Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump

by Sarah Posner

A stunning feat of reportage that explains one of the central mysteries of the Trump era: the unholy marriage of Trump and the Evangelicals, as officiated by the alt-right.

Why did so many Evangelicals turn out to vote for Donald Trump, a serial philanderer with questionable conservative credentials who seems to defy Christian values with his every utterance? To a reporter like Sarah Posner, who has been covering the religious right for decades, the answer turns out to be far more intuitive than one might think.

In this taut and meticulously reported inquiry, Posner digs deep into the radical history of the religious right to reveal how issues of race and xenophobia have always been at the movement's core, and how religion has been used to cloak anxieties about percieved threats to a white, Christian America. Fueled by an anti-democratic impulse, and united by this narrative of reverse victimization, the religious right and the alt-right support a common agenda--and are actively using the erosion of democratic norms to roll back civil rights advances, stock the judiciary with hard-right judges, defang and deregulate federal agencies, and undermine the credibility of the free press. Increasingly, this formidable bloc is also forging ties with European far right groups, giving momentum to a truly global movement forecasted to last long after the Trump era.

Revelatory and engrossing, Unholy offers a deeper understanding of the ideological underpinnings and forces influencing the course of Republican politics. This is a book that must be read by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.

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

360 pages, Hardcover

First published May 26, 2020

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

- Good morning, Mr Zucker. Please sit down.

- Good morning doctor. Thank you for making time for me. Like I said, I haven't been feeling too great recently--

- You're welcome, Mr Zucker. Now I've got some good news and some bad news. What would you like first?

- Uh, I don't know, I guess the good news?

- Well, Mr Zucker, the good news is that Jesus loves you. Whatever bad thing you might have done, no matter how dreadful it may be, if you truly repent then Jesus will forgive you and welcome you back to His arms.

- Is that it? See, I was hoping it might be a promotion, I upped my tithe like my pastor said and he promised--

- Mr Zucker, what I have just told you is the best piece of news you'll ever receive in your whole life. It's infinitely more important than a trivial promotion. And you'll need it. Maybe we should get to the bad news.

- Uh, sure doctor.

- I'm sorry Mr Zucker, there's no way to sugar-coat this so I won't try. You're suffering from Stage 4 heresy.

- Is that bad?

- You have been listening to the Word of Satan in the false belief that it was the Word of God. You have allowed the Evil One's thoughts to creep into your soul and warp your spirit. If you were to die now, you would spend the rest of eternity in a state of damnation.

- You're sure?

- I'm sure.

- But gee doctor, isn't God merciful? I mean, maybe I got a bit mixed up, but I haven't done anything so terrible. I pay my tithe, I do my job, I'm faithful to my wife, well I mean if you don't count--

- Mr Zucker, you voted for the Antichrist in 2016. You persuaded three other people to do the same. You live in Wisconsin.

- But doctor, there's got to be some mistake here. Donald Trump isn't the Antichrist. I listen to Paula White all the time, she says he's the best thing that ever--

- Mr Zucker, we have not yet finished our investigation, but we have reason to suspect that Paula White is a succubus from the Pit of Hell.

- And Richard Spencer--

- We think Richard Spencer may be an incarnation of Belial. Mr Zucker, I understand that you are disoriented. It's normal for someone in your condition. Now, earlier you were telling me you expected a promotion because you had given your pastor some money.

- Yes doctor, he guaranteed it. It's just ordinary prosperity theology, I pay them and they fix it with God so that I--

- Mr Zucker, you say you are a Christian. Would you like to quote to me the words of Our Lord as reported in Matthew 19:24?

- Uh, doctor, I'm not so good on the Bible, I'm more about speaking in tongues and holy laughing, my pastor--

- Mr Zucker, if you need to be reminded, Matthew 19:24 says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

- Doctor, I've never understood that. How could God not want His people to be rich? My pastor says--

- I'm sorry Mr Zucker, but this is what we mean by heresy. The message of Jesus Christ is nothing to do with making you rich. It's about loving God and your fellow men. All your fellow men.

- Are you sure doctor? See, my pastor says Donald Trump is defending our Christian civilization from bad guys who want to destroy it, it's not like I'm racist or anything but these people from Syria and Iraq and Mexico and whatever, they call themselves refugees but they just don't have the same values as us white people, if we let them in then--

- Mr Zucker, where was Our Saviour born?

- Uh, in Israel I guess?

- And where is Israel?

- Gee doctor, I'm not so hot on geography--

- It's close to Syria, Mr Zucker.

- Uh--

- So Our Saviour probably looked like one of those refugees your pastor's talking about. I don't think He was white.

- But doctor--

- Mr Zucker, you are suffering from advanced heresy. We need to get you on a course of treatment as soon as possible.

- Doctor, I'm willing to pay what it takes. I--

- As I keep telling you, Mr Zucker, this isn't about money. I want you to come back and see me two weeks from now. Before then, I'm expecting you to have read the Gospel according to Saint Matthew.

- All of it, doctor?

- Yes, Mr Zucker. I also want you to tell me you've volunteered to adopt the Syrian orphan from the mail you unexpectedly received this morning. You don't know it yet, but she'll transform your life and your grandchildren will be the joy of your old age.

- Doctor, who told you about--

- And I'm also asking you to read Sarah Posner's new book, Unholy. Here's a copy. It'll answer a lot of your questions.

- Doctor, what's that weird glow round your head?

- It's not important. Come back and see me in two weeks. And remember, Jesus will forgive you. If you are truly repentant.

- Yes doctor.

- Goodbye, Mr Zucker.

- Yes doctor. And, uh, thanks. You know, I kind of feel better.

- I'm glad to hear that. Please show in the next patient.

- Yes doctor.

[Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤ · Rating 4 out of 5]

'On the surface, the Christian right is saturated with rhetoric about “faith” and “values.” Its real driving force, though, [is] not religion but grievances over school desegregation, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, affirmative action, and more.'

When 83% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, many mainstream Christians and others were surprised.  How can they support and idolize a man who has cheated on all three of his wives, routinely steals and conducts shady business deals, lies and spews hatred, among other supposedly non-Christian things?

