Published June 9, 2025
For the past several decades, American evangelicals have heard a constant refrain from within their own ranks: We need more evangelical elites. More Christian scholars in the academy. More believers in the arts. More evangelicals at the highest levels of government, journalism, science, and business. The argument goes something like this: If Christians retreat from the commanding heights of culture, then we forfeit the opportunity to shape the broader moral imagination of our nation. If we fail to cultivate leaders who can compete intellectually and professionally, then our faith will come to be seen as anti-intellectual, backward, and provincial.
There is some wisdom in this instinct. Cultural presence matters. It matters that Christians write good books, compose beautiful music, and develop groundbreaking technologies. It matters that we take our place in the institutions that help form public life. The lament that evangelicals have often been anti-intellectual or culturally withdrawn is not wholly unfounded. At the same time, I know many so-called evangelical “elites” in these sectors—whether in business, law, think-tanks, government, or academia. But here is what is worth noticing: None of the evangelicals I am talking about is self-consciously preoccupied with being an “elite.” They are preoccupied with excellence and conviction.
But the evidence of recent years suggests that producing elites is not the silver bullet it was promised to be. If anything, the elites we have managed to produce have, more often than not, ended up as disappointments.
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Andrew T. Walker, Ph.D., is a Fellow in the Evangelicals and Civic Life Program at The Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is also the Dean of the School of Theology and Professor of Christian Ethics and Public Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and the founding Managing Editor of WORLD Opinions. He co-hosts The Bully Pulpit, a weekly podcast exploring faith, culture, and politics from a conservative Christian perspective.
