Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump

by John Fea

“Believe me” may be the most commonly used phrase in Donald Trump’s lexicon. Whether about building a wall or protecting the Christian heritage, the refrain is constant. And to the surprise of many, about 80% percent of white evangelicals have believed Trump-at least enough to help propel him into the White House. Historian John Fea is not surprised-and in Believe Me he explains how we have arrived at this unprecedented moment in American politics. An evangelical Christian himself, Fea argues that the embrace of Donald Trump is the logical outcome of a long-standing evangelical approach to public life defined by the politics of fear, the pursuit of worldly power, and a nostalgic longing for an American past. In the process, Fea challenges his fellow believers to replace fear with hope, the pursuit of power with humility, and nostalgia with history.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Religion, Theology, Christianity, American History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published June 28, 2018

About the author

John Fea (PhD, State University of New York at Stony Brook) is associate professor of American history and chair of the history department at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? and writes a popular daily blog, The Way of Improvement Leads Home.

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not sure what surprised me more during the 2016 presidential campaign: Donald Trump’s electoral college victory or the overwhelming and unqualified support he received from so many self-professed Evangelicals. I did not understand how a person possessing as blatantly a disreputable character as Trump displays, who rejoiced in speech, actions, and attitudes that could only be defined as anti-Christian, could evoke such fawning admiration from people who I know genuinely love the Lord and love their neighbors. John Fea’s extensively supported answer to why Donald Trump won the vote (and hearts) of so many Evangelicals is summarized in three words: Fear, Power, and Nostalgia.

In "Believe Me," Fea examines the perennial influence of fear on American Christian political engagement by working backwards from the 2016 GOP primary (where Trump defeated multiple traditional Christian right candidates); to the rapidly evolving ethics of Barack Obama and 20+-year hate affair with Hilary Clinton, to the rise and prominence of the Christian right in the 1970s; to the emergence of post-war Fundamentalism; to Protestant American rejection of Catholics, blacks, natives, and immigrants of color; all the way back to the Puritan origins of the American “city on a hill.” In Trump, Fea sees an opportunist who played on the most persistent influence of conservative Christian political engagement (fear), using the tried and true playbook perfected by the Moral Majority of the 1970s and 80s.

Fear should not receive all the credit for Trump’s usurping of the Evangelical political cause. Fea sees both the lure of political power and nostalgia for some bygone golden past as essential factors. Fea identifies three categories of “court evangelicals”: “The New Old Religious Right” (Jeffress, Fallwell, Jr., Dobson); The “Independent Network Charismatics” (Bickle, Jacobs, Wallnau); and “The Prosperity Gospel” purveyors (White, Burns, Franklin). Political power grabs sure seem to make for strange bedfellows.

However, it would be a mistake to give all the credit for Trump’s success to fear and desire for power, ignoring the role of nostalgia in a campaign marked by a slogan as backward-focused as “Make America Great Again.” You would be forgiven if you are incapable of identifying this nebulous era of Edenic America since the Trump campaign never specified to which exceptional time America was returning and since this pristine period never actually existed. But while it is not possible to know which historical scene we are seeking to immortalize, it is important to recognize the impact of that nostalgic desire.

I wish that this book didn’t exist. I wish the influence of fear, power, and nostalgia didn’t dominate so much of our political discourse and engagement, but it does. So, while I wish I lived in a world where Fea would be incapable of outlining such a history of politics where the ethos of Evangelicalism has been so thoroughly exposed as foreign to much of what Christ taught, I am glad that he did. I better understand the thoughts and actions of those with whom I agree with on so much who not only voted for Donald Trump as the lesser of two evils but actually supported him as a moral, upright, and viably Christian presidential candidate. I still disagree with them, but I better see the currents of history that led them to where they landed.

ARC provided

[Jared Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've struggled to understand for two years now the (white) evangelical turnabout -- or apparent turnabout, I suppose -- on matters of character, ethics, and witness in relation to the overwhelming support for now-President Donald Trump. As a child of the 80's I recall how adamantly it was ground into us that "character matters," that principle trumps party (pardon the pun). Well, John Fea's book is an accessible, thoughtful, and deft analysis of the deep, deep roots of nationalism, racism, and misunderstandings both exegetical and historical that have plagued American evangelicalism from the very beginning. If you have trouble making sense of how we got here, this book -- mostly an American history lesson from a solid (conservative) scholar and partly a journalistic expose of the Trump campaign to election success -- this book will help. As it comes from an evangelical, it's an insider's perspective on why so many of us insiders feel like outsiders at the moment. (It is to some extent also a shorter and more specific version of what one might find in the recent book on The Evangelicals from Frances Fitzgerald.) Recommended, although Fea is not afraid to criticize (without rancor) some figures close to home.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the biggest disappointments of my life was seeing so many Christians I admired as a teenager totally betray their principles in supporting Trump in 2016. Those who once said “character matters” when it was Bill Clinton’s sins, turned and said character actually doesn’t matter. The hypocrisy, lust for power and means justifying the ends we’re patently obvious.

Fea, a top notch Christian historian, tells the story of the history of evangelicals in politics. This book is short but covers a lot of ground. It’s a must read for anyone, like me, who wonders how Christians could support Trump.

Note I said “support”, not “vote for.” It’s one thing to hold your nose and reluctantly vote for the lesser of two evils. But this is not what Franklin Graham, Eric Metaxas, Jerry Falwell Jr or others have done. They support and defend Trump. I mean, they got their precious judges (in exchange for any sort of witness to an entire generation) so why not cut their losses and support impeachment, with a bonafide evangelical like Pence waiting in the wings? At this point, they’ve hitched their wagon to Trump, revealing their real gods.

As Fea talks about, the goal is changing the Supreme Court at all costs. We must ask though, what’s the cost? They want to make America great again, which begs the question, when was this past time America was great? 1950s? 1790s?

Overall, this book helps understand why so many evangelicals flocked to Trump. For many Christians of a certain age, this is a phenomenon that needs explaining. Fea does a good job as any.