If you are familiar with most white evangelicals, their support of this odious person came as no surprise.  

The author of Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump has spent years learning about the alt-right conservatives - attending their churches, reading their literature, interviewing them. In this book she highlights their growing political power over the last several decades, and shows how they were waiting for a man like Trump to help "restore Christian values" to America.

I was raised fundamentalist evangelical. For a time as an adult, I attended a non-fundamentalist evangelical church. Many of my relatives are evangelical. I am well aware of the hatred and small-mindedness of the majority of white evangelicals. 

I have ONE friend who is a white evangelical and not a trump supporter, only this ONE who is a good, caring, moral person. I know of only two other evangelicals who "might" not support trump. But I know many who do.

It was no surprise to me to see how these people, so steeped in judgment and hatred of others, lined up behind an immoral, white supremacist authoritarian. No surprise to see them worship at his altar. 

Ms. Posner spends most of the book detailing specific white evangelicals who are in trump's inner circle and those who have been working "religiously" (ha, ha!) to destroy democracy and turn the United States into a theocracy.

I would have appreciated more analysis and less specific "he said, she said" examples. It became too much, constantly witnessing their hatred of others. Hear them glorifying from the pulpit when Democratic politicians die and bemoaning the fact that gays can marry. 

The author asks, "How do people who have spent their entire adult life preaching” religious piety, sexual purity, and so-called family values “just suddenly flip a switch and endorse a candidate who doesn’t reflect what they’ve been preaching"?

Unfortunately, she doesn't so much answer this question as give examples of how they did. 

It is clear that the majority of white evangelicals find a like-minded person in Donald Trump. Like them, he is xenophobic, racist, anti-semitic, anti-intellectual, anti-science, hateful, judgmental, and intent on destroying democracy.

The pastors and televangelists are authoritarian and so their congregants are happy to be ruled by such, giving up their critical thinking skills and relishing in the fake praise and concern bestowed upon them. They do not care how others are treated as long as they are part of a "special" crowd, the "blessed" crowd.

They love to think themselves superior to all other people on earth and at the same time see themselves as martyrs for their faith. 

They believe democracy is run by demons. They love conspiracy theories. They relish in their certainty that only they know the truth. They revel in their self-superiority. They believe everyone who doesn't believe exactly as they do are their enemies and will destroy America and the world.

Their leaders are power-hungry narcissists. As the author notes, like Trump, "contemporary evangelicalism has been profoundly shaped by celebrity and television".

This book made me anxious, reminding me of how dangerous these people are. They are even more dangerous now that they have the president of the United States working for them. Donny-johnny knows they helped him win the election and as long as they continue to sing his praises and defend him, he is happy to appoint them as judges, erode constitutional rights, and elevate their agenda above all others.

White evangelicals worship trump because he is as hateful as they are. They want an America in which they are not forced to treat everyone fairly. In which they can force their "values" upon others.

An America where gays cannot get married and good evangelicals are not persecuted for their faith by having to bake cakes for gay couples. 

They want an America where Muslims are banned and poor refugees kept out. They are the exact opposite of the man upon whom their religion was founded, Jesus. 

They are Christian supremacists and I thank the author for that term! It suits them perfectly.

Sarah Posner has really done her research and I recommend this book to anyone seeking to understand how so many white evangelicals can see Donald Trump as "God's anointed" and themselves as spiritual warriors appointed by god to protect him from demonic (liberal) attack and "lies".

It's not a fun book to read, but important. 

In closing, I want to say that I feel for the 17% of white evangelicals who are being criticized for not supporting trump and even seen as the enemy now by their fellow congregants. The negative qualities listed in this review do not apply to all white evangelicals. Unfortunately, they apply to most.

"What both the Christian right and the white nationalist right are looking toward now... is a new locus of power in the world, one defined by a rejection of the hard-won and fragile American values of democracy and human rights, and by an exaltation of authoritarian natalism, xenophobia, and homophobia."

[David Wineberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the Christian right, Trump is no ordinary politician and no ordinary president. He is anointed, chosen by God “and sanctified by the movement, as a divine leader sent to save America.” Trump has manipulated the Christian right into supporting him despite everything, because he gives them everything they want. He gives their pastors direct access to the White House and the Oval Office, and they dutifully inform their flocks of how wonderful he is and how influential they are. In Sarah Posner’s hardhitting Unholy, support for Trump is total. The book is an apocalyptic view of American politics, not religion.

The book is a component by component view of how the Christian right is infiltrating the federal government, and changing it to its own worldview. It has been building up to this for decades – since the end of the Nixon administration. It has been a purposeful campaign to build “think tanks”, lobbies, Political Action Committees and ecclesiastic pressure, most visibly from televangelists. Their reward is government positions, selfies with the president, foreign influence in autocratic Christian hotspots like Hungary, Moldova and Ukraine, and money, from unconstitutional tax breaks to bookselling and everything in between. It’s the best time to be in the God business, the way Posner structures it.

It is all based on racism and white supremacy. It’s there, out in the open among the preachers of Trump as the anointed one:
-“(Historian Randall) Balmer told me the religious right had come ‘full circle to embrace its roots in racism,’ and ‘had finally dispensed with the fiction that it was concerned about abortion or family values,’” Posner says.
-According to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Christians’ rights are traditional, and natural. LGBTQ rights are newly manufactured and therefore of lower status.
-His predecessor at State, Rex Tillerson, moaned that promoting human rights and democracy abroad could often be an obstacle in advancing American interests.

They are all about autocrats, hoping Trump will take charge like the Putins, Xis and Orbans of the world. Anything that smacks of democracy is suspect. They applaud gerrymandering, closing down media that isn’t 100% with them, and building bigger government to accommodate and impose their program on the American people:
-Republican congressmen demand investigations into funds for democracy initiatives in eastern Europe, while praising the power grabs of Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin, who figured out years ago that the harmless Christian church is the perfect tool for implementing their takeovers, and who have lavished funds on them to kick it all off and keep it going. There is nothing to criticize; they are simply bringing back traditional values.
-Despite the stated goal of small government, Trump has been placing religious zealots in key positions, such as the Office of Civil Rights of the Health Department, where Roger Severino has created a whole new division for protection of religious freedom (in health and human services). This allows Americans to deny healthcare to each other based on religion, sex and “conscience”. The new division pushes Americans to complain about infringements. It threatens to shut off all federal funding for the entire state if someone complains about hearing the word abortion, for example. All this is of course, the exact opposite of the stated purpose of the Office of Civil Rights. And goes totally against supposed Republican values of shrinking government.
-This is happening all over the federal government at Trump’s insistence.

