I enjoyed this review. I’m a Never Trump evangelical who picked up Howe’s book thinking it would be an easy read that I would agree with entirely, but I’ve found myself confused by it and have yet to finish it. After making it through the first 70 pages in a day, I had to go back and start reading it again at a much slower pace, taking careful notes. Since you’ve finished the book and written a nice review, I have a couple questions you might help with:
On page 33 Howe says “the Trump evangelicals were here to stay and, effectively, had become the voice of the movement as a whole” and then on page 35: “Partisanship is the lifeblood of politics. And politics has swallowed at least the evangelical movement as a whole.” These statements come in the context of quoting (and grouping) evangelicals like Robert Jeffress and Jerry Falwell Jr. as well as evangelicals like Michael Brown and Wayne Grudem. Do you think Howe’s broad brush movement-as-a-whole critique is accurate or charitable? Later in the book, does Howe distinguish between the sort of thin vs thick Trump support I tried to articulate in my article for ArcDigital last year?
Shortly after the pages quoted above, Howe uses this lense he’s created of the evangelical movement as a whole to reinterpret the entire past of evangelicalism too (even those who had nothing to do with Trump). Thus, Jerry Falwell Sr. (d. 2007) is now seen to be a moralistic, crusading, hypocrite who sought power for its own sake (pp. 36–38). For example, Falwell Sr.’s apology for some “callous” remarks regarding Sept. 11, 2001 are reframed in Howe’s post-Trump outlook along “the likes of Swaggart and Bakker and how I views [those who accepted their apologies] as suckers” (p. 37).
That evangelical leaders supported Trump in 2016 seems to be proof for Howe that evangelicalism “is, was, and always has been about power” (p. 38). Again, I’m curious whether you agree with this assessment and/or whether you think this represents empathy over rancour?
I’m continue to make my way through Howe’s book at a snail’s pace, wondering if I’m not misreading him and hopeful that once I get through the first couple chapters I’ll find Howe being more nuanced and empathetic. Do you think I’m missing something in what I’ve quoted above?