[Gregory Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hesitated to read this book for a lot of reasons. I've had a chance to work with John Fea on a few occasions in what feels like a "lifetime ago." His connection with my own academic mentor, Eric Miller, puts me in a sympathetic position toward the book. The fact that I had already taught his books *Why Study History* and *Was America Founded as a Christian Nation* meant that I was eager to read this one... but I couldn't. I just couldn't read it when the book released. It was too real and too much to bear in a world that had spun off its figurative axis for me as an intellectual and an American.

But here we are in 2021, finally time to move on from so many things. It's time to make sense of what I've witnessed. It's time to make sense of much of what I've lived in the Christian tradition. Fea makes sense of many conversations I've had with loved ones who just don't understand why I view the world the way I do. Fea explains why evangelical Christians live in a culture steeped in fear and anti-intellectualism.

The book has several chapters that go into depth on the election of President Trump, but also the evangelical culture that led people to support a man who had... a checkered past, to put it mildly. I won't repeat the argument here. I will say that it made me consider a part of evangelical Christianity that I had always considered a bit "beyond the pale." Things like the prosperity gospel never seemed true in my own church life. It seemed so foreign that people I went to church with subscribed to false teachings and voted for false prophets. Fea puts them in context in a way that gave me great personal closure.

This book will work for a number of audiences, but mostly I think Christians should read it. I don't mean liberal Christians or conservative Christians. I think ALL Christians would appreciate the context this book gives to the very visceral divisions we feel when we interact with one another. That "he's one of them" divisive mood in our communications is rooted not just in spiritual warfare (which is another book), but in staunch, intentional political division.

I won't assign this book. It's not because it's a bad book; it's because I don't know where it fits in anything I've ever taught. It might work in a "contemporary America" class or a political science course, but as Fea explains in the latter part of the book, he has veered from history into cultural criticism with this book. He borrows more from Christopher Lasch than Sam Wineberg in tone (though he quotes them both). It's an extremely well written book, meant to sit on the shelves of Barnes and Noble. It's clearly branded and directed toward a popular audience. It wasn't as damning toward Trump and the court evangelicals as I expected, but it gave me more personal closure than I ever imagined.

If you happen to read this Dr. Fea, thank you for this meaningful book. I'll read it again in a decade or so when it feels a little more like "history."

[Shereen Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting take on evangelical Christian culture in the U.S., this was a book that presented questions, answers, and yet more questions about the past and future of American religious and political identity. Fea's perspective as an anti-Trump evangelical provides a nuanced analysis of racial politics and how evangelism intersects with culture, which I found enlightening.

Unfortunately, this book had a lot of issues with accuracy. Fea refers to the Trail of Tears as a "removal campaign" instead of characterizing the event as it is (a genocide), and commits many factual inaccuracies statistically. It also failed to be fully objective, spending a lot of time with references to Fea's own religious background instead of relying on factual information. This isn't a serious academic book with any degree of rigor, but it's a book that is fine enough to read if you're looking for a less-common perspective on Trump politics.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

On November 8, 2016, Donald J. Trump won the American presidency. The next day, I heard someone singing. I recognized the tune as the late 19th Century hymn “Jesus Saves”, but the words sounded off. What should have been “We have heard the joyful sound / Jesus Saves! Jesus Saves!” was now “We have heard the election news / Trump Saves! Trump Saves!” It was that moment (after long months of other similar moments) that finally brought me to tears. I suppose I had previously been in denial, but I proceeded to seriously question how people who claimed to be fellow Christians saw Donald Trump as one of their own.

Historian John Fea asks himself the same question. In this short book, Fea seeks to understand why self-defined conservative, evangelical Christians seemingly sacrificed everything they claim to hold dear in order to elect Donald J. Trump president of the United States.

First, Fea examines the history of fear in American conservatives. Fea writes, “Political fear is so dangerous because it usually stems from legitimate concerns shared by a significant portion of the voting population.” What is it conservatives fear? Fear of change, fear of liberalism, fear of progressivism, fear of irrelevancy, fear of “the other” – American conservatives prove adept at playing the victim, viewing rights and privileges as a zero-sum game where others’ success must correlate to their own failures.

I witnessed this fear firsthand in my community: fear of ISIS, immigrants, and immorality. I saw one person liken Hillary Clinton to the mythical Greek gorgon Medusa. They prominently displayed a picture portraying Trump as the hero Jason holding Medusa/Clinton’s severed head. I was told if Clinton were elected we’d be forced to house refugees in our homes, lose our right to self-defense, be forced to submit to government censorship of worship services, and suffer greater government interference in our everyday lives as we moved ever closer to a socialist tyranny. There is no debating paranoia, and pointing out that any political leader can become a dictator given the right circumstances doesn’t make one many friends, either.

Second, Fea claims that, to alleviate these fears, American evangelicals looked for a strongman and found one in Donald J. Trump. Willing to overlook severe character flaws that would have made nearly any other candidate unacceptable, Trump’s Christian supporters cast him in the light of an Old Testament heathen king raised up by God for some divine purpose, often favorably comparing Trump to Cyrus the Great. Ingratiating themselves to Trump, they failed to act as a voice of Biblical conscience, instead satisfying themselves with photo opportunities and the appearance of access.

As I was reading this section I thought of comic conventions offering photographs, autographs, and a few seconds with a celebrity – all for a price, of course. The higher in status the celebrity, the more one will pay for that brief encounter. But those who purchase photo ops at a convention know exactly what they’re getting. They are under no illusions that they are now friends or influencers of their chosen celebrities. It seems to me that conservative evangelicals have sacrificed their convictions, morals, and reputations for mere baubles.

Third, Fea examines the conservative penchant for nostalgia, or as then-candidate Trump put it, the desire to “Make America Great Again.” Like Fea, I cringe at the word “again”. When was America great? Many English settlers came to the New World for religious freedom: their religious freedom. When it came to other faiths or even other branches of Christianity, those settlers often proved just as intolerant as the oppressors from whom they sought escape. Was America great as our founders created a “new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” even as they continued to enslave their fellow man? Was America great as it spread from sea to shining sea in its Manifest Destiny to overspread and possess the whole of the continent at the cost of broken treaties and genocide against the Native Peoples? Was America great under the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the customs of “No Irish Need Apply”, Jim Crow, or Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066? No one I have asked can tell me exactly when America was great; instead, they often hint at some vague notion of a past (and passed) ideal.

