A new book paints a damning portrait of America’s evangelicals

On July 4th 1976, more than 25,000 people gathered in a field in Lynchburg, Virginia, to mark, if not exactly celebrate, the bicentenary of the Declaration of Independence. The stage was decorated with jolly red, white and blue bunting and a full-scale replica of the Liberty Bell, but the message coming from the podium was grim. Jerry Falwell—a popular television preacher and founder of the nearby Liberty University—had organised the event, and he spelled out where America had gone wrong. “The nation was intended to be a Christian nation by our Founding Fathers,” he proclaimed. “This idea of ‘religion and politics don’t mix’ was invented by the devil to keep Christians from running their own country.”