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A historian’s discerning, critical take on current American politics “Believe me” may be the most commonly used phrase in Donald Trump’s lexicon. Whether about building a wall or protecting a Christian heritage, the refrain has been constant. And to the surprise of many, a good 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, however—and in these pages 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. As insightful as it is timely, Fea’s Believe Me challenges Christians to replace fear with hope, the pursuit of power with humility, and nostalgia with history.
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There's actually nothing unpredictable in this book. It's basically an evangelical scholar outing his own community as political opportunists.
One of the more useful history lessons in Fea's primer on religious power in America is his focus on the phenomena of court evangelicals. A brilliant term for faith leaders attracted to wealth entrenching politicians.