webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

xian nat'l 4

estb 6 23

see xian nAT 5

basically merged with that nat’l supremism

merri ok

hate tag pending}:

see rww

see theocracy // AUTOCRACY = FASCISM

SEE VOUGHT 2025

SEE APOC END TIMES

SEE MISOGYNY

SEE CENSOR BOOKS

see charter voucher parochial 10 commandmentssep church state

see kirk conf 6 24 candace, poso

see spiritual war demonization satan polariz enemy hates/destroy america anti-commie

see prophet NAR

see floyd brown

see 2025 pjt vought heartbeat abortion

SEE MAGA MIKE SPKR JOHNSON

see bachmann

gotv afpi wallnau

see wilks texas frakkers

see webbon fascism execute anti-sem

see founding fr xian bs

see alt rt 4 xian?

SEE EVANG TELEVANG MORAL MAJ ChRISTIAN COALITIOn ROOTS

-----

---

texas 1o comm all classrm 6 25 ~

'Not a theocracy': Internet erupts after court blocks Louisiana's Ten Commandments law

 ===

---

---

---

an 12 25

Ross Vought is often credited as the architect of Project 2025, and as Donald Trump's director for the Office of Management and Budget, he has helped oversee historically destructive government cuts throughout 2025. In addition to his standing as an "amoral political actor," per a new analysis from The New Republic, what sets him apart from the worst of the White House "hatchet men" is his claim to carry out his actions in the name of his "devout" Christianity.

Writing an extensive breakdown of Vought's tenure as OMB director on Monday, journalist Timothy Noah observed that "conservatives used to think you could be a political hatchet artist or you could serve the Lord." Now, he argued, "they say: Why choose?" This idea is typified by Vought, who has stressed his devout adherence to Christianity throughout his time in politics, suggested that the US is an exclusively Christian nation and written in defense of "Christian nationalism."

"Vought wishes trauma on civil servants and has inflicted same; boasts about turning his think tank into a 'Death Star'; panders to the right’s paranoid streak by claiming Marxists rule America; helps Trump withhold aid to Ukraine illegally after its leader declines to investigate the son of Trump’s 2020 opponent; and impounds congressional appropriations in gleeful defiance of court precedent," Noah wrote. "Pretty sinful, no? Not to Vought. While doing all this Vought proudly declares his deep devotion to the Christian faith."

Vought, he continued, does not practice any form of Christianity devoted to helping the poor or downtrodden, or any sort of "sentimental nonsense about the least among us." Noah highlighted a part of Project 2025 in which Vought decried the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as “a permanent and immiserating feature of the global landscape.”

"That’s a novel way to describe a program to alleviate global poverty," Noah wrote.

According to an October profile of Vought from ProPublica, when it was suggested that the agency's budget be cut in half, he countered that it should be brought as close to zero as possible. An estimate from Boston University estimated that these cuts have been responsible for "640,000 people, 430,000 of them children," with the total deaths estimated later being increased by 38,000.

"... How on earth does the prevailing Christian ethos in Donald Trump’s Washington, as practiced by Russell Vought, align with the Christianity that the goyim have been telling me about my whole life?" Noah wrote in conclusion, suggesting that "Vought would run over his own grandmother to serve his president," and "also do it to please his Creator."

---

---

RWW

07/18/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

The Wall Street Journal published its highly anticipated story on the relationship between President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday, and Trump is already threatening to sue.

Republicans have gone into total meltdown over allegations that President Donald Trump sent a spicy letter to Jeffrey Epstein that included a drawing of a nude woman.

The president denied a Wall Street Journal report alleging he had sent a salacious birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein.

Why does the House speaker think the president’s approval rating is “skyrocketing”? Because from his perspective, Democrats literally don’t count.

Robert Burns won a coin flip to become mayor—and he's turned a neutral office into a pulpit for his right-wing religion.

John Adams says "facts do not care about our feelings" in one of the AI-generated videos in PragerU's series partnership with White House.

On January 6, 2021, Christian flags, wooden crosses, and “Jesus Saves” signs mingled with pro-Trump banners as insurrectionists, inspired by a buzzing undercurrent of religion and outrage, reacted with violence and stormed the U.S. Capitol.

rww}:

07/16/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

The president’s vilification of political opponents and journalists seeds the ground for threats of prosecution, imprisonment and deportation unlike any modern president has made.

They're bringing an aggressive, very MAGA brand of Christian government to the nation's capital.

The preacher who leads Bible studies for cabinet secretaries at the White House — and in both chambers of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) — said in one of his lessons this month that “Israel … executed the Messiah.”

"Back to the Frontier" has sparked right-wing outrage for treating two gay dads as... normal people.

Fox News commentators Greg Gutfeld and [Lisa] Kennedy [Montgomery] have sparked outrage on social media after the two casually embraced the term "Nazi" during an on-air exchange Tuesday — prompting criticism for normalizing extremist language.

