The Fall of the Evangelical Nation

“The Fall of the Evangelical Nation” Endorsed by Brian McLaren

A book will be hitting bookstores on May 1st entitled, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church. It is published by one of the world’s largest purveyors of New Age material, Harper One (formerly Harper San Francisco). The author, Christine Wicker, seems to have something of a taste for the occult and paranormal. Her previous two books are Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town That Talks to the Dead, and Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America. Now she has taken it upon herself to announce the demise of evangelicalism.

This is how the book is being promoted by Harper One.

“Evangelical Christianity is dying. The great evangelical movements of today are not a vanguard; they are a remnant, unraveling at every edge. Conversions. Baptism. Membership. Retention. Participation. Giving. Attendance. Religious literacy. Cultural influence. All are down and dropping…With her trademark vivid and first hand reporting, Wicker takes us deep inside this crumbling pillar of the Religious Right, exposing the surprising statistics and details of this unexpected fall.”

This author appears to be making some pretty bold statements, and it will be most interesting to see her data. It is also interesting that she chose none other than Brian McLaren to endorse her book. This is McLaren who doesn’t believe in hell and the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross, firmly removing him from the historic definition of evangelical. He does, however, qualify for the label of the new variety where you can make things up as you go. He writes,

“Written with intensity, passion and compassion, this is one of the year’s truly important books on the changing face of religion in America.”

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