In this insightful and accessible book, religion journalist Mark Pinsky takes the curious reader on a tour of the fascinating world of Sunbelt evangelicalism. Pinsky, religion reporter for the
Orlando Sentinel, uses his unique position as a Jew covering evangelical Christianity to help nonevangelicals understand the hopes, fears, and motivations of this growing subculture and breaks down some of the stereotypes that nonevangelicals have of evangelicals.
"I hope you'll find laughter, perhaps puzzlement, and heartfelt interest in how people just like you wrestle with feelings, values, and beliefs that touch the core of their beings. And I hope you'll catch a glimpse of someone learning to understand and get along with folks whose convictions differ from his own," Pinsky writes in the introduction.
This book will appeal to Jews, mainline and liberal Christians, and curious blue-staters, as well as evangelicals who want to read an outsider's perspective on their culture. As the country takes to the polls for midterm congressional elections, this book will shed light on how and why evangelical culture is becoming increasingly entwined in American politics.
Mark I. Pinsky is religion reporter for the Orlando Sentinel and author of The Gospel according to The Simpsons and The Gospel according to Disney. He was Media Fellow at the Duke Divinity School in spring 2006, and his writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Columbia Journalism Review, among others. He appears frequently in national media discussing religion and popular culture.
Religion journalist Pinsky's (The Gospel According to The Simpsons) political
beliefs were shaped in the 1960s and 1970s at Duke and later at Columbia. In
1995, when he became the religion writer for the Orlando Sentinel, which
serves an area of Florida that is home to evangelical Christians and national
and international Christian missionary organizations, he found himself a Jew
among fundamentalists and evangelicals. Here he describes typical Sunbelt
megachurch families and other evangelicals holding a range of religious
beliefs, noting that some are politically conservative while others lean more
to the Left. Pinsky's book is filled with a lot of information that does not
fit together neatly. Instead, it is a collection of observations based on his
personal friendships with evangelicals and his journalistic inquiry showing
the spectrum of beliefs held by evangelicals today. As such, it may have
limited appeal to readers, be they evangelicals or nonevangelicals.-George
Westerlund, formerly with Providence P.L. Copyright 2006 Reed Business
Information.
What's a nice Jewish boy doing at a Baptist church on Sunday? This is not the
first line of a joke, but the raison d'etre of Pinsky's account of American
evangelicalism. Pinsky (The Gospel According to the Simpsons) is a reporter
for the Orlando Sentinel, and his beat-religion in the Sunbelt-draws him into
close contact with evangelical Christians. Here, he examines evangelical pop
culture and asks hard questions about evangelicalism's attitudes toward
Judaism. But it is Pinsky's treatment of evangelicals in politics that
distinguishes his book from countless other journalistic forays into the land
of megachurches and Veggie Tales. Pinsky shows that evangelicalism is much
more politically diverse than is often acknowledged. To illustrate, Pinsky
takes readers to Calvin College, where a furor erupted when President Bush was
invited to speak at graduation; many of the faculty and students at this
decidedly evangelical school were appalled, and some boycotted commencement
rather than give tacit approval of a president they disdained. Pinsky charts a
growing evangelical environmental movement and shows that though many people
who believe in a literal six-day Creation are evangelicals, many evangelicals
do not hold to creationism. Kudos to Pinsky for offering nuanced reporting
instead of stereotypes. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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