If God is omnipotent, what is the point of political activism?
Though Ben Howe, the author of the book, The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power over Christian Values, never asks readers that specific question, he may as well have. Using his experience raised in an evangelical family (his father is a pastor and theologian), Howe, a conservative filmmaker and columnist, takes on a delicate trifecta of issues: religion, politics, and morality. He chronicles his disillusionment with evangelicals who not only voted for Trump but became hardcore supporters while preaching values anathema to their new champion.
Throughout the first half of the book, Howe takes us through the world of evangelical Christians as they have related to presidential politics starting with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. At the time, politics and religion seemed almost like a team sport. He moves on to the Bill Clinton years, where well-known evangelical leaders like Dr. James Dobson and Jerry Falwell condemned a president whose behavior seemed unbecoming of the office, regardless of his policies. Then, the 2016 election cycle neared and with it, a presidential candidate with a sordid past.
Howe painstakingly describes how the same evangelical leaders like Dobson and now Jerry Falwell Jr. and their peers who previously criticized Clinton, now praised Trump. What’s more, they encouraged evangelicals to jump on the bandwagon because of his standing as a powerful ally in the culture war, ticking off boxes vital to them, like securing religious liberty, decrying abortion, and nominating conservative judges.
“What we know now is that the American Christian conservative is no longer defined the way it once was. We find now a Christian movement that is utterly unfazed by its political savior committing adultery, paying for his mistress’s silence through questionable means, and lying about it to everyone,” Howe writes.
Howe makes a strong case that Trump’s behavior doesn’t reflect the evangelicalism he knows, but it worries him less than the evangelicals’ rabid devotion. It’s toward the end of the book that Howe pricks at the evangelical readers’ conscience and asks, “Did you vote for Trump to do things you don’t trust God to do in the culture wars?”
Howe’s conclusion is unsparing. He reminds evangelicals that their political fanaticism may feel right now but will have consequences down the road. In the afterword, Howe encourages evangelicals to love everyone, the moral and immoral, the president and pedestrian alike, no matter the current political climate.
Howe made a surprisingly strong case that evangelicals have been inconsistent and hypocritical, though the book lags and loses focus slightly about two-thirds of the way through. Howe does apply his thesis broadly. But one has to question if an evangelical truly believes they’ve gained the world and lost their soul by voting for Trump.
He spends a chapter arguing that a belief that Trump was the lesser of two evils in the 2016 election didn’t mean evangelicals had to vote for him. But it seems to be a somewhat weak argument. American democratic politics remains a test of pragmatism, not perfection. A Trump presidency for immediate gratification may or may not propel a Democrat revolt, undoing all the good Trump did later. If it does, should evangelicals have honestly had voted against their conscience and cast a ballot for Clinton?
While Howe is mostly successful in defending his thesis, some of the most compelling passages stem from personal anecdotes: what life was like growing up as an evangelical and how he has applied what he learned in childhood to a career in media and politics. It’s clear that while most families in America might have avoided politics and faith at the dinner table, Howe’s did not, and as a result, he has developed a keen sense for both. One of the most poignant stories is about Howe’s teenage years when he fell into drugs and petty crime. Instead of kicking him out, Howe’s evangelical parents loved him unconditionally and invited him and his friends to join them at the dinner table of ideas.
The overall strength of The Immoral Majority, serving up political analysis and theological ideas on the platter of spiritual convictions, could also possibly be a weakness, depending on the reader’s point of view. Howe writes, “Did your conscience tell you to vote for Donald Trump? Or for Hillary Clinton? Or not to vote at all? If you follow your conscience, you have made a right choice. The important choice was never between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton — the important choice was between self-interest and the idolization of ‘winning’ versus loving God and one another.”
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
