GC students begin the year with power in their hands

“Our call [as Christians] is to be a counter culture working for the common good” challenged Dr. Michael Lindsay, author of the Pulitzer-nominated book, Faith in the Halls of Power, during the Greenville College Convocation chapel on Wednesday, August 27.

Lindsay is the author of the recent book, Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite. In his book, Dr. Lindsay draws on personal interviews with an array of prominent evangelical Americans — including two former Presidents, dozens of political and governmental leaders, more than 100 top business executives, plus Hollywood moguls, intellectuals, athletes, and other powerful figures — to show first-hand how they are bringing their vision of moral leadership into the public square. Lindsay’s convocation address spoke to the belief that each person holds a certain level of power and influence in his or her hands. The question is then, what to do with it. “Power is like money, it’s something we need to steward,” explained Lindsay during his convocation address, “The power we hold in our hands is only worthwhile if we use it for the good of others.”

D. Michael Lindsay is a sociologist whose work focuses on leadership, religion, and culture. In 2006, he joined the faculty of Rice University in Texas where he is also the faculty associate of Leadership Rice and associate director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban life. He is also a Rice Scholar at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

Dr. Lindsay has been honored by two international scholarly societies for his path-breaking work on elites and his wide-ranging research interests. His work has been published in the leading scholarly journals of three academic fields—sociology, religion, and American studies—and in 2006 at the World Congress of Sociology, he was honored in a worldwide competition as the most promising sociologist under at 35.

Dr. Lindsay earned his doctorate in sociology from Princeton University and previously served as the consultant for religion and culture at The George H. Gallup International Institute. Before earning master’s degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Oxford, he served as assistant to the president at Dallas Baptist University. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Baylor University.

He and his wife, Rebecca, and daughter, Elizabeth, live in Houston, Texas.

Greenville College is a four-year accredited Christian liberal arts school with more than 1500 traditional undergraduate, graduate and adult degree completion students. Founded in 1892 and affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, the college is located in Greenville, Illinois, 45 miles east of St. Louis.

Contact:
Annie Zeller
Assistant Director of Public Relations
Greenville College
618-664-6512
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