Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump

Short Review: I am probably primed to like this book for reasons outside of the book. I listen to Fea's history podcast, I vote democrat traditionally, so this book is not a critique of my voting or my party and I already have a very shaky relationship with the current cultural/sociological definition of Evangelicals (see my review of Still Evangelical for more of that http://bookwi.se/still-evangelical/ )

But I did still listen to the audiobook, almost in a single sitting, during a six hour solo drive. The rough argument of Believe Me is that Evangelical voted for Trump for three reasons, fear, the desire for a Christian nation and the needed power to make it that way (Christian nationalism) and nostalgia. Fea then charts how these three issues are not new factors but historical ones that have impacted Evangelicals and the politics and voting throughout US history.

Largely I agree with the analysis, although I think the book was probably rushed to press. There was not a enough discussion of what evangelical means today and historically and I think that impacted the historical analysis. There were some just flat mistakes that made it into the book. (For instance he says DACA is a program that gives citizenship to children of illegal immigrants born in the US instead of a program that gives legal residency to adults brought to the US illegally when they were children. Any children of illegal immigrants born in the US are already citizens). But I think there could have been more development in places. The Christianity Today Review I think rightly critiques the lack of connection made between fear and political power instead of them being development separately ( https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/june-web-only/believe-me-donald-trump-john-fea.html )

But largely this is a book that is helpful because it is focused historically. The end has a short section of what to do now, which is a bit unusually in a historical book. Fea says that as he tested the material with students and others he kept getting a ‘so what should we do now' response. He points to the historic Black church and the civil rights movement as an example of the type of response that an Evangelical church that is descending in cultural and political power can look to as an example. And I think that response is right, although the problem of White Evangelical comes to place because this book is a discussion of the voting patterns of White Evangelicals not theological evangelicals which are about 1/3 minority.

My full review (about 1500 words) is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/believe-me/