A Book About Trump and Evangelicalism's Loss of Faith, and With It, Credibility

It's not often the publishers blurb persuades me to buy a book. At least, not usually as quickly as this. Three reasons I'll buy this book and read it as soon as I can.

1. It is written by an historian of American culture and American evangelicalism, whose credentials as a scholar and social observer are already established.
2. The book is commended by Mark Noll, the premier historian of religion in America, and of American Evangelicalism in particular. Noll is beyond argument a voice of authority in the historic and cultural evolution of evangelicalism.
3. The words in bold below have a plausibility and conviction which I share, about the corruption of the evangelical mindset, the seculrisation of their worldview and their initial flirtation with the idolatry of power tumbling over into the full blown embrace of power for its own sake.

“Believe me” may be the most commonly used phrase in Donald Trump’s lexicon. Whether about building a wall or protecting a Christian heritage, the refrain has been constant. And to the surprise of many, a good 80 percent of white evangelicals have believed Trump—at least enough to help propel him into the White House.

Historian John Fea is not surprised, however—and in these pages he explains how we have arrived at this unprecedented moment in American politics. An evangelical Christian himself, Fea argues that the embrace of Donald Trump is the logical outcome of a long-standing evangelical approach to public life defined by the politics of fear, the pursuit of worldly power, and a nostalgic longing for an American past.

As insightful as it is timely, Fea’s Believe Me challenges Christians to replace fear with hope, the pursuit of power with humility, and nostalgia with history.

Comments

[Dave Summers]

I'll be interested to read your comments when you've read it, and very likely to read the book itself. I find myself mystified by the evangelical support for Trump, and the various articles I've read on Patheos etc haven't explained it to me. It looks as if evangelicalism and Christianity have (with some exceptions) become two quite different things. My relatives in America are also surprised that Trump has lasted over a year.