Photo: godongphoto via imago-images.de/IMAGO/Depositphotos
Photo: godongphoto via imago-images.de/IMAGO/Depositphotos

Ideas

American Christians Face a Choice

The faithful can still repair the wreckage they have wrought.

First published in The Atlantic on June 10, 2026.

by Peter Wehner, The Atlantic
June 25, 2026 | reading time: 16 Min.

ROBERT JEFFRESS, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, has long been one of Donald Trump’s most fawning supporters. By his own account, one reason for his loyalty is that Trump embodies an ethic—cruel, vengeful, and mendacious—that Jeffress and many millions of evangelicals and fundamentalists not only tolerate but welcome.

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