Since the election, there have been numerous articles and news features on Trump voters and supporters. While many may be burned out from such coverage, I hope they will give this short book a chance as it provides much needed context often missing from other publications. Sadly, those who need to read this book the most – the 81% of conservative evangelicals who voted for Trump - will likely ignore it. Even to this day, Trump supporters still stand by their man despite the scandals, conflicts of interest, poor policy, and likely human rights abuse. Trump might have thought he was being hyperbolic when he said he could shoot a man in broad daylight on 5th Avenue and not lose support, but he wasn’t off the mark.

Nonetheless, Fea offers an outline for moving forward. He reminds us to focus on hope rather than fear, to desire humility over power, and to reckon with history rather than rely on nostalgia. Worthy goals, to be sure, but will the 81% listen to the advice? If the current political landscape is any indication, the answer is “no”.

I pray I’m wrong.
__

While the book is engaging, thoughtful, and provocative, there are several issues I’d like to address.

First, in the second chapter Fea spends a great deal of time talking about the aims of evangelicals without naming the movement often encompassing those aims: Seven Mountain Dominionism. The movement makes an appearance by name in the last few pages of the book, but its motives and prescribed actions really form the bedrock of much of political Christianity in America.

Second, Fea leaves out an important court evangelical from the early pages of his book: pseudo-historian David Barton. While Fea spends a great deal of time on the religious leaders with access to Trump, he almost completely ignores Barton’s mass appeal to the quasi-intellectuals of conservative evangelical Christianity. Barton has built an empire stoking fears that America’s “Christian heritage” (as Barton calls it) is being erased and has become one of the leading proponents of a past American greatness. This near omission is almost unthinkable, given that Fea has had much to say about Barton in the past.

Third, Fea fails to mention conservative Christians who would not self-identify as “evangelical”. There are several denominations classified as “fundamental” or “independent” that see “evangelical” as something to be avoided for being too liberal. However, these conservative Christians were also swayed by the same arguments and motives Fea discusses in these pages. Even a passing paragraph or two would suffice.

Fourth, I would hope that future editions of this book contain an index. Admittedly, several names would have quite long entries.

Finally, and most minor in my opinion, was a single sentence regarding DACA where Fea implied the law covered children born in the United States to parents here illegally. It is my understanding that to this point in American history, those children have been protected by the 14th Amendment. Instead, DACA applied to children born outside the United States, brought here before they were sixteen years of age, and who applied for “deferred action” before they reached age thirty. I know it’s a relatively small issue, but small issues have a way of detracting from a larger idea.
__

For those desiring additional reading, might I suggest

• One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America by Kevin Kruse

• Blinded By Might: Can the Religious Right Save America? by Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson

• In Praise of Forgetting by David Rieff
__

And now, lastly, a few necessary disclaimers:

• I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review on Goodsreads, Amazon, and my personal blog no later than June 30, 2018.

• John Fea and I follow each other on both Twitter and Facebook.

• I have interviewed Fea for a podcast on which I am often a guest host, and I financially support Fea’s own podcast: The Way of Improvement Leads Home.

• I participated in certain online discussions on Fea’s blog, some of which influenced this book.

• I am tangentially included in Fea’s dedication, which reads “To the 19%”, in that I consider myself a conservative Christian (I do not know if I would classify myself as “evangelical”) who did not vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

[D.L. Mayfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that can be read by the vast majority of evangelicals I know--which makes it perfectly suited to ask the question I wish we had been asking all along. What if we replaced fear with hope? The lust for power with the quest for humility? Nostalgia with accurate history? These are deep questions with incredible theological and ethical implications, the likes of which we need to see teased out more in the public sector. But I was very impressed at Fea's ability to look evangelicalism's problems in the face without losing the gaze of love.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is said by polsters that 81% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in 2016. The question on the minds of many is why? After all, Donald Trump has demonstrated few if any marks of being a Christian, let alone an evangelical. His past is filled with morally dubious activities, including affairs. He is course in his language. He doesn't seem at all concerned about matters on the heart of Jesus. So, why vote for Donald Trump?

Evangelical historian John Fea set out to provide an answer to that question. In a book titled "Believe Me," which takes a phrase regularly on the lips of Donald Trump, Fea lays out the road map to the 2016 election. It is important to note that there were a number of other, more traditional, candidates in 2016 vying for the evangelical vote. Candidates like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio had deep ties to the evangelical world, and yet they failed to win the nomination, losing to someone who seemed to have none of the qualities that evangelicals looked for. Yet, as Trump solidified the nomination he was able to consolidate this important block of the electorate to his side. Again, the question is why?

Fea roots his answer in three points: fear, power, and nostalgia. As an American historian, with a strong knowledge of colonial America, he notes that from the very beginning of the British inhabitation, fear has been a marker of the religious life of the American people. It is rooted in Puritanism and never left our psyche. We see this fear exhibited in the election of 1800, where Federalists sought to capitalize on Christian fear of Jefferson's religious skepticism. He notes, for instance, that a Federalist paper suggested that a Jefferson win would lead to "a wave of murder atheism, rape, adultery, and robbery" (p. 15). We see similar visions in play later in the 1850s in response to increased Catholic immigration. How different is MAGA from the Know-Nothings of the 1850s? A politics of fear focused on the other has been a staple of our politics. It is seen in the response to President Obama, who was seen as exotic, maybe even subversive--a Muslim in disguise. Trump didn't invent fear-mongering, but he was a quick learner.

