Reviewed by: 20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America by Ryan P. Burge Mark Mattes 20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America. By Ryan P. Burge. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022. ix + 249 pp. Avoid this book if you do not like hot button topics! But if you want some clear-headed, evidence-based reasoning about how faith intersects with public life, this book is valuable. Both a professor of political science and an American Baptist pastor, Ryan Burge corrects widespread perceptions about matters as diverse as how religious groups tend to vote, whether religion is in decline in America, how Christians view Donald Trump, whether education leads to secularism, as well as flash points like immigration, abortion, and same-sex marriage. Once you start, this book is hard to put down. It is impossible in a short review to describe every myth that Burge busts. I can only share highlights. He notes that Republicans assume that as much as 36% of Democrats are atheists when in truth it is only 9%. The flipside is that Democrats assume that 44% of Republicans are 65 or older when in reality it is 21%. Likewise, Democrats assume that 50% of Republicans earn $250,000 or more annually when in fact just 2% do. Burge is committed to a statistics-driven "empirical worldview" precisely because it is able to cut through caricatures. [End Page 114] Many of the false perceptions that Burge challenges deal with Evangelicals. This is not due to any bias against other groups like Muslims or Mormons. Accurate statistics require a sizable pool to assess. Evangelicals, along with Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants, have sufficient numbers to provide such information. Interpreting such statistics, however, also requires a knowledge of history and political dynamics. Burge has all these skills. Burge counters the claim that Evangelicalism is in decline by noting that it experienced a "short-lived burst" in the 1990s (15) and that its recent waning is a return to pre-1990s levels. In response to the view that Donald Trump was not the choice of devout Republicans, a stance which assumes that over time the Republican Party is less religious, Burge notes that in 2011 30% of Americans felt that elected officials who are privately immoral could still fulfill their duties in public life while by 2016 the number had changed to 72%. In other words, for many Americans, politicians' private lapses matter little with regard to their ability to deliver in public. Strangely, some people identify as Evangelical but seldom attend church. Burge contends that it is likely that non-church-going Republicans assume that Evangelicalism is congenial to their political platform and so self-identify accordingly (94). Burge notes that the number of Americans who identify as Christian has dropped by 20% since the 1970s. Interestingly, higher levels of education do not contribute to this drop. There is no evidence that college-educated young people are more likely to lack religious affiliation (57). The assumption that people return to faith late in life is not born out by the facts. What appears to be true is that those who stick with church never left it in the first place (118). That said, there is no doubt that secularization is growing in America. But note: "Of those raised nones, about 20 percent became evangelical as an adult, with another 9 percent becoming mainline and 6 percent becoming Catholic. Summed up, over 35 percent of people raised nones became Christians as adults" (168). Problematic is that political divisiveness defines the church: "Thus, many people who would like to find a church home are left with a landscape that is either theologically conservative and incredibly devout on one side or completely irreligious on the other. Left with those choices, [End Page 115] many Americans seem to be choosing to become a none rather than an evangelical or conservative Catholic" (183). Burge's is a refreshing voice because he does not follow a script from either the right or the left. Instead, like Sergeant Friday in Dragnet, "just the facts" is his motto. His goal is to help produce a humbler and gentler America. Mark Mattes Grand View University Des Moines...