A Field Guide to Evangelicals & their Habitat
By Joel Kilpatrick
Reviewed by Brian Duss
If you have a strong faith and a good sense of humor, you’ll love the new book by Joel Kilpatrick entitled A Field Guide To Evangelicals & Their Habitat.
Kilpatrick is the creator of LarkNews.com, which, much like fake news site theOnion.com, pokes fun at Evangelical Christians and our many quirks. Instead of Onion style headlines like “Libertarian Reluctantly Calls Fire Department,” we get news like, “Associate tired of pastor stealing his jokes,” and “Church tolerates man’s home-grown worship songs.”
With witty and insightful chapters like Decorating Like An Evangelical and, Evangelical Mating Habits, in a matter of weeks even the most ‘unsaved’ novice could blend right in at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert.
There’s even a chapter on How To Talk And Act Like An Evangelical Without Being One, that suggests topics of conversation; Michael W. Smith or Homeschooling instead of unsafe topics such as Madonna, Condoms or Quentin Tarantino movies.
‘Fast Facts,’ lists information like “Bands That Will Be Playing In Hell,” while ‘Helpful Headlines’ informs with fake news such as “Church Sends Clown and Puppet Teams to War-Torn Africa.”
Kilpatrick even provides us with a helpful Evangelical to English glossary of terms in case you need translated such cryptic phrases as Altar Call, Backslide, Tithe, Fellowship, or Love Offering; wish I usually remembered occurring immediately after the visiting missionaries showed us slides of exotic peoples in need of saving (and puppet shows).
Movies like “Saved,” might offer an entertaining look at the secret world of Evangelicals (“who’s down with G-O-D…”) but Kilpatrick’s book gives ‘non-believers’ an insiders guide to our world while giving Evangelical Christians a much needed lesson in self-deprecating humor. As senior writer for The Onion reminds us, even C.S. Lewis once said, “only the devil cannot abide to be mocked.”
Leave a Reply