This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm Shemeita Bessu. Today, how the

Evangelical Church became so political, according to a pastor's son.

Tim Alberta was raised in the church, and I mean that literally.

His father was an evangelical minister for nearly three decades at Cornerstone Church

outside of Detroit. His mother led the women's ministry. cornerstone church's

of Detroit. As a kid, Tim played games in the church's back rooms,

did his homework in the office wing,

brought high school dates to Bible study, and even worked as a church janitor

while in college.

When Tim's father died in 2019, Tim returned to the church that he'd always called home, to remember his dad and to mourn.

I had people at the visitation the day before the funeral confronting me, in some cases really confronting me in a hostile

way questioning my faith, questioning if I was on the right team, on the right side of things, you know, while my dad was in a box about 100 feet away.

Tim is a journalist and at the time he had come out with a book that was getting a lot of attention.

It was about the impact of Donald Trump on the Republican Party. That's where this criticism from the

church community was coming from. Tim was really unsettled by the comments he was getting and it made him

pretty angry. The next day in fact at his funeral I sort of let it rip a little bit.

In my eulogy I brought up these confrontations from the day before and said like what are we doing here you know like is this right is this who we are as as believers and and then it got even worse.

After he delivered that eulogy, he got a written note from a long time member of his father's

congregation.

That basically said I was a part of the deep state and that I was undermining God's ordained a leader of this

nation, Donald Trump, and that I should be ashamed of myself.

It was just, long story short, really a clarifying moment.

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