Your outsider feeling isn't because the culture war part of evangelicalism-- which is pretty timid, in general, and more "I want to escape" than "I want to fight". I'm a culture warrior type myself, but I feel an outsider. It may be that evangelicalism is generally empty of high culture, and even unconscious it could exist. Of course, the rest of society, even of the elite, is moving to that too.
Evangelicals have no organized center. Their organized center is an imaginary center where Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit rule over an invisible church and gathered congregations. Christian Smith can give up on Notre Dame University - at least he knows his Catholic university doesn't measure up to his ideal of collegiality. Evangelicals go to Bible College. They aren't supposed to critique the mainstream to create influence. They are to thunder like prophets against sin, like Charlie Kirk. They preach eleven sermons week for forty years like Charles Spurgeon, always talking about Jesus. They head to the wilderness, away from the mainstream, away from the polis. Missionaries with a great commission. The City of Man is a kingdom of this world. Evangelicals have to be in the world, but they don't have to like it.
Cultural Engagement Evangelicals - where does that leave Charlie Kirk? He had no lack of confidence. Nobody was more culturally engaged than Charlie Kirk. He was shot down like a dog. And the culturally elite danced in the privacy of their dwellings to think he was dead. Create real influence? With them?
I agree and would generally sum up your thesis with this simple question (directed generally, not specifically at Aaron):
What are you providing that I cannot find elsewhere?
The Substacks that I subscribe to (Aaron, FdB, Posnanski, Nate Silver) give me insights and writing that I do not find for free elsewhere. In almost every competitive aspect of life (dating pool, employment, college applications), you can be successful simply by identifying what you offer that is rare. Ross Douthat offers the rare ability to speak on religious issues in a way that the median NYT subscriber finds interesting and religious believers do not find to be insulting.
Even with Aaron, I would say that his newsletters and podcasts are the dead-center of a Venn diagram of religion in America society, gender relations and urban planning (those are the major ones, but he follows whatever he finds interesting). While there are other people who may do a better job of one of those circles, no one else does all three and if someone else does it better, Aaron will cite them and discuss them so that I can read them for myself if I want to. He functions as a super-connector for some disparate issues that I find fascinating.
Most Evangelicals do a terrible job of differentiating themselves and merely offer different ways of making the same point.
This was my strategy in economics academia. I wasn't as smart as a lot of people, but I had a different way of thinking. Whether that worked is an interesting question. It was a "negative beta" strategy, if you know any finance.
Your outsider feeling isn't because the culture war part of evangelicalism-- which is pretty timid, in general, and more "I want to escape" than "I want to fight". I'm a culture warrior type myself, but I feel an outsider. It may be that evangelicalism is generally empty of high culture, and even unconscious it could exist. Of course, the rest of society, even of the elite, is moving to that too.
Evangelicals have no organized center. Their organized center is an imaginary center where Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit rule over an invisible church and gathered congregations. Christian Smith can give up on Notre Dame University - at least he knows his Catholic university doesn't measure up to his ideal of collegiality. Evangelicals go to Bible College. They aren't supposed to critique the mainstream to create influence. They are to thunder like prophets against sin, like Charlie Kirk. They preach eleven sermons week for forty years like Charles Spurgeon, always talking about Jesus. They head to the wilderness, away from the mainstream, away from the polis. Missionaries with a great commission. The City of Man is a kingdom of this world. Evangelicals have to be in the world, but they don't have to like it.
Cultural Engagement Evangelicals - where does that leave Charlie Kirk? He had no lack of confidence. Nobody was more culturally engaged than Charlie Kirk. He was shot down like a dog. And the culturally elite danced in the privacy of their dwellings to think he was dead. Create real influence? With them?
I agree and would generally sum up your thesis with this simple question (directed generally, not specifically at Aaron):
What are you providing that I cannot find elsewhere?
The Substacks that I subscribe to (Aaron, FdB, Posnanski, Nate Silver) give me insights and writing that I do not find for free elsewhere. In almost every competitive aspect of life (dating pool, employment, college applications), you can be successful simply by identifying what you offer that is rare. Ross Douthat offers the rare ability to speak on religious issues in a way that the median NYT subscriber finds interesting and religious believers do not find to be insulting.
Even with Aaron, I would say that his newsletters and podcasts are the dead-center of a Venn diagram of religion in America society, gender relations and urban planning (those are the major ones, but he follows whatever he finds interesting). While there are other people who may do a better job of one of those circles, no one else does all three and if someone else does it better, Aaron will cite them and discuss them so that I can read them for myself if I want to. He functions as a super-connector for some disparate issues that I find fascinating.
Most Evangelicals do a terrible job of differentiating themselves and merely offer different ways of making the same point.
This was my strategy in economics academia. I wasn't as smart as a lot of people, but I had a different way of thinking. Whether that worked is an interesting question. It was a "negative beta" strategy, if you know any finance.
Thanks! I'm doing my best to provide unique value, because otherwise people are not going to read and subscribe.