They are all about taking power, and Trump, with no network of his own to draw on, fills judgeships, civil service posts and diplomatic postings with sycophants whom he knows will do his bidding, whatever that is as it changes from day to day. They will forgive everything he says or does that goes directly against the constitution, theirs or America’s, because they are thrilled to be in power at long last, according to Posner.

What comes through most strongly, at least to me, is that the alt-right, the new right, evangelicals and conservative Christians all look at the world as zero sum. There is only so much wealth, right and privilege available, and any raising of the levels for non-whites or non-heterosexuals somehow diminishes the rights and privileges of white Christians. This is the driving force behind anti-busing, anti-immigration, anti-civil rights, anti-Equal Rights Amendment, anti-textbook, anti-gay, anti-abortion, religious freedom for tax deductibility - and pro-Trump. No one is allowed to match the status of white Christians.

As Posner demonstrates ever more clearly and precisely, Trump and his unholy minions are heading the United States into a state of inequality it has never known. Different ethnic groups will have different rights from white Christians. Jews will have less rights than whites (Posner, an Ashkenazy Jew, has had her religion pointed out to her numerous times over the years of dealing with the right. It lessens her in their eyes and puts her on her guard). Muslims will have no rights at all, and gays could face the death penalty if some get their way. Different religious groups will also be demoted, perhaps nominal Christians falling somewhere below evangelicals but ahead of say, Mexican Catholics. This dystopian future is well on its way, and can be seen in various stages in countries like Russia, Hungary and Brazil, where the president has declared immigrants “the scum of the earth.” Bolsonaro and Trump praise each other to the skies.

As in Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne, it is striking how low quality the players are. They are Nazis (some not even ex), fraudsters, crooks, sex fiends and hypocrites. They are mean and vicious. Posner says ex-con Jim Bakker told his televangelist crowd the day Representative Elijah Cummings died that God struck him down for leading the committee to impeach Trump. They all insist there was not the slightest pretext to impeach, that it was all purely a ploy to deny them, white Christians, their vote.

Posner has been living this beat for decades. She attends the conferences, interviews pastors and televangelists, and is generally well known in these circles. Not to mention well read. The result in terrific insight, rationally laid out for the reader to appreciate in its true depth. It is all politics in the world of Unholy. The quotes will not be disputed. Nor will the goals and ideals. There is an agenda, and it doesn’t matter who gets hurt in its implementation. It is clearly holy war, with Donald Trump shuffling the players on and of the board.

They are always the victim, and time is always running short. Influence is measured by the amount donated. Such is the Unholy world Sarah Posner has lived. And unless Americans change their votes in 2020, so will the whole country.

David Wineberg

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is scary. But first! I have never been able to figure out how a supposedly group who believes in God, could endorse DJT. It turns out they have been waiting for him, or someone like him, for years. His well known background (multiple wives,mistresses, sexual accusations, casino owner etc.etc.) are not seen as a hindrance but considered as part of his ability to fight for their causes. No immigration, no black or brown people, no abortion, money for only their needs. We know the drill. I did not realize that DJT had foretold his interest in these things before his election. The evangelicals think that the wall is biblically predicted.
These folks are loony and they are incredibly powerful as DJT needs them to win. We are in a place where the Attorney General compares covid lockdown to slavery. Be careful folks. Be sure to vote, it is more important now than ever.
I had a hard time keeping up with voluminous quotes and people. This book is difficult to read, on many levels. However, your questions will be answered.

[Genevieve Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know a lot of very serious Christians who scoff at the mention of Trump's name.

But that's not unusual -- he's a thrice-married serial philanderer, liar, and cheater from the seamy world of porn stars, casinos, and reality TV. What could be more off-putting to a group of people who have continually rejected even the blandest candidates for the fatal crimes of being not committed and not Christian enough?

What is unusual is that I know a LOT MORE very serious Christians who voted for him, and continue to praise him, and will vote for him again.

Where is this coming from? Establishment types like John McCain and Romney, and even candidates on the more extreme side of "family values" like Ted Cruz and Rick Santorum were throwaways, but this guy is the one? For dedicated culture warriors who have bemoaned for decades our culture's slide toward rampant immorality and decadent selfishness to back Trump, who practically idealizes that trend in one person, seems like the height of hypocrisy.

I was hoping this book would delve into this baffling phenomenon, and help me understand. It... sort of did, and sort of didn't.

Because it's a little difficult to find, here is the author's thesis up front:

His 'base' is not an accident of his unconventional foray into politics, or a quirk of this particular political moment. The vast majority of white evangelicals are all in with Trump because he has given them political power and allowed them to carry out a Christian supremacist agenda, inextricably intertwined with his administration's white nationalist agenda.

The first chapter or two go right to the heart of the thing with a matter-of-fact exploration of the "religious" figures Trump surrounds himself with. I have spent the last four years looking away from politics and generally wincing, so most of this was new to me. I had wondered, when stories like the Paula White "satanic pregnancy" speech break, where he was getting all these insane people; it makes sense that they're all prosperity gospel televangelists.

The nature of televangelists is to be snake oil salesmen, and turn defrauding the vulnerable into something praiseworthy. It's a good gig, too -- in what other business can you blatantly enrich yourself off the backs of others and claim it's a sign of your faith? It makes perfect sense how Trump would fall in with these people, since they are cut from the same cloth.

As the author says:

Trump has succeeded in captivating white evangelical voters not just because he has befriended certain high-level leaders in the evangelical world. He has succeeded because there is virtually no leader in the evangelical world he wouldn't welcome by his side--as long as that leader pledged allegiance to him.

