders? If they don't like Christianity they can just rot in hell for all I care. They're just.... Um. Uh, oh... never mind.

Won't you join me in prayer for our troubled youth?

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Carbon footprints in the sand

Thomas Nelson is publishing a "green" Bible. The Charles Stanley Life Principles Daily Bible uses paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Michael S. Hyatt, president and CEO of Thomas Nelson, Inc., said the company is "striving to make efforts to implement 'green' practices in our daily activities" and reduce it's corporate "carbon footprint."

The inspiration came to him one night in a dream, he recalled:

" I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there were one set of footprints.

"This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, I could see only one set of footprints. Like last year, when our sales dipped, and expenses ate up much of our corporate profits.

"But the Lord explained that when production fell, it lowered our carbon footprint and actually helped the environment. Turns our He was there all the time."

Besides the new Green Bible, Thomas Nelson plans to buy back hundreds of thousands of discarded copies of books by Benny Hinn, Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson along with other has-been authors and recycle them into new Green Books.

"We're putting it all under our new Soylent label," Hyatt said.

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