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

Chapter 9 introduces Ralph Reed, the leader of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. A former GOP conservative under the Reagan administration, he changed course after meeting Pat Robertson. Robertson, a famous televangelist, persuaded Reed to start the Christian Coalition as a successor to the waning Moral Majority. Reed’s political acumen turned the Christian Coalition into a major player. Reed’s goal was to take over the Republican Party and then take over the American electoral process. He exploited dissatisfaction in the early 1990s in evangelical communities who had lost faith in the Republican establishment. The Christian Coalition made evangelicals “coordinated, empowered—and embittered” (182). Under Reed’s leadership, the Republican Party was soon following the direction of evangelicals.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition ran a Road to Majority conference in 2022 that featured speakers warning against “forces of darkness” (183), referring to Democrats targeting God’s people. Drag queens and critical race theory were excoriated as tools of the devil. Paula White, Trump’s former spiritual advisor, passionately supported him in her speech. An advocate of the prosperity gospel—which maintains that the more faith a person has, the more God rewards them with material wealth—her preaching assigns inherent morality to the rich. She was the opening act for him at the Road to Majority event. Trump expressed his common criticisms of Democrats, denied the severity of January 6, and referred to Roe v. Wade, the overturn of which had just been leaked to the press.

Trump then started talking about his former vice president, evangelist Mike Pence. He denounced Pence as lacking courage to act, referring to his refusal to engage in treason by attempting to overturn the 2020 election. The crowd booed Pence in response. Pence had headlined the Road to Majority conference in the past, and now they “had turned on him” (191). Democrats were bad, but the “gutless Christians” were worse. “The enemy was people […] who would let principles and laws obstruct their quest for power” (191).

Fear is “just as powerful as faith,” (193). Pence, despite his hesitation on January 6th, was complicit in stoking that fear and proposing patriotism as the solution. Reed acknowledges that fear is a large motivator of their political mobilization. He argues that people are scared because of cultural and economic instability. What he fails to acknowledge, Alberta states, is that they were scared because “people like Reed were trying to scare them” (192). He takes advantage of Christian fear by flooding the churches with partisan instigators.

Herschel Walker, who was running for the Senate in Georgia, was another headline speaker. Walker had recently been exposed as an absentee father to three children born out of wedlock, lying about his achievements, coercing women into abortions, and threatening to murder his ex-wife. Instead of expressing regret for his actions or seeking forgiveness, he accused the liberal media of persecuting him for being a Christian.

In many ways, Reed’s conference was a concrete example of Christian morals being suspending in favor of political gain.

The author meets with Cal Thomas, a successful journalist, evangelical Christian, and conservative, to discuss the changes in the evangelical movement. Though Thomas voted for Trump twice, he openly criticizes his faults. He condemns Republicans for failing to meet goals while praising Democrats for their successes. He brings up Mike Pence as an example of someone who sacrificed their integrity for politics, and it still didn’t satisfy his constituents. Thomas wonders whether Christians should set aside their morals to retain political influence or abandon the political arena altogether.

To discuss this question, the author meets again with Russell Moore, former pastor of Goodwill. They are joined by Adam Kinzinger, a Republican congressman from Illinois who was ostracized for his participation in the committee investigating January 6. When he joined the committee in 2022, he was painted as “satanic” by some of his own family members. After he started receiving death threats, he reached a turning point, deciding never to run as a Republican again. He and Moore both struggled with guilt on leaving their “tribe” behind. Moore feared being culpable should someone with worse intentions take his place, but ultimately, his presence at the table was “doing a different kind of damage” (208). Bolstered by Moore’s support, Kinzinger announced his retirement soon after.

Cal Thomas reports a different kind of disillusionment in his work in the 80s with Falwell and the Moral Majority. They relied on “unwitting believers” to give their hard-earned money, having been manipulated through fear. As Thomas matured in his faith, he saw no choice but to separate from evangelism.

Moore, meanwhile, speaks frankly to a group of young people disillusioned by organized religion. He admits to them that their understanding is accurate: The Church is fundamentally broken. However, the cracking of this identity means that they can get back in touch with their “eternal identities.” He suggests looking at the outside world as potential allies, not enemies. He condemns the current model of hatred for nonbelievers and grace for fellow evangelicals. He endorses strict accountability for fellow Christians and radical kindness to those outside the Church, stating that “Jesus has higher expectations for people who profess to know God” (213).

Cal Thomas, in turn, believes that the image of an evangelical in America is damaged, perhaps beyond repair. He lists the things that are associated with them: anti-abortion, pro-Trump, anti-gay, and anti-immigration. He contrasts that with the Catholic Church, which counters its own scandals and cultural wounds with centralized, generous, highly visible social programs. Evangelicals, without centralized support networks and with a heavy redirection of their donations towards political fundraising, don’t have the same image. Thomas argues that to rehabilitate the evangelical mission, they have to truly learn to love their enemies, as an institution, without exception.

Chapter 11 introduces Greg Locke, the founder of Global Vision Bible Church. Global Vision seems “more like a compound” (218) than a church. Armed guards wearing camo guard the entrance to an enormous white tent. Once inside, hundreds of people, many visibly armed, participate in energetic worship.

Locke was well known as a politically extreme evangelical. He went viral online with a selfie video outside a Target store, vilifying them for having gender-neutral bathrooms. After this, Locke partnered with conservative personalities like lobbyist Roger Stone, leader of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk, and political commentator and conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza. As a result, his congregation swelled from 250 to around 3,000. Locke’s sermons describe satanic Democrats, pandemic conspiracies, and fantasies of violent uprising against Biden, but they also condemn “Christian elites.” Locke’s philosophy reflects the “vanquishing mentality of the Middle Ages” (221) rather than modern evangelical thought.

An evangelical preacher in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, Locke first gained notoriety in 2015 when he responded to the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage. He called it an attack on Christianity and encouraged a “counteroffensive.” He stated that local churches should be the governing authority for communities, implicitly rejecting the federal government. Due to his controversial and attention-grabbing personality, he quickly became “difficult to ignore” (224), even on the national stage.

Lock, like other preachers who had gained sudden popularity, felt some unease about his flood of new congregants. He explained to Alberta in an interview that he suspected that some of them were coming for the “wrong reasons,” expecting Locke to openly advocate insurrection. He denounced that type of treasonous action, but he still openly believed that the Democrats were Satanic child traffickers, the 2020 election was fraudulent, and the “deep state” had it out for Christians. While offering “deranged commentary,” he still complained that his preaching was blown out of proportion.

Locke’s extremist beliefs aren’t specific to him or his church, but his political involvement force him and similar figures to occupy many roles: political figure, social commentator, media critic, source of academic authority, and military general. These pastors are forced to constantly provide “subjective religious justification” (231) to satisfy the crowds they’ve drawn.