The Evangelicals You Don't Know

A frequent USA Today contributor, Krattenmaker (Onward Christian Athletes) combines reporting and opinion in this analysis of new evangelical leaders and their efforts to engage the culture in a noncombative way. Krattenmaker, who is not an evangelical and describes himself as a secular progressive, says he is keenly interested in evangelicals who “defy the stereotype.” He is convinced that people such as Kevin Palau, Gabe Lyons, Jonathan Merritt, and even Focus on the Family’s new leader, Jim Daly, are moving away from confrontation on such issues as abortion and gay rights. He also suggests evangelicals may be distancing themselves from their unblinking support of capitalism and the Republican Party. And they are also doing good works, whether fighting sex-trafficking or adopting orphans. Krattenmaker calls this “goodwill-mongering” evangelism and salutes these efforts. He convincingly argues that liberals, and especially atheists, should drop their reflexive antipathy toward evangelicals and begin to engage them. The two camps may not agree, but the nation may be better served by a more understanding and respectful posture. While many of the evangelicals he writes about have written their own books, this volume may be more persuasive to left-leaning, secular readers.
— Publishers Weekly


Religion journalist Krattenmaker (USA Today, Onward Christian Athletes) sheds fact-filled light on
Evangelical Christians who are more inclined toward socially informed acts and open discussion. While the subtitle suggests this is a generational difference, Krattenmaker notes that this is more about ways of expressing conviction, not necessarily age. Drawing examples from many sources, he discusses Compassion Connect, based in Portland, Oregon; the annual Q conference’s attention to service-oriented witnessing over political sparring; and a wonderfully ironic and powerful confessional program developed by Evangelical students at ultraliberal Reed College. Krattenmaker is not an Evangelical Christian himself; instead he is a fair-minded, inquisitive interviewer and reporter, substantiating his findings in detail but also bringing alive the interviewees and the work they are accomplishing with their new methodology of exercising their religious beliefs.
— Booklist


Mention evangelical Christians—indeed, Christianity itself—and many Americans think of right-wing political conservatism often expressed in its most judgmental forms—opposition to abortion, gay marriage, and a disbeliever in evolution—while promoting school prayer and Christmas crèches on the courthouse lawn. Surprisingly, argues Krattenmaker (contributing columnist, religion, USA Today; Onward Christian Athletes), young evangelicals share this criticism of their faith communities and are increasingly transforming evangelicalism from within. Outmoded conceptions of evangelism, hateful attitudes toward gays and lesbians, scorn heaped on those of other faiths or on those who have none, anti-intellectual rejection of science and evolution: such attitudes are being weighed and found wanting by the “next Christian” leaders Krattenmaker encounters. These young evangelicals, says the author, are altering for the better not only evangelicalism’s self-presentation but also its self-understanding and commitments. Krattenmaker offers little explanation of the dynamics behind these changes other than to suggest that a younger generation is weary of the “culture wars” of the faith and wary of a dogmatism that thinks it has nothing to learn from nonbelievers. VERDICT Krattenmaker’s engaging journalistic survey of kinder, gentler, younger evangelicals working toward cooperation rather than confrontation will hearten secularists and progressive religionists, as well as evangelicals who have long been uncomfortable with the political captivity of their faith.
— Library Journal


Krattenmaker, one of America’s leading journalists on religion, presents a fair-minded, critical assessment of evangelicalism from his liberal vantage point. Krattenmaker complexifies the situation in which we find ourselves in America today. Drawing attention to a groundswell of compassion and civic virtue within evangelical Christianity that does not fit the negative stereotypes of much of secular America, Krattenmaker powerfully argues that the battle is not between evangelicals and non-evangelicals, including secularists

Journalism of this caliber and scope is vitally important if we are to move beyond the partisan politics and religious fervor that so divides our society in the pursuit of a more humane America. A must read for all concerned—everybody.

— Patheos


For years, atheists have been countering the claims of prominent evangelical Christians, with their anti-gay, anti-women, and anti-science beliefs. What Tom Krattenmaker shows us in this book is that a new wave of Christians, while still believing in God, may hold views closer to atheists than their older evangelical counterparts. They are growing in influence and we're all better off because of it.

It's this new generation of Christians -- dedicated to social justice issues -- whose beliefs stand a chance of surviving in a post-religious America. If Christianity has ever let you down, this book will lift you up. While atheists pride themselves on winning minds, the Religious Left is doing an incredible job of winning hearts. Tom Krattenmaker shows us how they're doing it and offers a preview of what's to come.
— Hemant Mehta, blogger at FriendlyAtheist.com and author of The Young Atheist's Survival Guide


Tom Krattenmaker’s excellent book demonstrates that evangelicals once again, always exquisitely attuned to the idiom of the culture, are finding new ways to live out their faith in a pluralistic society. The very good news in these pages is that this rising generation of “new evangelicals” is eager to consign the follies and the fallacies of the Religious Right to the dustbin of irrelevance.
— Randall Balmer, Mandel Family Professor of Arts & Sciences, Dartmouth College, author of The Making of Evangelicalism


The Evangelicals You Don’t Know is a thoughtful and informative book. Tom Krattenmaker expertly and entertainingly charts a development that although small and inchoate, at present, may conceivably come to change the texture of American religion and polity as we know it a decade or so from now.

— Jacques Berlinerblau, director of Program for Jewish Civilization, Georgetown University


Tom Krattenmaker is one of the liberals we evangelicals need to know. In The Evangelicals You Don’t Know, one of America’s leading journalists on religion presents a fair-minded, critical assessment of evangelicalism from his liberal vantage point. Krattenmaker complexifies the situation in which we find ourselves in America today. Drawing attention to a groundswell of compassion and civic virtue within evangelical Christianity that does not fit the negative stereotypes of much of secular America, Krattenmaker powerfully argues that the battle is not between evangelicals and non-evangelicals, including secularists. As he sees it, the culture war dividing line is between religious and secular totalitarians on the one hand and those from across the religious and cultural spectrum that are coming together in support of the common good. Journalism of this caliber and scope is vitally important if we are to move beyond the partisan politics and religious fervor that so divides our society in the pursuit of a more humane America. A must read for all concerned—everybody.
— Paul Louis Metzger, Ph.D., Theologian of Culture, author of Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths; Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church


Traditional ‘evangelicals’ are aging quickly and fading fast in this country. But, in the decline of this once so powerful force, Tom Krattenmaker finds signs of hope for Christianity and the country. In the margins and often out of the lime light, ‘new’ evangelicals are stepping in and reimagining their faith for a new world and younger generation. Tom has his fingers on the pulse of the struggles in American Christianity, and this book is must-read for anyone hoping to understand religion in America today.
— Jim Wallis, President and CEO of Sojourners; author of On God’s Side


As demographic shifts challenge white Christian dominance in America, Tom Krattenmaker has his finger on the nervous pulse of the leading expression of that culture: white evangelical Protestants. With the keen eye of a journalist who has been both critic and sympathetic observer, Krattenmaker provides an insider's look at a group of new evangelicals who are using the transformed religious landscape as an opportunity to recover an evangelicalism that is less concerned with ideological battle lines and more concerned with pragmatic solutions to social problems.
— Robert P. Jones, Public Religion Research Institute


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