# Tim Alberta  ## Metadata - Author:: [[lindseyk]] - Full Title:: Tim Alberta - Category: #articles - URL: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/firing-line/video/tim-alberta-gplixr/ ## Highlights > I think there is this idea that looms large in the evangelical imagination that this country is not just a country informed by Judeo-Christian ethics, Judeo-Christian values, but that it is a Christian nation, and that that Christian nation is in decline, that it’s in danger, and that Donald Trump has sort of stepped in as this protector of Christian America ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmq1wba3z2rv4vaaas8r601a)) > And that if you’re criticizing Donald Trump, then you’re criticizing America, Christian America ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmq1wk53csz8xp7fzcempvk2)) > very zero sum ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmq1xbyaxamjngkpg2knwj46)) ##### COVID > So I think it’s very difficult for folks who are on the outside of this movement looking in who weren’t raised in it as I was, who don’t have deep roots in it to fully appreciate the extent to which evangelicals have been taught and promised for generations now that one day in this country there will be a cosmic clash between the forces of good and evil ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmq1zjp1v6ac5025hd9hr38p)) > That the good, God-fearing, Bible believing Christians will square off once and for all with those pagans, those secular progressives in government and in culture who want to eradicate the Almighty from public life ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmq206gzyzvt0q4hsdfyvkzn)) > So when Covid-19 arrives and some of these governors around the country, they issue shutdown orders implicating houses of worship, you know, that was it. That was the fulfillment of prophecy for a lot of these people. They looked around and they said, ‘well, here it is. You know, they told us this day would come and now it’s come.’ And ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmq20x6dmnxn5q9eabpze0v8)) > You asked him what is wrong with evangelicals in America and his response was too many of them worship America ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmq21esxh8qbj5wphnhq8swy)) > we are dealing with an idolatry problem inside of the church ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfbg1zbw23b00hs2vk0nky)) > I think once you become convinced that this nation is somehow in covenant with God, you start to think that a defeat for America is a defeat for God, that you start to think that fighting for America is the same as fighting for God, as though salvation itself hangs in the balance with every election ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfbyv52vd10r5cbs5j9rtf)) > just, it’s completely abiblical ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfc40na3f4x7059jpwnm1c)) > there’s a genuine sense for a lot of these people that when you think about the culture wars lost, when you think about the demographic changes in the country, when you think about all of the statistics about church attendance plummeting that we are at the abyss here, and that if something isn’t done quickly and dramatically to to pull us back from that abyss, then we will never recover the nation that we once were ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfd2tn4g7wvd8kkgbpa7vc)) > Because too many of these people are spending more time watching Fox News than they are reading the New Testament ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfdcz2xndptc6rqvc9qcr7)) > This is all about proportionality and about balancing where your priorities are and what your information inputs are. And it’s very difficult to be a faithful follower of Jesus if you’re getting– if 5% of your diet is biblical and 95% of it is secular it’s just, it’s very hard. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfeeczeh0qs9ra4np9fzda)) > Well, look, I mean, if you believe that the barbarians are at the gates, then you think to yourself, maybe we need a barbarian to protect us ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfet9zkr49g8fvngjnp6q5)) > fear and grievance and persecution ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqffkf0x0p4cwmakt5cbzdx)) > to recognize they’re not supporting him in spite of those things. They’re supporting him *because* of those things ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfgskcyrpk95z9g8mn0sz5)) ##### PERSECUTION COMPLEX > The persecution complex is psychologically at the center, I think, of our problems in the evangelical church ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfnm85aee67hrbyhpr7njs)) > And so you then start to process every political defeat, every cultural defeat, every unkind thing said about you through this lens of, ‘well, we’re being persecuted.’ ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfp7w2maedqckxjcpzcfax)) > for the last 50 years, has just been so consumed with the pursuit of political power ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfqc15kje69tz6f6pwwkqp)) > And that pursuit of power has corrupted the church in many ways ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfqhqf94121a86s96g6ae9)) > Christians, I think, have to appreciate that 50 years ago, unbelievers in this country, they liked the church ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfqyhxb0tszt4vjyvyyfxx)) > Even if they didn’t believe in the God that we believe in, they respected the institution of the church ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfr3p63ssn424p7ywmvxes)) > They thought that socially, that we were good for society ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfrasf6gb6cqb4xvpqcggq)) > The transformation of the evangelical community really is marked by the emergence of the Moral Majority. And the founder of the Moral Majority, Jerry Falwell, appeared on Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr in 1981. Take a look at what he says here. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqftc9tb06t55ht4s8hpmkq)) > **FALWELL:** I feel when one aspires to a place of public leadership – a congressman, a president, governor – I think like a priest or a pastor or a rabbi, he is aspiring to lead the people and people are going to emulate his lifestyle or her lifestyle. And I think that we have an obligation to go a step beyond the average person because in leadership more is demanded of us. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqftjenrhv03z9ae1vpmccq)) > That’s the irony. Jerry Falwell Senior in that clip, he’s speaking to a biblical doctrine that is true and that is right. The irony is that had he lived by that doctrine, had his movement lived by that doctrine, then we wouldn’t be in this mess that we’re in today. And it’s tragic. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfv8d7jzx0wrxjmb08we1m)) ##### EVANGELICALS AS A VOTING BLOC > Are there any evangelical leaders who could catalyze the evangelical voting bloc against Trump? > **ALBERTA:** No. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfwg32s4wrpfg0kxtbjtqk)) > Yeah. I mean, it’s easy to forget now, but when Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, evangelical Christians were his softest group of supporters. There was a lot of suspicion of him, a lot of skepticism. He really had to work hard to earn their votes. That’s why he put Mike Pence on the ticket. That’s why he released the list of Supreme Court nominees and promised to pick pro-life Supreme Court justices ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfxgyd0k4yy5g4589qggbf)) > And Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., Mike Huckabee, a number of these prominent high profile evangelical leaders, they take turns getting up on stage and vouching for Trump, vouching for his character ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfy715k9yn6ew552wxe41y)) > God uses flawed people throughout the Bible to advance his purposes. How is this guy any different than King David or King Solomon, or Moses even?’ ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfyq4cz62navcmrbqzkt3r)) > Well, you fast forward eight years. Some of those same people privately are horrified of Donald Trump. They know how dangerous he is, but they’ve locked themselves into this position now where even if they came out today, all of them locking arms and denouncing him and saying, never mind, we were wrong, please forgive us for what we said, the people wouldn’t listen because they’ve already they’ve already made their judgments on him. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqfzen916dm4fj7s6dwry9t)) ##### ABORTION > for 50 years, abortion was used as the chief mobilizer for millions and millions of evangelical Christians ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqg0p5ybqrt895emdrssxbg)) > Abortion is no longer this great galvanizing issue for Republican primary voters in the way that it once was ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqg0tnzbfwz4k3nera8ey4s)) > So what else do you got?’ Right? So I think for a lot of these Republican voters, a lot of these evangelical primary voters, now, they push abortion to the side and say, okay, well, what is our priority? I think for many of them, the priority is what we’ve been discussing, which is who’s going to protect Christianity in America ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqg26dyjyqyjcvydrzy5mah)) > You know, the education curriculum, the transgender issue, critical race theory ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqg2dzh9q744dg2ycdmsgt8)) > But if you’re wondering, well, if theocracy comes to America, if the wall between church and state gets demolished, then how does it start? Well, it probably starts like this. It probably starts with a strongman leader taking all of the authoritarian impulses over here, merging it with all of the religious zealotry over here, combining the two, and having a movement of people behind him who believe that he’s an instrument of the Almighty to accomplish God’s will on earth, no matter how flawed he is. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqg3gb0xtdetq8bgz706d6t)) ##### IOWA ##### NIKKI HALEY > But I think the question for her heading into this campaign, is, if you’re going to run, wouldn’t you rather just run, win or lose, let the chips fall where they may, being the most authentic version of yourself ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqg68xswg67nj4d12sayepj)) ##### WHAT WOULD A SECOND TRUMP TERM LOOK LIKE? > What concerns me is that Donald Trump in his second term would be surrounded by a lot of folks who truly view politics as a proxy for good and evil ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqg7b3anr3er031gat0d9b3)) > When we look through the history books and we see this, this fusing of authoritarianism and religious fanaticism and more specifically, I would say, religious justification for violence, for conflict ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqg7xh4j87eqydy6ezwq1a7)) > When you see the merging of those two things, that’s when you see history’s greatest crimes, the great crimes against humanity: ethnic cleansing, genocide, holocaust ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqg88e939jbag8taywb39d2)) > And what I mean by that is just this idea that our identity as followers of Jesus is in any way, shape or form attached to our identity as partisan Republicans is so profoundly wrong and does such a disservice to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that I hope that there is an awakening here in the evangelical world, that we do not put our faith in mortal men ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqg9yyhr2dnz391j32nh4n2)) > We do not put our faith in princes, in kings ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmqga99vnqb7yr5r0gbz34nj))