The Economist editor on how evangelical Christianity adapts to the modern world.

Question: Hasn't evangelical Christianity really just become a self-help movement?

Micklethwait:    I think, there is an element of truth in that which the mega-preachers dealt with what we call the [past entrepreneurs], they don’t particularly like that aspect but it has to be said and, you know, Rick Warren’s a very good test case of this.  Actually, if you look at some of these messages they’re delivering, amongst these sort of cuddlier, nicer thing, you know, they’re still quite hard lined on issues like abortion, gay marriage, famously Warren got into trouble with a lot of people prior to his gay [guilt] in the Obama inauguration, I think, you know, that maybe a surprise to people around him that he was suddenly seen as more “intolerant” than people imagined.  In the end, a lot of them… and if you listen to what they actually teach, it’s not quite far from [Princeton] but, you know, it’s got quite a stern message underneath it so I think there’s that militating against it.