Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America Book

The televangelists may be the most conspicuous element of the evangelical subculture in America, and the bizarre antics of some of the most prominent figures--Oral Roberts, Jim Bakker, or Jimmy Swaggart--make for amusing film clips on the evening news. But as Randall Balmer reveals in this vivid and colorful narrative, these men make up only a small part of a strikingly diverse religious movement; in fact, the Falwells and the Bakkers are marginal figures, of only moderate importance to the many fundamentalist, charismatic, and pentecostal believers in the United States. When it was first published in 1989, it was universally hailed as a sensitive, moving, and enlightening account of a religious phenomena little understood and often ridiculed. The companion volume to a PBS television series hosted by Balmer, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory criss-crosses the country--from Oregon to Florida, from Texas to North Dakota--to take readers on a journey into the heart of evangelical America. In an evenhanded, reflective series of New Yorker-style profiles, Balmer gives one the sense of what it is like to sit in on classes in the Dallas Theological Seminary or to accompany evangelical activists as they mobilize support for Pat Robertson and Jack Kemp at the 1988 Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. We visit an old-fashioned holiness camp meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida, an Indian reservation in the Dakotas, a huge trade show for Christian booksellers, and a fundamentalist Bible camp in the Adirondacks. In addition, the expanded edition inc! ludes a profile of the Multnomah School of the Bible, a fundamentalist Bible institute in Portland, Oregon; tells the story of the pentecostal congregation in Valdosta, Georgia that decided to join ranks with the Episcopal Church; and offers an account of Billy Graham's recent crusade that brought tens of thousands into New York's Central Park. Throughout, Balmer fills in the theological and historical background--on the Jesus Movement in California, for instance, or Protestant missionary work among Native-Americans--creating in effect a capsule history of evangelicism. And while Balmer acknowledges a certain sympathy with evangelicism, he doesn't gloss over its failings--the combativeness and exclusivity that permeate much of its teachings, or the pervasive theology of prosperity which Balmer deplores as "the sanctification of American consumerism." But perhaps what stands out most in this book is the people Balmer meets on his journey, ranging from the evangelical filmmaker Donald Thompson to pentecostal faith healers to fervent young evangelists working the beaches of southern California. It is through their eyes that we see into the heart of American evangelicism, that we understand the genuine appeal of the movement and thereby arrive at a more accurate and balanced portrait of an abiding tradition that, as the author argues, is both rich in theological insights and mired in contradictions. For this edition, Balmer has added two new chapters, one offering a fascinating profile of disgraced TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, and the other a behind-the-scenes portrait of a Christian rock band on tour.Read More