It wasn’t because of Trump. That would be a book unto itself.
Instead, the genesis of this book is rooted in the disbelief and alarm I felt because of the extreme obstructionism of Congressional Republicans during the Obama years.
In 2009 the Republican Senate Caucus led by Mitch McConnell adopted the legislative policy summed up by one of their own: “If Obama was for it, we were supposed to be against it” (Senator Voinovich of Ohio), the result of which led them to refuse to consider anything the President proposed, including his Supreme Court nomination at the beginning of his final year in office.
Our nation had never seen anything like it. Even Republicans like former Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska who also served as Secretary of Defense began to express concern about what was happening.
The two major parties were rivals, to be sure, but throughout our history they had always been willing to compromise to pass legislation for the good of the country.
This changed in 2009, and it didn’t make sense. Republicans had been better than this. So what happened? What drove them to the point of becoming so uncompromising that they had rendered our government dysfunctional?
What I saw in Congress reminded me of the attitude that has been so prevalent among evangelical Christians, a “my way or no way” kind of faith that insists it alone possesses the truth of God.
That attitude had also made them absolutely uncompromising on moral issues. They believed (and still believe) the nation had to pass laws that were consistent with their views on abortion, gay marriage, prayer in pubic schools, and the like, or be condemned and rejected by God.
It occurred to me that there was a connection between the no compromise attitude of congressional Republicans and the theological and moral absolutism of evangelicalism. After all, evangelicals had gained the reputation of being the largest and most reliable Republican constituency in the country.
Had they become so influential that they had convinced or coerced congressional Republicans to become as uncompromising as they were, especially in regard to hot button moral issues?
In other words, had evangelicals pushed Republicans to think politically the way they thought religiously?
That became the focus of my research, and, oh my, what I uncovered was shocking.
The book tells the story of evangelicals not simply becoming political (nothing wrong with that), but politically partisan (a lot is wrong with that), and how their influence has been damaging both to the nation and to Christianity.
The book is well documented so that I don’t make claims without evidence to support them. It also provides ample evidence that in spite of evangelicals insisting they speak for most Americans when it comes to moral issues, the opposite is actually the case.
For years surveys have shown that evangelicals have been and still are out of step with the views of the majority of Americans.
In the past I have been hesitate to aggressively promote my own books, but this time I believe the role evangelicals have played in the decline of civility in our nation in general and in American politics in particular is too serious not to promote the book as much as I can.
So I am urging you to read it, and I also hope you will tell others about it.
In addition, “Have Book, Will Travel.”
What that means is that if you or a group to which you belong is willing to sponsor a public presentation on the book in the coming months, I am willing to be there at no charge. I will even pay my own travel expenses.
That is how much I believe in this book. So I hope you will read it, and then help me have a public venue to talk about it in your area.
It is a Cascade Books publication, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, and is available everywhere and online in paperback and ebook form.
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