Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith

Does right-wing evangelicalism both distort the truth and message of Christianity and threaten American culture? Hendricks (religion, African American and African diaspora studies, Columbia Univ.; The Politics of Jesus) addresses such questions in this most recent book. Hendricks does not attack evangelicals in general, and notes that historically evangelical Christians often challenged social problems, including slavery. His interest is in how a segment of radically conservative believers has developed within evangelicalism since the 1980s Moral Majority movement. Hendricks focuses on believers who have shifted away from stances of inclusivity and toward ones of hostility and intolerance. He particularly criticizes radical evangelicals’ fervent support of President Trump and xenophobic Christian nationalism. Spanning religion and political science, several chapters in this wide-ranging book cover subjects (such as immigration and abortion) that have been especially politicized in the 21st century. This book is polemical in nature, yet Hendricks writes as an academic and uses extensive primary sources.