The second element is the search power. Donald Trump offered a pathway to power for evangelicals who had been stymied for years in waging a culture war focused on abortion, gay marriage, and interestingly enough immigration (fear of losing dominance). Trump might not be a paragon of morality, but he offered them something they hadn't seen before -- a possible President who would use power on their behalf. Trump promised that Christians would have their seat at the table of power. As Fea demonstrates, Trump gravitated to a particular form of Christianity -- prosperity gospel. Portraying himself as a successful business man, he was embraced by those who saw financial success as a mark of righteousness. Most specifically, Trump's strongman style appealed to a form of Christianity that looked to strong male leaders. Even if he's not specifically Christian, he could be the incarnation of the Persian King Cyrus who liberated the Jewish exiles from Babylon. Trump, as Fea notes, has delivered on important promises, most specifically appointments to the Supreme Court of persons who would support evangelical concerns about abortion, religious liberty (an important conversation in the book), and immigration.

Fea has in other venues explored the existence of a group of Christian leaders he calls Court Evangelicals, people like Robert Jeffress and Paula White, who not only have the President's ear, but have been strong advocates for the President and his policies. Jeffress, who is Southern Baptist, has been a strong proponent of a form of Christian nationalism that requires in his own words a strongman. Fea quotes him saying that "fankly, I want the meanest, toughest son of a gun I can find. And I think that's the feeling of a lot of evangelicals" (p. 39). Jeffress feels he has found that leader in Trump, and thus much is forgiven.

While Trump figures prominently in this story, it is larger than him. He just fits the playbook that was developed decades ago by people like Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority. Whereas evangelicals had been rather quiescent in the 1950s, the advent of the civil rights movement and the call for integration, which threatened their white Christian academies in the south, combined with a new awakening on abortion, created a movement, and a playbook, which Trump has exploited. Central to this effort was control of the Supreme Court. He writes: "The fracturing of the nation's Christian consensus, the Christian Right argues, took place at the hands of unelected liberal justices such as Hugo Black, whose decisions could only be overturned by new justices who had to be nominated and appointed by officials in the two elected branches of the federal government" (p. 61).

All of this -- the fear-mongering and the search for power, is rooted in nostalgia (not history). While Trump has never specified when America was great, it is clear that whenever that was, it was an age when white Christians were the dominant party in American life. It was a time when schools were opened with Protestant prayers, abortion was illegal, immigration was limited, race-mixing was deterred, etc.

What I've given is not a chapter by chapter exploration of the book. I've picked up some of the themes present in the book, which I deem highly important. If we are to understand what is at stake and what is in play at this in moment in time, at least for Americans, if not the world, we need to understand what drives this particular core base of Donald Trump's power. Fea notes that Trump's base is older -- with an average age of around 57 -- and thus younger evangelicals are less attracted to it. Therefore, the reason many have embraced Trump is that there is the feeling that this is the last desperate effort of the culture wars. Fea compares this embrace of Trump to Picket's Charge, that last gasp attempt to turn the tide at Gettysburg.

Fea writes that his approach is that of a historian. He wants to tell the story, and is reticient to offer an answer. However, he realizes that there is too much at stake not to offer an alternative to this narrative. Therefore, in the conclusion, he counsels his fellow evangelicals to take a different course. This starts with an embrace of hope rather than fear, humility rather than power, and history rather than nostalgia. He draws this response from Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. In the end, Fea counsels his readers that "evangelicals can do better than Donald Trump" (p. 190).

Believe me! This is a book that must be read, especially by those of my more liberal/progressive community who seem stymied by Trump's popularity. Perhaps it might lead to conversations that can create hope, humility, and a respect for history. Please read carefully!

[Chad D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seven years late to the party . . . a quick read, pretty easy, with a lot of explanatory power about the compulsive evangelical magnetism toward Trump. Turns out all that makes sense in hindsight, though who would have guessed, looking forward.

The story just gets weirder, though, in the intervening seven years.

[Peter Kerry Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beginning with the obligatory notice that I’m friends with and work with the author, I will say I found John’s historical analysis of fear at the root of much evangelical politics to be compelling and useful. Although he doesn’t go there, for those of us who either grew up in or continue in that tradition it raises the uncomfortable question of how deeply fear is tangled in evangelical, or even just Christian, forms of faith and practice as such, a question beyond the scope of John’s interest here. I particularly enjoyed the last chapter in which John reflected on his experience of the Civil Rights Journey we attended last summer, holding up the African American Civil Rights Movement experience apposite the example of Trumpian Christianity to emphasize the possibility of a Christianity characterized by hope rather than fear. He points as well, without fully fleshing out, to the possibility of a different kind of usable past than the one that white Christians normally invoke. I think alongside the African American Civil Rights stalwarts John rightly focuses on, such a history might recall different possibilities of white action drawn from those few who managed to see and thus participate in the future of the common good being enacted in the struggle for justice by African Americans at the time. The question for those white brothers and sisters was “Where will you stand?” It is a question that is asked with equal urgency of us now.

[Miles Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a bit of a historical and intellectual train wreck. It reads well but the theological and historical assessments leave a lot to be desired. Its operating from a very confused understanding of the interactions between church and state. An interesting book, but doesn't make a compelling case. Its more of a socio-religious complaint than a meaningful work if history, politics, or religion.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Fea gives me (and people like me) permission to think hard about history, to be critical and confidently ant-Trump, while remaining committed to the hope and renewal that *smart* evangelicalism can offer our country. This is a thoughtful book, unpacking the themes of fear, power and nostalgia as the 'perfect storm' that led the evangelical movement to embrace Trump in 2016. He spends (rightly) the most time on 'fear,' devoting multiple chapters to it, and traces its presence through the way Protestantism has been practiced throughout our history. The final chapter (Make America Great Again) is an outstanding model for how to understand Trump's rhetoric, it's appeal to the 81%, and how to respond instead with thoughtful hope.

Overall, I found this book encouraging, well-argued, and a clarion call for American Evangelicals. If you are still somewhere within that movement (or figuring out where you stand with it) and are disturbed by our political moment, this book will surely be helpful.

[Mehrsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so glad that evangelical Christians are speaking out about the rot of the movement. I am not an evangelical, but I am a Christian and I cannot understand how anyone can read the Christian texts and support the Trump's rhetoric. I didn't agree with some of Fea's positions (I am pro-choice and have no qualms at all about gay marriage), but it was heartening to read an honest Evangelical try to call out his peers.

The history in the book was good, but for a better and more thorough history, read the Evangelicals by Francis Fitzgerald. For a history of how Evangelicals got into politics, read Kevin Kruse's One Nation Under God.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are interested in how so many followers of Jesus could possibly vote for a man who is the antithesis of every one of Jesus' teachings, the explanations and long histories of the answers to that are here. The author, an evangelical himself and in fact a professor at a conservative evangelical college, is not trying to justify, apologize for, or castigate evangelicals, just documenting it for history's sake. As a Christian myself, I would have appreciated a better attempt to isolate evangelicals from other Christians, many of whom are appalled that any Christian could vote for Trump, though I'm sure that nuance would have been lost on most readers.

[Sherrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend gave me this book a couple years ago, and I had avoided reading it b/c I thought it would just rehash all the things I already know and that enrage me - how the church has sold its soul for political power, how the Moral Majority is built on a foundation of white supremacy, etc., etc. But it surprised me by making me feel better. The author ends the book by talking about the lessons that we Christians who are appalled by the widespread evangelical support for Donald Trump can draw from the Civil Rights movement - mainly, to choose hope over fear. "Hope does not demand a belief in progress. It demands a belief in justice: a conviction that the wicked will suffer, that wrongs will be made right, that the underlying order of things is not flouted with impunity. Hope implies a deep-seated trust in life that appears absurd to those who lack it ... too often fear leads to hopelessness, a state of mind that Glenn Tinder has described as a 'kind of death.' Hopelessness causes us to direct our gaze backwards toward worlds we can never recover. It causes us to imagine a future filled with horror ... Hope, on the other hand, 'draws us into the future,' and in this way it 'engages us in life.'"

I also appreciated the book's length. It felt like the right amount of content. I often feel like nonfiction authors summarize their points in the intro and then pad the length with a lot of repetition. That's not the case here. I see in Fea's clear, concise structure his skill as a professor. He spends the right amount of time highlighting key concepts like Dispensationalism without going into unnecessary detail. I finished this book with a good understanding of the influences that have led evangelicals to embrace Trump, but without being overwhelmed by details. I also appreciated how he ended on a note of "How, then, shall we live?" and practical tips.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book I was looking forward to for months. I follow John Fea on Twitter and read his blog. His perspective as an evangelical AND historian is one that gives me hope as an evangelical who is tempted to chuck the term "evangelical" altogether.

Fea gives a very fast sketch of the politics of fear, along with the theology of fear, that has formed the evangelical movement and brings us to WHY 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016.

But Fea also offers some ideas for a way forward. Things to DISCUSS. (It's hopeful that discussion could ensue, though doubtful.) We need to move from fear to hope, from power grabbing to humility, and from nostalgia to a true sense of history.

These past two years have left me with a bad taste in my mouth over what has happened to the American conservative church. Fea sets some context for us and tries to wake us up to some harsh realities.

This is good analysis and then a prescription for a possible way forward... believe me.

[Kerry Hoke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many have wondered how in the world President Trump, a leader with questionable character, made his way into the highest position in our country with the unashamed help of many from the American Evangelical church. This thought-provoking journey through the historical American political landscape from an historian’s perspective offers some potential clues and a very fair and relatively objective critique of the Evangelical church’s pursuit of power and influence in the political sphere.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a evangelical historian's opinion (well-thought out & documented) about how evangelicals (well, white evangelicals) ended up voting for Donald Trump in overwhelming numbers.

The author (John Fea) raises some important issues, specifically dealing with fear-mongering and the appeal of a "strongman".

It's really nice to find someone inside the fold (so to speak) who is thinking & feeling much like I did in 2016 (and now).

[Mike Fendrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Christian, I understand that evangelical is a good word to describe me and millions of other Americans who take their faith, the Scriptures and God seriously. However, as I sit here typing this in August of 2018, I cringe when someone lumps me in that group. The word represents so broad a community that it really has no meaning now. And, to those outside the evangelical camp, we are best known as a voting block for the Republican Party - something has gone terribly wrong. As an historically orthodox, confessional Baptist, I really try to incorporate the multitude of Scriptures that explain and encourage (no demand) the necessity of the unity in the church. My brothers and sisters in Christ have faith in the same Jesus that I have, how can I look down upon them as second class citizens of the Kingdom of God (or even call them "them"). And yet, it can be so hard.

I have never approached anything as futile as selecting a presidential candidate to vote for in the election of 2016. I absolutely could not and would not vote for either Hillary Clinton (on policy and issue grounds) or Donald Trump (on policy, issue and moral grounds). Gary Johnson was the Libertarian candidate (seriously?? Aleppo Gary, Aleppo - you know Syria - remember that?) which while I think Libertarian-ism is opposed to Biblical Christianity, I was grasping for straws. My son said it best, there was never a reason to vote for Trump that didn't have the words "Hillary" or "Clinton" in it. What grieved me most is that both major political parties knew in November 2012 that Barak Obama couldn't run again, had four years to groom a candidate, and we were left with THIS?

So why did 81% of self-described evangelicals vote for a vulgar, megalomaniac like Donald Trump? As stunned as I was when I woke up and found out he actually won, I knew the evangelical church sold it soul, message and prophetic voice in standing with that man. (I also wondered what it was like for Mrs. Clinton to lose to him in an election she should have won in a landslide. Wow, what a shock to the system!) I think the author, John Fea, has touched upon the high points of the fear, desire for influence and our love for what Robert Bellah calls "lifestyle enclaves", "I want everyone to be just like me!" I think he underplays the inability for Christians to vote for Mrs. Clinton, I see her as a bridge too far. Not only is she too progressive in all her policies, she was incredibly (and stupidly) condescending to anyone who was struggling with whom to vote for. I do think he is spot on that many Christians believe America has a special place in God's heart (the Christian America stuff). We really need to stop this Constantinianism, the attachment at the hip of the world's powers and the church.