"It was not full of young women that are infected with the Jezebel spirit that had no interest in getting married or having children, that wanted to be the boss of the relationship. Young men seek to have some sort of relationship that is scriptural in nature. More people were Christian. Our nation is now more secular."

---

an 7 25

Evangelical group apologizes for anti-Trump ads pitting him against the Rev. Billy Graham

Trump official attends launch of Christian nationalist church displaying upside-down flag

Trump uses expletive in front of faith leaders in unscripted rant about 'evil' Democrats

rww 7 25

Joel Webbon Says Only 'Christian American Men' Should Be Able To Hold Office | People For

rww

06/27/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

rww

06/27/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

The Supreme Court has just limited the ability of lower courts to rein in Donald Trump’s anti-constitutional orders.

The Republican justices’ decision fundamentally altered how public schools must operate.

Christian nationalists are fighting over Israel’s role in the “end times.”

On The Auron MacIntyre Show, white Christian nationalist Andrew Isker claimed that witchcraft “stopped working” in the Americas after the arrival of European Christians. Isker also appeared to defend the Salem witch trials, asserting that “weird stuff” happened at the time which had “no rational explanation whatsoever.”

The Transportation Secretary pushed Christian Nationalism during his address at the Merchant Marine Academy, sidelining real issues.

The Democratic governor is seeking more than $787 million — and if that figure sounds at all familiar, there’s a good reason for that.

---

an 6 25

'Biblical prophecy': Christian nationalists pushing Trump to 'usher in the End Times'

RWW

06/18/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Three years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing states to ban abortion, the justices have decided to let states ban another politically controversial form of health care—this time, gender-affirming medical treatments for minors.

As coverage of the horrific shootings in Minnesota has unfolded, the focus has turned to the alleged murderer’s time at a little-known Bible school in Dallas called Christ for the Nations Institute (CFNI). Most simply refer to it as a “Christian school,” a “religious college,” or a “theology school”—all of which are, strictly speaking, correct—while others, like Mother Jones’s Kiera Butler, more accurately describe it as “a Bible college popular among Christian nationalists.” Yet even that doesn’t fully describe the school’s ties to recent episodes of political violence. Because despite CFNI’s insistence that “this is not who we are,” we should not be surprised that a violent murderer came out of this school. While it was once considered a fringe establishment, CFNI is far more mainstream now than at any point in its history.

About halfway through the Young Women’s Leadership Summit in Grapevine, Texas, I got a talking to from Turning Point USA comms.

Andrew Kolvet, the organization’s chief spokesman, peeled me away from the line of young women I was speaking to warn me that he had gotten complaints about me, though he couldn’t name what they were beyond “weird questions”, and if I kept interviewing attendees under 18, I’d be removed from the conference. “I’m very familiar with your work,” Kolvet said. He reminded me these girls are “innocent,” and to lay off.

Tucker Carlson brawled with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and humiliated the senator for old time’s sake in a wild exchange during an interview set to be released on Wednesday.

Far-right activist Laura Loomer has slammed “fake” MAGA supporters in a series of posts on X claiming her conservative critics are using an antisemitic slur against her.

The “Appeal to Heaven” flag, a popular symbol for Christian nationalists that was waved by January 6 rioters, was raised over the Small Business Administration headquarters last week.

---

an 6 25

A controversial flag associated with far-right causes was recently seen prominently displayed on a federal building, according to a new report.

In a Tuesday article, WIRED reported that the "Appeal to Heaven" flag was seen displayed on the flagpole of the Small Business Administration (SBA) earlier this week, just below the American flag. That flag — which depicts an evergreen tree with the text "An Appeal to Heaven" – was seen at the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and was also flown outside the vacation home of Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito in 2024.

SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler, who was a former Republican U.S. senator from Georgia who ultimately lost her seat to Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) in 2021, posted a photo of the flag flying above the SBA building on her official X account last week.

READ MORE:'Pulled the rug out from under us': Trump country left reeling after he cancels 'very good program'

"Today at SBA’s Flag Day Ceremony, we proudly raised a new AMERICAN MADE flag over our headquarters in Washington," she tweeted. "It is a privilege to serve under its Stars and Stripes - on behalf of the 34 million small businesses who represent the best of America."

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Multiple SBA staffers anonymously confided to WIRED that they were personally caught off guard by the flag's display, and argued that the flying of a far-right political symbol above their building gives the false impression that the workers inside subscribe to the beliefs associated with it.

“It was pretty jarring to walk out of work and see that flag on the building, and it’s frustrating because it makes it seem like the agency as a whole supports what it has come to stand for, when that’s just not true,” one staffer said. “We’re proud to do work that supports, or at least is supposed to support, all Americans. The decision to raise that flag isn’t one that reflects the views of everyone at SBA.”

