"The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American evangelicals in an age of extremism", by Tim Alberta.

[Timeflyer]

Exposes the corruption inside the Evangelical Industrial Complex. Alberta is eloquent, sincere, and an awesome reporter.

From the Washington Post review, Becca Rothfeld.

In “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism,” Alberta argues that the “blood-and-soil” nationalism that has gripped many of the country’s Christians is the latest in a long line of unprecedented disasters. The church that has emerged in the wake of Trump’s election is not the quietly principled institution Alberta was raised to revere as the son of a pastor in a Detroit suburb in the 1980s and ’90s. Now, his fellow evangelicals are bellicose and bawdy. According to one Pew study, 77 percent of White evangelicals voted for Trump, a proud philanderer, in 2016 (that number increased to 84 percent in 2020), and Alberta wonders why so many fervent Christians have abandoned their customary “moral litmus test on public officials.” Why has their patriotism taken on such alarmingly violent undertones? Why has their mood grown so paranoid, defensive and apocalyptic? As he puts it, what explains the “crack-up” of the American evangelical church?

(Harper )
Alberta retains deep ties to the conservative community where he grew up and seems ideally situated to answer these questions with empathy and insight. Contemporary evangelicalism repulses him — not because he has betrayed his faith but because he believes so many of his fellow Christians have.

In this book, which is rooted in dozens of interviews conducted over four years, he investigates an increasingly craven religion whose disciples are willing to make excuses for their most corrupt allies, even as they go to great lengths to silence well-meaning dissenters. “We can serve and worship God or we can serve and worship the gods of this world,” Alberta solemnly writes. “Too many American evangelicals have tried to do both.” The result, he says, is that they all too often find themselves kneeling at the altar of Donald Trump.

[Raven123]

1. The book is EXCELLENT.

First rate research from a former insider. I was amazed how open the interviewees were with Alberta.

[CrispyQ]

2. I'll check it out. I'm 94 on the library's waiting list but they have several copies.

Did you read American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges? It was scary as hell & a portent for what was to come.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/69095.American_Fascists

"American Fascists," which includes interviews and coverage of events such as pro-life rallies and weeklong classes on conversion techniques, examines the movement's origins, its driving motivations and its dark ideological underpinnings. Hedges argues that the movement currently resembles the young fascist movements in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s, movements that often masked the full extent of their drive for totalitarianism and were willing to make concessions until they achieved unrivaled power. The Christian Right, like these early fascist movements, does not openly call for dictatorship, nor does it use physical violence to suppress opposition. In short, the movement is not yet revolutionary.

The book was published in 2007.

[NanaCat]

7. Chris Hedges is a bigot

He actually wrote a book screeching about how he hates them, entitled 'I Don't Believe in Atheists.'

To which atheists replied, 'Unlike your deity, you bigot, we exist, regardless of what you believe.'

[keithbvadu2]

3. Evangelicals TAKING "The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory"

Politics and religion use each other to gain power and wealth.

[bernieb]

4. I read this book

and recommend it for anyone who wants to understand what is going on inside the evangelical community supporting Trump. It's about power. The scary thing is, it's creeping into mainline churches. There is a study book and discussion guide that goes with this book. It doesn't have to be done in a church setting. Any interested group would find it useful.

[Karadeniz]

5. The rot starts with what churches teach. Faith in Jesus will save you. Probably

none of their pew potatoes could say in detail what they're being saved from nor could they describe what is involved in immortality. Needless to say, I haven't heard of a church that instructs membership about Jesus's command that proof of their love for him requires them to love their neighbors and their enemies, to care for those in need. There are so many NDE reports that show why love is the currency of immortality, not faith, and Sunday schools would be much more Interesting instead of going over some biographical details that the members have read about a hundred times in gospels that can't even agree on those details. Jesus was right: 75% of those who hear his message will ignore, repel or pervert it.

[NanaCat]

8. Then you don't know many of them

Needless to say, I haven't heard of a church that instructs membership about Jesus's command that proof of their love for him requires them to love their neighbors and their enemies, to care for those in need.

Nearly all of them adhere to the love their neighbours and caring for those in need. It's just that they have a rather limited view of who their neighbours are. Usually other church members.

They are also all in on some of the other teachings that you chose to ignore, like considering Jews a nest of vipers and supporting violence against those committing non-violent offenses.

Funny how those so often get glossed over.

[NanaCat]

6. Have it on my Kindle Wish List

It'll be a while before I can get to it.