Evangelicals & Books

I grew up transferring through almost every denomination available. Sometimes we were Baptists, then Lutherans, then Anglican, then Covenant. As a result, I was able to, through experience and later friends and church members, view the literary trends among Evangelicals.

First of all, they were mostly not readers. If there were any books in their house at all, they were display books chosen to match the room as much as the paintings, and a good deal less looked at after purchase. I'll never forget seeing a beautiful limited edition collection of the Chronicles of Narnia on someone's coffee table, and their surprise as I practically drooled over its contents which I instantly began pouring over. When asked why they bought it, "it matched the curtains" was the reply. They didn't even know what it was about.

The other sort were, in a way, worse. They thought they were readers. They kept a token bookcase full of the 'latest' books that happened to be popular. When a book went 'out' it was thrown in the rubbish with the orange bellbottoms and 80s records. If they read the books at all, it was a skim through to find passages to reference in conversation. Like Lady Eustace, they only occasionally read in order to be seen as 'intellectual' in the eyes of society and the non-readers in the church. Like a man who keeps a pair of golf clubs in the living room and occasionally watches Tiger Woods so that he may be seen as a sophisticated 'golf-lover'.

There is one thing that transcends these two groups, occasionally bringing them together. That is the Christian 'pop' book that brings in its wake figurines, scarves and 'book clubs'. These are not the sort of book clubs that the literary think of. They are closer to the shack in the backyard with a 'no girls allowed' sign attached. I attended one for a while, and found the members only interested in telling anecdotes and to be able to say they went to 'book club on suchensuch book'. When presented with an actual literary work such as Everlasting Man, instead of the pop Christian stuff, they recoiled as though it were a rotten egg. Finally, I approached the group leader, one of the latter sort, and received the reply that they only read books that had 'meaning' and were 'practically applicable' and that they had to be the sort the chaps liked. And the chaps, were not the sort to read any books at all unless forced to by the current social trend. Thus 'Prayer of Jabez' was soon replaced by 'The Purpose Driven Life' as the last was completely forgotten. It is as if they are incapable of liking more than one book at a time.

I am afraid there is nothing to be done about this. If one tries to force the unliterary to read real books, they hate them, "their affections are like a sick man's appetite, who desires most that which would increase his evil" as it says in the first act of Coriolanus. The only thing to do is attempt to smile pleasantly when they prattle on about their latest book crush and quietly read Chesterton on your own. Nothing you say can change them. At best they'll get mad at you and you'll receive dirty looks as you slip into your pew.

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