I wasn't quite sure what to expect from a book telling the stories of several well-known Christian leaders, which openly criticises them and the way their teachings are accepted by millions of followers, especially in America. However, I did find it very helpful and compelling, whilst not always agreeing with the authors in some of their conclusions, and at times I felt like they unfairly caricatured some of their subjects.
The heart of the book is clear: what is it that makes millions of evangelical Christians follow the teachings of men like Ken Ham (young-earth Creationist), Tim Lahaye (prophecy guru and Left Behind author) and David Barton (fundamentalist revisionist American historian), many of whom have little or no qualifications in their specific areas, whilst ignoring the work of other evangelicals who are highly qualified and universally respected in their particular fields? (such as Francis Collins, NT Wright and Mark Noll respectively)
This is actually a question I have found myself asking many times when watching some of the more extreme fundamentalist programmes on Christian TV, and trying to stop myself from throwing something at the television in despair and occasionally anger! So I'm glad someone has had the courage to write about it, whether or not I agree about their particular examples.
The book is very America-focussed, but it is still interesting and relevant to Brits like me, especially having been brought up in a conservative evangelical background, and at times feeling like it's 'us against the world', clinging on to the safety of the teaching of a small number of charismatic, confident preachers who assure us that they are simply reading the Bible as it is, not interpreting it like those terrible liberals. The title of the book, The Anointed, is based on the idea that the fundamentalist evangelicals in America are 'deeply rooted in some good old-fashioned American anti-intellectualism', and choose to trust those they believe God has anointed, rather than those who have expertise in particular subjects. There is a deep mistrust in the experts and a great trust in the popular preachers who talk about common sense, reading the Bible literally and uniting together against the evil secular world: God's 'anointed' leaders are the ones we can trust. This is an interesting claim and I have certainly seen anti-intellectualism at work sometimes in the evangelical church, although not to the extent described in the book (except on Christian TV).
The leaders who have achieved so much success and are critiqued in this book are all experts at tapping into the desire for common sense, plain speaking, bible-based life teaching. Unfortunately they have helped to create an isolationist culture where anyone who steps outside the boundaries (young earth, 6 literal days of creation, premillennial eschatology, America as a Christian nation, unquestioning support for modern-day Israel) is seen to be selling out to secular humanism and therefore is not to be trusted. In this point I think the authors have a good point.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a mostly balanced and measured critique of the fundamentalist evangelical culture. It did annoy me at times, but it is an important subject for discussion, and I hope it will lead to discussion rather than being ignored or rejected by those within the fundamentalist stable of evangelicalism.
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