Fea references James Davidson Hunter's "To Change The World" on several occasions in his book. I reread that recently (see the review if you want) and would highly recommend that book if you want to go farther in understanding how a Christian interfaces with the world and what it means to love God and neighbor. His plea is for Christians to quit "culture warring" and get back to the business of loving our neighbor - "faithful presence".

Based on that, I can only plead with my fellow believers to quit being a lapdog for Trump, quit bitching about Trump and begin to live in the full confidence and hope that the gospel you say you believe in offers. Hope this helps.

[marcus miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Fea uses a thought provoking blend of history, theology and political science to try to make sense of why 81% of his fellow white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, “a crude-talking, thrice-married, self-proclaimed philanderer and ultra-materialistic businessman….” The answer, to be brief, is that Trump capitalized on the fears of white folks, particularly white evangelicals. For some reason white evangelicals seem particularly gullible and susceptible to manipulation by politicians, pastors and others who’ve learned to capitalize on those fears. Many of Fea’s conclusions seem like common sense, but Fea does a valuable service by providing a systematic analysis with extensive documentation.

Fea provides a brief survey of American church history, focusing primarily on evangelical Protestants, showing how fear has long been a motivating factor for many. Fea then discusses the branches and major personalities of those he describes as “court evangelicals” before doing a “theological” analysis of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” catchphrase. Briefly its both bad history and bad theology.

In the concluding chapter Fea moves beyond the realm of an academic historian and provides three ideas for evangelicals to move forward before the evangelical church completely loses its purpose, mission and soul. These are to focus on “hope, not fear,” “humility rather than power” and to look at our history honestly, without glossing over the warts and scars by a rosy eyed (and white) nostalgia which glorifies American exceptionalism.

[matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a memory of sitting in the car with my dad in the early 90s. We usually listened to music, but he flipped the station to Rush Limbaugh one day and asked me to listen with him. I don’t remember the content of the segments, but I remember my dad pointing out how scared and angry all of Rush’s opinions were, and how little hope there was in anything Rush said. A little while later, he announced a family boycott of products that advertised on Rush’s show.

My dad identified as a conservative Evangelical Christian, and I grew up making music with him in and around churches. He passed away a little over 10 years ago. This book made me think of him a lot: it’s a critique of Evangelical Trump support, but it’s respectful of the heart and intentions of those who cast their votes for him. The themes Fea identifies (fear, power, and nostalgia) are what secular pop-conservatism like Limbaugh have dealt in for decades. Fea allows that Trump is a logical outcome for fearful, worried people whose world seems to change faster than they know how to deal with. Fea’s criticisms are grounded in reminders and language that evoke core Christian beliefs, which I appreciate after reading years of dismissive arguments that paint Evangelicals in crude, broad strokes. This book will probably change few people’s minds, but I found it encouraging and I appreciated the fond reminders of my dad’s kind of perspective on the world.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars -- Fea, a Christian who was dismayed at so many of his fellow believers' attraction to the candidate who seemed to embody so much of the crassness and immorality they condemn, writes this insiders' look at the history of the mixing of religion and politics.

I was rather surprised to learn that Moral Majority personality/right-wing writer Cal Thomas has criticized some of the behavior of his side of the culture debate. Fea quotes from a 1999 book that Thomas co-authored in which he writes that Moral Majority fundraiser letters always followed the same formula in which "First, they identify an enemy...Second, the enemies are accused of being out to 'get us' or to impose their morality on the rest of the country..." Yet, my local newspaper printed Thomas's syndicated column for years and I don't recall that the man's own writing deviates much from that blueprint. (Indeed, it was my disagreement with a Cal Thomas column that inspired me to write my very first letter to the editor at age 16.)

Anyway, I am glad Fea wrote this book, I'm sure it took some bravery and he no doubt got some backlash for it. The historical sections were enlightening and he offered a perspective not as frequently seen in the voices raised in criticism of Trump.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to spend some time learning about Trump and the so-called court evangelicals this book might serve you well. Or, if you happen to be an evangelical or relatively close cousin, it might only irritate you to learn more than you ever wanted to know about their horribly mis-guided behavior and support of the liar-in-chief.

[Pete · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sigh. Yet another vastly disingenuous book, from the current paradigm of Advocacy Journalism... yes Advocacy even though the author claims to be an historian.

In this review, I'll touch on: Advocacy (and the non-factual memes he presents as a result), White Evangelicals, Christian Nation, and finally Fear.

Advocacy
My simplistic view of such advocacy:
- Choose a perspective
- Find info that supports your perspective
- Ignore all evidence that refutes your perspective

The author appears to be apparently blithely unaware that academia in the US has become so biased, particularly in the social sciences. Here's an academic liberal's take on the problem: "Academics have traditionally leaned left politically, and many fields have essentially become monocultures, especially in the social sciences, where Democrats now outnumber Republicans by at least 8 to 1. (In sociology, where the ratio is 44 to 1, a student is much likelier to be taught by a Marxist than by a Republican.) The lopsided ratio has led to another well-documented phenomenon: people’s beliefs become more extreme when they’re surrounded by like-minded colleagues. They come to assume that their opinions are not only the norm but also the truth." (https://www.city-journal.org/html/rea...) At that link you'll also learn about a new Heterodox Academy, an interesting approach toward resolving this challenge.

In any case, a balanced and in-depth read of this book would require a great deal of research to counter the above biases. I read enough in detail to recognize that the author certainly didn't do his homework. He is clearly unaware of his biases, unaware of strong evidence to refute some of his premises.

A few simple things one can see even on skimming:
- He uses extremist terminology to vilify a certain group, even though the term doesn't fit well.
- He has few if any balancing examples; no shades of nuance.

