My Lunch with D. Michael Linsday and a Review of his Book, Faith in the Halls of Power

Still “reporting” from the Religion Newswriter’s Association conference. (L.L., is this another serious post?) It is certainly longer than most of what I do here, but I hope readers will stay with me to the end.

On Thursday, I was included in a lunch with D. Michael Lindsay, author of the new book Faith in the Halls of Power.

The book came out today, and I wanted to be one of the first to review it. Let me be blunt. It’s great. Let me be hyperbolic. It’s a masterpiece.

Of course, it’s no risk to say these things. Publisher’s Weekly already gave it a starred review. They said, “This important work should be required reading for anyone who wants to opine publicly on what American evangelicals are really up to.”

I guess this blog is my public opining on what the evangelicals are up to—or at least one evangelical. So I’m glad I read it.

Lindsay on Evangelicals

Lindsay’s book, though, is an authentic sociological picture of many evangelicals.

You might wonder, what is an evangelical? Or at least, how does Lindsay define evangelicalism? That’s exactly what one journalist asked him during his address to the Religion Newswriter’s Association.

This is an important question. For example, Gallup statistics are usually based on self-definition. In other words, I’m an evangelical if I identify myself as one. George Barna, on the other hand, uses litmus test questions.

Lindsay did both. He asked people how they would identify themselves. But he also labeled folks evangelical if they agreed with three suppositions:

1. They accepted the Bible as authoritative for their faith and their daily life.
2. They believed in a personal relationship with God through Jesus.
3. They took an activist approach to faith through their words and their public witness.

According to Publisher’s Weekly, Lindsay “is a sympathetic observer who understands that evangelicalism is as reformist as any other movement that has ascended to power in America.” But he does not let this sympathy turn into bias. PW goes on to say, “he also understands that evangelicalism has made accommodations to the larger public life it seeks to reform, a tension he calls ‘elastic orthodoxy.’ ”

The integrity with which Lindsay presents this tension is what makes the book great.

The Scope of the Book

I have to be honest. I suspected this book would be 200 pages of name dropping.

There are a lot of names to be sure, but Lindsay’s brilliance is his sincere effort to honor the folks he interviewed. Sitting next to the author at lunch, I was gradually more and more, well, star-struck by this guy. And wondering how in the world I ended up with one of the four seats at the table.

And yet, he never once looked down on me. For all I could tell, his short discussion with me about interacting in the blogosphere—mostly unsolicited advice from me, I might add—appeared to be as valuable to him as his discussions with U. S. presidents and captains of industry.

He shared the process of the book with us at that lunch. Writers, take note.

• The book took 5 years.
• He interviewed 360 American leaders.
• He conducted the research while he was a graduate student.
• He logged 300,000 miles.
• He funded the research with small grants, none more than $20,000.
• He used his own frequent flier miles sometimes.
• He often stayed with family.
• He spent 8-10 hours of research for every hour he spent in an interview.

At our lunch, he told us a short anecdote that gives considerable insight into how he arranged so many meetings with people of power. “I approached George Gallup [at a Princeton event, I think] and said, ‘I’m a seminary student. I’ve heard your faith is important to you. Can I buy you lunch?’ ”

Simple. Honest. Straightforward. Just like his book.

Now, here are two peeks into the book itself. First, the subject that most concerns TheHighCalling.org.

Evangelicals in Business

Lindsay does not gloss over the hard question for America’s rich evangelical leaders. He writes,

“Excessive executive compensation presents a challenge to the communitarian impulse of evangelical theology, and some business leaders are disturbed by it, referring to pay packages that are ‘through the roof… [as] morally wrong.’ …Les Csorba, an evangelical who is the partner-in-charge of an executive search firm, acknowledges that his industry has been silent on this matter, ‘and the reason is because we have an interest. Our fees are tied to the …annual compensation of the placed candidate. So we’ve been reluctant to speak about the abuses because it affects us.’ All of this has occurred while the inflation-adjusted average hourly earnings for wage and salary workers in the private sector languish, according to Bureau of Labor statistics since 1973. Numerous social observers have decried the widening wage gap in America. Michael Novack, for example, has written, ‘Business executives are blind to the social destructiveness of current levels of compensation.’ Excessive compensation erodes social trust; most pernicious for evangelicals, it undermines their ability to frame business as a moral activity.” (168-9)

Ever the gentleman, Lindsay leaves negative examples unnamed. Positive examples, on the other hand, receive credit where credit is due.

“Max De Pree,” he explains, “instituted a policy while he was CEO of Herman Miller that capped the income gap between the salary and that of the lowest-paid employee at the firm. While other American CEOs earned hundreds of times the pay of the lowest paid employee, the ratio at Herman Miller was capped at 20:1. It was a ‘structural matter’ within the firm that ‘could and should be informed by my faith,’ De Pree told me.” (168)

Such passages do not feel like an indictment of the elite, so much as a reminder of the responsibility they bear. I’m grateful to work for an organization that takes this responsibility very seriously indeed.

Evanglicals and Creativity

Next, the subject that concerns me as a lover of poetry, literature, and culture. Lindsay writes,

“Particularly important to evangelical spirituality and the creative process is the idea of ‘calling.’ Brian Bird was a television writer for several years, but he eventually left the business to work for World Vision, the evangelical aid agency. During the first part of his Hollywood career, his greatest accomplishment was writing the complete script for a single episode of Fantasy Island. While in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, filming an informercial for World Vision, Bird turned on the television in his hotel. He instatntly recognizes his show. He referred to that as ‘a crystal moment… I got down on my hands and knees and … said, “God if something that trivial is being exported all over the world, then the …. Converse has to be true. The opportunity for life- and faith-affirming media is wide open.” I just said, “Put me back in the game.” ’ In similar fashion, Stephen Clapp, dean at the Juilliard School, told me his work at the renowned music school is like being ‘on assignment… I think all the places I’ve been, I’ve been put there by God.’ Not all the people I spoke to said that they sensed a divine calling at the outset of their careers, but many described feeling ‘a gradual sense of confirmation’ from God.” (139-140)

Such a passage reminds me of the comments Phil Vischer made at the Pirates preview. And I wonder if the idea of “calling” is a fourth defining factor of evangelicals. We believe in the authority of the Bible. We believe in a personal relationship through Jesus. We accept that faith without works is dead.

And we recognize the high calling of our daily work.