HOW WHITE EVANGELICALS THINK

A psychologist explores the mindset of modern white evangelicals in this nonfiction book.

“For many of us who grew up in the white evangelical subculture,” writes author Verhaagen, “we thought we were going one place, but we ended up somewhere else.” Like millions of Americans who grew up in evangelical communities but have subsequently become disaffected with religion, Verhaagen found that the love-your-neighbor message he was taught in Sunday school was actually “part of a subculture that appeared self-centered, angry, and unattractive.” Now a psychologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Chapel Hill, the author combines scholarly insights with his insider’s perspective as one “who has been soaking in evangelicalism for over forty years.” While the last decade has seen a bevy of books on white evangelicalism by historians and sociologists, this one offers an additional layer to the literature by incorporating astute psychological insights. The heavily researched work has a 55-page bibliography and provides numerous interesting stats. For instance, within America’s conservative Christian subculture, there is a “higher than average” percentage of people with narcissistic personality disorder. This is connected to another trait among many evangelicals, a rigid mindset that implicitly tells itself, “I am already special, set apart, blessed, chosen—and I didn’t have to lift a finger to get here.” The social and political ramifications of these mindsets, as anyone who follows American history and contemporary life knows, have profound political and social implications. Verhaagen’s extensive research is combined with a rare sensitivity to the nuances of evangelicalism that criticizes but never stereotypes. The author of eight previous books, Verhaagen is a talented writer who strikes an impressive balance between scholarly research and an accessible writing style. Though admitting that many steadfast conservative evangelicals may dismiss his argument as “liberalism,” the author nevertheless seeks to educate those within the author’s former religious community. This particularly applies to issues of race (“church attendance,” he contends, “correlated with more—not less—racist attitudes”), as the book features a supplemental appendix that provides “Evidence of Systemic Racism.”

A well-researched, absorbing psychological study of white evangelicals.