book life: The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory by Tim Alberta
what it says about power and evangelicalism in politics
A Jewish friend recently asked her Christian pastor friend what distinguished evangelical Christianity from other brands of Christianity. He replied with one word: power. Tim Alberta's book The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism tells a big piece of that story.
The author, Tim Alberta, is a journalist who grew up the son of an evangelical pastor. He has deep roots in the Christian church and continues to consider himself a Christian despite his disappointment with the church's shift toward Trumpism. He writes to share a perspective from inside the church about how it has shifted its focus from religious proselytizing to the pursuit of political power in recent decades.
american evangelical pursuit of power
Evangelical Christians, which Alberta defines more deeply in the book, didn't always strive to utilize their congregations as bastions of political power. But when civil rights activism spread in the 1950s and 60s, particularly concerning the desegregation of education, predominantly white, evangelical Christians refused to acquiesce. They had long used the Bible to justify white racial superiority and segregation. They had no interest in the government telling them their precious white children had to attend school with non-white neighbors.
Over time, evangelicals came to believe that the government needed to stop "interfering" in their preferred methods of practicing religion (like praying in school and segregating schools). Furthermore, they didn't want to have to pay taxes at religious schools that refused to comply with desegregation. However, they didn't have the political power to imbue government policies with their preferred Christian values and rules, so they decided to change that.
Evangelical Christians began a decades-long journey of power consolidation and manipulation from the pulpit, including manufacturing the wedge issue of abortion (an issue evangelicals hadn't previously been passionate or in agreement about). Politically inclined Christian leaders pushed pastors to mobilize their evangelical congregations under a centralized and coordinated effort to usurp outsized political power for their religious community that does not represent a majority of Americans.
Far-right and power-hungry political organizers using fear-mongering tactics (and pastors exploiting those efforts for congregation growth and wealth) created a hysteria that America was losing its Christian kingdom. Evangelical Christian leaders convinced their followers to believe that Christianity was under siege by a secular occupation and that political power was the only way to save God's people and the nation. They saw such a desperate need to save the church from secularity and government decimation that, according to Alberta, "The first step toward preserving Christian values, it seemed, was to do away with Christian values."
Their congregations took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. Today, we see decades of those efforts coming to bear among a community that has lost touch with reality in perceived service to Jesus and God. Many outside (and some within as well) watch how a person like Trump, whose character and behaviors of lying, adultery, marginalizing the oppressed, etc... are entirely the opposite of the principles celebrated by Jesus, have consumed the hearts of evangelical Christians and wonder how it makes sense.
american evangelicals lost the biblical plot
Alberta argues that American evangelicals have lost the biblical plot. The Bible teaches that the Kingdom of God is their home and only God should be idolized. Life on Earth is merely a pass through to heaven, and no one on Earth deserves idolatry greater than their God. But American evangelicals have come to act as if their home on Earth is the kingdom to be protected at all costs and political power (not religious enlightenment or cultural perception) is the only path to salvation.
Alberta argues evangelical Christianity suffered a hostile takeover, often from outsiders and perpetuated by formerly fringe pastors. Churchgoers have taken to idolatry and rage like sheep following their shepherd. Many pastors committed to using the church and the pulpit to preach the messages of the Bible as mere church leaders got left behind. But he warns against pastors looking to turn their religious pulpit into a political stump speech.
"Pastors already struggled to provide all the answers written down inside their book. In a modern Evangelical culture that punishes uncertainty-where weakness is wokeness, where indecision is the wrong decision-asking pastors to provide all the other answers is a recipe for institutional ruin. Because what their congregants crave, more and more, is not so much objective religious instruction, but subjective religious justification, a clergy-endorsed rationale for living their lives in a manner that might otherwise feel unbecoming for a Christian. Down this path, disaster waits."
