Why do evangelicals have such an affinity for Fox News, homeschooling, and church potlucks? Is there really a “Master List” of who’s actually gong to hell–and wouldn’t you like to take a tiny peek at it if there was? Author and satirist Joel Kilpatrick tackles these and many other important issues as he offers his blistering commentary on the evangelical subculture in his book, “A Field Guide To Evangelicals.”

The book, on sale starting today, has the same offbeat sensibility as Kilpatrick’s website, Lark News, where he has poked fun at trendy Christian books such as “The Prayer of Jabez” and “The Purpose-Driven Life” and offered readers an advice column called “The Missionary Position” and an online game called “The Fantasy Evangelism League.”

One of my favorite parts of Kilpatrick’s “Field Guide” is his “How Evangelical Are You?” quiz. The results of the quiz will tell you your EQ–Evangelical Quotient. Here’s a sample question:

3. You think “backslide” is:
a. A country dance step.
b. A type of alcoholic drink.
c. A sinful state of non-belief.

Kilpatrick’s quirky commentary in “Field Guide” is always dead-on, but yet somehow never mean-spirited in its examination of the outward manifestations of the evangelical faith. Maybe that’s because secretly he’s as evangelical as the people he writes about and yet smart enough not to take himself, or others, too seriously.

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