There is a new book out by Christine Wicker titled The Fall of the Evangelical Nation. Our first reviewer, from a "Mainstream Baptist" on a progressive blog (we know the biases are progressive), says the book tells two stories well.
First is that explains how Evangelicals, only 7% of the population, have "duped" the rest of the country into believing that they are larger (claims of
The second story is a desire of millions of Americans for a faith that does not require surrendering the intellect. She claims that most Evangelicals leave that faith within a few years of high school when college or Real Life requires critical thinking about the conflicts they now have of the faith of their youth.
The second review is from Publishers Weekly/Reed Business Information which calls the book "shrill," containing chapters "which seem like filler," and "should be bolstered by more rigorous research and source citation." One wonders about the biases of the reviewer.
Then we get to reviews from Amazon users, which could be just about anyone. One calls the book worth a read, but says Wicker missed an important book -- education is not required to be on staff at an
A comment about that Dobson - Obama spat that tie in with this books review:
Everyone who calls themself "Christian" counts towards the majority, but people who don't agree with [Tom] Minnery [Focus on the Family spokesman] aren't real Christians so their views can be discounted. So the theocratically-inclined can claim a large majority of "Christians" while safely ignoring that only a smaller number of people actually support their positions -- and that a lot of Christians disagree with them on political and religious grounds.
Thank you for mentioning my book, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation. I wanted to respond to one of the reviewers who said others are saying the same thing the book says. That's just not true. The book shows that the Evangelical Nation never really existed in the way that we all thought it did. It tells how they are falling and why.
ReplyDeleteOthers are saying that evangelicals are becoming more progressive. That may or may not be true.
One big point of the book is beware of believing what reporters say. I say that having been one for most of my life.
Thanks for letting me do that. The main irritation of being reviewed is that they can say anything and the writer never gets to reply. So now I have.
What I really want to say though is that the important result of the The Fall (the facts, not the book) is that there's a window open for "others," other Christians, other religions, other people of good will, to take back the public square. To refashion Christian spirituality, American spirituality even, so that it will be of use to people in their daily lives.
There's a Reformation afoot. And a big reason is that the fundamentalist ways didn't gain the converts they said they did.
Ms. Wicker, thanks so much for responding! And, yes, as a gay man I'm very wary of what reporters say. Thanks for the reminder it is now time for other kinds of Christians to step into the public square.
ReplyDeleteNow let me respond to your comment: " I wanted to respond to one of the reviewers who said others are saying the same thing the book says. That's just not true."
It is possible I did not characterize the quote properly. Here is the original comment from Amazon, by David Crumm, who calls himself Editor of www.ReadTheSpirit.com:
What's really fascinating here is that [Jim] Wallis in a couple of recent books and [Ken] Wilson, especially in his newest book, make somewhat similar points from an evangelical perspective. And they're not alone. This doesn't undercut Wicker's book -- in fact, it underlines that she's onto something very important that's emerging across the evangelical landscape.
I'll let you decide if I described Crumm's comments improperly when I wrote: " Another Amazon reviewer notes that many of these same ideas are being said by others within the Evangelical movement…"