Dr. John Fea had three main targets when he wrote his book “Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump”: white evangelicals who voted for the current president, white evangelicals who did not, and everyone else. A history professor at Messiah College, Fea presented at the University Colloquium in the MainStage Theater on Wednesday, Jan. 16. He began by describing Election Night 2016 from his point of view, reliving the shock and defeat he felt as the results rolled in. What happened? The point of this book was to explain how 81 percent of evangelicals arrived at the conclusion that shaped their voting decision.
Fea, a self-identified evangelical Christian, based his argument on three contrasts found in that community: fear over hope, power over humility, and nostalgia over history.
“Fear is not a good place for Christians to be dwelling,” he said. Going back as far as the 17th century, fear in the U.S. has been associated with political or social change. Americans decided that their country was the greatest and “baptized” it as a Christian nation. Any change to this narrative induced fear and a strong backlash. In the South during the 1800s, white evangelicals built a “Christian” society on the backs of slavery and white supremacy, and when this way of life was threatened, there were two responses: the Civil War and a complex theological defense of their way of life. “Both of these were driven by fear,” he argued.
The pattern continued; things changed and evangelicals grew fearful. Immigrants arrived and the Supreme Court overturned segregation and legalized abortion. The “Christian” nation was falling apart, and the election of President Obama only intensified this “perfect storm.” Here, Fea invited the gathering to empathize with evangelicals. Under the Obama administration, gay marriage went from illegal to legalized. When fearful, people turn to political strongmen to lead them. Enter Donald Trump.
Fea pointed out how Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” played off the nostalgia and fear that many of his supporters felt about the past. Associate Professor Ji Eun Kim said, “Depending on who you are and what you advocate, America in the past was either great or far from being great. Paying close attention to the foundations, underlying values, or any prejudice and biases that shape our view of history, would be much needed to address any concerns.” Because many of Trump’s evangelical supporters felt nostalgia for the past, their fear led them to turn to Trump and his promise to, “Make America Great Again.”
Hope is different from fear, Fea pointed out. Christian hope is about the kingdom of God on earth, not any earthly nation or human progress. What if this Christian hope drove our response to fear?
Fea also claimed that the pursuit of power had been chosen over humility. In the mid-20th century, political strategists, such as Jerry Falwell Sr., drew up a conservative, Christian “playbook.” By electing the “correct” people to the presidency, the right judges would get nominated and the Christian nation could be rebuilt. In the past, the “correct” people were always men and women of character. With President Trump, however, many conservatives give him a mulligan, just as long as he delivers on the big issues. Some evangelicals have not followed the political plan, but instead used other methods for change, Fea pointed out. These plans did not gain any traction.
Jesus represents a humble, self-sacrificial faith, not a powerhungry leader. When the devil tempted him with power for idolatry he did not say, as Fea put it, “Throw in two Supreme Court justices and you got a deal.” We need to be more focused on living faithfully within our communities.
Finally, evangelicals chose nostalgia over history. He likened it to remembering a family 4th of July party. The moment is beautiful, but behind the picture is dysfunction.
In the same way, Fea pointed out that conservative Christians have been choosing to ignore the issues behind their “Great America,” whatever time period that be. Nostalgia is selfish.
“Feeling sentimental or nostalgic about the past seems common, especially when people find today’s world dissatisfying,” said Kim. “Several studies suggest that even people living in democratized countries would often feel authoritarian nostalgia, especially when they are unhappy with the current state of affairs.”
Fea likened history to a mirror, in which you see all of the past, good and bad, beautiful and broken. History is essential to democracy so that we can see what went wrong and where we are lacking. He closed by stating that history keeps us honest.
“He laid the problems right out in front of us but didn’t offer a solution,” commented one attendee, first-year Jacob Horsley. “This made me a little depressed… because it makes you feel like it’s a losing battle. But it also gave me hope for our generation to find a way to make some change.”
History Department Chair Mary Sprunger suggests, “The solution to the kind of nostalgia that Fea presented is history. As Fea noted, ‘Make America Great Again’ is nostalgia – it’s too vague. What era does this refer to? In what way was the U.S. great? Was it great for everyone at that time or for a select class and race? History done well, based on evidence [and] facts, complicates the story, introduces complexity, and reveals the bad as well as the good.”
A short Q&A session followed the presentation.
The University Colloquium series continues at 4 p.m. on Feb. 20 in the MainStage Theater with EMU Biology professor Dr. Jeff Copeland, presenting his research, titled “Aging Genes and Electrochemistry in the Drosophila Brain.”
