The Engine of the Market | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Free Newsletters:

RSS Feeds |

Audio |

Twitter

Home > 2008 > October (Web-only)

Christianity Today, October (Web-only), 2008 |

SPEAKING OUT

The Engine of the Market

It's not capital. Why wealthy evangelicals and others need to reconsider executive compensation.

D. Michael Lindsay | posted 10/03/2008 06:47AM

2 of 2

But today's wealthy evangelicals are far more numerous. Among the 101 business leaders I interviewed for Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite (Oxford), the average amount of money they give away each year is $1.1 million, and their giving ranged from $30,000 per year to $15 million. One knowledgeable source told me that in the space of a few months, he met with 20 families who had a cumulative net worth exceeding $40 billion. Evangelicals have given away millions and in the process filled the coffers of many leading churches and evangelical ministries. At the same time, it has generated new challenges. How should evangelicals respond to their rising wealth, in terms of lifestyle and in the context of the country's economic woes?

Bearing witness to their faith is a core commitment of American evangelicals. In a day and age when executives enjoy exorbitant compensation packages, simply refusing executive perks and stock options or redirecting them toward philanthropic outlets could be a simple, yet clearly noticeable form of evangelical witness. How much is enough for an executive to keep? The annual salary of the president of the United States is $400,000. That seems like a reasonable place to start.

D. Michael Lindsay is a sociologist at Rice University and the author of Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite (Oxford), which is being released in paperback later this month.

Related Elsewhere:

Andrea Useem also wrote about where evangelicals stand on CEO compensation.

Christianity Today interviewed Lindsay about his research and reviewed his book. His book won first place in CT's book awards in the Christianity and Culture category.

CT also has special sections on the economic crisis and money & business.

first page |

2 of 2

share this page

October (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52

E-mail this page

Write CT

Print this article

Post a comment

Reader Reviews are below

Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required.

Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only.

If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless.

Click here for international orders

2-for-1 Gifts!

[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Displaying 1 - 3 of 22 comments.

See all comments

homebuilding

Posted: October 11, 2008 1:42 PM

EXCESSIVE GREED EXCESSIVE PAY EXCESSIVE ADVERTISING EXCESSIVE "FOLLOWING THE WAYS OF THE WORLD" I taught my kids to boycott products and services of companies that overpaid their executives, created phony "needs" in their advertising, and perpetually seek to minimize employee compensation and benefits I try to live this way myself Please provide me with any meaningful justification for the fancy pay and fancy lifestyles--anywhere.

beer christianity

Posted: October 08, 2008 2:31 AM

When you consider paid golf vacations as "thank you gifts," housing stipends, and using increased congregational giving as justification for higher salaries, perhaps the executives that should take the lead in "[eschewing] the accoutrements of an executive lifestyle" are those who chose the life of pastors and ministers. If one's humble vocational choice happens to lead to employment at a mega-church, should she or he refuse the high salary and insist on getting paid what the pastor of a 30-person home church pulls down every year? If we have extra money in our congregation, and people in our city who are homeless and Christ-less, what does that say about how we value wealth? A whole lot.

H. D. Schmidt

Posted: October 05, 2008 11:17 AM

However excellent this article is; it is in essence referring to basically only one very tiny symptom, of what really is in reality what now is an absolute mortal morally condition of America, the nation under God and claims to trust God, as Christians of every persuasion, for many decades just stood by and actually supported politicians in Washington, many even becoming politicians, and little by little making America into the most abusive and far-reaching Empire the world has ever known. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong, basing the rebutall and the legacy of the Founding Fathers? Yes, as also America all along evermore falling in love with Socialism/Communism. period. Just to refresh the memory of some who can still remember Krushchev in the 60's at the UN while pounding his shoe on his desk amongst many thing he said thIs: "Americans will accept Communism and not know it". Yes, America's war machinery all over the world, while internally melting economically as a piece of ice!

The allotted time for commenting has ended.