From his perspective:
* "White evangelicals" have been driven by fear and anxiety ever since the nation's founding.
* "White evangelicals" were responsible for Trump's win.
* "Christian nation" could only have applied if we were some kind of Biblical paradise.
* Evangelicals do not, and never have, had the energy to study the scriptures deeply; "plain reading" is all that evangelicals care about.
* Evangelicals all supported (chattel) slavery because "slavery" is ok in the Bible.
* He clearly believes Evangelicals ought to stay out of politics, or at least keep their opinions to themselves.

Just a few realities he doesn't consider at all:

* Chattel slavery is never supported in scripture. "Slavery" in the Bible is entirely different. A great reference is here, with extensive references: http://christianthinktank.com/qnoslav...

* The 2016 election was quite different than he imagines. (See here.)
Looking at the change from 2012 to 2016:
Race: R had less support from Whites (by 1%) but D lost even more; R had much more support from Blacks and Hispanics.
Religion: the biggest R gains were among Hispanic Catholics and people of non-Christian faiths.
Overall: from 2012 to 2016, D lost support in every group (Race, Gender, Religion) other than Jews and Mormons.

Just on those factors, one would conclude it was increased support from Blacks, Hispanics, and non-Christians who put Trump in office!

As for his various memes...

"White" Evangelicals
What a meme. Fea clearly knows few Black Evangelicals. Few Hispanic Evangelicals. He ought to get out more. I am honestly not sure I can believe his claim to be, and to represent, evangelicals.

He also might consider diversifying his group of friends. There are a few intelligent evangelicals out there. Even brilliant ones. Some of us might even welcome him to the party! We can have great conversations... especially with those who are not so committed to Political Correctness that their vocabulary has become stunted by avoiding anything that might offend anyone.

"Christian Nation" - Without question, many founders and even Supreme Court justices all the way up to the 1860's considered this to be a Christian Nation. My guess: the author has a very different definition of the term, and has destroyed a strawman, not a reality.

Consider:
* If faith were not a significant factor in the early years, why did so many colonies incorporate elements of the ten commandments in their bylaws, and even go so far as to deny the privilege of testifying in court to anyone who did not believe in some kind of higher power?

* If Jefferson was so committed to radical separation of church and state, why did he encourage congress to declare one of the federal buildings a church, and regularly attended services there? (And in fact, that was the reality through most of the 19th century.)

* Why did late 19th century SCOTUS deny the possibility of a public school without bible teaching, even while accepting that the school didn't need to require clergy involvement?

I sense the author's strawman is that a "Christian Community" would embody some kind of purified paradise on earth. I don't know anybody who would agree with such a statement. Christians aren't already perfect, they're responding to God's love by turning from their past and allowing God to transform their lives. The nation was founded to make that process possible, in a better way than had been possible in Europe.

Fear
The author seems to conflate fear with passionate concern, passionate disagreement, passionate promotion of integrity.

I don't know anybody who feared Hillary Clinton. I know many who were disgusted by her lack of a moral compass, her abject disregard for the law and her responsibilities under the law. I know many who voted for Trump in spite of his various flaws, because they saw a man with more integrity than his opponent, a man who selflessly decided to serve his nation, a man willing to do battle with both biased media and academia. (Billionaires generally don't need to embezzle funds!)

Fea repeats the liberal meme suggesting Trump is afraid of all immigrants, and particularly Muslims and Mexicans. He suggests Trump is sending a message to a "largely white working class constituency."

Funny thing. My many legal immigrant friends are just as upset about the sudden liberal distaste for enforcing our nation's borders. They ask why they bothered to go to the tremendous effort necessary to immigrate properly, when apparently all one must do is cross our southern border and claim fear of violence somewhere.

That's not an issue of fear. It's an issue of ethics, and of the law.

I sometimes ask the same question. My dad was a Holocaust survivor. He spent WW2 in a British internment camp. Others who had escaped were in Bolivia. They couldn't immigrate until a relative was able to provide financial guarantees covering their initial time in the US. And they certainly would not have made it through Ellis Island if they were sick.

Fea makes the same kind of mistake on many other topics. Sure, the book is filled with selective factual notes... all designed to generate a certain perspective demonizing the 45th president of the US. And it ignores every fact that doesn't support his meme.

I would love to see the author discover and highlight the best arguments against his meme. If he could understand and articulate those, the reader might gain a sense that the author is trying to teach something of value rather than propagandize his audience.

[Chris Baik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering the stigma and connotations associated with the word "evangelical", I've had to sit and ask myself many times since 2016 whether I still want to consider myself one. In the long run, the answer is still yes (and Fea has stated the same about himself), given that the word derives from the Greek for "good news." And I still believe in the good news of Jesus and in making Him known.

On the other hand, there's a dark underbelly to American evangelical subculture that I am more than happy to dissociate from. A subculture that believes in "making America great again" (which is ambiguous, at best, seeing that when America was great for one group of people, it was horrific for another group), in pinning hopes on the Supreme Court to rectify all that is morally defiled, in seeking earthly power and influence and money more than humility, suffering and the kingship of Jesus Christ.

This book provides some historical perspective on where that subculture comes from, and why. It's a quick read, and I'll probably forget many of the exact historical details, but the general sense is that: (1) America was never truly "great", (2) Christians should not become obsessed with political power, (3) fear characterizes (and negatively so) much of the evangelical subculture, and (4) widespread evangelical support for Trump is a culmination of all of the above.

I understand that there are rational reasons to have voted for Trump. I have friends who did so, and I still respect many of them. To some, he was legitimately a better candidate than Clinton or Biden for such-and-such a reason, or for such-and-such a policy. But the fact that he was the "better choice", or the "lesser-of-two-evils" in certain categories, does not justify a blanket blind-eye for all else that is and was wrong about his public character and tenure. In short, there are acceptable and rational reasons to have supported Trump, and unacceptable ones. I believe this book addresses and describes many of the unacceptable reasons.

