Christian America?: What Evangelicals Really Want

by Christian Smith

In recent decades Protestant evangelicalism has become a conspicuous and--to many Americans, worrisome--part of this country's cultural and political landscape. But just how unified is the supposed constituency of the Christian Coalition? And who exactly are the people the Christian Right claims to represent? In the most extensive study of American evangelicals ever conducted, Christian Smith explores the beliefs, values, commitments, and goals of the ordinary men and women who make up this often misunderstood religious group. The result is a much-needed contribution to the discussion of issues surrounding fundamental American freedoms and the basic identity of the United States as a pluralistic nation.

Based on data from a three-year national study, including more than 200 in-depth interviews of evangelicals around the country, Christian America? assesses the common stereotype of evangelicals as intolerant, right-wing, religious zealots seeking to impose a Christian moral order through political force. What Smith finds instead are people vastly more diverse and ambivalent than this stereotype suggests. On issues such as religion in education, "family values," Christian political activism, and tolerance of other religions and moralities, evangelicals are highly disparate and conflicted. As the voices of interviewees make clear, the labels "conservative" and "liberal" are too simplistic for understanding their approaches to public life and political action.

Genres: History, Politics

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. Smith's research focuses primarily on religion in modernity, adolescents, American evangelicalism, and culture.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The book isn't awful, but it fails on a number of levels. It purports to be an analytical (empirical account) of the true motivations and desires of Evangelicals in America, and is aimed at indicating that if there is a strain within Christianity that progressive, liberal (secular humanists) should be worried about, it's not in Evangelicals in general. To some extent, it accomplishes this goal, but in the main, was unconvincing. Often he's willing to take at face value statements that, if you probe deeper in them, past the language on its face, are deeply troubling, such as requests for equal time in religion, or the sovereignty of the male figure in the home. Problems include the heavily anecdotal nature of the evidence, the sample selection (honestly: how on earth do most of his samples for Evangelical believers, who are typically based in the West or heartland, come from the coasts and liberal areas? Serious sampling bias here), and ultimately the fact that even what he does find isn't terribly compelling. For example, he says in the concluding Appendix (to paraphrase): Evangelicals may dislike gays. And atheists. And be none to fond of the Jews, really. Oh, and women should be in the home. But they don't like KKK leader David Duke any more than the rest of America! My take on this: Great! They're not totally crazy, dangerous and stupid (as a group. I speak in generalizations), just sorta crazy, dangerous and stupid!

[Randy Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its interesting to read a book that's really a first shot a evangelicals. In 1999 Smiths point was that Evangelicals should not be feared and that they were really not so different than the rest of us. 15 years later things look very different and the political aspect of the Evangelical movement has not followed Smith's more moderate trajectory but has become increasingly insular and conservative. Perhaps by focusing on a more national sample rather than focusing on the places where Evangelicals could develop a culture like the South, Smith missed the more reactionary trajectories that have come to dominate it.