. Tim Alberta Confronted By Trump Fans at Funeral For His Pastor Father: They Didn’t See Me as a ‘Grieving Son’ - News Times

Tim Alberta Confronted By Trump Fans at Funeral For His Pastor Father: They Didn’t See Me as a ‘Grieving Son’

By News Here - 11:07

Tim Alberta spoke in depth of how Donald Trump supporters accosted him during his father’s funeral over his various criticisms of the former president.

The Atlantic reporter joined NBC’s Kristen Welker on Sunday’s Meet The Press to talk about his new book: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. In the book, Alberta speaks about the Christian values he held as the son of a pastor, Trump’s relationship with evangelicals, and how the Christian right has changed amid the former president’s political ascendance.

Alberta, in the book, wrote about his father’s death in 2019, and the memorial services his family held at the church where he grew up. In Alberta’s recollection, the remembrance took a turn for the worse when attendees repeatedly brought up Rush Limbaugh, who recently went after Alberta on his radio show over his “unflattering” Trump reporting.

From the book, via The Atlantic:

They kept on coming. More than I could count. People from the church—people I’d known my entire life—were greeting me, not primarily with condolences or encouragement or mourning, but with commentary about Limbaugh and Trump. Some of it was playful, guys remarking about how I was the same mischief-maker they’d known since kindergarten. But some of it wasn’t playful. Some of it was angry; some of it was cold and confrontational. One man questioned whether I was truly a Christian. Another asked if I was still on “the right side.” All while Dad was in a box a hundred feet away.

When Alberta spoke to Welker about the comfort he received from his fellow mourners, he also expanded on those who took that opportunity to go after him for criticizing Trump.

“There were some of these folks who didn’t see a grieving son,” Alberta said. “They saw a vulnerable adversary in that moment, someone who was on ‘the other side,’ and that’s heartbreaking. It’s not just heartbreaking because it was me and my dad’s funeral. It’s heartbreaking because this happened inside a sanctuary… It is a place set apart for the purpose of believers to come together and to worship and be one body in Christ. And this was not that.”

Alberta then told Welker about how he received a letter during the funeral from a church elder and family friend who condemned him a “traitor” working with the Deep State “to undermine God’s ordained leader of the United States.” He also spoke of how he has reaffirmed his faith despite those in the evangelical community who’ve compromised their religious values in order to stand with Trump.

Watch above via NBC.

The post Tim Alberta Confronted By Trump Fans at Funeral For His Pastor Father: They Didn’t See Me as a ‘Grieving Son’ first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/Sr1K49F

  • Share:

You Might Also Like

0 comments