Product Description

At last, a complete, unsparing guide to evangelical Christians. This hilarious and highly useful manual, written by an insider, illuminates this rapidly growing and unique segment of America and offers a thoroughly entertaining, no-holds-barred, laugh-out-loud survey of evangelical culture. See inside for the scoop on:

• What Evangelicals Believe -- Plus a Master List of Who Is Going to Hell
• How to Party Like an Evangelical -- Ambrosia, Li'l Smokies, and Potluck Fever
• The Diversity of Evangelical Politics -- From Right-Wing to Wacko
• Evangelical Mating Habits -- The Shocking Truth

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #316140 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-01
• Released on: 2006-03-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Kilpatrick, founder of the religion satire site Larknews.com, has written a mildly entertaining, if also slightly snarky, introduction to American evangelicalism. First, he claims evangelicals think most people—the New York Times staff, divorce lawyers and all Muslims and Buddhists—will go to hell. Evangelicals themselves, of course, will go to heaven, "the ultimate gated community." It can be hard to spot evangelicals out and about, though they are likely to patronize businesses with biblical names, like Last Days Auto Repair, and they often carry cell phones that ring hymn tunes. Evangelicals also favor certain décor: Thomas Kinkade paintings, Precious Moments figurines and art with biblical quotations. If you wish to actually visit an evangelical church, look for an organization that sounds more like a rehab center than a house of worship: if the building down the block is called Grace Community or Hope Fellowship, odds are it's an evangelical church. There are, to be sure, some chuckles to be had here. "The Legend of the Sand Dollar," a takeoff on cheesy evangelical poems, is very clever, and the chapter on evangelical education offers an amusing look at both home-schooling and Christian colleges. But on the whole, the jokes are a tad too predictable. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Joel Kilpatrick has been making Christians laugh and cry for years. His latest book will continue to do just that." (Relevant Magazine )

"Kilpatrick is probably the funniest voice in the evangelical world today." (Dean Batali, executive producer, That '70s Show and writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer )

"Entertaining reading for those not afraid to laugh about religion or themselves." (Grand Rapids Press )

About the Author

Joel Kilpatrick is an award-winning reporter and creator of LarkNews.com, the world's leading Christian satire website, which received the 2005 Gospel Music Association's Grady Nutt Humor Award. His work has been featured in Time, the Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News, and on CBS Radio. He lives with his wife and family in the Los Angeles area.

Customer Reviews

Pop-Culture Romp with Super-Sizing Lens of Evangelicalism
Kilpatrick has an amazing wit. "Jesus is coming back - probably tomorrow." The Rapture as ultimate "I Told You So." The author both celebrates and pokes fun at pop culture. From Sponge-Bob-Square-Pants to Marilyn Manson (who even the devil himself seems to fear), Kilpatrick presents life in all its beautiful, unseemly, squirmy glory, through the super-sizing lens of Evangelicalism. In "Field Guide," Evangelicalism appears less a religious stance and rather more a collection of forgivable, if pesky, cultural-biases. If Evangelical speculations that Pat and Debbie Boon will be playing in heaven, AC/DC in hell, leave you entertaining sympathy for the devil, you're perhaps getting the author's key message: An overemphasis on worldly "trappings" (Christian-paraphernalia, right-wing political-party affiliation) that attend a supposed commitment to following Jesus, misses the point. The religious life is far simpler, yet endlessly more challenging: treat the guy standing next to you in line at the supermarket the way you'd like to be treated.

Great Satire of Evangelical Christianity.
This has got to be one of the funniest books I have read in a long time.

Joel Kilpatrick explains evangelical beliefs and lifestyles in a way that is just plain hilarious. His book is one of those things that's funny because it's true. He writes with just enough humor, sarcasm, and in some cases, irreverence, to make it a good parody as well as a veiled critique of some parts of evangelical attitudes.

As a former evangelical (still Christian though), I can state that at least 99% of what he writes is true! From the mega-churches to Wal-Mart to the evangelical dad tipping 5% at a restaurant. No part of the evangelical lifestyle is left untouched or unparodied.

hahaha
Larknews is the best thing to come from Christianity since ...well, salvation. This book sprinkles some of the best news articles from Larknews in with a wonderfully hilarious introduction to Evangelical Christianity for those hell-bound sinners that dont have giant Thomas Kincaid paintings adorning walls in every room of their house.

I may not be an evangelical myself any longer [having moved on to one of those liturgical 'religious' churches] but I spent enough sundays sitting in the padded pews of a smiley happy mega church to know that this book is spot on. If you have a good sense of humor this is definitely a book for you.