I wasn’t concerned about what would make people in the EC camp “comfortable.” I was stating what I took to be a sociological fact, i.e., that conservative evangelicals see EC as I have described it, i.e., as close to Deist, and that they are unlikely to change that view unless they hear substantive evidence to the contrary.
An example of the kind of thing an EC might say, which would make some conservative evangelicals feel more at ease with evolution (and it’s just an example, not something I’m pushing for): “I believe that evolution takes place by the filtering of mutations by natural selection, but I don’t believe that the mutations are random with respect to outcome. I believe that God subtly steers matter to generate mutations that lend themselves to his desired outcomes.” If conservative evangelical churchgoers thought that all ECs believed something like that, I predict that their opposition to evolution would diminish (not vanish, but diminish). But, as I’ve already indicated, conservative evangelical churchgoers don’t think that most EC leaders believe anything like that. They think that most EC leaders believe what I’ve already stated, and what you quoted above. And they express their dissatisfaction with that view by calling it “Deistic.”
That’s why – if I know my conservative evangelicals, and I think I do – there will be no mass movement to the EC position. Individual conversions, yes, but mass movement, no. Again, this point is one of sociological analysis. It has nothing to do with who is wrong or right. It is the sort of point a researcher or pollster might make to a politician: “If you want members of Group X to endorse you, you had better stop saying things like A and start saying things like B.” I’m acting here as such a pollster, saying to ECs, “If you want conservative evangelicals to accept evolution, you have to change your approach.” Clearly, the repeated cry of “We’re not Deists!” has had little to no effect in removing the fears of conservative evangelicals about EC. Therefore, another promotional tactic is called for. Instead of saying over and over again that they are not Deists, the EC leaders should show that they aren’t Deists, by describing God’s relationship to the evolutionary process in a way that can’t possibly be taken as Deistic. Is that not straight common sense?