2 of 6

I was really struck by how these cosmopolitan evangelicals in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago look more like each other than 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's faith.

A lot of the elites I interviewed are really not that different from their peers. They stay in fancy hotels, they drive nice cars; some of them own their own airplanes. They are high flyers, and they aren't necessarily living like the poor. Many people I interviewed are living a considerably lower lifestyle than they can afford, because their faith compels them to. But still, many of them stay at hotels like the Four Seasons or the Ritz Carlton, and they have conferences at exotic locales. Their faith extends into these elite corridors. It's something they incorporate into their elite world; it isn't something they leave behind.

How do these leaders connect with each other?

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. Business leaders meet with other business leaders for a prayer breakfast or a Bible study the first Tuesday of every month. Or folks in the White House get together for the White House Christian fellowship. And these informal, loose alliances have over time built a dense web of overlapping networks of really powerful people, so that evangelicals in Hollywood know evangelicals in Washington. Social networks or spiritual friendships or faith-formed small groups have come to be so prominent among the nation's elite. I think these webs have played a big role in advancing evangelicalism over the last 30 years.

What types of networks are most important to them?

There are two major constellations of networks. One of those is constituted by board membership on parachurch evangelical organizations. So board members for World Vision all know one another, though they come from different places and different social contexts, and are intentionally drawn from different spheres of influence. Everyone on that board is a person of influence, and everyone who is there runs in similar circles, only in different towns. That occurs for every national evangelical parachurch ministry. Because those boards meet on a regular basis, long-term, meaningful ties are formed.

next page... |  2 of 6

share this page

November 2007, Vol. 51, No. 11