"That the Appeal to Heaven flag is being flown on a government building alongside the American flag should be shocking to anyone who doesn't wish to live in a theocracy,” George Washington University extremism researcher Jon Lewis told WIRED. “The contemporary usage of the Appeal to Heaven flag is synonymous with Christian nationalism, full stop."

READ MORE:(Opinion) The most dangerous man in government right now isn't Trump

Click here to read WIRED's full report (subscription required).

---

---

RWW NO LNX

05/19/2025

by Kyle Mantyla

Christian nationalists gathered in Alabama last week for a two-day "FlashPoint Live" event held at Pathway Church in Mobile.

Organized by "FlashPoint" host Gene Bailey, the Saturday session featured a sermon delivered by Pathway's own MAGA pastor Travis Johnson, who has close ties to presidential faith adviser Paula White and her White House Faith office.

Johnson began his remarks by announcing his Christian nationalist agenda loud and clear.

"We don't need progressive Christianity and we don't need Christless conservatism," Johnson told the audience. "We didn't come in here to phone it in or to make a little splash. We came in here in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus, and we didn't come to make a splash; we came in to take over."

"We want our families, we want our churches, we want our city, we want our state, we want our nation," Johnson declared. "Lord, give us this world for the name and the sake of Jesus Christ."

Video URL

Bailey, for his part, was recently named to President Donald Trump’s “Religious Liberty Commission.”

---

an DN 5 25

An alliance between the far right and Silicon Valley oligarchs has given rise to a form of “end times fascism,” says journalist Naomi Klein, who details in a recent essay co-authored with Astra Taylor how many wealthy elites are preparing for the end of the world even as they contribute to growing inequality, political instability and the climate crisis. Klein says that while billionaires dream of escaping to bunkered enclaves or even to space, President Donald Trump and other right-wing leaders are turning their countries into militarized fortress states to keep out immigrants from abroad and ramp up authoritarian control domestically.

“There’s always an apocalyptic quality to fascism, but fascism of the 1930s and ’40s had a horizon” for a utopian future, says Klein. Today, by contrast, “we’re up against people who are actively betting against the future — not just actively betting against it, but fueling the fires that are burning this world.”

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We spend the rest of the hour with award-winning journalist and author Naomi Klein. She has a major new piece out, co-authored with Astra Taylor, for The Guardian newspaper. It’s headlined “The rise of end times fascism.” It looks at the apocalyptic fervor of the far right.

In it, they write, quote, “[T]he most powerful people in the world are preparing for the end of the world, an end they themselves are frenetically accelerating. That is not so far away from the more mass-market vision of fortressed nations that has gripped the [hard] right globally, from Italy to Israel, Australia to the United States: in a time of ceaseless peril, openly supremacist movements in these countries are positioning their relatively wealthy states as armed bunkers,” Naomi Klein writes.

She is also professor of climate justice at the University of British Columbia, founding co-director of the UBC Centre for Climate Justice. Her latest book, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World.

Naomi, welcome back to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. If you can start off by talking about your piece and what exactly you mean by talking about the end times, fascism?

NAOMI KLEIN: Well, it’s very good to be with you, Amy.

This isn’t the most cheerful piece I’ve ever written, with Astra Taylor, a very close collaborator, founder of the Debt Collective. And we were trying to kind of map what is similar and what is different about the type of far-right politics that we’re seeing today. And I should say, the piece is not only grim. It also looks at what this can mean for a response to this particular form of fascism, because we can’t fight it if we don’t understand it. So, I think a lot of very good scholarship attempting to understand authoritarianism today, whether it’s Trump or figures like Duterte or Modi, have looked at similarities between these far-right figures and, say, Mussolini or Hitler, and have taken a kind of a checklist approach of looking at what is similar to the past, right? And I think there’s a lot of value in that. But the risk of it is that it doesn’t look at what is new and what is particular to our time.

Fascism always is an attempt by the right to resolve a crisis of its own era. Right? So, in the 1930s, they were attempting to resolve, you know, in Germany, the humiliations of the First World War, the impacts of the Great Depression, and to propose a unity in the face of that for the in-group. But our moment is different, and one of the things that makes it different — I mean, if you think about fascism in the 1930s, this is before the atomic bomb. It’s before they understood climate change. And we are in a moment where our elites, whether they admit it or not, do understand that our economic model — and I’ve written books about this and talked about it with you in the past — is at war with life on Earth, right? And they are barreling down this road of more and more extraction of fossil fuels, of all kinds of — you know, basically, anything they can extract from this Earth and turn into energy and money, particularly now with AI, which is a energy and resource hog — water, LNG, critical minerals, all of it.}:

So, we’re trying to understand how this is informing the kind of fascism that we’re seeing, and also we’re trying to understand what unites this kind of strange Frankenstein coalition that Trump represents, where he’s bringing together these — you know, the richest people in the world who have ever existed with many working-class people, so what binds the vision, right?

