Moral Ambition the anthropology of christianity Edited by Joel Robbins 1. Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter, by Webb Keane 2. A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an African Church, by Matthew Engelke 3. Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in Latin American Evangelicalism, by David Smilde 4. Chanting Down the New Jerusalem: Calypso, Christianity, and Capitalism in the Caribbean, by Francio Guadeloupe 5. In God’s Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity, by Matt Tomlinson 6. Converting Words: Maya in the Age of the Cross, by William F. Hanks 7. City of God: Christian Citizenship in Postwar Guatemala, by Kevin O’Neill 8. Death in a Church of Life: Moral Passion during Botswana’s Time of AIDS, by Frederick Klaits 9. Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective, edited by Chris Hann and Hermann Goltz 10. Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods, by Allan Anderson, Michael Bergunder, Andre Droogers, and Cornelis van der Laan 11. Holy Hustlers, Schism, and Prophecy: Apostolic Reformation in Botswana, by Richard Werbner 12. Moral Ambition: Mobilization and Social Outreach in Evangelical Megachurches, by Omri Elisha Moral Ambition Mobilization and Social Outreach in Evangelical Megachurches Omri Elisha university of california press Berkeley (cid:129) Los Angeles (cid:129) London Parts of chapter 5 appeared in different form in “Sins of Our Soccer Moms: Servant Evangelism and the Spiritual Injuries of Class,” in Local Actions: Cultural Activism, Power, and Public Life in America, ed. Melissa Checker and Margaret Fishman, 136–158 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004). Chapter 6 appeared in slightly different form in “Moral Ambitions of Grace: The Paradox of Compassion and Accountability in Evangelical Faith-Based Activism,” Cultural Anthropology 23, no. 1 (2008): 154–189. Parts of chapter 7 appeared in different form in “Evangelical Megachurches, Racial Reconciliation, and the Christianization of Civil Society,” in Politics and Partnerships: The Role of Voluntary Associations in America’s Past and Present, ed. Elisabeth Clemens and Doug Guthrie, 269–296 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), and “Taking the (Inner) City for God: Ambiguities of Urban Social Engagement among Conservative White Evangelicals,” in The Fundamentalist City? Religiosity and the Remaking of Urban Space, ed. Nezar AlSayyad and Mejgan Massoumi, 235–256 (London: Routledge, 2010). University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2011 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Elisha, Omri, 1972– Moral ambition : mobilization and social outreach in evangelical megachurches / Omri Elisha. p. cm. – (Anthropology of Christianity ; 12) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-520-26750-3 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn 978-0-520-26751-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Big churches. 2. Church work. 3. Missions. 4. Church and social problems. 5. Evangelicalism–Tennessee. I. Title. II. Title: Mobilization and social outreach in evangelical megachurches. BV637.9.E45 2011 253.09768′09045—dc22 2010053747 Manufactured in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on Cascades Enviro 100, a 100% post consumer waste, recycled, de-inked fi ber. FSC recycled certifi ed and processed chlorine free. It is acid free, Ecologo certifi ed, and manufactured by BioGas energy. For my parents, Haim and Rina Elisha Contents Acknowledgments ix 1. Introduction 1 2. Awaking Sleeping Giants 36 3. A Region in Spite of Itself 61 4. The Names of Action 85 5. The Spiritual Injuries of Class 121 6. Compassion Accounts 153 7. Taking the (Inner) City for God 183 Epilogue 214 Notes 223 References 241 Index 253 Acknowledgments Writing this book has been a labor of love, but a labor nonethe- less. I am tremendously thankful for all of the support, encourage- ment, and insight I have received from people and institutions along the way. I alone take full responsibility for the content, but I am proud to acknowledge the company I have kept in the process. As I believe the subjects of this ethnography would readily agree, the most worthwhile achievements in life, personal and professional, are those that allow us to absorb the presence and talents of others into what we do. Research for this book was funded by a research grant from the Social Science Research Council’s Program on Philanthropy and the Nonprofi t Sector, a dissertation fellowship from the Louisville Institute, and a summer travel grant from the Department of Anthropology at New York University. A vital stage in the writing of the book took place at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I was a Resident Scholar in 2007–2008, with a fellowship funded by the Social Science Research Council. It is no exaggeration to say that this book would not have been possible without the cooperation and goodwill of evangelical pastors and churchgoers in Knoxville who agreed to participate in my research. Almost all the individuals and local organizations described in this eth- nography, including churches and faith-based ministries, appear under pseudonyms. For this reason, obviously I cannot properly acknowledge ix