( A sort of drumroll, like that of a timpani, plays up and brings the cheering back.)Įmma Green: The day after Joe Biden was inaugurated, thousands of people gathered for an event at Calvary Chapel, an evangelical megachurch in southern California.Ĭharlie Kirk: It’s a good group check. Now, for Part 2, Atlantic staff writer Emma Green is gonna take it from here. It’s the story of how one man, political operative Ralph Reed, built the evangelical voting bloc over decades, and how he helped Donald Trump get elected. If you haven’t listened to Part 1, stop right there! Go back to last week’s episode, and listen to that first. This week’s episode is Part 2 of a two-part series. ( The sounds of a crowd cheering play up for a moment, then are whisked away.) Martin.Ī transcript of this episode is presented below: Additional audio from Real Life With Jack Hibbs, Matthew Phan, C-SPAN, ABC News, and Roland S. Additional music performed by Lecrae, courtesy of Reach Records, arranged by The Orchard (“ Dirty Water” and “ Take Me as I Am”). Music by Ob (“ Mog” and “ Wold”), water feature (“ richard iii (duke of gloucester”), Keyboard (“ My Atelier”), Laundry (“ Lawn Feeling”), Norvis Junior (“ Overworld 7636” and (“ Grim Reapers Groove 94”), and Nelson Bandela (“ 311 Howard Ave 25 5740” and “ Auddi Sun 09 Lop Lop 722”), provided by Tasty Morsels and Nelson Nance. Editing by Julia Longoria and Emily Botein. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at episode was produced by Katherine Wells and Alvin Melathe, with reporting by Emma Green. This week on The Experiment: the story of an evangelical artist who found his voice and lost his church.įurther reading: The Unofficial Racism Consultants to the White Evangelical World, How Trump Lost an Evangelical Stalwart, The Tiny Blond Bible Teacher Taking On the Evangelical Political Machineīe part of The Experiment. Among Christians, the Trump era’s legacy might be fracture, not unity. People of all kinds of backgrounds have felt gutted by Christian support for Trump. White evangelicals have arguably never been more powerful as a political force in America than they are now, but political victory has a human cost. He lost money and fans, friends and mentors.

When he saw how strongly the evangelical world was going to champion Donald Trump, he decided to speak out. He started writing lyrics about race and the hypocrisy he saw among Christians, who he felt paid lip service to diversity but didn’t form substantive relationships with other communities. He was disturbed by the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, but faced backlash on social media for saying so. He was inspired by Barack Obama’s election, but felt unable to share that with his evangelical audiences. Over time, though, he began to notice how much politics influenced his church culture. He found success as an artist and built a career in the white evangelical world. His mentors and community were predominantly white and very conservative, but that didn’t really bother him.

As a Black college student, he found a sense of belonging in Bible study. Lecrae Moore came up in a Christian culture deeply entwined with politics: Evangelicals were Republicans, and Republicans were evangelicals.

Yall gonna make me lose my mind lyrics