Believe Me

August 1, 2018

Fea (history, Messiah Coll.; Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?) examines why white evangelicals gravitated toward President Donald Trump, who won 81 percent of their vote in the 2016 election. He concludes that they were acting out of fear, perceiving Trump as one who would act to maintain their privileged position despite his status as being well outside evangelical norms. Fea contends that this position is rooted in American exceptionalism, which stems from the Puritan ideal of America as the New Zion. The author investigates how a loose coalition of mainstream evangelicals, prosperity gospel preachers, and independent groups came together in supporting Trump after initially voicing moral qualms, then delving into what Trump might mean by "Make America Great Again," and how evangelicals have reinterpreted that slogan. VERDICT Fea is clearly dismayed with his fellow evangelicals, and his historical treatment lacks a certain amount of nuance yet provides a heartfelt and clear presentation worth considering.--James Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Libs., NC

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Starred review from April 23, 2018
Fea (Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?), professor of American history at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa., unpacks the historical roots of Trump’s support among evangelical Christians in this clear, concise, and convincing work. A self-identified evangelical who was appalled by the 2016 election, Fea attempts to explain the overwhelming evangelical support for a president who seems antithetical to traditional Christian values. Fea uses his training as a historian to trace a chronology of the evangelical attraction to political power and locates three historical appeals to evangelicals that Trump exploits: fear of perceived threats (both foreign and domestic), desired access to political power, and nostalgia for a perceived American golden age. Fea looks for connections between Trump’s nostalgic rhetoric and particular historical events such as the racist Andrew Jackson presidency and the “America First” movement that strove to keep the U.S. out of WWII. He also provides a frightening portrait of outspoken evangelical leaders with direct access to Trump (including Baptist writer Robert Jeffress and Christian Zionist Mike Evans), and offers an alternative way (relying on hope and humility) for evangelical leaders to think about their relation to power. Although Fea downplays the mythic side of Trump’s appeal, that does little to undermine this important title, which brings to the surface the recurring fear tactics that underpin American evangelical politics.

May 1, 2018
As Fea (Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? 2011) succinctly presents it, Evangelical Christian support for Donald Trump is the outcome of a history fueled by fear. The Puritans who settled New England feared God's punishment if they betrayed what we now call American exceptionalism and failed to build a shining city on a hill. They and their descendants feared strangers that came among them, Quakers and?worse because more effective at converting Native Americans?Catholics. The two Great Awakenings spread the fear to the South, where evangelicals justified slavery and then Jim Crow. Twentieth-century fundamentalism embraced all earlier evangelical fears and increased them. Since the 1970s, there has been an evangelical agenda and political playbook; Fea devotes a chapter to each as well as one to the court evangelicals who hover around candidates and presidents who, for evangelical votes, reciprocate their wooing. He ultimately asks which era Trump references by saying he wants to make America great again and advises evangelicals to take a long hard look at what we have become. An interesting look at a topical issue.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)