In an excerpt of his upcoming book The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta on Tuesday delivers a harrowing personal account of the July 2019 death of his father – an atheist NYC-area Italian-American who worked in finance before being born again and eventually becoming pastor to a Michigan Evangelical congregation numbering in the thousands – and meeting the increasingly MAGA members of the flock.

There’s not much lending itself to listing off quick anecdotes, as it’s not like a Trump White House insider account preview where we would pick out this or that damning detail. It’s more of a slow burn, with Tim recounting how since his old man’s passing came just weeks after the release his first book, American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump, the congregants had been hearing Rush Limbaugh bitching about the book. And yeah, they went there, even as they were supposed to be offering their condolences to Alberta.

Toward the end Alberta recounts the parallel story of his father’s successor, Chris Winans, the congregation’s young-adults minister whom took the lead in early 2018 with Pastor Alberta serving in an emeritus role up until his death. Winans’ first big mistake was citing a Biblical justification for protecting the Earth from climate change. By February 2021 he was “barely hanging on” to the job after that hellish year of COVID, civil unrest, and Stop the Steal, with Alberta describing Winans nervously looking over his shoulder as they met in a bar. Asked what he thought was wrong with Evangelicals these days, Winans said simply “America… Too many of them worship America.”