I first came across this book via customer request at work. Probably because of this, with the book’s subtitle of “American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism”, I assumed it was a look at the Evangelical Church in America through a political or secular lens. From the outside looking in, so to speak. I wasn’t familiar with Tim Alberta but the book caught my attention and this is a subject I’m extremely interested in, so I gave it a try. It was almost immediately clear that this was not an outsider’s view of American Evangelicalism. Alberta is deeply and personally knowledgeable about what he writes and he writes as a Christian, attempting to figure out, as much for himself as for the reader, what has gone wrong in the Evangelical Church in the 21st Century.
Alberta is the son of a Presbyterian, Republican minister and he writes from this place, sharing intimately of his own family’s history. Each chapter is begun with a scripture reference and it’s clear that Alberta has the Biblical background to back his perspective up with any other churchgoer. At the same time, his background as journalist means that the book is deeply researched. It’s full of interviews with everyone from the pastor who took over for Alberta’s own father, to Jerry Falwell Jr.
Why have politics become so entwined with the Christian church in America? Why has the word evangelical become synonymous with right-wing politics and much hateful rhetoric? How on Earth can people call themselves both followers of Jesus Christ and Donald Trump in the same breath when the missions of those two men are so diametrically opposed? These are big questions but this is a big book (over 18 hours of listening) and Alberta does an excellent job of diving deep. He visits Liberty University, he attends political rallies, he interviews a lot of key players in the modern evangelical movement. Some were names I recognized but many were not. He presents them as human, sometimes less sure of their stances over coffee than they are on stage. For many of them he sketches bios of their childhood, humanizing them and offering a perspective on how their political and religious positions developed.
At the same time, Alberta doesn’t offer excuses. He doesn’t try to defend the place that the church has ended up. He doesn’t even try to defend his own father, even as he speaks of him with deep love and respect. It’s clearly as complicated a position for Alberta as it is for so many other Christians. When I looked him up, I saw that we are almost the same age. I’m not a pastor’s kid or an American but I did grow up in a family that worked in Christian ministry and immersed deeply in the Evangelical church. I’ve joked that I had a “very Focus on the Family childhood”. If you know, you know. I attended two different private Christian schools (as well as two different public schools). I’m one of many Christians who stayed home from a church one week in March 2020 and never went back to that congregation. There was a lot in this book that was deeply personal to me and I found myself tearing up more than once. I am a Christian and a follower of Jesus but I don’t identify as an Evangelical anymore and I am heartbroken by the actions of so many in the name of the God I love.
This book is strongly American-focused and Alberta makes no secret of that. We’re not innocent of many of these flaws here in Canada but they do manifest differently. We’re not and have never claimed to be a “Christian nation”. In my province, only 34% of the population identifies as being a Christian. I’m not a majority and I’ve never expected to be. Personally, I’m a big believer in religious freedom and the separation of church and state. The USA has gone down a strange path of claiming for themselves promises and prophecies that God did not intend for them.
This was a powerful book for me and I hope that other Christians who are struggling to find their place in the modern church will read it. I hope that Christians who feel very comfortable in the current Evangelical church will read it and perhaps question where the words of Jesus fit with what many of those churches are now preaching. And I hope non-Christian and non-religious folks will pick this up and understand that what they might see as Christianity now has, in many places, strayed very far from the message of Christ.
Karissa Reads Books 
There are some groups out there right now that find churches that do discuss politics and report them in an effort to force the church to lose their tax-free position for failing to separate church and state. I recently met a Christian who is the most Jesus-following person I’ve ever met. Like, this person floats around doing whatever work comes their way so that they can continue eating and wearing basic clothes, they live in a cabin the woods, they have no fears about death, they do not vote, they do not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. It’s oddly….refreshing to meet someone who isn’t a hypocrite. I tried listening to this book, but I wasn’t focused enough for it. I’m so glad you shared your thoughts about it!
