Evangelicals are increasingly organizing “Christian guilds” and other organizations to use their secular careers to spread Christian influence in American society, writes Andres Tapia in Pacific News Service (Feb. 19-23).
Calling themselves “marketplace Christians,” such evangelicals have formed guilds that are geared to specific professions, such as Christians in the Arts, and have formed a dozen related organizations. “For example, the Strategic Careers Coalition of Colorado Springs seeks to help professional Christians enter the marketplace to infuse it with Christian ideals,” Tapia reports.
To motivate more Christians to join the movement, evangelical institutions are funding education at elite secular universities viewed as “culturally strategic and where evangelical Christians are under-represented,” says Sue Crider of Houghton College. While critics of the Christian right view such a movement as attempting to infiltrate secular institutions, marketplace Christians don’t see their work as political as much as an attempt to integrate their faith and values with their vocations.
The media is a “prime area on which Christians are setting their sights,” Tapia adds.
(Pacific News Service, 450 Mission St., Rm. 204, San Francisco, CA 94105)