The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump: A Review

John Fea

The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump
Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2018.
Amazon.com

By Rev. Dr. Rhys Bezzant

With pert prose and a full mind, John Fea introduces us to the present political situation in the US, but does so in terms of its recapitulation of themes from American history generally, and American Christian history in particular. This is a fantastic book which draws out the themes of fear, power and nostalgia which are in evidence in Trump’s rhetoric and ascendancy, but which have also haunted the US since its founding. Of course fear will be present when the Puritan errand established such lofty ideals that falling away from them would be almost inevitable. Of course power has insinuated its poison into the cultural and religious life of a nation which has also been an Empire. Of course nostalgia towards an imagined past was always going to be an emotional pull since the world became more complicated and fractured after the end of the Cold War. Together they make for a potent mix in a socially and politically volatile period. With contemporary attempts to create a narrative for America as a Christian nation, with the founders during the revolutionary period the chief architects, Trump is surfing other currents in the nation’s life with skill.

Of most interest to me were the chapters where Fea takes us on a potted tour of American history, outlining the ways fear and power have been embedded in its DNA. The Salem witch trials of the late seventeenth century were a vent for pent up insecurities. Fears of slave insurrection in the early nineteenth century, and the westward migration of settlers to provide outlets for racial grievances, highlight the build-up of political tensions in the ante-bellum period, and indeed during reconstruction as well. Growing out of early twentieth century fundamentalism, Billy Graham though honourable in his record on race, allowed himself to be used by Richard Nixon to win the South for the Republican party, and comes under Fea’s gaze. The compromises accepted and adopted more recently by conservative Protestants voting for Ronald Reagan rather than the Sunday school teaching Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter are more proximate parallels with the rise of Trump. The concluding chapter which succinctly analysed the motives and means for the Civil Rights movement from the 1960s onwards provides a stunning contrast with more sordid ambitions of (in Fea’s language) the “court jesters” of today, who seem incapable of speaking truth to power.

This book, in 200 pages, is necessarily a brief overview, but Fea’s deep reading of evangelical history emerges in brilliant vignettes on most every page. Even if you are not a historian, the insights gleaned here will refresh your enthusiasm to read history books again, even if you take away the clear message that making America great again may not be the best antidote to present and arguably valid concerns.