American evangelicals have a persecution complex, one that isn't shared by Christian evangelicals in other countries. Historically, Christians found joy and humility in proselytizing the word of God and placed limited value on their power and possessions on Earth, focusing instead on their home in the Kingdom of God. That has changed for American evangelicals (as a group). Alberta said,
"Humility doesn't come easy to the American evangelical. The self-importance that accompanies citizenship in the world's mightiest nation is trouble enough, never mind when it's augmented by the certainty of exclusive membership in the afterlife. We are an immodest and excessively indulged people. We have grown so accustomed to our advantages- to our prosperity and worldly position- that we feel entitled to them."
His work clearly shows that Alberta believes the church has been misled to pursue political power as its primary objective. Most in the church would probably not agree with his observation or justify such efforts to usurp political power by claiming it as a means to an end, protecting the church from secular demise. However, Alberta believes such an end misses the point of Christianity's pursuit of serving God and his Kingdom.
Political power is one tool for implementing change, but it is ineffective on its own. Political change needs to follow shifting cultural narratives, especially when voiced by the church.
winning hearts and not legal battles around abortion
In this respect, he makes an interesting argument about abortion. If the work around anti-abortion were indeed in the spirit of God's work, Christians should focus first and foremost on shifting public perception and reducing unwanted pregnancy. They must work to align changing hearts with changing laws. Abortion is an example of how collecting political power and policy wins on a particular issue doesn't always work and often isn't consistent with God's message, especially when it comes from messengers who so clearly don't express the virtues of Jesus.
He points out that since Roe was overturned, abortions went up. While he doesn't note it in the book, we see in everyday discourse that many people who held strong anti-abortion views before overturning Roe are changing their opinions as they see how the policies play out in real life. Many people have realized that the consequences of overturning Roe were not what they intended. They don't want the government telling everyone (or even just women) what to do with their bodies.
He argues further that the political messaging on abortion is inconsistent. He says,
"For one thing, that [abortion] message seems wildly inconsistent with the politics otherwise practiced by those who claim the pro-life mantle. If one is driven to electoral advocacy by the conviction that mankind bears the image of God, why stop at opposing abortion? What about the shunning of refugees? What about the forced separation of babies from their mothers? What about the hollowing out of programs that feed hungry kids? What about the lifelong incarceration of nonviolent offenders and the wrongful execution of the innocent? What about the Darwinist healthcare system that prices out sick people and denies treatment to poor people and produces the developed world's highest maternal mortality rate? What about the fact that, in 2020, guns had become the number one cause of death for children in the United States?... America set another record for school shootings in 2022, and the evangelical movement was silent."
This shift in public perception is precisely what Alberta highlights as a missed opportunity for Christians. If they want to reduce abortions and protect the lives of the innocent, political power is having the opposite effect. Cultural persuasion from people who genuinely believe the messages they are advocating will go much farther in promulgating change and spreading the word of God than politically strong-arming mere mortals on Earth. Abortion matters is just one example of how the American evangelical church has lost its way, more intent on changing rules instead of changing hearts. And it's seen an exodus of members as a result.
American evangelicalism has come to symbolize a ruthless pursuit of cultural and political power wholly disconnected from Christianity or roots of Biblical humanity or humility. As a result, sects within Christianity are splintering. Some churches are leaving established networks like the Southern Baptist Convention to create their own brands, sometimes aligning more closely with the Bible's faith, and others continue to run away from it in exchange for more brute political power. This will hopefully be a good thing as God-loving Christians feel compelled to return to their faith and be agents of service to God and His Kingdom instead of in service to a prescribed political party and agenda.
Alberta believes there is hope for the church's future if enough people are willing to do the work to get the church back on track. There is a small but growing group of evangelicals who have had enough and are committed to fixing the church from the inside out. Interestingly enough, the groups often engage much-needed assistance from non-believers who are more willing to help than those within the fold. Those outside the church see the societal need for harmony and collaboration and how they have, at times, contributed to the distrust of Christians of secular institutions. Together, they can hopefully revive the American evangelical institution from its enduring hostile takeover.
The future of American Christianity, particularly American evangelicalism, is at a crossroads. Time shall tell how it plays out to serve their God and Savior.
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