Sickening, but probably true. These hucksters are perfectly willing to hail him as the divinely anointed savior of America, and he is perfectly willing to be called so. A match made in heaven, and then on the ground all the middle-aged women get to share poorly-made meme graphics on Facebook praising Trump for having prayer meetings in the White House.

Most will be too afraid to repost the truth. Share if you're praying for our leader!!!

This book overall is written in a flat style that reads, in some places, more like a dense list of names and facts than anything else. Still, it starts off strong, tying Trump and the televangelists together with undeniable insight. Next, the book turns its focus to the other piece of the puzzle: the alt-right. Its portrait of the mixed coterie of old guard political racists, veterans of the segregation fights, and the young up-and-coming neo-fascists tired of the oppression of "political correctness" and filled with a deep anxiety about their place in the world is stirring and scary.

Anti-immigrant sentiment is one of the most powerful political trends lately, and probably the biggest thing all of Trump's base would agree on. It's clear how both the "white pride" of the alt-right and the anti-Islamic, anti-Mexican (sometimes anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish) feelings of the white evangelical voters stem from the same place: fear of losing power.

After the first chapter covering the alt-right, though... the book gets even denser. I waded deeper and deeper into the soup of political history, hoping that eventually the framework of a tight argument would become clear. But it didn't. The author relates, essentially, the story of the rise of the modern conservative political establishment. She excavates its roots in pro-segregation activism, claims they never cared about abortion as much as they say, dives into NGO after NGO, think tank after think tank, journalism and activism over the decades since the sixties -- all this to paint a picture of the powerful right-wing apparatus that stood ready to drive into action, reshaping the government in its own image, as soon as anyone was brave or stupid enough to give them the chance.

Trump was that someone, the author claims, and it's not even about Trump. Going back to the thesis laid out in the epilogue, it's about the power.

I haven't even touched on the chapters about the right wing's global affinity for nationalist strongmen, which were interesting (if a little bit mind-numbingly thorough.) This author is an experienced journalist and considered an expert on the religious right. She clearly has spent decades marinating in these particular circles, which is interesting because she seems to have absolutely no regard for any of their beliefs.

This book is not an argument about whether anything claimed about Trump or his followers is true or not true. Trump's racism and lies are presupposed facts. The undercover Planned Parenthood videos are "deceptive." Religious freedom is a crock argument put forward today by the same conservatives and for the same reasons as they wielded it against racial integration of schools.

"Religion, though, is just a cover for the endgame," says the author.

But is it? Certainly, she makes an excellent case that at the national level, anyone arguing religion is just doing it because it serves their rhetorical purposes. I do believe her that it's all about the power. But on the ground, in our homes? Is the everyday white evangelical voter watching the news and thinking to himself "I'm so glad all this 'God' claptrap is putting us back in power so that we can destroy democratic institutions around the globe." Not the ones I know.

I'm still mostly mystified as to what these people ARE thinking. So, while I got quite the political history education from this book, unfortunately I didn't accomplish my goal.

I might have to do my own research and then write my own book. Some things I can tell you already. There is an amount of genuine fear of legal persecution. There is a vast amount of genuine moral outrage at issues like abortion. There is an amount of blended nationalistic-anxiety-racism-nostalgia about what inevitable demographic changes will mean. And the author was absolutely right about one thing:

IT IS ALL. ABOUT. THE SUPREME COURT.

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trump is a monster. Those who enable him are monsters. The alt-right and the Christian supremist are his base, his support, and enablers and they are to blame for the monster that they have created because he is one of them and they are him. This book taught me the phrase ‘Christian supremist’, I like it.

This nightmare didn’t happen in a vacuum. There is a nexus between the mean, bitter, racist people who make up the alt-right and the Christian supremist. They each take as a given that equality for all is anathema to their values and their values are only for those who reside in their self-selective tribe. Pluralism, treating all people as humans and fairness get trumped by their supremist values except for those who are in their self-selective tribe. Apollo’s ‘know thy self’ can also mean ‘know your place’, and as mentioned in this book, that is what the enablers of Trump demand of others who are not them, they must know themselves by knowing their place and be subservient to the ruling group’s identity without an identity, the self-selective tribe.

What do you say to someone who thinks that Nazi’s are socialist and morphed into today’s Democratic Party? The answer is nothing. They are ignorant and beyond learning. As mentioned in this book, convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza wrote a book with that absurd thesis and the alt-right and Christian supremist who make up Trump’s enablers lap that crap up. They don’t care if it’s non-sense, they just want to justify their hate, bitterness, and anger towards the other even if that other is a child in a cage because their world is collapsing and they have nothing left but a yearning to ‘make America great again’ while wrapping themselves in a flag (alt-right) or standing with a bible (Christian supremist).

Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf is the most important (and vile) book that explains what is happening today in America. Hitler clearly states that by socialism he was not referring to what the liberal democracies endorse, but he meant socialism to be only for the classless class of the real German Volk acting for the betterment of the Nation and the self-selective tribe who were part of that Nation and nobody else except for the Volk that made up the self-selective tribe of that Nation and that Nation is the Volk. That is, the group with no identity since it is the only true identity according to alt-right or Christian supremist of Hitler’s time period, the self-selected tribe of real Germans since all other Germans are only wanna be Germans and aren’t part of the self-selected tribe worthy of consideration, those who want to Make Germany Great again and would act in concordance for the good of the self-selected tribe. Hitler also stated ‘National socialism is racism’, and Trump’s Republican Party is racist or I should say the Republican Party which created Trump. Trump’s enablers are as racist, mean and bitter as Trump is while hiding behind a façade of their self-selective tribe’s values which enable their hate all entwined by their peculiar set of values.

This book fell mostly flat for me. She’s got a framing that makes believe that the Christian supremist endorse Trump because he praises them, and she at times separates the alt-right from the Christian supremist when both are acting for their own group’s supremacy values always. I say, they endorsed Trump because they hate the same people and they want to make America great again by remaking us into the image of the mean, bitter racist of the 1950s while claiming their own peculiar set of values as the only values worth having. They love his anti-intellectualism, his authoritarian stances, his meanness, his bigotry and his racism and learned to conveniently make believe that his make-believing in ‘things hope for but not seen’ was in concordance with their hate.

