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The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: different morality, evangelical nation, evangelical power, Lake Pointe, Southern Baptists, Pastor Steve (more...)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Religion reporter Wicker (formerly of the Dallas Morning News and author of Lily Dale) proffers a tendentious, confused book about the alleged demise of conservative evangelicalism.She makes a few lucid points, as when she deftly takes apart the many competing statistics about how many Americans are evangelical.But overall the book has a shrill feel, thanks to the regular use of terms like threat and death knell.Some of the chapters, which seem like filler, are journalistic accounts of aspects of evangelical life—e.g., a portrait of a grieving widow who says she wouldn't give up Jesus to have her husband back—and are not closely related to the overarching argument.Wicker argues that some of the threats to evangelicalism come from evangelical institutions themselves.For example, she asserts that megachurches carry a lot of debt—a fascinating claim that should be bolstered by more rigorous research and source citation. However, merely establishing that megachurches are vulnerable because they cater to the tastes of boomers and depend on the personality of their leaders doesn't tell us that evangelicalism is dying; it just suggests that evangelicalism, ever protean, will once again change.(May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

Wicker is the kind of journalist who scrutinizes received wisdom. She casts an analytic eye on churchgoers and their attendance habits to demonstrate that, far from every fourth American being a right-wing Evangelical Christian, as the 25 percent of 2004 ballot-casters dubbed “values voters” were supposed to be, only 7 percent, at most, fit that mold. She further discloses that Evangelical church membership, finances, and effectiveness are plummeting as charismatic megachurch builders retire and die, suburbs age and decay, and less authoritarian, more tolerant family values attract more new-family builders. Old rivals to effective ministry, such as 12-step programs, continue drawing adherents away from Evangelical Christianity, and science continues to erode the biblical literalism ingrained in many Evangelical churches. In short, the Evangelical Christianity of media stereotypes is rapidly withering, and the power of the religious Right is increasingly negligible. Once a true believer herself, Wicker reports all this declining-and-falling with great sympathy for particular right-wing Evangelicals whom she sees leading exemplary and rewarding lives of strict faith. Most enlightening, and welcome indeed during an election year. --Ray Olson
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: HarperOne (April 29, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061117161
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061117169
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #569,740 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Christine Wicker
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
different morality, evangelical nation, evangelical power, committed evangelicals, evangelical way, true evangelicals, evangelical faith
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Lake Pointe, Southern Baptists, Pastor Steve, United States, Everyone Can, One Out of Four Americans, Willow Creek, Giants Crashing, Van Grubbs, New Orleans, New Family Values, Everyone Didn't, Golden Rule, Becoming Heaven's Beloved, American Christians, Susan Bruk, Garden of Eden, Bad Politics, William James, Shy Witnesses, National Association of Evangelicals, Higher Power, Disillusioned Believers, Doorknob Gods, Holiday Inn
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31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An Important, Edgy Book That Pulls Back the Evangelical Curtain to Explore the Fragile Nature of A Shrinking Movement, May 7, 2008
This is an important book by a veteran observer of American religious life -- explaining in plain, convincing terms why a lot of our assumptions about the power of "evangelicals" and "megachurches" are myths. If you're inside this movement yourself, Wicker's book almost certainly will open your eyes to the fragile nature of your movement and your style of doing church.

Wicker is a veteran religion writer, who reported on staff at the Dallas Morning News for a number of years. She's also the well-received author of a couple of earlier books on America's spiritual culture. Her 2003 book, "Lily Dale: The Town That Talks to the Dead (Plus)," examined Americans' fascination with "Spiritualists" that stretches back at least 130 years. That turned into a best seller and received a lot of media attention.

Later, she wrote a book, "Not In Kansas Anymore: Dark Arts, Sex Spells, Money Magic, and Other Things Your Neighbors Aren't Telling You (Plus)," about Americans' long-running interest in, at least occasionally, dabbling in eccentric traditions.

Now, she's back with this book-length examination of America's large evangelical movement -- scraping away at the often fearsome political veneer that, she argues persuasively, some very sharp political operatives have draped over the surface of a major segment of American churches.

