The Judas Effect: How Evangelicals Betrayed Jesus for Power

In 2016, Amy Hawk was a hyper-patriotic, Jesus-loving, white, evangelical, church-attending, and ministry-leading wife and mom living in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. She came into the election determined to vote Republican, but when she saw the video of Donald Trump mocking a disabled journalist, she hurled herself off the Trump train and never looked back.

Shunned by some in her conservative evangelical community, her world was shattered and her faith tested as she was forced to reevaluate the Christian institutions she devoted her life to. Disoriented and confused by the church's embrace of a man who is the antithesis of Jesus, Hawk turned to the Scriptures for answers. Part Bible study and part personal faith journey, The Judas Effect is about the selling out of Christian values for political gain. It's about how, buoyed by Trumpism, the message ringing from church bells across America has morphed from "goodwill toward men" to "it's us against them."

By sharing her own faith crisis, Hawk casts a vision for the evangelical church that steers us away from Judas's power lust, toward a Christ-centered mission of servitude, humility, compassion, and kindness.