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So I take kids to lunch at cafeterias at 12:30. By 1:00 the dining hall in the dorm would be deserted because the kids are all off studying or at their sports teams or at their community service.

What is the spirituality of a Bobo?

Well, that's the essential quandary of Bobo life because it's about achievement and opportunity and rising through the world, but at the same time there's a longing for the roots and for sort of peace and contentment. How do you be content if you're always rushing to the next meeting?

The religion chapter [in his book] is one of the more pessimistic chapters. I really do think it's a problem. You can't have everything in religion. You have to defer. You have to abnegate yourself. You have to deny yourself things.

In Montana I ran across a Rabbi who would [refer to] "flexidoxy." On the one hand they want flexibility and freedom, which is, you know, what the Bohemians wanted, but on the other hand they want traditional orthodoxy and ritual. And I found that in all the different religions I looked at. On the one hand people have a longing for the rituals, the old fashioned traditions of the religion. On the other hand they want to disagree with certain parts of the religion they might not like. They want to pick and choose. They want individual freedom.

I have a sentence in the book that says we're trying to build a house of obligation on a foundation of choice, that we really believe in choice, and my belief is as good as your belief. And anything/everything's equal. On the other hand we want to have bonds that are deeper than choice.

What is the Boboism spin on morality?

Well, it tends to be good natured, good intentioned, but it's situational. Bobos actually really detest cruelty, and that's something noble about them. Anything that causes pain. But they're not real big on abstractions and abstract rules and universal truths.

I found in my reporting that they say, "Don't do anybody any harm, try not to cause pain." But on the other hand, it's not a very heroic morality, it's nothing to die for, nothing to sacrifice for, nothing that really transports your soul. It's sort of comfortable.

And what about heaven?

How could there be a last judgment for Bobos? It's so either/or. Maybe there will just be a last discussion or something like that.

I'm trying to imagine the Bobo angel of death. He's got a tweed jacket instead of a black robe. And instead of a scythe he's got a trowel from Smith & Hawken, a gardening trowel. And he says, "You're dead. But you know, you're not going to go to heaven because that's too lofty. But you're not going to go to hell because you're not a bad person. You're just going to get to stay in your massive, oversized kitchen with your California casual chairs and your latte, and I'm just going to take your Range Rover and go off."

And so that's sort of eternity for Bobos, living in a nice kitchen, which is not as great as heaven, but it's not as bad as the other one.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Visit DickStaub.com for audio and video of his radio program (4-7 p.m. PST), media reviews, and news on "where belief meets real life." The full text of this interview will be for sale on the website soon.

"The Bobos may have one salutary spiritual effect: forcing Christians back to the foundations of the faith," wrote Roberto Rivera in a Christianity Todayreview of Bobos in Paradise.

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July (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46