Sometimes the debased cultural forms into which religious yearning is channeled conveys the vision of the marketers more than the sublime, inchoate impulses that draw in many members of the audience. The products and practices advanced by evangelical thought leaders often exude a remarkable sensibility, by turns ostentatious, self-pitying, overbearing, and tawdry. The consumers, however genuine their needs, can be influenced by a steady stream of shabby and authoritatively rendered guidance toward a highly parochial, mediated, and complacent persepctive on themselves, on community, and on current events.

Reaching out to these believers with a genuinely different, more generous and creative vision of what culture can be about may encourage more ecumenical impulses on their part, and may even soften partisan instincts and allow more curious and fruitful political conversation. Although evangelical culture has largely become more secular and democratic in savvy response to the competing options of the nonreligious media, broadening the reach of humanistic voices, by no means always an easy task, remains important. There's no use in being naive. Some people are committed to a cold and conservative culture war. But given the mass audience in question, one doesn't want stadium spirituality and its dubious purveyors to be the only game in town.