"Today in the United States, there are hundreds of thousands of Protestant churches whose members habitually carry their Bibles with them. These churches - often referred to as "evangelical" or "fundamentalist" - play a crucial role in shaping contemporary American society.". "The Bible-Carrying Christians, David Harrington Watt draws on years of fieldwork in Philadelphia churches to present an elegant reinterpretation of the way that conservative Protestants influence American politics and culture. The increasing involvement and influence of evangelicals in public life have left many non-evangelicals with stereotyped perceptions of conservative Protestantism. Watt forces readers to confront their assumptions about these churches, and challenges the ease with which those assumptions are perpetuated.". "At the heart of the book is a sympathetic, but far from uncritical, analysis of those forms of social power that are assumed to be natural among Bible-carrying Christians. While outsiders often presuppose that evangelical Christians take for granted the authority of certain institutions and social groups - among them the American state, corporations, ordained ministers, heterosexuals, and men - Watt argues that, in fact, the reality is much more complex. The portrait of Bible-carrying Christians that emerges is far more compelling than standard depictions of conservative American Protestants."--BOOK JACKET.