Scott

The Splintering of the Evangelical Soul

Three interlocking challenges identified to the evangelical movement:

1. a splintering and polarization of media simultaneous with a dramatic increase in the pervasiveness and influence of media

2. crisis of leadership as scandals and failures sap institutional credibility, and celebrity and self-promotion dominates leadership bandwidth

3. “Pressures, temptations, and glowing distractions of contemporary life have strained the ties that bind us, replacing the warmth and depth of incarnate community with a cold digital imitation. … Further, the hyper-politicization of the American evangelical movement has led to a political sorting. … Congregations comprised of individuals whose informational worlds are nearly identical will tend toward rigidity and increasing radicalism—what Cass Sunstein calls the Law of Group Polarization.”