As I've written before, I just joined a small evangelical church, after having been a Catholic and a Mormon. The difference between this church and those large denominations is striking.
For one thing, they are distinct denominations and can, thus, be counted. (For example, five of the Supreme Court justices are Catholic, and one is currently Episcopalian. 150 members of Congress are Catholic and nine are Mormon). And both religions are elitist to start with, as they both insist that they are God's true church and that you will not go to heaven if you leave that church. And "church" does not have the same meaning, in both cases, it is the institution that is the church. In the case of the Catholic Church, it has centuries of elitism, in which the highest positions in the Church were often, also, very high political positions.
Protestantism was formed in rebellion to the Catholic Church. Almost by definition this was not a movement of elites, except in Britain where Henry VIII coopted and corrupted it for his own purposes, giving rise to the Church of England, which was more like Catholicism than Protestantism.
Protestant can be basically defined as a denomination, of which there are many subsets, such as Lutheran or Baptist. And some, but not all, Lutheran and Baptist churches also refer to themselves as evangelical.
But what, then, is evangelical? There is no denomination called "evangelical" though there are denominations that use "evangelical" to describe themselves.
So back to my church. It is not the building, it is not the elders or the pastors or name that describes the church. It is the people. We are the church. And our approach is inner-directed, that is our relation with God and with each other, rather than outer-directed. We don't have pipelines, at least not formal ones (I'm too new to know about any informal ones), and so far, there has been no talk of politics from the pulpit.
So, it makes sense to me that evangelicals would be car dealers rather than New Dealers. They are not interested in earthly power, their eyes are on heaven.
And, on a practical basis, how would you even reach them? They have no hierarchy, no prelate, and a lot of them are home-schoolers. How would they even get into the pipeline?
To this day, I wish that I had aimed higher than Wheaton College, but no one in my life was pushing me to think beyond my current frame of reference as a kid who liked theology, grew up in the OPC, and went to a small private Christian school. Add to this that before graduating from Wheaton, I chose not to keep climbing the status ladder in either secular academia or its Christian variants. That has left me feeling unmoored for nearly a decade now.
To remain unmoored for a decade seems to me that you are acknowledging that you are stuck and are either unwilling or unable to move on.
I dropped out of college after one semester. But by pursuing other paths (in my case, working at my state's education agency) I went from being a secretary to retiring at the same level and same pay as those in my agency with PhDs. I did this while raising two kids as a single mom. While I was not an "elite" per se, I worked with the elites in my state, I was respected by them, and thus I had meaningful input into policy decisions.
There is always another path. There is always another way. We are in a time of huge disruption. This is when opportunities are abundant, if you are willing to take the road less travelled.
Perhaps it is your early education that held you back ten years ago, but it appears that it is still holding you back. Don't let it. Good luck.
(Confession: I am a Boomer which I know carries some stigma and also carries my own prejudices and beliefs that don't cut it in the current climate. So, I don't mean to say if I can do it, you can do it, I also don't mean to say that I truly understand what current generations are up against. What I do mean to say that is there are always opportunities, but you need to look for them and think outside the box. And that, while it is necessary to garner help along the way, no one can do it for you except you.)
Another good one. Through an odd set of circumstances I found myself at Harvard. Being an alumnus has certainly opened doors over the years. One thing that is invaluable is the experience of being in class every day with people who were all the "big fish in the small pond" and are all competing in the big pond for the first time. At one and the same time it removes the mystique of the elite and it gives you a sense of where you stand in terms of your ability. I don't think there's any substitute for that.
As I've written before, I just joined a small evangelical church, after having been a Catholic and a Mormon. The difference between this church and those large denominations is striking.
For one thing, they are distinct denominations and can, thus, be counted. (For example, five of the Supreme Court justices are Catholic, and one is currently Episcopalian. 150 members of Congress are Catholic and nine are Mormon). And both religions are elitist to start with, as they both insist that they are God's true church and that you will not go to heaven if you leave that church. And "church" does not have the same meaning, in both cases, it is the institution that is the church. In the case of the Catholic Church, it has centuries of elitism, in which the highest positions in the Church were often, also, very high political positions.
Protestantism was formed in rebellion to the Catholic Church. Almost by definition this was not a movement of elites, except in Britain where Henry VIII coopted and corrupted it for his own purposes, giving rise to the Church of England, which was more like Catholicism than Protestantism.
Protestant can be basically defined as a denomination, of which there are many subsets, such as Lutheran or Baptist. And some, but not all, Lutheran and Baptist churches also refer to themselves as evangelical.
But what, then, is evangelical? There is no denomination called "evangelical" though there are denominations that use "evangelical" to describe themselves.
So back to my church. It is not the building, it is not the elders or the pastors or name that describes the church. It is the people. We are the church. And our approach is inner-directed, that is our relation with God and with each other, rather than outer-directed. We don't have pipelines, at least not formal ones (I'm too new to know about any informal ones), and so far, there has been no talk of politics from the pulpit.
So, it makes sense to me that evangelicals would be car dealers rather than New Dealers. They are not interested in earthly power, their eyes are on heaven.
And, on a practical basis, how would you even reach them? They have no hierarchy, no prelate, and a lot of them are home-schoolers. How would they even get into the pipeline?
To this day, I wish that I had aimed higher than Wheaton College, but no one in my life was pushing me to think beyond my current frame of reference as a kid who liked theology, grew up in the OPC, and went to a small private Christian school. Add to this that before graduating from Wheaton, I chose not to keep climbing the status ladder in either secular academia or its Christian variants. That has left me feeling unmoored for nearly a decade now.
To remain unmoored for a decade seems to me that you are acknowledging that you are stuck and are either unwilling or unable to move on.
I dropped out of college after one semester. But by pursuing other paths (in my case, working at my state's education agency) I went from being a secretary to retiring at the same level and same pay as those in my agency with PhDs. I did this while raising two kids as a single mom. While I was not an "elite" per se, I worked with the elites in my state, I was respected by them, and thus I had meaningful input into policy decisions.
There is always another path. There is always another way. We are in a time of huge disruption. This is when opportunities are abundant, if you are willing to take the road less travelled.
Perhaps it is your early education that held you back ten years ago, but it appears that it is still holding you back. Don't let it. Good luck.
(Confession: I am a Boomer which I know carries some stigma and also carries my own prejudices and beliefs that don't cut it in the current climate. So, I don't mean to say if I can do it, you can do it, I also don't mean to say that I truly understand what current generations are up against. What I do mean to say that is there are always opportunities, but you need to look for them and think outside the box. And that, while it is necessary to garner help along the way, no one can do it for you except you.)
Another good one. Through an odd set of circumstances I found myself at Harvard. Being an alumnus has certainly opened doors over the years. One thing that is invaluable is the experience of being in class every day with people who were all the "big fish in the small pond" and are all competing in the big pond for the first time. At one and the same time it removes the mystique of the elite and it gives you a sense of where you stand in terms of your ability. I don't think there's any substitute for that.