For the most part the author taught me almost nothing that I didn’t already know. One factoid I did not know, she mentioned that Chuck Norris admired the white supremist Christian supremist leader of Hungary. In a way, knowing that fact goes a long way in explaining the enablers of Trump and goes partly towards explaining the nexus between the two tribes of haters, the alt-right and Christian supremist. Trump is the nexus between the alt-right supremist and the Christian supremist that they want, and they are as a bear backed into a cave because they can only lash out because they have nothing positive to give any more except for their negative hate, bigotry, racism and bitterness caused by their lost memories that never were all wrapped in the flag or hidden behind a bible while appealing to their peculiar set of values.

It takes the alt-right and the Christian supremist together in order to make a fascist state with in a predominately Christian nation. Trump did not create the fascist. He channels them because that’s who he is, that’s who the republicans are, that’s who the alt-right are, and that’s who the Christian supremist are.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply appreciated the depth of reporting the author has done on the disturbing alliance between Trump, white evangelicals and white nationalists.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is pretty much as the title: Posner is offended by Trump, so he is ready to offend others in hopes of forcing them to vote with someone else.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good overview on why the White Christian Right want Trump and are devoted to Nahum. He is a strong man who is willing to ignore laws and norms to help them set up a Christian Autocracy government that roles back civil rights for minorities of all types as he rules with with kleptocracy. Scary stuff I especially found it interesting that he studied televangelists to form his behavior and he mirrors them in many ways. Upsetting but needed.

[Lynn Derks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not read the Kindle Edition. I read advance uncorrected proofs. Posner reports on events as late as November 2019; I finished reading the proofs March 17, 2020. I am a white evangelical. I do not worship at the altar of Donald Trump: I am a registered Democrat. I have served as a Precinct Committee Person for the Democratic Party. I was an Obama delegate. I voted for Hillary. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BOOK! I'm certain that most evangelicals are not aware of the goings-on of many of the evangelical "leaders" as they relate to Donald Trump. Until reading this book, I believed evangelicals voted for Trump more as a vote AGAINST Hillary than FOR Trump. I now see it was more sinister than that. Hopefully UNHOLY will be read by a large number of evangelical voters before the 2020 presidential election. PRAY!

[Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The group of grifters, hypocrites, sycophants, liars, snake-oil-salesmen, under-educated noobs, greedy right wing racists, and bible thumpers collectively known as evangelical Christians (and some, I assume, are fine people) are unfortunately a major political force in the US. Unholy traces their roots and shows their strong links to the current dysfunctional ruling party and anointed guardian. Just how these frauds could hitch their wagon to the most immoral person to hold the presidency is discussed in detail. It likely won’t change any priors, but it does illuminate some of the nastier and more shadowy of the hucksters surrounding the current president and their forbearers. Praise Dog that Possner has had the fortitude to wade into this morass to keep those outside this circle of lunacy informed of their efforts to throw the US back into the stone age.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people — now how 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks — they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America."

Hillary Clinton got a lot of shit for this speech, but after 12 hours of this book being shot straight into my ears, she was 100% accurate and she was being nice.

When I told my husband I wanted to read this book, his response was basically, "Why? It's because they're racist." I thought that was a simplistic view and figured there had to be more to it. Well, there's not. The whole religious right movement started because of racism and desegregation, gained a ton of momentum after Brown vs Board, and then pivoted to also being sexist as the feminist movement grew and Roe vs Wade happened. They tried to coat it and hide behind religion and religious orthodoxy and used it as cover for their general regressive views. As demographics started shifting and public opinion started shifting more progressively, they used the opportunity to play up the victim complex, boiling it down them being discriminated against because of their religious views and not them being just generally horribly regressive racist sexist homophobic assholes. They're Christian supremacists, as long as Christian means Christian Straight White Americans.

There's always the question of, how can these God fearing Christians put their support behind a philandering liar who has probably never read the Bible? Well it turns out, the Prosperity Gospel (which most of the Evangelical leaders who support Trump preach), their gravitation towards conspiracy theories, and the Evangelical penchant for looking up to strongmen - the more opinionated and narcissistic the better, meant that Trump was perfect as someone for them to latch on to. Everything about him, from his opinions to how he voiced his opinions was everything they had been conditioned to like and support.

If someone wants to go "BUT NOT ALL EVANGELICALS!" Well sure. The ones who spoke out against Trump were either forced into silence or generally cast aside. Evangelicals as a whole have largely embraced and championed everything he says and does.

I feel like this book covers some of what was in Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America and Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland, but dealing more from the white Evangelical points of view. Those books do lend to a good foundation of understanding what this book is getting at. I already knew some of the people she was talking about and some of the mindset, so the thesis of her argument was already very familiar to me.

The book goes into deep historical context and has everything from excerpts of speeches to anecdotes by the actual people to help the author make her point. I do think this book did veer off topic a few times when it focuses specifically on people like Richard Spencer and the "alt-right"/White supremacist/let's just call them Nazi's movement. And when it started to kind of rehash what Democracy in Chains discussed. But at the same time, it's difficult to talk about Evangelicals and Trump without talking about the White supremacists and how the Radical right really started their insidious ploys to move mainstream politics towards them. I just think this book could be viewed as more of a "Evangelicals/White supremacists and how did we get here" book than just a book on Evangelicals and Trump.

I kind of regret listening to this book. It's well written and informative, but it's depressing, frustrating, and deeply disturbing. Sometimes selfish racist assholes are just selfish racist assholes, what's the point of digging deeper? I can say that I have and I wish I had spent the time listening to something else while I was walking the dog on some beautiful autumnal days. I will also add that my husband was very nice and never said "I told you so".

[Nadine Dajani · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale is the fictionalized portrayal of a Christian authoritarian nightmare state, then Unholy is the play-by-play of how the Right in the US is fighting to bring this vision to life.

It’s horrifying and goes much deeper than the title would suggest, as the “religious” portion of “religious right” is a cover for deep-seated racism that is part of America’s foundational myth.

