The EQ Test: How Evangelical Are You?

I've always secretly enjoyed a genre of humorous, "takes-one-to-know-one," accounts of evangelical Christianity, such as Patricia Klein's Just As We Were, or Sweeney's memoir, Born Again and Again: Surprising Gifts of a Fundamentalist Childhood. So I'm intrigued by the new offering from Joel Kilpatrick's A Field Guide to Evangelicals and Their Habitat. Kilpatrick's is a slight departure from the genre, it seems, insofar as the book is written more for "outsiders," but it clearly displays "insider" knowledge. But this is also a departure insofar as it's less charitable than Klein or Sweeney: the tone seems to be more along the line of The Simpsons' Guide to Evangelicalism. Nevertheless, sure to be entertaining.

For a taste, visit the "EQ Test" on the book's website, designed to help you discern "how evangelical" you are. Classic cases of evangelical shibboleths.

Bush and Blair's Secular Religion

Philip Blond and Adrian Pabst, two bright young British theologians, today published an insightful commentary on "The Twisted Religion of Blair and Bush" in the International Herald Tribune (roughly an arm of the NYT in Europe, for those not familiar). A fine example of thoughtful, accessible theologically-informed public commentary.

I'm Not Kidding

Left Behind: The Video Game

Yet one more piece of evidence confirming the Babylonian captivity of American evangelicalism.