It's a relatively short read which attempts to cover a pretty decent amount of ground, and does a fairly good job. Fea is by no means fully sympathetic to liberals or Democrats, either, and I appreciate his even-keeled tone. There are flaws on both sides, and flaws in each one of us as individuals as well. This book is good fodder to reflect on some of those flaws.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in my continuing quest to understand the 2016 US presidential election. Fea is an evangelical Christian historian. His book helped me understand how Trump convinced evangelicals he was a Christian, despite his many blunders and reports of sexual assault. Trump's immorality was ignored because he had the right policy proposals. Evangelicals were grasping political power and Trump seemed to be the answer.

This action was not something new. Fea says the election was “the latest manifestation of a long-standing evangelical approach to public life.” (6) He says the idea to “win back” and “restore the culture” was based on a faulty foundation, longing for something that did not exist in the first place.

Fear is what was driving the evangelicals, Fea argues. “The various fears that combined to drive white evangelical Christians into the arms of Donald Trump have deep roots in American history.” (112-113) He explains why evangelical Christians were so afraid, reviewing the social and cultural changes that have occurred from the Puritans to the Obama administration. He introduces readers to the many religious leaders who were seeking political power and entered Trump's inner circle. Fea also writes about Christian nostalgia and Christians trying to reclaim something that will never come back.

I really appreciated Fea's insights into what seems to be a last-ditch attempt to win the culture wars. (180) Fea wonders what might happen if evangelicals replace fear with hope. He wonders how evangelical politics might change if the pursuit of power is replaced with the cultivation of humility. He also wonders what might happen if evangelicals replace nostalgia with history. (182)

This book is a good one for evangelicals to read to understand what happened in the last several years and why. I know God has promised that He will work His purposes to good. I find hope and trust in that promise.

[Becki · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, an explanation of the book...
This book is a well researched, impeccably annotated history book that shows the progression of the white Evangelical Church in America and how a few basic premises of that history (fear, the pursuit of power, and nostalgia) led to the church's embrace of Donald Trump.

That background is further amplified by identifying the specific groups of evangelicals who provide the basis of Trump's support. Those groups are the Christian Right (Fallwell, Robertson, etc), the followers of the "Prosperity Gospel" (Paula White, Jim Bakker, etc) and the Independent Network Charismatics (Bethel, IHOP, etc).

Finally, the author examines "Make America Great Again" through the lens of specific eras Trump frequently references. (The section on Andrew Jackson was particularly startling.)

I felt like I gained good knowledge from this book. Unfortunately, it didn't make me feel any better. In fact, it made me feel worse. As I read this, the country was battling not only coronavirus, but police brutality (due to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, etc). Protests and riots were being held in every state in the country, and Donald Trump lacked the character, wisdom and nuance to respond with appropriate leadership.

So, yeah... It's good to know how this happened, but this may not have been the right time for me to read this book, because I have a lot of anger right now towards that 81%. I'm angry that their fear, pursuit of power over pursuit of Christ, and nostalgia for a time when whites ruled the roost has brought us to this destruction.

[Ray Timmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written, timely book about our current president, American evangelicals, and the damage being caused by their blind support of that president. There are several warnings that the author develops throughout the book, Biblical warnings, that Christian people should deeply consider. The fact that evangelical churches are experiencing an alarming and increasing amount of declining numbers is no secret. There are many other books that support this fact in addition to this one. Yes, there are multitudes of reasons for that decline. Dr. Fea's book focuses on the damage that this unquestioning loyalty for the president by Christian people is having on evangelicalism. To ignore that this misguided support of our president is having a detrimental effect on the church is to ignore the truth. Dr. Fea does a great job of pointing out much that evangelicals need to think about before casting their vote during the next presidential election. His quote at the end of the book should be something all evangelicals should pray long and hard about. "It should not surprise us that people are leaving evangelicalism or no longer associating themselves with that label--or in some cases, leaving the church altogether. It's time to take a long hard look at what we have become. Believe me, we have a lot of work to do." A good place to begin is to read this book with an open mind and heart asking God to help each of us to become a part of the solution to declining evangelicalism rather than to be a part of the problem.

[Johanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

In John Fea’s new book Believe Me, he argues that the issues of fear, power, and nostalgia have been present throughout the history of white evangelicals in America and thus have contributed to the rise of Donald Trump as president. I first became acquainted with Dr. Fea’s work while I was pursuing my master’s in the history of Christianity, and I especially appreciated his book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? over the course of my studies in American Christianity. This new book continues discussing these issues, as he relates what has happened throughout the history of white American evangelicalism to current events. He grapples with these issues well as a historian, and he examines both the good and the bad of how the Bible has been used by white evangelicals to justify political or social changes and movements. His arguments about how white evangelicals have been moved by fear and power throughout American history were especially effective, and it helped place current events into a broader historical context.

I felt that this book could have better defined what an evangelical is, since “the evangelical road to Donald Trump” is the subtitle of the book. I understand that this is a complex issue, since there is no one set definition of what an evangelical actually is in our culture, but I thought that Fea could have explained that more clearly in his introduction. However, he did distinguish between white evangelicals and black evangelicals, which is an important distinction when discussing the rise of Donald Trump.

Finally, I appreciated how Fea concluded his book by using the example of the Civil Rights movement as a guide to how evangelicals can act in the future. As a historian, I understand how difficult it can be to write about current events when we don’t know what the ultimate impact of these decisions will be, so I thought that Fea did well to simply offer guides and attitudes for the future. Overall, I highly recommend this book as a way to better appreciate how Donald Trump’s election took place in a larger historical context while considering how we as evangelicals should respond.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Full of tendentious generalizations about "white evangelicals," Fea's analysis reads like a somewhat condescending screed, meant to bolster his own prejudice toward those "white evangelicals" (a phrase he uses over and over to signify thoughtless, fear-ridden, un-woke dopes who are also caucasian Christians). As someone who shares the author's antipathy toward Mr. Trump, I was hoping for something more than the usual fastidious dismissal. A wiser approach would have taken pains to understand the Evangelical support for Trump on its own terms. As it is, Fea's analysis seems too easy, too self-serving. As if to say, I hated that he won, and I hated that 81% of my tribe voted for him, so now I have to explain to you all why they were so stupid. There is a good book waiting to be written on this subject, but Fea's is not the one.