Joel Stein (2) (1971–)

I enjoyed the book. The author is a humor writer so he jokes around a lot. This book is an account of how he, as a liberal elite, tried to understand Trump voters and figure out the best way for the elite to respond to beliefs and stances taken by this population. It was never very clear what type of beliefs and behaviors the author sees as typical of Trump voters, but he did travel to a small town in the Texas panhandle where over 95% of the population voted for Trump in 2016. The friendship he struck with the people in that town was very interesting from my standpoint. It seems the people there had no interest to convince him to change his stance regarding politics, but they were very nice to him; they believed God brought him to their town for a reason, and the local church there began to pray for the author in their weekly prayer meeting, after the author left for home. Two locals of the town visited the author in Los Angeles after a couple of months, and gave him as present the DVDs of Fireproof and Cold Case Christianity, and the book Cold Case Christianity. The author actually watched the movies and read a couple of chapters from the book. But he still felt suspicious and uncomfortable about talking about faith with them, so he began ignoring their texts. After a while they reconnected, and the Christian friend said they don't have to always talk about faith, and invited the author's family to his mountain home in Colorado. The author associated all this with Trump voter values and said he can't help but feel these are nice people he wants to be friends with. I don't see how trying to introduce the author to the Christian faith has anything to do with politics -- it's a beautiful account of Christian brothers and sisters praying and hoping to share the gospel with a friend. It's great. I'll be praying for the author alongside them.… (mehr)