\n<\/p>\n
D<\/span>onald Trump might pose problems for established political norms, but he has been a godsend for book publishers. In the years encompassing Trump\u2019s first campaign, election, inauguration, tumultuous term as president, second campaign, and unprecedented response to defeat in 2020, dozens of books have been written about the relationship between white evangelical Christians and Donald Trump\u2019s populist politics.<\/p>\n The latest of these is Tim Alberta\u2019s The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism<\/span>. A journalist for The Atlantic<\/span>, Alberta combines memoir and research, drawing on his upbringing in and familiarity with the evangelical tradition to interrogate what historian Thomas Kidd describes as \u201ca movement in crisis<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n This crisis is both political and personal. It is political in that white evangelicals have been the steadiest base of support for the least outwardly faithful president in half a century, at the alleged expense of their prior platitudes about morality and ethics being central to public service. But, as Alberta explains, it is also deeply personal, leading to rifts in families, communities, and congregations.<\/p>\n As the title hints, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory <\/span>is organized into three sections, each focusing on a different element of the evangelical movement and its evolution over the last decade in response to changing political tides. Alberta crisscrosses the country visiting churches and political rallies, interviewing pastors and activists, and trying to make sense of what he sees as too many evangelicals sacrificing a Christian approach to the political world at the altar of power. The result is a book that is well resourced and eminently readable, providing a perceptive and sympathetic critique of American evangelicalism. Alberta does not have an axe to grind, but rather a community to better understand.<\/p>\n Alberta is not an outsider to the world of evangelical Christianity. He was raised and reared in this space, with his father serving as a pastor at an Evangelical Presbyterian Church for decades. He also speaks the language well, not as someone citing Scripture at<\/em> Christians in order to point out supposed hypocrisy, but as someone attempting to correct what he sees as misapplication or misunderstanding of the right relationship between political engagement and the Christian faith.<\/p>\n Throughout his book, Alberta does not hide his displeasure at his evangelical brothers and sisters captured by Trump\u2019s distinct brand of politics. But displeasure is not disdain, nor is it disgust; instead, he writes with a sense of bewilderment and even sadness, lamenting the marriage of the church to a kind of political engagement he sees as fundamentally incompatible with the words of Jesus.<\/p>\n That said, certain evangelical celebrities are met with what Alberta might identify as righteous anger. Men like David Barton, Eric Metaxas, and Jerry Falwell Jr. bear the brunt of this criticism. Barton is chastised as a huckster and conman, slickly presenting a flawed reading of American history to an audience predisposed to see America as a distinctly Christian nation\u2014and lining his pockets in the process. Metaxas, meanwhile, is described as evolving from a thoughtful cultural commentator to either a grifter or a conspiracy theorist or maybe both. \u201cCorruption and psychosis,\u201d Alberta admits, \u201care not mutually exclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n But no other figure is pilloried like Falwell. The son of a fundamentalist heavyweight who turned his father\u2019s struggling Liberty University into one of the country\u2019s largest and richest Christian colleges, Falwell\u2019s rise and fall is documented with precision. He is described in megalomaniacal terms, with Alberta speaking to former students, staff, and faculty who paint a picture of a man driven by ego and ambition to the point of moral and political bankruptcy. On his downfall<\/a>, Alberta pulls no punches: \u201cFor Falwell to be embarrassed would have required a capacity for embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n While these men are likely recognizable to attentive readers, Alberta also spends time with pastors who have increased their platforms and congregations by preaching a MAGA-centered gospel, fusing Christian civil religion with populist conservative politics. Michigan\u2019s Bill Bolin is emblematic of this trend, fashioning church services that include both Bible teaching and what congregants affectionately call \u201cheadline news\u201d\u2014screeds against COVID-era restrictions and mandates, the Internal Revenue Service, and, of course, Democrats.<\/p>\n So too are better known pastors like Tennessee\u2019s Greg Locke and Texas\u2019s Robert Jeffress. Locke, whose viral videos in opposition to pandemic regulations made him a star in evangelical right-wing circles, is described as on \u201cthe furthest fringes\u201d of this community. Jeffress, on the other hand, is painted as media savvy and deeply connected to Donald Trump. Not coincidently, the populations of these pastors\u2019 churches are booming, along with their budgets.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, activists like Ralph Reed and Chad Connelly are characterized as justifying damaging rhetoric and behaviors in the name of Republican policy priorities while rejecting Alberta\u2019s narrative of a Christian community in crisis. Reed, who has been involved in turning out conservative Christians to vote since the 1990s, sees the political fervor and engagement among evangelicals today as undeniably good\u2014and if it benefits Republican politics, even better. Connelly, meanwhile, dismisses fringe pastors like Bolin as unrepresentative of evangelical pastors concerned about America\u2019s political decline. He also tells Alberta that divisions among Christians and churches are nothing new, and certainly not a result of increased political engagement. \u201cI\u2019ve had people leave our church,\u201d he says, \u201cover the color of the carpet.\u201d<\/p>\n These sections are among the book\u2019s most insightful. These pastors and activists do not regret combining partisan politics with Christianity or stoking people\u2019s fears as a call to political action. Alberta does, however, capture moments of self-reflection. Locke told him that he sometimes worries people are attending his services \u201cfor the wrong reasons.\u201d Jeffress admitted that some in his church had wrong ideas about the \u201csynthesizing of the Constitution and the Bible,\u201d and called evangelicals who stormed the US Capitol \u201cnutcases.\u201d Even if these moments do not lead to wholesale changes in behavior, they are at least evidence of internal tensions.<\/p>\n If the book\u2019s first two sections offer a pessimistic portrayal of the state of evangelical political engagement, then the book\u2019s final section takes on a more hopeful tone. Alberta profiles individuals and groups dissatisfied with the prevailing status quo and who seek to offer alternatives to fellow evangelicals also disappointed by their community\u2019s recent political behavior.<\/p>\n Some of these figures are pastors, people who refuse to let recent divisions and congregational breakups drive them to despair. Consider Brian Zahnd, a Missouri pastor whose \u201cgigantic\u201d church parking lot now houses \u201ca fraction\u201d of the vehicles it once had. Alberta writes of Zahnd\u2019s slow but steady conviction to disentangle partisan proclivities from the pulpit, eventually leading to an exodus of parishioners who found this new posture unsuitable for the crises of the moment. Those who remained, though, made for a healthier church overall, protecting it \u201cfrom the turmoil of the Trump era.\u201d<\/p>\n Alberta also profiles figures in \u201cBig Eva<\/a>,\u201d evangelical leaders with large platforms who have recently gone through very messy\u2014and very public\u2014breaks with their communities. Christianity Today<\/em>\u2019s Russell Moore is one such leader, whose tenure as head of the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission sputtered<\/a> amid controversies over Moore\u2019s criticism of Donald Trump and outspokenness against alleged abuse cover-ups in the denomination. Another such leader is Daniel Darling, who was fired<\/a> from his position at the National Religious Broadcasters after a media appearance where he defended the COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\nDispleasure, not disdain<\/h5>\n
Rays of hope<\/h5>\n