John Wilson, hardly anyone’s idea of a foaming-at-the-mouth right-wing evangelical theocrat, upbraids Randall Balmer’s attempts at a caricature of his (Balmer’s, as well as Wilson’s) evangelical brethren. The concluding paragraph:

I hope that in time Balmer will write another book covering some of this territory, a book in which the moral passion that informs Thy Kingdom Come will not be dimmed but which will do greater justice to the moral complexity of the terrain, a book that will be likely to unsettle some of his university colleagues as much as it angers many on the Religious Right. That’s a book I’m eager to read.

I caught part of Balmer’s appearance on Michael Medved’s show. Balmer didn’t acquit himself well, constantly insisting against the evidence that theologically conservative evangelicals are incipient theocrats.

If you haven’t already read
Ross Douthat’s review essay, you should, posthaste.