:{:{And what we cope with in this piece, or what we propose in this piece, is that they all have given up on this world. Like, they all have bought into a kind of apocalyptic fever — right? — whether it’s Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and their investments in outer space and sort of writing off this planet, whether AI, which is willing to sacrifice this animate world in order to build an artificial world, or whether it’s the more populist MAGA vision of the fortress nation-state — right? — which is thinking, “OK, we know more and more people are going to be coming. }:

We know that disaster is on the horizon.” I’ve listened to a lot of Steve Bannon for — you know, when I was writing Doppelganger, and it’s all very survivalist, right? You know, all of the commercials, pretty much, are selling, you know, gold, because the economy is going to collapse, you know, ready-to-eat meals for 90 days, because you never know what’s going to happen. So, it sees the nation and the in-group as being inside the bunker, and then it’s exiling the out-group to all of these lawless territories that you’ve been covering on the show. So, it’s not the same vision, but what it shares is this apocalyptic fever.}:

And then, of course, all of it is following a similar structure, like narrative structure, to the biblical Rapture. And, of course, you have people who believe in that within the Trump coalition, who are, you know, Christian Zionists, like Mike Huckabee and Pete Hegseth, who believe that the actual end times is coming, and they think it’s all going to go down in Israel. And all of the horror that you report on so well and so committedly on the show, these are all good signs if you believe in the Rapture, right? Because it means that the end is coming, and the faithful are going to be lifted up to a golden city in the sky. So, you know, what we’re looking at is like the religious version of that story, the the fundamentalist religious version of that story, where you literally believe you’re going to be saved and taken up to heaven, but also the secular vision, where your wealth protects you, or your citizenship protects you, and you get your own version of that golden, bunkered city.

:{:{AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned Gaza, and you just came from the Jewish Voice for Peace conference in Baltimore, where several thousand people gathered from around the country. Our latest headline, the Israeli military calling up tens of thousands of reservists as Israel’s security cabinet unanimously approved plans this weekend to expand its assault on Gaza, where Israel has already killed over 52,000 Palestinians — and that’s by far an undercount — in the last 18, 19 months. Israel has killed more than 2,400 Palestinians just since it shattered the ceasefire in March. This comes as Israel’s devastating blockade in food aid has entered its third month. Palestinian health officials say 57 Palestinians have already starved to death.}:

According to UNICEF, more than 9,000 children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition so far this year. And aid groups, like Norwegian Refugee Council, blasting a new Israeli proposal to take control in distribution and put U.S. security contractors in charge. If you can talk, as you so often do, about what’s happening in Gaza and the West Bank and what the centrality of Israel in President Trump and the current U.S. government — although it was also the past, President Biden’s worldview and approach to foreign policy?}:

NAOMI KLEIN: So, I don’t think there is a single answer to understanding what the driving forces are. And this is what we’re trying to get at, is that there’s a kind of an overlap of these different apocalyptic worldviews. Some of them are religious, and some of them are secular, right? So, I think that people who subscribe to this, like, literalist version of the Rapture believe that all of this is good news, in the sense that, according to the story that they believe in, that the Israelites have to return to Greater Israel. Those are the preconditions for the return of the Messiah. They have to rebuild the Third Temple. So you have this convergence of interests between the religious extremists and the Netanyahu government, who are absolutely committed to rebuilding the Third Temple. They really want to do it. They want to destroy Al-Aqsa. This is why so much attention is focused on it.

But then, you know, does Trump believe that? I don’t think Trump believes that. I mean, what he views for Gaza is he sees resources. He sees money. He sees a private, you know, resort.

AMY GOODMAN: Resort.

NAOMI KLEIN: Exactly. But this is something I’ve been saying from the beginning. I think the interests have been fairly consistent in terms of what the end goal is, which is a depopulation of Gaza, pushing Palestinians out, whether through death or whether through forced exile, whether through ethnic cleansing. And under the Biden administration, there was a denial that that was what was going on. And under the Trump administration, it’s all out in the open. So, you know, this is what is going on.

Now, what the reason for that is, I think, differs. But this is what — part of what we’re getting at in the piece, Astra and I, is that there is a confluence of interests in terms of what Israel represents. Some of the supporters of the Trump administration in the tech industry are talking about wanting freedom cities, for instance, these privatized, corporate cities. And they talk about this as tech Zionism. They have a lot of admiration for the idea that Israel was created, they say, you know, from a book, Theodor Herzl’s books. And they said, “Well, why can’t we start our own country, our own private countries? Why do we have to — you know, why do we have to abide by the rules of the nation-state?”

