Alberta's KPG

From Tim Alberta's very first interview on Morning Joe, it was clear that a major concern in selling this new book of his, his second, was the verifiable fact that not only had he been raised "evangelical," he still considered himself one, practicing his faith on Sunday, and thus following in the footsteps of his father, who was, until the day he died, an upstanding American evangelical. 

Every subsequent interview stressed Alberta's faith, in a fashion, some might say, that made it a selling point. It almost was as if Tim Alberta's agent had told him that if he wanted to sell books, he had to make his being an evangelical perfectly clear. Want to be crass?--it could be construed that Tim Alberta was using his faith to sell books. If I were a Fox News person, I'd say as much. 

But let's just stop for a minute and think what I've just said. If Tim Alberta sells more books because he's a believer, then mark the date on your calendars because if you listen to Trump and his evangelical disciples, the voices of evangelicals are not heard, they are not heard because of their faith. Christians are prayed upon by the fake news media, you know, the Godless elite. It's an article of faith to be thus persecuted.

Trump's popularity makes clear he gets that particular doctrine and trumpets it widely himself, telling American evangelicals (80% of whom support him) that they're getting a raw deal in the secular press, from the commies, the Godless ones. That's why he says, "I am your 'retribution,'" and it explains why they buy it. If I go to jail--his latest con--think of me as MLK or Nelson Mandela--you know, even the apostle Paul suffered jail-time. 

The fact that Tim Alberta could confess Jesus's name before the Morning Joe listening audience means there is no such binary. Tim Alberta sat right there in the seat of the scornful and told Joe and Mika he was a Christian, a faithful one too, a believer. 

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory (KPG) is an amazing book. What Alberta couldn't keep still about in those interviews is a key to understanding why the book is unique. It's journalism, feature journalism with significant asides that connect it to something very personal, a personal narrative. Kristin Kobes DuMez is a historian, someone who seeks out the facts as they exist, and reports them. What she didn't do--at least not as forcefully--is confess her own Christian faith; but then she didn't need to. She is a historian.

Alberta didn't have to either, but he chose a different genre--the personal narrative, some creative non-fiction, a structure that includes both the facts and one's own story, a bit of memoir. What makes KPG unique and fascinating is the fact that there are, throughout the study, all kinds of moments when Alberta offers what some (like me) might see as considerably "Christian" critiques. The criticism of contemporary evangelicalism is enough to make you really tired, but it's wielded by someone who clearly believes.  That's as amazing as it is unique.

It's all tossed into the mosh pit that is contemporary politics. What Alberta does in KPG is line up one evangelical leader after another and display just exactly how they've sold out to mammon. It's not pretty, but the times are not particularly rosy for all evangelical Christians, Trumpers or no-Trumpers.

Mostly, today, that binary has no sliding scale; you're on one side, fists up, or the other, ducking punches. Alberta is clearly a no-Trumper; but, if you believe him, he remains a believer--maybe not an "American evangelical" like Marjorie Taylor Green or the orange man now hawking $60-dollar Bibles, but a believer nonetheless.

And it's as good to hear his confession of faith as it is to tune in to his critique. As a Christian believer of his ilk, I'm proud of him. If he had been a student of mine some years ago, a graduate of Dordt College, I'd be busting my buttons* because in The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, Tim Alberta isn't shy either about his faith or his criticism of those who abuse it.

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*For the record, Kristin Kobes DuMez is a former student. Consider my buttons busted.