from the great schism to the Protestant Reformation the Christian church has experienced Division and here in America slavery divided the church in the runup to the Civil War now after Decades of culture wars one author is issuing a warning to the Evangelical Church it might be on the verge of another split you still identify as an Evangelical you know I sort of do and I sort of don't in his book The Kingdom the power and the glory Tim Alberta pulls no punches examining what he describes as political extremism in the church it is deeply uncomfortable to air the dirty laundry of the church it's a topic he approaches as a lifelong Christian now in seminary the purpose is twofold shining a light into this Darkness as it pertains to the Evangelical movement in America it is to on the one hand expose what is wrong and what is false but it's also to illuminate what is right and what is true they are sort of locked in this cage of fear as a veteran reporter Alberta used to Rough and Tumble politics although he never expected it at his home Church especially during the funeral of his father an Evangelical Pastor for 40 years I had people questioning if I was still a Christian if I was if I was on the right side of things and it was very upsetting obviously because you're in this this fog of grief and mourning and and disbelief still I was so bothered by it in fact that when I gave the eulogy at his funeral I issued a bit of a rebuke and and just said to the congregation there like look what are we doing like wh why in a church are is this really appropriate short time later we we buried my father came home from the cemetery and I was handed a note by a friend longtime Elder in the church uh close friend of my fathers uh someone who' known me since I was a little boy and his note said that I should be ashamed of myself that I was a part of the deep state that I was working to undermine God's ordained leader of this country Donald Trump and um but that I could be restored that if I would use my journalism skills to investigate the Deep State and to exonerate Donald Trump that that I would be forgiven in the eyes of God since you brought it up um are you part of the deep State no uh I'm not a part of the deep state I'm a journalist uh I've covered Republican and Democratic campaigns and candidates I've made uh pretty equal number of enemies over the years Republican and Democrat liberal and conservative uh I like to think I have a pretty good reputation for being fair and for being very aggressive as a reporter after interviewing prominent event Evangelical leaders he maintains some conservative Christians have put politics ahead of the premium on spirituality so for a lot of evangelicals um they'll say they feel like they're constantly under attack that the country is going in the wrong direction that we're at the precipice of a doe or die moment and and you write that that's really steeped in fear are they wrong to be fearful I think some of their fear is understandable the culture has moved away from some of their traditional Christian values but I also think that when you consider that the most frequently cited command in all of scripture is fear not do we really think that God's biting his fingernails over what happens in the next election here in the United States while some may slam his critique Alberta feels Vindicated by the responses flooding his inbox so many of them have said the same thing which is effectively our congregation in the last three four five years has fractured and it hasn't fractured around Doctrine it hasn't fractured around what kind of music we play on Sunday mornings or the color of the carpet or any of these things that you know traditionally would divide a congregation it's did you get vaccinated who'd you vote for what are your politics what letter is after your name and if in fact our identity is found in Christ if our hope is found in Christ if our citizenship is in heaven as we are told Philippians 3:20 then we cannot allow these Earthly fault lines to fracture and fragment the bride of Christ in addition to highlighting the fact that the Christian's true identity is found solely in Christ Alberta also told me he prays his book whose title is taken after the Lord's Prayer will help introduce non-Christian readers to the truth the way and the life the person of Jesus John Jessup CBN News Washington great interview thank you um it was an honor to talk to Tim he's he's a great brother in Christ and you know people may not agree with how he does his journalism but um the thing that was really um impactful for me was listening to him retell the story about his father's funeral and you know what I was reminded of is again Idol whatever the idol is um for someone to be suffering and hurting Paul wrote that we are to carry each other's burdens to Rejoice with each other and to weep with each other and in this moment of suffering another Christian brother or sister um came and did something to inflict pain and harm and and I know that that probably wasn't the intent but again I think these are reminders that our first call our first love is Christ and Christ alone right yeah absolutely I mean I'm just reminded scripture says you know they will know us by our love that's right by our love that's what we have to come back to are we showing love to our Brothers and Sisters in Christ even if even if they vote differently than us even if we disagree with them politically on major issues such as morality and lots of other things are we still going to show them love because that's important you know in the early church there was division over um should we judaize the Gentiles and Paul kept saying it's the gospel it is it is Jesus and the cross who saves um so originally there was theological differences in now it looks like we've allowed cultural and political differences to divide us and as you just said like that's that's not who we are we're called to love and I just remember Jesus's Priestly High Priestly prayer for the church for his disciples was that they may be one so that they may reflect and glorify the father being he and the father being one so I think if we're allow again we should be involved in the political process we should exercise our right to vote but if we allow the priority um to kind of be shifted then maybe we're the mark yeah definitely