Zahnd's straw man: misrepresenting 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' as representative of all American Christianity

Zahnd quotes selectively from the Edwards sermon to make orthodox Christianity look as repulsive as possible — framing eternal judgment as 'God's torture chamber' and comparing it to 'the Almighty's eternal Auschwitz.' Winger argues this is manipulation through loaded language: no orthodox Christian describes hell as a 'torture chamber' or God as a 'faceless remorseless white giant.' Zahnd also claims the Edwards sermon 'shaped the American vision of God for nearly three centuries,' which Winger dismisses as false — most contemporary Christians have never read or been influenced by it. The actual source of a Christian's vision of God is Scripture and Christ, not a 17th-century Puritan sermon. Zahnd's real move is to use shame and disgust to get readers to reject a position they don't actually hold.