Santa Barbara resident David N. Moore is a pastor, educator, and activist whose new book is titled, Making America Great Again: Fairy Tale? Horror Story? Dream Come True? The book, written in December 2016, is an impassioned call for solidarity and unity at a time of political and social uncertainty. Moore spoke recently with Brian Tanguay about his book.
What was the genesis of the title of your book? I get asked about this a lot. The line appears in the book itself, but my working title was “A Place Where God Isn’t An Asshole.” That title was my muse and drove the writing. But after having some conversation with the author Brian McLaren, who read the manuscript, I was influenced by his suggestion that Donald Trump had given me a gift, so I somewhat reluctantly changed the title.
Your book covers quite a bit of territory, religious and secular, from Black Lives Matter to protests at Standing Rock. Did you set out to cover this much ground, or did the work generate its own momentum? I started writing the book on December 2, 2016 and finished it on December 28, 2016. It was non-stop, almost stream-of-consciousness. I had a longer book in mind, but when I reached what would become the last page, I knew it was time to stop.