One of my top recommended reads for this year is, The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory—American Evangelicals in an age of Extremism” by Tim Alberta. As the son of an evangelical Christian pastor, Alberta wanted to explore the unholy marriage of American Evangelical Christianity and right-wing politics and how it is leading to division in American churches. Alberta set out to investigate how someone like Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement have managed to maintain such fervent support among American Evangelical Christians. How did Donald Trump and right-wing influencers become the test of fellowship for many American Christians?

Being completely uninterested in right-wing media, I was unfamiliar with podcaster and influencer Charlie Kirk and his political organization, Turning Point USA. In my opinion, many social media commentators on both the Left and right sides of the political spectrum are entertainers who know exactly what their base of supporters loves to hear. These people are masters at getting their audiences all riled up by spouting the same tropes about race, sex, gender, and other culture war topics. Their business model is to create content that manufactures outrage to get viewers and sponsors. This is so profitable that many are laughing all the way to the bank—these podcasts, rallies, and events are predictable and designed to generate content rather than honest debate.

When Charlie Kirk was tragically killed on September 10, 2025, at a college event in Utah, I remembered his name from The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory. His death was a tragedy on many levels. He was so young. I feel sorry for his wife, children, and his parents. This was all senseless and unnecessary. I think the case is far too complicated for anyone to pontificate about what happened, so that is not the point of my post.

I want to discuss why those who proclaim to be followers of Christ should not engage in the political war that is being cloaked in religious language and shielded by using the name of Jesus. It is all meant to deceive and divide the Body of Christ, and it is also unbiblical.

We battle not against flesh and blood or political parties

Tim Alberta attended one of Charlie Kirk’s events at an Arizona church and chronicled it in chapter seventeen of The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory. I recalled reading the chapter and being dismayed and shocked at the foolishness being spouted in the name of Jesus.

During the event, Charlie Kirk stated that he had spent the month in prayer following the Republicans’ overwhelming defeat in the 2022 midterm elections. Kirk went on to tell the crowd that God’s plan was to withhold Republican victories in the midterm elections to test their mettle in this war:  Would they give up, or would they keep fighting?  Kirk preached to the crowd that the pastors would lead them into battle, and they would have the victory.

Tim Alberta wrote that Charlie Kirk took the idea of a political war from ideological to a spiritual war. This is very dangerous because then politics is no longer about the typical liberal versus conservative arguments of more government vs less government. Turning politics into spiritual warfare meant that we were fighting for good versus evil, rather than debating whether to raise taxes for public transit or secure private funding. The Bible says in the book of Ephesians that we aren’t fighting with fellow human beings, but with spiritual beings in the unseen world (Ephesians 5:12). When politics is turned into a battle of good versus evil, we begin to label human beings as good or evil based on political beliefs, and this is not what the Bible teaches.

We are in a time of tremendous upheaval and uncertainty, so people are seeking answers and meaning in their lives. I also don’t think people are wrong to be angry and fearful of the future.  We are all, to some extent, because the world has changed dramatically over the last ten years. While reading The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory, I was puzzled: Didn’t these pastors and their congregations see that their fears and anger about the future were being monetized and exploited by influencers and content creators?  Is it also possible that there are outside forces that are exploiting the division in this country for their own gain?

I absolutely believe in spiritual warfare, and I also think that Satan has many people who sincerely believe they are on the right side, completely deceived because these entertainers are tickling their ears and giving them answers in times of uncertainty and change.

 

The United States is not the Kingdom of God.

The American church needs to ask whether its trust is in God or in a political party and its politicians, who are making false promises. When was the last time any of these people read the Old Testament prophets who warned the people of Ancient Israel not to serve the gods of the culture or to depend on their political might and alliances? When was the last time these churches taught from the book of Amos, the prophet? God was not interested in their displays of religiosity. The Lord wanted to see a flood of justice and righteous living, and for Ancient Israel to stop oppressing the poor.

“I hate all your show and pretense—
the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
an endless river of righteous living.

The problem I see is that conservative politics and Christianity are in an unholy matrimony.  Being conservative does not mean one has been born again into the Kingdom of God. Being born again isn’t an automatic endorsement of Republican politics. The Kingdom of God is not the United States of America, and Americans are not God’s chosen people.

Books like Jesus and John Wayne go more in-depth into why and how the Moral Majority hijacked the Republican Party. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that much of it had to do with the Civil Rights Movement and Desegregation in the Southern States. The pivot to using reproductive issues as the impetus for Christians to vote for the Republican Party would come later.

As Tim Alberta traveled the country, he met with pastors and other leaders who had lost their churches, positions, and reputations in the evangelical world due to their opposition to Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement. I was shocked at the number of pastors who faced serious threats from congregants during the pandemic and the social unrest of 2020.  None of this had anything to do with glorifying God or lifting the name of Jesus. This is a perfect example of the dangers of turning political ideologies into a form of spiritual warfare. We begin to label brothers and sisters as enemies. This is the antithesis of Jesus’ prayer in the garden that his disciples would be unified and that we would all be one as Jesus and the Father are one. Perhaps the real spiritual warfare is all the division and discord being sown by the powers of darkness.

The false gospel of politics has poisoned the American church, right along with the false gospels of prosperity and idolatry. These false gospels are sowing division and leading to much of the discord Tim Alberta reported in The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory. As a Christian, the only answer is genuine revival led by the Holy Spirit and certainly not by a politician or influencer. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Idols ALWAYS break the hearts of their worshippers.”

 

“The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory” is a worthwhile read for everyone. Still, it is particularly vital for those of us who identify as Christians and are unaware of what is happening in American Evangelical Christianity. My prayer is that God will have mercy on us, because I believe we will need it in the days ahead.

Whatever Christians are to do is to do for the glory of God, not for their own Kingdoms, power, and glory.

“God will not honor those that try to do big, majestic, and temporal things in his name.” – Charlie Kirk

Indeed.