The Fragmentation of American Evangelical Politics: Why it Happened - and How We Can Pick Up the Pieces

“The Fragmentation of American Evangelical Politics: Why it Happened – and How We Can Pick Up the Pieces.,” is a lecture by Dr. Daniel K. Williams and will take place on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 at 7:00 PM.

From Billy Graham’s alliance with Dwight Eisenhower to the white evangelical voters who supported Donald Trump, a majority of white evangelicals have been attracted to the Republican Party’s promise of national renewal through moral regulation. But this model of evangelical politics is now polarizing Christians, pitting one group of believers against another. This talk will examine how this political vision formed, why the Christian Right developed, and why evangelical politics is now fracturing along regional and educational lines. We’ll examine alternative models of political participation from other Christian traditions and reflect on the possible future of American evangelical politics – and the possible role of institutions such as Wheaton in preparing students for this new political landscape.

Daniel K. Williams is a professor of history at the University of West Georgia and the author of several books on religion and American politics, including God’s Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right, Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement before Roe v. Wade, and The Politics of the Cross: A Christian Alternative to Partisanship. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the Washington Post, and he writes regularly for Christianity Today, Current, and Patheos’s Anxious Bench blog for historians of evangelicalism. He lives in Carrollton, Georgia, with his wife (and fellow historian) Nadya Williams and their three children.

This event is free and open to the public and will take place in Meyer Science Center, Room 145 Buyse Lecture Hall, located at 430 Howard Street in Wheaton. For more information, contact Allison Vissers at 630.752.5130 or allison.vissers@wheaton.edu.