So, I think part of the support for Israel isn’t just our classic understandings either of Jewish Zionism or Christian Zionism, although that’s absolutely going on. It’s also this idea of a very technologically advanced startup country, right? Israel has marketed itself that way. And a lot of these tech companies want to do that in San Francisco. They want to push everybody out who doesn’t agree with them, who’s poor, who have more needs, and create their kind of corporate, privatized utopia. So, you know, I’m not saying this is a coherent agenda. I’m saying that there’s a lot of overlapping stories that follow a similar structure and share similar goals, if that makes sense.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, yes, I mean, the overall issue, obviously, is hard to make sense of.

NAOMI KLEIN: Mm-hmm, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And most Trump’s supporters are neither wealthy nor are they Christian Zionists. So, why are they backing this whole approach?

NAOMI KLEIN: Well, it’s not clear the extent to which they actively back it, but I think that they see a kinship in the ethnostate — right? — because a lot of Trump supporters are becoming increasingly Christian nationalist about the United States. And this has been carefully fostered by figures like Steve Bannon. And so, when they look at Israel, they see a country that is openly an ethnostate that is fortressing itself in a sea of its enemies, you know, and they want to do something similar. And they’re sharing technologies. They’re sharing, you know, legal precedents, tools. So, there’s a — you know, there’s a kinship. And, you know, we’re seeing this now with India with its attacks on Kashmir, following us, you know, using similar techniques that, you know, Israel has used in Gaza. So, there is a kind of a solidarity of the ethnostates. And they are sharing — you know, they’re even trading trinkets of golden pagers and swapping chainsaws. You know, this is something that we — I think, you know, when you’re inside the crucible of it here in the United States under Trump, it’s hard to see the extent to which this is an international project on the right, and they are influencing one another.

AMY GOODMAN: And what does unite them, you know, this whole fortress mentality, is this hatred of immigrants. You have —

NAOMI KLEIN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — President Trump just saying he doesn’t even know — he’s not a lawyer, so he doesn’t know if he has to uphold the Constitution, he said.

NAOMI KLEIN: Right. I mean, this is what I’m trying to get at about the awareness that we are in an age of consequences, that when you don’t act in the face of the climate crisis for decades, when scientists have been warning you, that more and more of the world becomes uninhabitable, and, lo and behold, people move to try to find safety in the face of wars, in the face of economic deprivation and in the face of ecological disasters.

And so, that fortressing of the nation-state — and this is what I think, you know, Israel’s come to represent, just as a very small nation that is extremely fortressed — right? — whether it’s with the high-tech walls, the Iron Dome. Trump says now, “I want not an Iron Dome, but a golden dome.” Right? That —

AMY GOODMAN: Here.

NAOMI KLEIN: Here. That all of this is, whether it’s stated explicitly or not —

AMY GOODMAN: And a military parade that’ll cost tens of millions —

NAOMI KLEIN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — of dollars, even as he slices and dices the government, on his birthday, in June.

NAOMI KLEIN: Right. So the pattern is protecting the in-group and exiling and cleansing the out-groups. Right? And so, that, I think, is — you know, if there is support among the MAGA base for Israel, it’s less out of a love for Israel than more out of an identification, like they are doing what we want to do here.

AMY GOODMAN: You write many things in your piece, and I just want to go to one of them. You say — in talking about Musk’s apocalyptic vision, you talk about, and also detailing the end times fascism, this whole issue of the rise of the city state, the corporate city state. I think this is a new concept for many. They’re not going to know what you’re talking about.

NAOMI KLEIN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: In southern Texas, Starbase, just this group of people, who are mainly workers at SpaceX, have just voted to make a city right there?

NAOMI KLEIN: Mm-hmm, yeah. And we’ve had sort of — I mean, the idea of a company town is not entirely new, right? And Disney had Celebration, Florida, and there are lineages to this, right? Colonial lineages to this. You know, I live in Canada, which started as the Hudson’s Bay Company, right? So it was a company before it was a country. So there is some precedent for this.

But I think what this is — I’ve been following this out of the corner of my eye, Amy, because this is where libertarians have been going for a while. There was an — Peter Thiel has been obsessed with this idea. It’s increasingly being called exit, so exiting the nation and just starting your own country, where you can set your own tax level, you can make your own regulations.

AMY GOODMAN: Or not.

NAOMI KLEIN: Or not. And countries — and these little corporate countries will compete with one another to try to attract capital, right? So, in a way, it’s an extension of the free trade zone — right? — where this is, in a way, like a denationalized country within a country. But Trump started to float this in 2023, the idea that he would create 10 freedom cities, on the campaign trail. I don’t think his base much knew what he was talking about. But now you have all these lobbyists who fully intend to take him up on it. And we’re starting to see the beginning of this with this SpaceX city.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you also write about El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, the notorious prison, CECOT, where so many hundreds of people have been sent from the United States, and at the same time, in the last 24 hours, President Trump saying he wants to reopen the notorious Alcatraz —

NAOMI KLEIN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — an island in San Francisco. If you can talk about the prison as a model for what Trump wants to put forward, and particularly in relation, as we see motivating so much, to immigrants?

