Geoff Bennett:
White evangelical voters helped Donald Trump win the White House in 2016 and largely stuck by him again in 2020.
In his new book, Tim Alberta sought to find out why, when that support is largely inconsistent with basic Christian values. He approaches the topic as a journalist and as a practicing Christian. Tim's father was a pastor, and he says the evangelical church was his home, which offered an up-close look at the ways in which GOP politics are transforming and fracturing the evangelical church.
The book is titled "The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism."
I asked Tim about a searing moment he describes, when, at his own father's funeral, a church elder admonished him for not fully embracing Donald Trump as God's chosen leader.
Tim Alberta, Author, "The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism": Well, I think just once I was able to process it, because it was a surreal moment, having just buried my father — you're in this state of mourning and of shock, and not sure, is this even real?
And then you're reading this. And I think what it revealed more than anything, Geoff, was just this epiphany of, boy, if I, the son of the senior pastor who was here for 25 years leading this congregation, if I, who grew up here — these people have known me since I was 5 years old — if I could be treated this way, if I could be regarded as a member of the deep state, as an enemy of the church, as an apostate, if I could be treated that way, then how are we treating those outside the church?
How are we engaging with the culture, whom we are called as Christians to evangelize?
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