The Immaculate Mistake

President Donald Trump originated his political career by claiming that Barack Obama was not born in the USA. His “birtherism” theory was discredited, but there’s another possibility about birth. Evangelicals have given birth to Donald Trump in the immaculate mistake. Evangelicals are not a collection of dumb and irrational people; they are the creators of the demolition presidency of Trump. He is their child—the result of almost one hundred years of evangelical angst, resentment, and hurt. This is the story of how Trump has become a secular evangelical preacher and his message of fear, hatred, division, and getting even has captured the hearts and minds of evangelicals. Rather than dismissing them, this work takes them seriously and literally and offers a frank and disturbing series of portraits of their determination to win at all costs.

Rodney Wallace Kennedy is homiletics instructor at Palmer Theological Seminary and works as an interim pastor for Transition Ministries of ABC - USA. He is the author of Preaching Conversations with Scholars and co-author of Will Campbell, Preacher Man: Essays in the Spirit of a Divine Provocateur, Preaching from Mind and Heart, and editor of Gathering Together.