When I read this book, which is subtitled American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, a light bulb went off. Suddenly it all clicked. Everything that I have said about the ex-president and the strange stranglehold he has over the GOP is also true about those who revere him. In the tradition of using storied to make the point, this shines a very bright light on how American evangelicals have confronted – and continue to navigate – the relationship between faith and politics. Which is to say that they are now, and maybe always have been, conflated.
Across his travels, Alberta recounts a colorful cast of characters and churches. This includes congregations that appear to be filled with more guns than Bibles; stages filled with hucksters and conspiracy snake oil salesmen selling anger, and the marginalization of anyone who disagrees with this vision, including people who would rather adhere to Jesus and the tenets that are at the center of Christianity as it existed when the country was founded.
The faith is not in God, and certainly not in Christianity and the teachings of Jesus--the faith is in politics and the vision they have of America. It is rooted not in the Bible, certainly not the New Testament, but rather in The City On The Hill, with a fair amount of Old Testament fire and brimstone thrown in, and pretty firmly rooted in 17th century values and white supremacy. I did not get it until now. I have thought of Trump as a man speaking in tongues--when he accuses someone of something, it means that is what he himself is doing. It is a mirror into the truth. So goes the evangelical church. When they say they are worried about the waning of Christian values in America, what is actually true is that they lack Christian values. And the cruelty is the point. Evangelicals are the uber patriarchy, yes, of course, but they also lack morality, not to mention democratic values--that I did not see before. Jesus AND the Founding Fathers cry.
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