Bring to Heal

As a political force in America, the Christian right has never been stronger, calling for school library book bans and anti-trans legislation while undermining women’s health rights in the name of the Gospels. What do they want? A kingdom of Christ on earth. It may take a while (see the book of Revelation), but in the meantime, they’re settling for a kingdom of Christ — or a MAGA-adapted cartoon version of him — in Washington. “We’re bringing back religion in our country,” Donald Trump said at a Rose Garden event in May, and he didn’t mean Zoroastrianism. The Christian right has his ear, a canny legislative agenda, and even a White House Faith Office, led by the televangelist Paula White-Cain.

The roots of the Christian right run deep and lead to surprising places, including Canada. White-Cain, like Oral Roberts and Jim and Tammy Bakker, owes a debt to at least two Canadian tent revival preachers of the early twentieth century who figured out how to reach the masses...