The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism

Tim Alberta’s second nonfiction book, The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory, published by Harper Collins in December 2023, is a dissection of America’s extreme evangelical movement. This exploration of the impact of the movement on American culture and politics was a New York Times bestseller and won The Economist and Air Mail’s Best Book of the Year. Alberta is a journalist for The Atlantic and the former chief political correspondent for POLITICO. His expertise in deciphering America’s increasing political divide and the threat of right-wing extremism has made him a sought-after media figure and speaker.

This guide refers to the first edition, published in December 2023.

Content Warning: This book includes mention of violent events, physical and sexual abuse, institutional coverups of said abuse, and racist, sexist, and bigoted language.

Summary

Tim Alberta, the son of a Presbyterian megachurch preacher in Brighton, Michigan, grew up as a staunch Christian and continues his faith and Christian apologetics to this day. However, during the 2016 presidential election when evangelist Christian groups began to align with the divisive political figure and TV personality Donald Trump, Alberta struggled to reconcile the values of his religion with those of the presidential candidate and his followers. His first book, American Carnage, published in 2019, explored the breakdown of politics on the right and within the conservative Christian evangelist movement. He received strongly negative responses from reactionary media figures like Rush Limbaugh, and he was confronted by members of his father’s church who accused him of betraying their cause. This experience led him to the conclusion that the Christian evangelist movement no longer seeks to only glorify God through Christ’s example; as a result, he questioned its new goals.

Alberta’s research into this topic uncovers a complex and, at times, fraught view of the movement. From Christianity’s first foray into State-backed support in the fifth century CE to the modern evangelist venture into the political sphere led by Jerry Falwell Sr., Alberta chronicles the ways in which the Christian movement has obtained political security and power. Oftentimes, corruption that developed in these actions is justified by a manufactured sense of victimization, with religious leaders casting others who may oppose their actions as enemies of the Church. This perspective becomes a dogmatic belief, with followers feeling they need to combat their enemies and stay alive. Though many members of the Christian evangelical movement sincerely believe this, Alberta maintains that the leaders of the movements are guilty of knowingly manipulating their “flock” to acquire wealth and power. They capitalize on fear and anger as a driving force for expanding their Christian movements, ignoring the acts of violence and extremism that occur as a result.

Alberta also provides a personal perspective to complement his research. His father, who gave up wealth and security after hearing a calling to follow Christ as a preacher, was Alberta’s example of positive, loving faith. However, in 2016, his father supported Trump along with others in the evangelical pastor community. This decision, fueled by anxieties created by right-wing manipulation, contrasted directly with Alberta’s perception of his father as a true, humble, and loving follower of Christ. He struggled to reconcile these two views of his father while working as a political journalist and writer. After experiencing the backlash of his father’s congregation following the success of his first book, which condemned Trump’s base, Alberta grapples with the evidence that his father’s faith is now intertwined with Trumpist nationalism.