Unholy

A stunning feat of reportage that explains one of the central mysteries of the Trump era- the unholy marriage of Trump and the Evangelicals, as officiated by the alt-right.

Why did so many Evangelicals turn out to vote for Donald Trump, a serial philanderer with questionable conservative credentials who seems to defy Christian values with his every utterance? To a reporter like Sarah Posner, who has been covering the religious right for decades, the answer turns out to be far more intuitive than one might think.

In this taut and meticulously reported inquiry, Posner digs deep into the radical history of the religious right to reveal how issues of race and xenophobia have always been at the movement's core, and how religion has been used to cloak anxieties about perceived threats to a white, Christian America. Fueled by an anti-democratic impulse, and united by this narrative of reverse victimization, the religious right and the alt-right support a common agenda--and are actively using the erosion of democratic norms to roll back civil rights advances, stock the judiciary with hard-right judges, defang and deregulate federal agencies, and undermine the credibility of the free press. Increasingly, this formidable bloc is also forging ties with European far right groups, giving momentum to a truly global movement forecasted to last long after the Trump era.

Revelatory and engrossing, Unholy offers a deeper understanding of the ideological underpinnings and forces influencing the course of Republican politics. This is a book that must be read by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.

“"Sarah Posner reveals, with clarity and without hyperbole, the unholy alliance between Donald Trump and white evangelicals in this country. That relationship is not a transactional one, as so many would have us believe. Trump has all the attributes of the televangelists who exert so much influence in American Christendom. He reflects, in his demeanor and in his policies, what they hold dear. Reading Unholy unsettles you and shows that what ails this country goes way beyond the current occupant in the White House. This book is a must-read for anyone who claims to be Christian and for anyone who is concerned about our democracy." --Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own " Unholy explains how moralizing evangelicals fell in love with one of the most outwardly immoral presidents in modern American history. Religion reporter Sarah Posner makes bold claims, but she brings receipts. As a Christian, I found this book far more disturbing and damning than I expected. We ignore it at our collective peril." --Jonathan Merritt, author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch and contributing writer for The Atlantic”

"Sarah Posner reveals, with clarity and without hyperbole, the unholy alliance between Donald Trump and white evangelicals in this country. That relationship is not a transactional one, as so many would have us believe. Trump has all the attributes of the televangelists who exert so much influence in American Christendom. He reflects, in his demeanor and in his policies, what they hold dear. Reading Unholy unsettles you and shows that what ails this country goes way beyond the current occupant in the White House. This book is a must-read for anyone who claims to be Christian and for anyone who is concerned about our democracy."--Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own "Unholy explains how moralizing evangelicals fell in love with one of the most outwardly immoral presidents in modern American history. Religion reporter Sarah Posner makes bold claims, but she brings receipts. As a Christian, I found this book far more disturbing and damning than I expected. We ignore it at our collective peril."--Jonathan Merritt, author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch and contributing writer for The Atlantic

Sarah Posner is a reporting fellow with Type Investigations at The Nation Institute. Her investigative reporting has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Nation, Mother Jones, The New Republic, HuffPost, and Talking Points Memo. Her coverage and analysis of politics and religion has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The American Prospect, VICE, Politico, and many other outlets. She graduated from Wesleyan University and has a law degree from the University of Virginia. Her story "How Trump Took Hate Groups Mainstream," published before the 2016 election, won a Sidney Hillman Foundation Award.

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