America's greatest get-togethers

On the small pleasures and small patriotism of the American state fair

A pig chicken and desserts at the Minnesota state fair.
(Image credit: Illustrated | AP Photo/Jim Mone, GlobalP/iStock, njnightsky/iStock, Tsekhmister/iStock, MNStateFair.org)

The street preachers posted just outside the main gate of the Minnesota State Fair are relatively mild in their condemnation. Yes, their yells strongly suggest the tens of thousands who stream past in pursuit of funnel cake and Pronto Pups are headed as certainly to hell as to indigestion, but they do consistently allow the possibility of salvation.

It's a Minnesota Nice touch to the standard hellfire and brimstone, as is only right at the "Great Minnesota Get-Together," the largest state fair in the nation by daily attendance.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.