Politics and Evangelical Christians
A Panel Discussion
Randall Balmer
Dartmouth College
John Fea
Messiah College
¶Ù²¹³Ù±ð:ÌýApril 8, 2019
Co-sponsored withÌýGordon-Conwell Theological SeminaryÌýin South Hamilton, Mass.
Abstract
What is the relationship between evangelicals and politics? How do some evangelical groups think through their responsibilities to vote? What historical roots provide deeper insight into the high turnout of evangelical support for Donald Trump? Do evangelicals see voting Republican as synonymous with or tied to being a Christian and living out their faith? Randall Balmer and John Fea -- both authors of recent books covering evangelicals and American politics -- will address these questions and more at a co-sponsored event at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Speaker Bios
Randall BalmerÌýholds the John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth, the oldest endowed professorship at Dartmouth College. A prize-winning historian and Emmy Award nominee, Balmer earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985 and taught as Professor of American Religious History at Columbia University for twenty-seven years before becoming the Mandel Family Professor in the Arts & Sciences at Dartmouth College in 2012. Balmer has published more than a dozen books, includingÌýRedeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter,ÌýGod in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush, andÌýThe Making of Evangelicalism: From Revivalism to Politics and Beyond. His second book,ÌýMine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: AÌýJourney into the Evangelical Subculture in America, now in its fifth edition, was made into an award-winning, three-part documentary for PBS.
John FeaÌýis professor of American history at Messiah College. Fea received his Ph.D. in American history from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His interests center on early American history, American religious history, the history of religion and politics, and the place of historical thinking in a democratic society. Fea recently publishedÌýBelieve Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald TrumpÌý(Eerdmans Publishing, 2018), and, among his five other books, his 2011 manuscript,ÌýWas America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical IntroductionÌý(Westminster/John Knox Press), was selected as aÌýChoiceÌýOutstanding Academic Title and as Religion Book of the Year (Gold Medalist) by the Association of Independent Publishers.
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Books
Bean, Lydia.ÌýThe Politics of Evangelical Identity : Local Churches and Partisan Divides in the United States and Canada. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.ÌýÌý
Boerl, W Christopher, and Dovoband, Katie.ÌýA God More Powerful Than Yours : American Evangelicals, Politics, and the Internet Age.ÌýNewcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015.ÌýÌý
Heltzel, G Peter.ÌýJesus and Justice: Evangelicals, Race, and American Politics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.
Hoffman, T. Marie.ÌýWhen the Roll is Called: Trauma and the Soul of American Evangelicalism. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2016.
FitzGerald, Frances.ÌýThe Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America.ÌýNew York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2017.
Linn, Jann.ÌýEvangelicalism and the Decline of American Politics. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017.
Marsh, Charles.ÌýWayward Christian Soldiers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Articles
Coleman, Simon. “An Empire on the Hill? The Christian Right and the Right to be Christian in America,â€�ÌýAnthropological QuarterlyÌý78, no.3 (2005): 653-671.ÌýDOI:10.1353/anq.2005.0034.
Dias, Elizabeth.ÌýÌýThe New York Times.ÌýNovember 1, 2018.
Gerson, Michael.ÌýÌýThe Atlantic.ÌýApril, 2018.
Griffis, Chelsea. “‘In the Beginning Was the Word’: Evangelical Christian Women, the Equal Rights Amendment, and Competing Definitions of Womanhood.â€�ÌýFrontiers: A Journal of Women’s StudiesÌý38, no.2, (2017): 148-172.Ìý
DOI:10.5250/fronjwomestud.38.2.0148.
Haberman, Clyde.ÌýÌýThe New York Times.ÌýOctober 28, 2018.
Kurtzleben, Danielle.ÌýÌýNPR.ÌýDecember 19, 2015.
The Editors.ÌýÌýCommonweal Magazine.ÌýJuly 25, 2017.
Woodward, Kenneth L.ÌýÌýCommonweal Magazine.ÌýMay 7, 2018.
In the News
AÌýÌýrevealed that among American religious groups, evangelical support of President Donald Trump remains strong.ÌýAccording to the Pew Center's report, "Roughly seven-in-ten white evangelical Protestants (69%)Ìýsay they approveÌýof the way Trump is handling his job as president." Other religious groups are less supportive, though Catholics are still more in favor of President Trump than the religiously unaffiliated. Of the religious groups surveyed, non-white Catholics and black Protestants approve of the president least, with only 26% and 12% of those surveyed approving, respectively.
