Rodney Stark is a sociologist, historian of religion and author who was interviewed by Timothy Dalrymple for Patheos’ Evangelical Portal about his latest book, God’s Battalions: the Case for the Crusades.
It’s a good and provactive read.
Toward the end of the piece one quote caught my eye:
Too many evangelical intellectuals want to be the house conservative at the liberal banquet.
Read the whole article: Crusades For Christ.
HT: Justin Taylor.
mgpcpastor's blog 
thanks Gary – I enjoyed that article – especially the main part of it debunking some common conceptions about the crusades.
I’ve been thinking about Stark’s book for a while.
abebooks.com has it for a good price.
Landed here in OZ for around $25 (Give or take a retreating dollar)
sorry one more thing – his comments at the end really challenge my beliefs about american evangelicals and politics:
“when I look at evangelicals using survey data, they are not a bunch of right-wing Republicans. They’re conservative, but they’re about equally Republicans and Democrats. It’s religious and not political conservatism that defines them.”
If he’s correct about that, I would be really pleased. I do think that political and religious conservatism should be kept separate – even though in my own case I hold to both. I’m worried that in America “evangelical” has become such a politically-loaded term that the gospel itself is tainted by association with the word (which is why I’m less inclined to use it these days). But Stark seems to think that that is mostly a liberal-progressive-elite slur. Perhaps it is.