4. In or Out?

This chapter looks at findings from a qualitative study of Evangelicals, who are the largest Protestant Christian group in the United States. The data for this study were gathered from lengthy interviews with seventy-eight different US Evangelicals, including leaders as well as lay congregants. The interviewees largely came from a conservative Southern Baptist church and a progressive nondenominational congregation. The chapter looks at how these Evangelicals evaluate fellow Evangelicals with theological views opposed to their own, and it examines how they evaluate members of another religion altogether—in this case, Islam. The chapter further dissects how Evangelicals’ inclinations toward either conservative or progressive theology affect their evaluations of other Christians and non-Christians. Concepts such as insider movements and Chrislam also help to illustrate the contrast between progressive and conservative Christians. Theologically conservative Christians see themselves as more closely aligned with theologically progressive Christians than with Muslims and are more likely to surround themselves with heterogenous Christian peers (who hold a variety of theological perspectives). Progressive Christians see themselves as more closely aligned with Muslims than with conservative Christians and are more likely to surround themselves with homogeneously thinking Christian peers (who hold similar theological perspectives).