There's an angry edge to the opening section of this book in which she takes these political operatives to task. In fact, some of Wicker's opening lines are written with, we might say, journalistic hyperbole. Here's an example. She argues in the Introduction: "Evangelical Christianity in America is dying," and, "Nobody knows what to do about it." Well, it's clear that evangelicals will survive, even if their community shrinks as it shakes itself out. We've still got remnants of religious movements that have survived thousands of years. Evangelicals won't become extinct. And, concerning that second line: It's also obvious that lots of people think they know what to do about this. Jim Wallis (author of "The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America") certainly does, so does Ken Wilson (author of "Jesus Brand Spirituality: He Wants His Religion Back") -- and so do many other prophetic voices emerging in the evangelical world.

Don't let the sharpness of that opening edge or those overly broad statements dissuade you from reading this terrific book. Wicker knows this field after years as a journalist specializing in covering religion.
And you'll find that, even though the book opens in anger, it winds up turning for home with a remarkably compassionate voice. Toward the end of her book, she points out to readers that many of us probably have had doubts, questions and alternative interpretations kicking around in our hearts and minds for years -- and, finally, we're reaching a point at which we don't have to blindly accept an authority figure dictating doctrine to us. We're all on a search in this era, she argues. And, for many readers, reaching that point in her book is going to feel like a warm hug from a friend.

What's really fascinating here is that Wallis in a couple of recent books and 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.

Wicker is not merely arguing that the evangelical movement is losing members at the fringes. Quite the contrary, she's arguing that some of the smartest and most deeply committed people at the core of the movement -- say like Ken Wilson himself -- are restlessly shaking the pillars of the movement and especially are telling many of the "religious right" political operators to hit the road.

This book is a solid choice for helpful analysis in an era of very confusing religious change.
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21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars An overview of a topic, May 9, 2008
I enjoyed Christine's work at the Dallas Morning News. She was part of one of the best religion pages in the country.

Two Postives about the book:

1.) She looks at the religious landscape of America from a long view bringing together many parts to form a complete picture. She does not connect the dots but does it more in an impressionistic fashion. She talks about the decline of the American church and that church leaders look outside the US for examples of leadership. That is Philip Jenkins thesis in the Next Christendom. She brings Phyllis Tickle and the emerging folks into the mix who talks about the next cultural quake that will shift Christian thinking like the Reformation, the monastic movement, etc. She quotes George Barna, the evangelical pollster. I nodded several times and she wrote a synthesis of what my reading and thinking has been as I read and listen to Christian thinkers.
2.) Her antecdotes are humanizing of evangelicals and former evangelicals.
They provide the human dimension.
3.) Her journalistic writing style provides a quick read. I read the book in about three and half hours.

Negatives
1.) Wicker has a point of view. That point of view is not entirely neutral and she claims that. Is it fair? At times, but at other times I wonder about her interpretation of folks. I will say that point of view is worth hearing, but she is part of the evangelical church that has fallen away. She is an actor in this movement. So, there are points when I question her point of view. However, for some folks that may mean that she provides a voice that needs to be heard.

2.) I think she left out one interesting aspect of the problem of the church. Education. The evangelical church of today now prides itself that its leaders are not overly educated. They have a life of experience that has prepared them to pastor not a seminary education. While the workforce is getting more specialized and more educated, the local church is not lifting up education as essential to be on staff.
In fact, a lack of education is more helpful in growing a church at times.

Continuing as we face a flat world more educated world...Evangelical Christianity will lack the ability to communicate with it. All of those students who learn creationism will now have to compete in classrooms with folks who learned evolution. The test is on evolution not creationism.

I think the impact of evangelicals on education is also an element that is part of the disconnect with the world that people in the evangelical world feel and is leading to the decline.