NAOMI KLEIN: Well, this is an incredibly bleak vision. So, repression is always a huge part of any kind of fascist project, right? You need to contain the out-group. You need to disappear the out-group. So this part of it is not new. But I think what is so worrying to me is that Trump was elected promising all kinds of things to his base, right? He promised to eliminate inflation. He promised to bring these great jobs home. He’s not delivering on any of that. So the sadistic part of his project is really all he has to offer, right?

I think one of the most chilling things I’ve ever seen in the United States was Trump sharing that video at his hundred-day rally of just pure sadism, of just looking at prisoners, as entertainment, being shaved, being shackled, being paraded. And he’s not delivering on the price of eggs. And he’s not delivering on the jobs, by the way, because he’s throwing all in— he’s going all in on AI. So the jobs that are coming back seem to be mainly for robots. It’s not actually for his base. And so, this scales up the need for the sadism and these spectacles, right? And I think that that’s what something like Alcatraz represents. He’s a TV producer, first and foremost, right? He’s producing spectacles. And the less he has to offer economically, tangibly, materially, the more he leans on the sadism.

AMY GOODMAN: You write, “The governing ideology of the far right … has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. … Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them.” What would that movement look like, or what do you see is being formed right now?

NAOMI KLEIN: You know, what we’re doing in this piece by laying out the bleakness of the vision — and when I say “bleakness,” you know, I think it’s beyond something we’ve seen before, because there’s always an apocalyptic quality to fascism, but fascism of the 1930s and '40s had a horizon. Like, after the apocalypse, people were being promised a future, a pastoral, peaceful little piece of land where they could live out their lives, you know? Even though Trump talks about a golden age, there really isn't a future that the base believes in, you know? And this is what I’ve learned by consuming far too much MAGA media, Amy. They envision a future of endless war, right? And this is why they’re bunkering down. This is why they’re buying ready-to-eat meals to last. This is why they’re buying gold and crypto. They think the whole thing is going down. So —

AMY GOODMAN: And why Elon Musk is trying to have so many children, at least 14 at this point. But he’s actually explicitly texted it, saying, “We’ve got to do this much faster,” as he proposed to one of the women he has children with, saying, “We’ve got to start using surrogates.”

NAOMI KLEIN: So, they don’t believe in the future, is the bottom line. And that is — you know, I think I’ve been in a lot of progressive spaces in recent months where we’ve talked about building these very broad coalitions, including with people who we don’t entirely disagree with. I’ve never encountered a potential coalition more broad than the idea of: How about if we believe in this world? How about if we believe in the future? Because we’re up against people who are actively betting against the future, right? Not just actively betting against it —

AMY GOODMAN: Twenty seconds.

NAOMI KLEIN: — but fueling the fires that are burning this world, actively fueling it. So, I think that if we have the courage, really, to look at the bleakness of what they believe in, which is an apocalyptic future, then we have our work cut out for us of being the people who actually believe in this realm, in this world, in the beauty of creation and of each other.

AMY GOODMAN: Naomi Klein, I want to thank you for being with us, award-winning journalist, author, columnist. We’ll link to your piece with Astra Taylor, “The rise of end times fascism.” I’m Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now!

NOW READ:Trump’s clown car cabinet is driving off a cliff

---

---

rww 4 25

Christian Nationalist Jason Rapert Topples The Arkansas State Library Board | People For

---

AN 4 25

Talia Lavin’s Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America is an angry response to the rise of American Christianity’s far-right fringe, which she depicts as a theocratic menace to secular government and liberal freedoms.

As Lavin shows in abundant detail, the US Christian Right adheres to a worldview based around supernatural struggle between good and evil, where “demons make war every day with the better angels of the human spirit”. This is the same mentality as motivated the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, with its hysterical tales of ritual child abuse in service of the Devil. It continues to influence America’s “politics, punditry, and policy”.

Lavin exposes the Christian Right’s political ambitions and social harms, amassing examples to illustrate the point. She cites case after case of apocalyptic fervour, domestic terrorism, patriarchal tyranny, systematic child abuse, anti-science kookiness, and connections with white supremacism.

Her central claim is that significant elements within American evangelicalism want to use state power to impose their version of a Christian social order grounded in ideas of faith, obedience and bodily purity. The Christian Right rejects any spirit of mutual tolerance between religious and secular worldviews, pursuing instead absolute political and cultural dominance.

This absolutism drives efforts to suppress ways of life viewed as rootless and degenerate, dismantle the separation of church and state, and reframe the United States as an inherently Christian nation requiring an explicitly Christian government.

Opposition options

The US is a religious outlier among Western liberal democracies. Australia and many other democratic nations are increasingly, though not entirely, post-Christian societies. Still, the US is militarily and culturally hegemonic. Events there never the leave the rest of us untouched. As its culture wars play out, we should all feel nervous about the outcomes. As Lavin warns, the Christian Right is on the march. So what is the best response?

