Evangelicals, Muslims not so different

By WILLIAM McKENZIE
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
What do Muslims in the Middle East, evangelicals in Texas and Pentecostals in Brazil have in common?
More than you might expect, and enough to make us think about how they influence the globe. These are three of the most dynamic and fastest-growing religious traditions. If we don't understand them, the forces shaping everything from elections in the United States to upheavals in Latin America to policies in Iraq will sweep right by us.
With that windup, here's what these three have in common: a shop-floor approach to religion. No pope to guide them. Few big denominational headquarters. No super-imam to make a final ruling.
They usually are free to act as they wish, within constraints of their traditions and scriptures, like amoebas that easily take on new shapes. "They're adaptable and flexible," says Dr. Timothy Shah of the Pew Forum on Religion & amp; Public Life.
This adaptability explains why many evangelicals have done so well at getting their message out about both religion and politics. Often members of independent Bible churches, they have few bureaucracies to wade through. That leaves them free to experiment with using technology to spread their vision, whether across pews or on Capitol Hill.
Come to think of it, evangelicals have a lot in common with the tech crowd. The normal tech company is fairly decentralized, with few hierarchies. It isn't what the corporate brass back in New York thinks, because, well, there is no corporate brass back there. Evangelical churches are similar because many of them do not belong to a larger denomination.
Pentecostals are mostly free-floaters, too, which is at least one reason their churches are multiplying across Latin America and Africa. Instead of speaking through bishops, they connect with individuals, giving voice to people who have grown weary of living under strongman leaders or a Catholic hierarchy.
The flip side to all this personalization and flexibility is that they challenge U.S. policymakers. As she tries to sell America around the world, Bush aide Karen Hughes can't very well call one evangelical leader and tell him that Pat Robertson is killing us in the Middle East every time he pops off about Muslims being little devils. There's no single evangelical leader who can suggest to Robertson that perhaps he could find a more tactful way of expressing himself, unless he really wants to upend our aims in that volatile region.
No go-to guy
The lack of a go-to guy in these traditions particularly presents a problem when it comes to Iraq. While the declarations from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani matter to many Iraqi Shiites, there is no Sunni cleric with similar clout. So who do our folks in Baghdad call to say, "Hey, you know, we really could use some help in controlling these insurgents."
Douglas Johnston of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy bumped into this problem when he was trying to bring together Christian and Muslim leaders in Sudan to talk over the conflict in that war-torn country. He explained to me how he soon discovered the imams didn't have enough standing to make things happen. He instead had to reach out to Muslim scholars, who had a broader reach.
These are the under-the-radar characteristics the United States needs to understand if it is going to deal effectively in parts of the world where religion plays a huge role. Some may find religion a yawner compared with seeing the world through traditional means of powerful politicians or the size of a nation's army, but those people risk missing what's really going on.
Madeleine Albright admits she fell into this camp. Bill Clinton's secretary of state writes in her new book, "The Mighty & amp; The Almighty," that she once thought it was a mistake to mix religion and foreign policy. After 9/11, she realized she was "stuck in an earlier time" and had to "readjust the lens through which I view the world" as religious movements exploded across the world.
Enough said. It pays to dig below the surface of religious movements to understand what's happening on the front pages.
William McKenzie is an editorial columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.