The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism

I have been struggling to understand what has happened to Christianity in America. I have struggled to understand why I could not find a church to call home. I have struggled to understand how out of place I felt in my knowledge of Christ and how it differed from what I was experiencing inside the walls of the house of God. I could not understand why Christians fell in love with Donald Trump and the cultist way they embraced him. This book has set a lot of my mind at ease. It is the best explanation I could have asked for. The breath and depth and wisdom behind the research and writing are refreshing. I feel like a better Christian after reading this book. I feel like a better American. I feel lighter inside because I understand so much better the confusion in my heart. The country is still divided. Nothing has changed except me. I am grateful for the truth that sets the mind and heart free. I am not crazy for feeling that I am swimming upstream in my spiritual journey. I am not mad for not going with the Christian crowd of evangelicals. I believed they were wrong to believe Christ belonged only to one political party or one Country. I believed they were wrong to blame everyone from LGBT communities or teachers, but never thier own houses or thier own leaders. But I felt alone in this spiritual warfare. I understand it all better now with the very personal yet broad perspective this book has given me. It is must read for anyone seeking truth. I am greatful for the easy way such a complex subject was delivered.

It took me longer than I'd like to admit to get around to reading The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, but once started, I kept going. It's a fascinating and deep dive into evangelical Christianity and it's devil's bargain with the Republican party in general and the MAGA movement in particular. The approach is historical, reportorial, and spiritual, informed by being the son of a preacher, a journalist, and a deeply thoughtful man. It's been quite some time since I've been so thoroughly informed and prodded to think.

I have recommended this book & audiobook again and again to anyone who brings up Trump/MAGA or Evangelicals. In the dark days before such Conservatives & Faith Leaders began to surface & speak out I was completely unable to understand the draw between Trump/MAGA & Evangelical Christians. Mr. Alberta's and Patrick Kahnke's writings are creating clarity, some understanding, and perhaps, the beginnings of our national reconciliation. These are the works of a lifetime. Thank You!

This is an extremely compelling book that is very well-written. The author gives us insight into what evangelical Christianity is all about, and how adherents of the faith are out to destroy the United States. I did find the book to be a bit of a slog. The book is long, so it took me a while to get through. But the book is filled with fascinating case studies that kept things moving forward. The narrative did try my patience as I struggled to quell my anger over evangelical’s cult-like devotion to Trump, QAnon, and fabricated American history. Despite Alberta’s well-written narrative, I’ve no use for Republican politics or evangelical Christianity. All of that is antithetical to my values and ethics.My one big gripe about this book is that the author never turns his spotlight on whether the Christian beliefs of evangelical Christians are, in fact, reasonable. Clearly Alberta assumes they are since that is how he was raised. Alberta only examines the reasonableness of the political beliefs that stem from the religion. Several times the author refers to Christian beliefs as “the Truth” with a capital ‘T’. My feeling is that, no, Christian beliefs are not the “Truth.” There is no evidence or proof that Christianity is true – none – so the political actions that flow from these beliefs are based on myths and fairy tales. The book is also written as if evangelical Christianity represents all Christianity in the US. It does not.Americans are taught that we are never allowed to criticize someone’s religion. I hold no such opinion. Christian Nationalism and the Christianity of the evangelical supporters of Trump will destroy this country. And I will hold all Christians and their religion directly responsible for this.The case studies Alberta presents are really interesting and more than a little scary. At the end, Alberta’s book has me more convinced than ever that nothing makes atheism look more appealing than American Christianity. Highly recommended for all Americans.

I have already recommended this book to about 6 people before I was even halfway through. It is a remarkably articulate and eye-opening work and puts in coherent fashion so many poorly formed thoughts that have flitted through my brain. Every Christian in America should read this book… though I fear many are so entrenched (brainwashed) into a certain mindset that it would only engender anger and ridicule. Thank you, Tim Alberta, for your courage in writing it and to the publishers for printing it! Let us keep our eyes fixed on the Eternal!

It’s a thorough and comprehensive of some of the most relevant figures in American Evangelism, using each example to explain every characteristic of the conservative Christians in that country, and how have they surrendered to Donald Trump, against all of their beliefs.

As a British-based Evangelical, one of those strange creatures who actually believes the New Testament, I thought that this was a wonderful and prophetic book. Then I am not an American.... Genuine evangelical believers have long since despaired at the apostasy of "Evangelicals" in the USA, and while Tim Alberta may have left out many of the faithful Evangelicals still left in the United States - groups like 9Marks get no mention for example - his is still a book that shows the global Evangelical majority (sic) that there are still a few believers left in America.

Tim Alberta was raised in an Evangelical family and his father was the pastor of one of the largest Evangelical churches in their Michigan town. His father died in July 2019 shortly after the author had published a book critical of Donald Trump that had been criticized on-air by Rush Limbaugh. As a result, instead of receiving condolences from the people in his family's church, he was regularly criticized for having gone over to the other side. This prompted his wife to ask "what is the matter with these people?" This book is Tim Alberta's attempt to answer his wife's question.The author begins with detailed and very personal stories of churches that were losing members because the pastor was emphasizing Jesus instead of political outrages. Members were moving to churches that delivered an extreme political message. He interviews a number of pastors who were struggling with how to handle this situation.The author then visits a number of the politically charged churches and reports on their church services where the key messages seem to be that the country is going downhill and Christians need to fight back. He notes that the services are also designed to provoke fear in the congregation. He then interviews the pastors and asks them how their square their political focus with their Christian faith. Although some of the pastors acknowledge the conflict, they argue that they are just providing what their congregation wants. They then go back to preaching the same way. The author feels that these churches are practicing idolatry.The author then visits some big rallies where people like Ralph Reed, Charlie Kirk, Eric Metaxas and Paula White are delivering the messages. He sees many of these people are hucksters trying to make money out of the Evangelical community.The book contains excellent reporting on recent events at the Southern Baptist Conference meetings as they are forced to come to grips with sexual abuse scandals in their churches. Russel Moore's struggles with the SBC are also reported on in detail as Moore was forced out of his leadership position in the SBC because of his unwillingness to endorse Donald Trump as well as his insistence that the SBC deal fairly with the sex abuse scandals.There is also some excellent reporting about Liberty University and how it tossed out it's religious mission in favor of political boosterism.On the positive side, Alberta talks to some of the people working to counteract this politicization of the church.Some of the material has already appeared in The Atlantic where Alberta is a staff writer. His deep faith and knowledge of scripture comes out in the book making this a deeply personal book. The book is also very unsettling as you see how the church is being so politicized. The book is strongly recommended for anyone interested in religion and contemporary US politics. It is one of the most important books published in 2023.

The author did some serious research. It's qualitative--based on interviews and field observations mostly, so it's hard to tell exactly how pervasive his conclusions are. But it reveals the depth to which some denominations (the Southern Baptist Convention in the U.S. particularly) has become a fund-raiser and vote-getter for the Republican Party. It explores the history and roots of fusion in a particularly effective way I thought.

This is a story that needed to be told, but it would have made a better Atlantic or New Yorker extended essay than it does a book. It can be summarised as follows: The larger part of the American evangelical community feels threatened by the cultural shifts of the past thirty years and were persuaded that Trump would turn back the clock. They also persuaded themselves that having Conservative judges and a ban on abortion was more important than having a President that shared their moral values