There are racist people everywhere, and here have been deeply racist movements throughout history (see: Nazi German, modern-day Israel, Apartheid South Africa) but we hesitate to place the US in that camp of historical monstrosities. Perhaps because of the US’s progress (though very uneven) on human rights across several fronts. What we never fully appreciated was the parallel track of reactionary forces organizing and gaining steam from the day Civil Rights were signed into law onwards.

This book focuses on white evangelicals and their relationship to Trump but really, it’s about how much this group of people hates Blacks and wants to go back to an era where descendants of the English and Scots ruled over everyone else, most especially over Blacks. The book details several pivotal Supreme Court decisions that have brought this vision closer to fulfillment.

This is a dense and difficult book to get through - I read over most paragraphs twice (especially the bits regarding Supreme Court decisions) to fully grasp the meaning, but once I did, a feeling of dread would settle over me. The devil really is in the details.

I read this book while battles over holding church services during the coronavirus pandemic were being fought between city mayors, governors, and the organized Religious Right and so it was chilling to see what the author was conveying in Unholy continuing to unfold in real life.

[Artur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels like I've just read a book on contemporary Poland.

[Becki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shares information so startling that I'd prefer to believe it's not true, but it's so impeccably researched and annotated that I have to believe that it is.

Based on the Trump supporters that I know (including *many* on the evangelical right), I have believed up until now that most were simply ignorant... unable to check or believe Snopes, unwilling to watch an news source besides Fox News, etc. This book presents an even worse possibility- that many of Trump's supporters know exactly how racist, bigoted. and homophobic he is, and embrace him *because* of that, not *despite* it.

While the title intimates that this book will be about the Evangelical right, that is only half true. Author Sarah Posner lays the ground work by delving into the racist origins of the "moral majority" (White Christians didn't want their children to go to integrated schools, so they pulled them out of public school and created all-white Christian schools). She then explores the Alt-Right agenda (also white supremacist in nature). While these two groups are not the same, they have many of the same goals, leaders, enemies, and each has an affinity for Vladimir Putin and Russia. Each group feels that Blacks people, LGBT+ folks, and liberals in general have all gained legitimacy and rights in a way that *removes* White peoples' rights and discriminates against them.

The religious right and the alt-right are bonded together by shared grievances over a supposedly lost America in which Christians don't have to bake cakes for gay couples and white people don't have to bow to "multiculturalism" and "political correctness".

The book cannot be mistaken for impartial, but it builds a strong case. I received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. My thanks to the author, publisher and #NetGalley. #Unholy

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like many of us, I really wanted a detailed understanding of why the evangelicals have embraced Trump, with such deep devotion and continue to do so. Posner has been studying the Christian right for decades and she lays it out perfectly here, explaining why this was a match made in heaven. Not always a pleasant read but an important one.

[Megan Doney]

I can’t finish this. I’m done with these people. I’m not wasting any more energy on “understanding “ them.

[Tweedledum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shocking historical review of how the white Christian Evangelical right have used their considerable influence to support and maintain Trump in power for their own far from Christ-like agenda Portraying him as God’s chosen warrior against the powers of darkness while getting into bed with those very powers themselves.

As a lifelong Christian I am appalled at the way the gospel has been twisted to suit their own agenda, using the simulcram of Pentecostalism to add “proof” to their claims,

‘What is the greatest commandment ? ‘ “ Love God and love your neighbour as yourself”’ and he seeking to justify himself asked - and who is my neighbour?’ To which Jesus responded by telling the powerful and ultra clear story of the Good Samaritan. This is the core of the Gospel ... all else can be twisted and distorted.

Trump does not love his “neighbour” or indeed love anyone except himself. Yet this is the man they say is chosen by God!!!

“A wolf in sheep’s clothing” comes to mind.

Let the scales fall from your eyes. You are being played by forces that purport to be from God but are not.

[Dan Graser · Rating 4 out of 5]

This makes a fine companion volume to "The Power Worshippers," released earlier this year, from Katherine Stewart, in that both volumes chronicle the rise of the modern religious right and their ever increasing role in American politics. Truth be told, I am not nearly as shocked as most that the so-called values voters and evangelical wing of this radical sect of bronze age superstition could throw their support behind someone who is the opposite of everything they have been demanding of society. Posner details in this volume, the formation of the new Right under the likes of Weyrich, Lind, Falwell, and others; and how a cultural war over civil rights causes and developments then subsumed the Roe decision of 1973 into what was already a well-oiled and fantastically stupid machine full of bible thumping segregationists and the same kinds of unlettered jackasses we are treated to today.

The base, here, are the types of people that would give thousands of dollars of their own money to Jim Bakker, twice, even after his fraud conviction. They somehow see Paula White as anything other than a hucksterish hairdo that 45 has the hots for. They are the same people that preach the reading of the bible, yet have never done so themselves, but fall in line with the idea of supply-side jesus: an ethnically white, gun-toting, small business owner from Galilee whose main issue with the Romans is their burdensome environmental regulations. That such a group of credulous and proudly illiterate goons could be taken in by a conman pretending to be conservative to get elected, purely out of spite, who was such a brilliant businessman with billions in debt and used to sell steaks in the mail, does not seem like such a stretch to me.

However, if you're looking for a fine chronicle as to the origins of the modern religious right, how it recent years the New Right of the 70's and 80's has become intertwined with the alt right incel army of Breitbart, and how this cesspool amalgamation maintains its well-funded "think" tanks in and around DC, continuing to broker power in every part of our government, including getting this manchild elected to serve as their Cyrus (the stupidest biblical analogy I have ever heard), then this is a great place to start. I would also recommend the aforementioned, "Power Worshippers."

[Becki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shares information so startling that I'd prefer to believe it's not true, but it's so impeccably researched and annotated that I have to believe that it is.

Based on the Trump supporters that I know (including *many* on the evangelical right), I have believed up until now that most were simply ignorant... unable to check or believe Snopes, unwilling to watch an news source besides Fox News, etc. This book presents an even worse possibility- that many of Trump's supporters know exactly how racist, bigoted, and homophobic he is, and embrace him *because* of that, not *despite* it.

