Religious Nationalism Driving America

2021/05/13

Why do Christian evangelicals support Trump? I wanted to write a book that answers this question. My previous book dealt with evangelicals who pride themselves on America being "God's country," but it was published a few months before President Trump took office.

In this book, I specifically examined the parade of policies during the four years of the Trump administration that pleased the evangelicals who supported him. These include extreme restrictions on abortion in Southern states known as the Bible Belt, the appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices, and the introduction of the "International Religious Freedom" bill. The suppression of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong is an act of oppression by the Chinese Communist Party regime against Christians, and in the Uyghur issue, against Muslims; America's hardline diplomacy toward China actually stems from this principle of "International Religious Freedom." This is the American religious nationalism I wanted to express in this book.

In July 2019, I had the opportunity to participate in the "International Religious Freedom" conference held at the U.S. Department of State, where I met people from all over the world who are suffering from religious persecution. Among them were representatives of Uyghur human rights organizations living in the U.S., a Protestant pastor from Hong Kong, and a representative of practitioners from the Falun Gong group in China. I wanted Japanese readers to know that these strong feelings toward religion in America are what drive its politics and diplomacy.

Additionally, in the suburbs of major cities, there are nearly 5,000 massive churches across the U.S. called megachurches that can accommodate more than 2,000 people. These are not just churches; they also provide social welfare and have entertainment functions. A list of these megachurches is also included in this book.

This book is also a record of interviews conducted with many organizations (including universities) and lobby groups in places like Washington. It includes many interviews from frequent visits to Christian conservative and right-wing lobby groups that Japanese people do not usually visit. I didn't have many acquaintances in Washington, but with the help of the Japanese embassy, researchers, and businesspeople, I was able to pull on one connection after another to expand my network, which was so interesting that it became addictive.

One of the highlights of my research is to clarify, even if only in part, how these people are connected to organizations close to the heart of the U.S. administration through the Christian lobby.

Religious Nationalism Driving America

Saho Matsumoto

Chikuma Shinsho

240 pages, 902 yen (including tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.