Lavin calls for an impassioned “cacophony” of resistance to the Christian Right. “In response,” she exhorts, “we must take up a countermarch, thrill to its cacophonic strains, and rise to spurn a faith that has overrun its banks and spilled out into wild and untrammelled hate.”

This prompts a question: is such rhetoric, which has something of its own cacophonous and even fanatical sound, really the best response to America’s would-be theocrats?

Perspectives might vary. There is room for books stuffed with invective against powerful oppressors and with calls to mobilise against them. Responding to the oppressive religiosity of another time, Voltaire urged his readers to “écrasez l'infâme! – crush the infamy!

Such battle cries can fit the moment. Inevitably, however, they call to the already-converted. They have limited persuasive scope.

Pragmatically, it might be crucial to ensure the election of the Democratic Party to political office wherever possible. This would require the party to distance itself from illiberal and unpopular practices, such as identity ideology and cancel culture, which disaffect large portions of the electorate, undermine broad coalition-building, and ultimately weaken the party’s electoral prospects.

A more unifying approach on the American centre-left would prioritise traditional liberal freedoms, alongside a focus on the material welfare of everyday people: jobs, healthcare and economic security. Nothing in the text of Wild Faith suggests that Lavin understands such strategic issues or is able to imagine a more relatable brand of American liberalism.

Nor does she attempt to refute the doctrines of Christianity head-on. In that sense, Wild Faith is not a work of atheistic philosophy or a New Atheist tract. It doesn’t try to nudge along the decline of Christian religious adherence in the US in recent decades (which has possibly levelled off in the last few years).

Nor does Lavin spend much time disputing Christianity’s specific tenets: its doctrine of spiritual salvation through Christ and its stark portrayals of death, judgement, heaven and hell. These core Christian doctrines suggest that we are all in danger of eternal hellfire, but have a chance of eternal bliss. The word "eternal” here conveys the stakes for every soul. In the past, a sense of such huge consequences prompted inquisitors to burn books and heretics.

Lavin expects her readers to treat all such doctrines as absurd. She never explores Christianity’s deeper logic or opposes the religion itself. Instead, she frames members of the Christian Right as something of a rogue outgrowth.

Another obvious response to the Christian Right would be renewed defence of secularism: the once-revolutionary idea that religious authority and state power should be kept apart. Here, there is a rich tradition of thought to draw upon, much of it originating from Christian thinkers in the early centuries of European modernity during a time of religious wars. Indeed, the US as a political construct was shaped, in part, by theories of church and state separation.

On such accounts, the legitimate role of secular rulers is to protect life, liberty and property – and more generally our interests in things of this empirical world – rather than concern themselves with matters of spiritual salvation or enforce any religious moral system for its own sake. Indeed, this idea has inspired many American evangelicals. But in-principle defence of secular government is not within Lavin’s approach.

American Christians in the evangelical Protestant tradition belong to a broad spectrum of churches with varied beliefs and practices. Lavin focuses on a radical fringe, giving an impression that it is typical of the whole.

She details much horrendous conduct, including brutal forms of corporal punishment inspired by manuals such as Michael and Debi Pearl’s To Train Up a Child. She reveals survivors’ memories of “biblical discipline” to dramatic effect. Her samples are drawn from self-selecting ex-evangelicals, whose experiences may not be the norm, though even a small percentage of evangelical Protestants with vicious ideas about child-rearing could disfigure the lives of many helpless children.

Wild Faith could, however, bewilder more typical megachurch families in America’s suburbs, who are loving towards their children and do not recognise themselves in Lavin’s descriptions of torment and abuse. More broadly, the one-sidedness of Lavin’s narrative risks leaving us with a caricature of evangelicals. Even within strict evangelical communities, there is doubtless more at play than she recognises. Many individuals encounter genuine acts of kindness through their churches and find a sense of meaning and belonging.

All these people are exhibited in Wild Faith not as merely wrong, nor as merely dogmatic and hence beyond the reach of rational persuasion (which, indeed, some of them might be). They are shown as alien and monstrous. We needn’t adopt an attitude of what atheist Daniel Dennett called “belief in belief” – that is, rejecting religion for ourselves while commending its virtues to others – to sense that Lavin misses part of the human story.

Clash of dogmatisms

Stylistically, Wild Faith is repetitive and frequently marred by rhetorical excesses. Too often, it seems more like an apoplectic rant than a serious exposé. It’s one thing to denounce child abuse, theocracy, and other such evils. But Lavin goes much further.

For a start, she pervasively ridicules her opponents’ physical looks. Her worst flourishes along these lines – labelling former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon a “human yeast infection” or Kristi Noem (who has since been made Trump’s secretary of homeland security) as “South Dakota’s hard-right haircut of a governor” – veer into juvenile mockery. Again, this may appeal to the already-converted, but for anyone else a shorter, tighter, fairer book might have been more persuasive.

