I am an insider of some 30 years to the Evangelical movement in Canada.

I was surprised at the amount of research and digging that she has done. It is by far the most thorough I have seen done by almost anyone in Canada. I would give her her high marks for the breadth with which she tried to cover the issues.

Evangelical Christians are concerned about issues such as abortion, homosexuality, teaching of evolution in the schools and the increasing secularization of the country as well as the plight of the poor, drug addiction, homelessness and the provision of low cost housing.

Where she fails seriously is in her interpretation of what she found. She does not seem to realize that many evangelicals hold views that are much more nuanced than she portrays them.

1) She fails to step outside her own world view and get into the heads of those she studies. Many times she comes across as a horrified liberal whose views are being challenged, and that her views are the only legitimate ones. For example she mentions hearing students at Laurentian Leadership Centre denigrate the Charter of Rights but fails to address why they might do so. The number of bizarre legal decisions made on the basis of 'Charter Rights' may provide clues. For example the release of a drug dealer caught importing cocaine into Canada because customs officials 'violated' his charter rights.

2) US connections seem to be prevalent in her thinking, which when she finds she is quick to disparage. Frequently she starts down a path discussing an issue and when she runs out of data, she quickly jumps over into parallels with what she has seen in the U.S.A. and continues as if she is discussing the same thing. For example she mentions that Centre Street Church in Calgary (a large church) is member of Willow Creek and therefore draws the erroneous conclusion that somehow this makes the church part of the US megachurch scene. Willow Creek is simply an association that offers training material and aids that churches may want to use. It is almost as if she wants to find an American connection, because then she can assume guilt by association. The reality is that Canadian evangelicals are much like other Canadians in their basic temperment, including being non-political, and for the most part apathetic and passive.

3) She interviews and covers some who are considered fringe elements within the evangelical community. They tend to be great in their own minds only and the rest of us politely ignore them. It is almost as if McDonald believes them. She certainly believes that they are going to influence government.

4) She completly misses the mark on evangelical social engagement. Christians are called upon to better their communities in whatever way they can, and in a western democracy have the right (and duty) as citizens to do so. All over Canada you will find evangelicals involved in much humanitarian work. There are some who have chosen to be involved in the political scene. McDonald chooses to conflate this with the views of R.J. Rusdoony and the Christian right in the US who have a much harder edge and an agenda to re-Christianize the US.

My biggest criticism is that she seems to fail to realise that Canada is a pluralistic society which means that not everyone will hold the same views. She seems to go under the assumption that pluralism = classical western liberal mindset (or progressive as some label it). With the large amount of work she did she could have tried a much deeper, engaging dialog to be able to winnow out the best elements and actually generate some meaningful discussion instead of the sheer swill we see in the Canadian media. Alas she failed.

I feel like I had been led to believe she was out to do investigative journalism but in reality she caved into her primal fear of George Bush and Harper and thus interpreted everything she saw through that grid, much the same way some of those she criticizes do in looking at society through the apocalyptic grid of the book of Revelation. In the process she severely maligns a large segment of Canadian Christianity.

In conclusion, it was disappointing that a journalist of McDonald's reknown was unable to step out of her own views to try to understand others. The evangelical community in Canada is a microcosm of Canada as a whole and is no where near as simple as McDonald pretends. She conflates the views of various subgroups and assigns them to the evangelical community as a whole. In her favour I thought she was probably right with about 60% of what she reported. This leaves 40% that is wrong. The problem is I can't tell which 40% it is.

If you thought that strident Christian right-wing nationalism was only a feature of American politics, this book is for you. Marci McDonald documents the increasing power of the religious right in Canada thoroughly and objectively, identifying the major players and the ways in which their influence continues to grow under the Harper government.

McDonald dissects the topic of theo-conservatism thematically, looking at their major topics of interest: same-sex marriage, abortion, prophetically-inspired support for Israel, home-schooling and Christian educational institutions, and growing influence in government. The sometimes-explicit and sometimes hidden influence of American organizations like Focus on the Family was particularly revelatory.

Ms McDonald relies on extensive first-hand experience and interviews with most of the major players. What emerges is a well-sketched portrait of a growing influence on the Canadian political landscape. The Christian right has learned many lessons from the culture battles fought south of the border, and is applying those lessons here. Provocative food for thought.