The Psychology of White Conservative Christians — with Dr. Dave Verhaagen

Why do evangelicals fall for conspiracy theories so easily? How could they preach about love and justice but then express such racist attitudes and behaviors? Why are they so preoccupied with “saving” someone instead of loving people well? Today, psychologist Dr. Dave Verhaagen seeks to answer these questions. We talked about his book, How White Evangelicals Think: The Psychology of White Conservative Christians, where he reveals the disturbing relationship between Christian Nationalism, rising rates of narcissism, and the evangelical mind. Want a sneak peak of this episode? Check out this quote from his book: “Rates of narcissism in the US have climbed upward for the past fifty years and American Christianity is not immune to that trend. In fact, there is evidence that the present conservative Christian subculture attracts higher than average numbers of individuals with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and is rich in what we call ‘collective narcissism.’” (How White Evangelicals Think: The Psychology of White Conservative Christians, Page 11) Is your mind blown yet?? I can’t wait for you to hear all that Dr. Verhaagen has to share. You can find his book on Amazon at or on his official website www.evangelicalpsych.com. DISCLAIMER: The goal of this episode is NOT to persuade evangelicals out of evangelicalism, mock them, or condemn them. The goal is to shed light on how evangelicals (as a collective) think in order to bring understanding and insight to people who are either outside evangelicalism or in the process of deconstructing it. REFERENCES Dr. Verhaagen mentioned two books in our conversation: - Taking America Back For God by Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry - White Too Long by Robert P. Jones