On the new generation of evangelicals: "This new generation has the same convictions but without the edge. They may believe all the same things, but ... they've learned how to present themselves." (Washington Post, 3/6/04)

On politics and religion: Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said that "too often, at least in religiously conservative communities ... there seems to be a concern that we must first of all get the whole culture converted to our theology before you can work for public good." Such a conversion is "not going to happen," he said, so that the question becomes: "How do you find a public grammar, a public language in order to work with people who actually agree with you on the policy but don't agree with you on the theology?" (Washington Post, 2/20/05)

On J. I. Packer's book Knowing God: "Conservative Methodists and Presbyterians and Baptists could all look at it and say, 'This sums it all up for us.'" (Time, 2/7/05)

Michael Cromartie: "The large evangelical populace in this country will cut President Bush a lot of slack. It's the self-appointed leaders in the evangelical movement who won't. I think most evangelicals are more tolerant, and understand political reality more, than the heads of organizations who try to speak for these groups." (The Bakersfield Californian, 11/12/2004)

On politics and religion: "Sure, you have a lot of progressive religious people and, politically, they are going to vote for Kerry. Your problem is that you have a small but significant cohort in the Democratic Party that is really anti-religious and doesn't want to bring religious values and norms into the public arena. That makes it difficult for people from a more moderate to conservative bent religiously to be around the party. They feel excluded and unwanted." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/10/04)

On politics and religion: "Michael Cromartie, director of the evangelical studies project of the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center, said the religious left is preaching to the liberal choir, not religious swing voters. 'They already have this [liberal] vote,' he said. 'This National Council of Churches crowd is not about to vote for Bush, anyway." (Washington Post, 9/4/04, p. B9)

On natural law:  "Michael Cromartie, who directs projects involving evangelicals at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, invoked thinkers like John Calvin and concepts like 'common grace,' all with impeccable REformation credentials. 'A proper appropriation of the natural law tradition,' Mr. Cromartie wrote, 'can provide a public grammar for making appeals in the public arena to people who hold diverse philosophical worldviews and presuppositions." (New York Times, 8/21/04, p. A15)

Michael Cromartie: "The debate evangelicals are having among themselves today is not whether Christians should be concerned for justice, which we should, but what role and how large a role government should have in creating that justice. ... The debate we now need to have is whether certain policies have created more justice for the marginalized, or have they made matters worse? Many eminent social sicentists think the latter." (World, July 3/10, 2004)

Michael Cromartie: "People don't want a President to think that every important decision has a stamp of God's approval and that God is always on his side. ... [Americans] want their Presidents to be pious but not self-righteously so. So there's a paradox, isn't there? A President has to seem to be relying on God's wisdom but not acting like all his decisions are God's decisions." (Time, 6/21/04) 

Mark Noll, professor at Wheaton College, delivered a lecture on "Understanding American Evangelicals" at EPPC's 2003 conference in Key West, Florida. He provides the history of evangelical movements, discusses the number of American evangelicals, and takes the measure of evangelical hymns. An elegant and eloquent presentation for those curious about what it means to be an evangelical.