Tim Alberta is an award-winning journalist and a writer for The Atlantic. His book, The Kingdom, The Power and The Glory is an “examination of the divisions that threaten to destroy the American evangelical movement.” My younger brother gave it to me for my birthday which was many months ago and I’ve been slowly reading Tim Alberta’s book as a way of understanding how some Americans – specifically evangelical Americans – see the world.
What I’ve found is both startling and disturbing.
As part of my posts on ‘writing history’, let me share some highlights from Part I – The Kingdom – which I’ve grouped under a few headings to make it easier to read.
The Kingdom
As the book description says: “For millions of conservative Christians, America is their kingdom – a land set apart, a nation uniquely blessed, a people in special covenant with God.”
Evangelicals fear that “within ten years, Christians will be a minority in America.” “They treat that political battle – Republicans versus Democrats – as if the kingdom of God is at stake.”
“Christian values were under attack in America. There was no choice but to fight back.”
David Barton is one of America’s most influential evangelicals. He is “an avowed Christian nationalist who favours theocratic rule” and believes that “Christians should control not only the government but also the media, the education system, and other cultural institutions.”
The objective is to take the nation – the Kingdom – back for God.
Donald Trump
In the prologue, Tim Alberta writes that leaders in the evangelical movement have told him that “his criticisms of President Trump were tantamount to treason.” For many, an attack on Trump has become an attack on Christianity.
Evangelical leaders “embraced Trump’s shortcomings … as the latest in a long tradition of flawed men who were being used by God to advance His purpose.”
Robert Jeffress is an American Southern Baptist pastor, well-known author, radio host, and televangelist. “I want the meanest, toughest SOB I can find to protect this nation.” His choice was Donald Trump who he calls “a true friend in the White House.”
Those who would have been uncomfortable with Donald Trump’s morality in the past came to see things differently. In a 2016 poll, “72 percent of white evangelicals responded that, yes, a politician who behaved immorally in their private life could still perform their public duties with integrity.”
Church leaders like Bill Bolin having described “the whole of the Democratic Party as sinister and predatory,” espouses the belief that Trump is a born-again Christian.
The Threat to Christianity
Evangelicals believe that “it was only a matter of time until secularists weaponized the government to eradicate the Almighty from public life.” They believe that there is “a secular onslaught that would bring a Christian society to its knees.”
As early as the 1970s, Jerry Falwell – televangelist, and conservative political activist who co-founded the Moral Majority – warned that “America was under assault from secular liberal elites and godless government bureaucrats, and Christians needed to start fighting back.” According to Falwell, “The nation was intended to be a Christian nation by our founding fathers … This idea of religion and politics don’t mix was invented by the devil to keep Christians from running their own country.” It seems that fifty years later, that same belief is animating today’s evangelicals.
Over the years, the evangelical movement has raised the spectre of secularism as a force destroying America and their definition of the American way of life. They claimed that secular politicians wanted to shut down churches. They claimed that Democrats are extinguishing traditional – ie: Christian – values.
Over the years, church leaders have found ways to “marry conservative theology with conservative political ideology.” By the 1990s being a ‘real’ Christian meant voting Republican.
By 2021, 63% of Americans identified as Christians and 29% as unaffiliated. A drop from 90% and 5% in 1991.
Responding to the threat
Feeling ‘under siege’ led to evangelicals becoming radicalized.
Leaders of the evangelical church have served up a “cocktail of discontent” that is “one part cultural displacement, one part religious persecution, one part nationalist fervor” to those who feared that Christians were “losing their status in a secularizing America.”
Those same leaders accuse anyone who dissents as being woke, liberal, socialist, Marxist. They have baptized their worldview and called it Christian.
“Americans always think they deserve to win. And so, naturally, the Church has become about winning too.”
Republicans seized on this movement as an additional voting block to ensure their party’s success. In 2016, Falwell endorsed Donald Trump and brought his evangelical influencers along with him. Church leaders urged their members to “vote out the infidels who would deny God and His word.”
According to well-known columnist David Brooks: “Anytime you have a group that feels as though it’s headed toward generational demise, it lashes out. It puts up a fight. It refuses to give up what’s theirs.”
The evangelical church has become a political organization, trading in “the gospel of Jesus Christ for political power.” The pulpit has become a soap box. Extreme political expression has taken over in some churches. A chain of misinformation permeates evangelical churches – knowingly spreading lies that fuel the congregation.
Aa an example leaders like Robert Jeffress make inflammatory statements that followers take as truth: “I believe there’s evidence that the Biden administration has weaponized the Internal Revenue Service to come after churches.”
Evangelicals believe they are being marginalized. Many “saw the persecution of Christians as sufficient to justify behaviour that is antithetical to what Christ taught.“
Some parishioners told Tim Alberta that, “Godless government bureaucrats have been scheming for years to silence conservative, Bible-preaching churches.”
These notes reflect only Part I of The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory. When I get a chance, I’ll report on Part II – The Power and then Part III – The Glory.
Stay tuned for more about historical fiction.
FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY. There’s a SUBSCRIBE function on the right hand side of the page.
M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.
2 Responses
I, too, found this book to be startling and frightening. I wanted to try to understand how people who worship the same God I worship and claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior have strayed so far from the teachings of Christ. The explanation in this book did not make me feel any better about the situation. I still cannot fathom how and how deeply they have lost their way. I don’t understand how they think those of us who believe the foreigner should be welcomed, the hungry should be fed, the sick should be cared for, and that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves… how they see us as evil. I don’t expect to ever understand them.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Janet. The fact that you don’t expect to ever understand them is a very sad reflection on America. I share that thought.