cover image From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism

From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism

D.G. Hart. Wm. B. Eerdmans, $25 (245p) ISBN 978-0-8028-6628-8

This volume's title is misleading, since it says little about either Billy Graham or Sarah Palin. Instead it is a kind of literary history of prominent evangelical Christians' thinking about political conservatism. A church historian, Hart examines the writings of such figures as Carl McIntire, Jerry Falwell, Marvin Olasky, Chuck Colson, and Ron Sider, among others. He shows how their moral idealism is at odds with the realism, prudence, and preference for stasis that has characterized political conservatism. At a time when many view the relationship between evangelicals and the Republican Party as unquestionably tight, Hart suggests born-again Christians may actually have more in common with the aspirations of progress, change, and social improvement championed by the left. And he sagely hints that younger evangelical leaders may be rethinking the conservative impulse and veering closer to the center left, if not to the Democratic Party. This book might have benefited from a historical overview of conservatism in its early chapters and from a more accurate title, but its insights are acute and on target. (Aug.)%C2%A0