White Evangelicals and Right-Wing Populism: How Did We Get Here? (Routledge Focus on Religion)

How did America’s white evangelicals, from often progressive history, come to right-wing populism?Addressing populism requires understanding how its historico-cultural roots ground present politics.How have the very qualities that contributed much to American vibrancy-an anti-authoritarian government-wariness and energetic community-building-turned, under conditions of distress, to defensive, us-them worldviews?Readers will gain an understanding of populism and of the socio-political and religious history from which populism draws its us-them policies and worldview.The book ponders the tragic cast of the white evangelical story: (i) the distorting effects of economic and way-of-life duress on the understanding of history and present circumstances and (ii) the tragedy of choosing us-them solutions to duress that won’t relieve it, leaving the duress in place.Readers will trace the trajectory from economic, status loss, and way-of-life duresses to solutions in populist, us-them binaries.T