While the title intimates that this book will be about the Evangelical right, that is only half true. Author Sarah Posner lays the ground work by delving into the racist origins of the "moral majority" (white Christians didn't want their children to go to integrated schools, so they pulled them out of public school and created all-white Christian schools). She then explores the Alt-Right agenda (also white supremacist in nature). While these two groups are not the same, they have many of the same goals, leaders, enemies, and each has an affinity for Vladimir Putin and Russia. Each group feels that Black people, LGBT+ folks, and liberals in general have all gained legitimacy and rights in a way that *removes* white peoples' rights and discriminates against them.

The religious right and the alt-right are bonded together by shared grievances over a supposedly lost America in which Christians don't have to bake cakes for gay couples and white people don't have to bow to "multiculturalism" and "political correctness".

The book cannot be mistaken for impartial, but it builds a clear and compelling case. I received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. My thanks to the author, publisher and #NetGalley. #Unholy

[Richard Luck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and utterly, utterly depressing. Jesus Christ, who will save America from white evangelicals and their new object of affection?

[Jill M Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting explanation on why some people choose a leader who is the antithesis of what they say they believe.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I graduated from Trinity College in the late 1970’s. Trinity is an evangelical college. Harry Evans was Trinity’s president at the time, unfortunately during his tenure his wife died of cancer. Dr. Evans remarried a divorced woman, which was too much for evangelical donors, because the Bible states if a divorced person remarries they are committing adultery, they loudly objected and he was asked to leave. On the morality spectrum marring a divorced person seems benign, but when Donald Trump ran for president, evangelicals embraced him overlooking his lack of morals. Even though I long ago dropped my evangelical religious bent, it left a strong effect on me, and I am appalled by their betrayal.
Over the summer of 2018, I wrote Mike Huckabee several times citing Dr. Evan’s judgement and fate, I ask how he could support Trump. I also wrote Tony Perkins and Robert Jefferess the same question, although I knew their unspoken reason was a desire for power. To which I doubt they would admit. I never hear back from Huckabee, but Perkins and Jefferess (through Pat Robertson’s CBN) did write back, sort of, asking for donations. Needless to say, I didn’t give them anything.
In this book Posner does answer the question, the Evangelicals who supported Trump, are racists and anti-LBGTQ. When his supporters scream they want their country back it means they want to exclude all non-whites and non-heterosexuals from the U.S.. Posner documents the time line of why and how Trump got power, and the people who got him there. It is fascinating to me to watch UTube videos of self-proclaimed Christian prophets assuring people that God told them, even though Biden won, Trump will still be president. (My favorite is Kat Kerr, who claims at God’s invitation travels to heaven and runs her fingers through God’s hair.)

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unholy details the history behind how a network of white Christian nationalists found a useful idiot in opportunistic Trump for the authoritarian takeover of the American democratic system. Why did so many evangelicals turn out to vote for Donald Trump, a serial philanderer with questionable conservative credentials who seems to defy Christian values daily? Sarah Posner has been covering the religious right for decades, examining their electorate masks such as "Values Voters", etc. Sher digs deep into the radical history of the religious right to reveal how issues of race and xenophobia have always been at the movement’s center and issues like immigration, "traditional family", and abortion have been used as levers to move government machinery in congress, the judiciary, etc. toward a de fact fascistic theocracy. This is traced back from effective pioneers like Paul Weyrich to Putin's Russian "Eurasianist" philosopher Aleksandr Dugin to Paula White, the American televangelist and prosperity theology proponent who was chair of the evangelical advisory board to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. She delivered the invocation at his inauguration and in November 2019, Trump appointed her special advisor to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative at the Office of Public Liaison. These elements of Trump's presidency were contemporary to the books' publication.

[Annalise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had read this book when it came out! I'm familiar with the majority of what Posner discussed, as I have listened to many of her interviews as well as Matthew Taylor's Charismatic Revival Theory and other media involving the history of the religious right. While this is a great journalistic work, Posner's sentences ran on so long at times I forgot what she had started out saying and that drew me away from the central point of the text one too many times. Overall a really important read for anyone unfamiliar with how Trump was elected and why it wasn't a fluke.

4/5

[Ericka Clou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting exploration of the relationship between white nationalist Evangelicals and Trump. This relationship has continued to grow in troubling anti democratic and authoritarian ways. This book came out in 2020, but nothing was resolved with Trump's election loss in 2020. The epilogue to this book is happening now: Trump is comparing himself to a messiah, advocating he be an Evangelical dictator over America. (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...)

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms. Posner has done us a great service by exposing how thoroughly entrenched white racism, resentment and grievance are thoroughly intertwined with the positions white evangelicals have taken over the past 50 years and, more recently, in their committed devotion to Donald Trump, one of the most irreligious individuals in the public eye for many a year.

In her introduction, Ms. Posner notes: "...Trump was the strongman the Christian right had long been waiting for. They had been waiting for a leader unbowed, one who wasn't afraid to attack, head-on, the legal, social, and cultural changes that had unleashed the racist grievances of the American right, beginning with Brown v. Board of Education and persisting through the 1960s and '70s in opposition to school desegregation and government policies to promote it -- long before evangelicals made opposing abortion their top issue. These grievances never went away; the conservative movements right flank perpetually groused that the Republican 'establishment' had too often made concessions to the liberal political order that had stolen away the right of Christians, of parents, of whites, and of churches, even America's very foundation as a 'Christian nation.'"

Ms. Posner takes care to note how thoroughly she has studied the white evangelicals and how well she knows and has known many of their leaders through the decades.

And across the country, we can see the great influence of what in reality is a relatively small group of Americans: vigorous efforts to ban abortions in state legislatures in the hopes that this will give the new conservative majority of the Supreme Court the excuse they need to thoroughly ban abortion; the push to channel tax dollars intended for public education to private and charter schools; the efforts to control what educators can teach -- and, in the case of Iowa, an attempt to eliminate tenure for college professors since "conservative students complain about the liberal bias of so many professors", and on and on.

Ms. Posner notes that one of the "shibboleths" dear to white evangelicals is their belief that "the federal government is the enemy of Christians' religious freedom -- unless it is staffed by them."