Reading this brought back so many memories of stuff in churches that I thought was normal at the time. Including political statements that didn’t belong in a church service. Or a public school teacher who argued that the 10 commandments should be printed up in every classroom. Stuff that made me uncomfortable and seemed contrary to what I understood Christianity to be but I didn’t know how to deal with as a young person. I can definitely see how the book might not be for everyone but it definitely hit a certain spot for me and I’m glad I read it.
It’s strange how much someone who really lives by those values will seem from so many in the church (myself included). There’s an author named Shane Claiborne who reminds me a bit of what you’re describing.
Yeah, this person even encourages other people to start churches in their homes. Church isn’t a structure, but a place of gathering to read the gospel. I thought that was interesting, and it reminded me of segregation. When Black southerners moved to the north in droves for the auto industry jobs, many started storefront churches because they were not welcome elsewhere or couldn’t find a home church.
I would say this book wasn’t NOT for me, it’s just my brain was too busy to do the long audio hours.
I actually do think you’d find a lot interesting here and I know you’re knowledgeable about church and Christianity. I more meant that it is a big book about a fairly niche topic so I can see how it’s hard to get into and you’d have to find the right head space for it!
This sounds very interesting and I will put it on my list, although I am finding the behaviour of Christians in the US so stressful at the moment that I am not sure I will be reading it for a while. I grew up in a very Bible Belty kind of evangelical church, although the churches I’ve been in as an adult haven’t really been like that. I also didn’t go back to the church I stayed home from in March 2020, but that had more to do with the culture of the church than its teachings, which I thought were basically sound. (I went to one Sunday morning meeting once churches were allowed limited services, where families were allowed to sit together but single people had to sit two metres away from everyone else and weren’t allowed to interact with anyone. To be fair, that was literally the law at the time, but it felt like such a powerful visualisation of pre-pandemic church culture that I never went back after *that* experience).
I think I would still describe myself as reformed evangelical in terms of theology, and that is the position of the church I’m in now, but “evangelical” doesn’t really have the same political connotations here except maybe in London. (I think the median political position in my church is Lib Dem but we probably have people from across the spectrum. The fact that I don’t really know what people’s politics are – other than the friends with whom I’ve actually talked about it – is one of the things I like about the church!)
Have you read Raised Right: Untangling my faith from politics by Alisa Harris? I don’t know how well it holds up, but I read it about ten years ago when I was reevaluating all the stuff that was going on in the church where I had grown up in light of things that I had learnt as an adult. Obviously there are lots of “exvangelical memoir” books out there, but it’s the first one I read and it really stuck with me.
I think you would likely find this interesting but I definitely understand it being too much right now. That image of sitting alone in the church – ugh, I’m sorry. That is such a terrible visualization of a problem in so many churches.
By the definition of evangelical that I grew up with, I still identify as such. But I don’t use the term broadly anymore because people then assume things about my politics that aren’t true. I think our church now has a lot of political diversity too and I’m thankful for that. It’s nice to feel like there is room for that.
Oh, and no I haven’t read that book. I’ll look it up though. Thanks!
This book does sound fascinating! I must say, it’s so heartening to hear you point out the vast difference between Jesus’s message and Donald Trumps’, because they are so diametrically opposed, and I hate the cherry picking that many religious folks get caught up in to justify their actions (this is of course in all religions, not just Christianity).
On a lighter note, I saw this hilarious sticker on a utility pole a few months ago and took a picture – it’s of Jesus looking tired and annoyed with his head in his hands, and below it it says “Guys, that’s not what I said” LOL
Trying to interpret words written hundreds of years ago – never an easy task!!!
It’s frustrating but also just really upsetting to be a Christian and to feel like you have to then explain that you don’t hate immigrants or women and yes, your children are vaccinated. It all feels so bizarre and like if you actually read who Jesus said he was and what he was about it would be so obvious how opposite to Trump and his followers that is. There’s always been cherry-picking in Christianity – even in the early church in the New Testament – but it seems to have become much greater in recent years. The big thing I see (and something Alberta touches on too) is that biblical interpretation has to happen within historical context. And a lot of American Christians now are applying scripture to the USA as if it’s a new promised land and it just doesn’t make sense.
I could see how frustrating that would be!