Overall, this book is an introduction and synthesis of folks who have done some of the heavier lifting. Willow Creek, George Barna, Jim Wallis, MacLaren, et al. This is a journalistic treatment that provides some synthesis to others' work. It is worth a read.
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Evangelicals should read this book, May 19, 2008
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As an evangelical leader myself, reading Wicker's book was not an exercise in edification. But it is a cold dose of reality, and although I don't believe all her claims, I think the thrust of what she says must be heard. She begins with her thesis:

Evangelical Christianity in America is dying. The great evangelical movements of today are not a vanguard. They are a remnant, unraveling at every edge. Look at it any way you like: Conversions. Baptisms. Membership. Retention. Participation. Giving. Attendance. Religious literacy. Effect on culture. All are down and dropping. It's no secret. Even as evangelical forces trumpet their purported political and social victories, insiders are anguishing about their great losses, fearing what the future holds. Nobody knows what to do about it. A lot of people can't believe it. No wonder. The idea that evangelicals are taking over America is one of the greatest publicity scams in history, a perfect coup accomplished by savvy politicos and religious leaders, who understand media weaknesses and exploit them brilliantly. ix

Could this be true? She lays out studies showing the problem is real, mostly from Christian, evangelical sources--Gordon Conwell, Barna, Josh McDowell, Southern Baptist Mission Board, and from some secular, but neutral sources like Pew and Gallup. She, herself, is not neutral. She is a lapsed Baptist who lost her faith in college, like 90% of evangelical children do, according to McDowell. She tries, but fails to conceal her glee over the situation. But I liked the fact that this was coming from a non-evangelical. Do we dare to read what the world thinks of us?

As a non-believer, Wicker is more interested in the issues raised by the Christian right. She portrays the common perception that evangelical churches are growing in America as sort of a plot, or scam, designed to give the right-wing political people more power at election time. I found this part uninteresting and somewhat implausible.

But while I questioned her interpretations at many points, I did not find her main thesis implausible. Our own studies show the same thing. For instance, "The evidence comes from Southern Baptists' own studies. Only 7 percent of members who've been in a Southern Baptist church five years of less are true converts." 62 We have done studies that show the same thing, and Baptists are generally better than other evangelical churches. In some of our studies of famous churches, the percent that report they met Christ in that church is as low as 3 percent.

She rolls out numerous studies in an interesting way, interspersed with stories of people from both favorable and hostile perspective. She concludes, "The truth behind all these numbers is that evangelicals are not converting and cannot convert non-Christian adult Americans, especially native-born white people, in significant numbers." 64 I believe that is as true as any statement in the book.

In a larger view she says, "A small and declining group of people has been portrayed as tremendously powerful and growing so rapidly that they might take over the country--when in fact that number of converts among this group is down and dropping. They are rarely able to convert and adult, middle-class American. Their share of the population is not 25 percent, but at most 7 percent of the country and falling. All these numbers come from the churches themselves." 67

What about the reports that 30 or even 40% of Americans are evangelicals? She de-bunks that myth using work again from evangelical sources, including Barna who made that figure popular. His real test for actual believers of a simple list of 9 basic truths shows that the real number of those who believe the Bible at a level that could be considered evangelical is only 7% of the population. Even this crew is suspect. The rest of the so-called 'born-again' Christians in America don't even know what it means. Wicker observes, "The other larger group [the rest of the 40%] comprised evangelicals who were born again but didn't accept the great majority of the most basic religious tenets that evangelicals are "supposed" to live by. 86 I've known this for years. There's no way most of the people Barna refers to as born-again are true Christians.

As I argue in my recent book dealing with Satan (Satan and His Kingdom: What the Bible Says and How It Matters to You), why would the church ever consider facing the pain of change when they believe they're already on the winning track? At pastors' forums I've attended, most Christian leaders believe we are in the midst of a revival in America. Unfortunately, as Wicker proves, nothing could be further from the truth. Unless evangelicals are prepared to face the truth about ourselves, we will be unwilling to think outside the box in a way that will do any good.
-Dennis McCallum, author Organic Disciplemaking: Mentoring Others Into Spiritual Maturity And Leadership
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5.0 out of 5 stars Informative book with statistics
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1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of ink and good trees.
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Again, another brilliantly written book by Christine Wicker. Both sides are fairly depicted, and an amazing and informative read.
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A lousy book because Christine Wicker did not have all the facts. She made conclusions based upon a small sample. Read more
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