Falsely Alarmed by Ralph Mackenzie

Falsely Alarmed

Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical’s Lament: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America
by Randall Balmer
Basic Books, 2006
(242 pages, $24.95, hardcover)

reviewed by Ralph Mackenzie

One of Randall Balmer’s earliest memories is of “sitting in the kitchen of a rural parsonage in southern Minnesota and asking Jesus into my heart.” Many years later, the still born-again Evangelical—“I’ll put up my credentials as an evangelical against anyone’s!” he asserts—writes in this book-length lament: “The evangelical faith that nurtured me as a child and sustains me as an adult has been hijacked by right-wing zealots who distorted the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:


Print &
Online Subscription

Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!

Online
Subscription

Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!

bulk subscriptions

Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.

Transactions will be processed on a secure server.


more from the online archives

22.8—November/December 2009

Looking for Wenceslaus

on the Real Men Behind the Christmas Carol by Michael Baum

31.1—January/February 2018

In Defense of Prudery

The Wisdom of the Victorian Quest for Innocence by David Sandifer

33.4—July/August 2020

The Joy of God

by S. M. Hutchens

calling all readers

Please Donate

"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand

"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor

Support Touchstone

00