Their propaganda has consistently "maligned government functionaries as intend on subverting parents' authority over child-rearing with radical change sin public education, portraying these efforts as anti-American, anti-Christian, and subversive to the natural order of things. The New Right sought to agitate its grassroots with a message that desegregation amounted to nefarious bureaucratic tinkering with their comfortable status quo." They argue that all such efforts are "illegitimate exercises of 'elite' power to impose 'political correctness,' infringing on the freedom of those whose lives had been unbothered by segregation and race discrimination."

Towards the end of this book -- a book about "Christians" who seem to have little to do with the teachings and life of Jesus of Nazareth -- she observes, "The vast majority of white evangelicals are all in with Trump because he has given them political power and allowed hem to carry out a Christian supremacist agenda, inextricably intertwined with his administration's white nationalist agenda. Conspiracy theories and lies about the core of our democracy -- separation of powers, a free and independent press, and the dedication of public servants -- run rampant through their print and social media, podcasts, and television programs."

They and their allies truly wish to establish a de facto theocracy through the imposition of laws that favor their points of view and which are intolerant of those who disagree.

If nothing else, I regard Ms. Posner's findings as grounds for a clarion call to those who ARE attempting to follow Jesus' message to raise their voices to counter this drive to capture the public sphere for the exclusive benefit of "conservative Christians" who are much more concerned with minding what YOU think and can do than with trying to follow Jesus' counsel to love each other, including our enemies.

[Steven Kaminski · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know when I lived in the deep South I knew a lot of friends were very very religious most of them were either 7 day Adventist or Evangelical christians and for the life of me I could not understand and wrap my head around their support for President Donald Trump.
And these people were very religious they knew their Bible up-and-down and I could not understand for the life of me why they would support a man who cheated on his 3 wives was married 3 times barely mentioned his children was absolutely callous almost unhuman with how he treated other people your help this may and have earned the respect of evangelical christians how could that And these people were very religious they knew their Bible up-and-down and I could not understand for the life of me why they would support a man who cheated on his three wives...was married 3 times...barely mentioned his children was absolutely callous almost unhuman with how he treated other people your help this may and have earned the respect of evangelical christians how could that be?
Will this book get into that and it goes through the history of the rise of what we know politically as the Religious right. And And basically what in the end where I learned comes down to those christians who consider themselves fervently religious and those who are evangelical are supporting Donald Trump because he speaks their language and at the base of everything he says is one thing in common and it's this: Grievance.
Let me give an you an example of what it sounds like. See if this sounds familiar to you with people who support the President:
You know I don't recognise America America now is not the same America that I grew up in when I was growing up we had respect for families we had respect for our neighbours we had close friends we didn't have to worry about walking home and our lives being in danger. My neighbourhood no longer looks like me putting their beliefs in my face. My beliefs are no longer respected.
Sound familiar?
But the foundations of the religious right in truth are really about something more insidious...racism. Did you know that abortion was not even mentioned as an issue until the the late 70's? In fact the issue that founded the religious right was government intrusion into religious schooling and bussing.
This book gets into all of those issues with quotes through the past few decades. Hearing them speak then and now it truly is all about Grievance...people don't like the world changing. They are terrified and feel they are losing what they had. If they had it at all. That is why they support the President because he speaks their language. He speaks to them even if he is ignorant, bigoted and at times incredibly stupid. And they can help him win again...

[Mannie Liscum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the subtitle of Sarah Posner’s “Unholy” (White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Fonakd Trump) is not likely to draw many Trump supporters in to take a chance, the book is a masterpiece delivered with surprisingly little judgement or snideness. The book is much less about President Trump than the subtitle might predict. Instead it really an exploration of the question of ‘why do evangelicals form the core of Trumps most vociferous support base, especially given that he’s a vulgar, thrice-divorced, Bible-illiterate (far from he family-values God-fearing Christian one would expect the evangelical community to embrace)? Posner tells the story of how the evangelical community has become politically active in right-wing conservative Republican politics over the past 4-5 decades, how their social issue passions have come to define their voters, and how the Republican Party has come to reflect, especially with Trumps ascension to the WH, their values. It is the white evangelical voter and their issues that fit so well with the campaign, and now administration policies of Trump, that made this seemingly ‘unholy’ matrimony not actually perfect, but almost predestined. Trump is everything the white evangelical voter wanted in a political savior; that powerful fighter willing to buck all the secular PC multiculturalism of liberal democracy to bring the glory of Christian America back to the fore. From making it ok to say ‘Merry Christmas’ again, to bringing ‘conscience policy’ and ‘religious freedom’ to the head of the civil rights list, Trump has delivered in ways the evangelical right has desired for decades. The long ignored grievances of the white evangelical have been heard and and being addressed by Trump. As such this swath of American society is eternally grateful and loyal for it. Posner’s story and prose are both balanced and engaging. White evangelicals may not like everything she has to say in the book, but I believe they would be hard pressed to honestly refute her historical examination of the movement or it’s notable players. 5 hearty stars.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish this book because it’s very densely detailed but also because I’ve been distracted by the coverage following the mob attack on the U.S. Capital. I’ve been puzzling for some time over evangelicals’ seemingly improbable tie to Trump, someone who doesn’t evince the personal characteristics, lifestyle or behavior of what one would typically define as Christian.

Posner very deftly unravels the nature of this unlikely tie by looking back over the roots and the growth over time of the religious right and today’s political alt-right. She clearly has done the necessary groundwork in reportage, having covered the religious right over decades. And she transcends the merely academic by citing numerous first-person accounts of conferences, meetings, church services, and interviews.

Posner argues that the origin of the religious right was a backlash against the civil rights movement rather than to protest abortion rights as per current conventional wisdom. She also traces the trajectory of the alt-right, it’s gradual erosion of democratic norms and its coopting of the religious right to maximize impact at the voting booth.

Trump has given the evangelical movement and its most influential leaders an unprecedented access to the oval office in return for their support and unfaltering veneration. And he has served as a catalyst for the alt-right’s white nationalist agenda.

It’s difficult to give an adequate review of the book because Posner unpacks so much. But, given the post-2020 election upheaval and especially the January 6th attack on the Capital, I think her last sentence is perhaps the most chilling: “Trump’s white evangelical supporters make up an army of partisans decades in the making, and they will not quietly retreat in the face of defeat.”