Every weekend, at least fifty million American adults, with at least five million children in tow, interrupt the routine of errands and soccer games and lawn mowing and laundry to go to religious services. They are more likely to go if they do, in fact, have children in tow, but empty nesters and young adults and even teens are there, too. In addition to this dedicated core of weekly attendees, another 100 million American adults are connected enough to a religious tradition to attend a few times a year, put their names on the rolls of a local congregation at least some time in their lives, and tell pollsters that they believe in God and say their prayers with some regularity.¹1. These figures (as well as religious preference percentages noted later) have been calculated from the General Social Survey, using pooled data from annual surveys since 1995. National Opinion Research Center, GSSDIRS: General Social Survey: 1972–2000 Cumulative Codebook (July 4, 2005). To a degree baffling in much of the rest of the Western world, Americans think of themselves in religious terms.

But taking religion seriously is not to be equated with fundamentalism—or even Evangelicalism. While Evangelicals value the Bible and the soul-saving Jesus they find there, fundamentalists (of the Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson sort) profess a certainty about the Bible’s truths most Evangelicals are too humble (and civil) to claim. Despite the influence of “values voters” loyal to George W. Bush, not every Evangelical is ready to impose Christian values on the world at large. Voices of fundamentalists and Evangelicals have gained significant strength over the past three decades, and they have in this President someone they recognize as one of their own. What they do not have, appearances aside, is either unanimity of views on most policy issues or a majority of the population. Assessing the real import of America’s religiosity—and of the Evangelical presence in American religion—requires a much closer look than exit polls allow.

A closer look immediately reveals that American religion and even American Evangelicalism are incredibly diverse. They bear almost no relation to the caricatures of Evangelicals so popular in Europe—knuckle-dragging throwbacks, Bible-thumping crusaders, purveyors of bobble-headed kitsch, saccharin-laced frauds lost in the crowd at a megachurch that has all the sacred charm of a K-Mart. To get a flavor of the actual diversity of the Evangelical community in America, come with me on a field trip. One weekend some years ago I managed to attend six religious services in the space of a little more than 24 hours (caution: professional researcher at work—don’t try this at home). These services took me from the north suburbs...