Lavin does not seem to recognise any of her own political commitments as being matters of genuine controversy, which gives the impression of an author who is something of an ideologue herself. It suggests that we are witnessing a clash of dogmatisms. There are numerous examples of this, but for the sake of brevity I will confine myself to issues related to abortion.

Lavin does not contemplate that some of her opponents might sincerely view abortion as murder. Yet abortion involves killing an entity that is biologically human. It does not follow automatically that embryos and fetuses are good candidates for our moral consideration – but if not, why not? This at least suggests a need for serious philosophical engagement with abortion’s critics and opponents.

Understandably enough, Lavin mourns the downfall of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that interpreted the US Constitution as granting extensive abortion rights. Roe v. Wade was followed by a line of cases that largely preserved its authority. It was eventually overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), leaving individual state legislatures to decide what criminal restrictions, if any, they might wish to impose.

Disastrous as this was for many women and girls in America’s red states, it is also a reminder that rights built on shaky constitutional foundations might not last forever. Roe v. Wade was always vulnerable to potential challenges, because abortion rights have no direct textual support in the US Constitution, but were established by building inferences on inferences. Indeed, Roe v. Wade encountered criticism even in the 1970s, and even from many supporters of abortion rights.

Lavin does not acknowledge any of this. Finally, she faults Democrats for failing to codify Roe v. Wade in statutory form when they were in office, but she glosses over the formidable (perhaps insurmountable) constitutional and procedural obstacles to any such move.

The verdict

Lavin raises a legitimate alarm: a theocratic faction in the US wields disproportionate influence to the point of threatening liberal democracy itself. To bolster that point, she could have cited a wave of recent Supreme Court cases that demonstrate a weakening of constitutional barriers to state-endorsed religion.

Some of these cases might be individually defensible, given their particular facts, but as they accumulate they erode the separation of church and state. By now, little remains of freedom from religion in the US – perhaps no more than protection against the most explicit forms of coercion, such as state-mandated participation in particular religious observances. This leaves unchecked subtler encroachments by religion on secular life.

That situation has been a long time coming and other authors have traversed similar ground to Lavin’s book. One might, for example, compare Michelle Goldberg’s Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism or Susan Jacoby’s The Age of American Unreason in a Culture of Lies.

Goldberg, to her credit, explicitly defends the liberal freedoms of the fundamentalists she exposes and critiques, recognising their rights even as she challenges their theocratic aims. Thus, she states that we can take “a much more vocal stand in defense of evangelical rights when they are unfairly curtailed” – a nuance absent in Lavin’s effort to fire-up supporters and vanquish enemies. Jacoby’s book, meanwhile, situates religious excesses and theocratic temptations within a broader decline of reason in American society.

Both works, though less current than Wild Faith, model a fairness that strengthens their arguments. Lavin’s book benefits from its timeliness, addressing a contemporary landscape of heightened evangelical influence, but it sacrifices objectivity and scholarly depth. It will resonate with Americans who are already frightened by the Christian Right, while alienating many conservatives, or even moderates, who might have been open to concerns about theocracy.

Russell Blackford, Conjoint Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Newcastle

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

---

rww 4 25 sorta random grab

04/08/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

---

rww

03/21/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

---

AN 3 25

During the 2024 presidential race, Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, drew widespread criticism for his attacks on Americans who don't have biological children. Vance's "childless cat ladies" comments set off a major controversy, and they weren't comments made randomly — as Vance, like SpaceX/Tesla/X.com leader Elon Musk, is a prominent figure in the far-right "natalist" or "pronatalist" movement.

Pronatalists, many of whom are Christian nationalists, believe that Americans are obligated to have as many kids as possible. And they even have their own convention: Natal Conference 2025, set for March 28-29 in Austin, Texas. The event's website embeds a tweet from Musk that reads, "If birth rates continue to plummet, human civilization will end."

Guardian reporter Carter Sherman examines the pronatalist movement's influence on the Trump Administration in an article published on March 11.

READ MORE:Revealed: 'Promoters of race science' and eugenics featured at TX far-right conference

"Pronatalism is so contentious that people often struggle to agree on a definition," Sherman explains. "Pronatalism could be defined as the belief that having children is good….. While people on the left might agree with some pronatalist priorities, pronatalism in the U.S. is today ascendant on the right. It has become a key ideological plank in the bridge between tech bro right-wingers like Musk and more traditional, religious conservatives, like the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson — who once said, in a House hearing, that abortions were harming the economy by eliminating would-be workers. But there are plenty of widening cracks in that bridge and, by extension, Trump's incoherent coalition.

According to University of Pittsburgh history professor Laura Lovett, pronatalist arguments were made back in the 1920s after American women gained the right to vote.

Lovett, author of the 2009 book, "Conceiving the Future: Pronatalism, Reproduction, and the Family in the United States, 1890-1930," told The Guardian, "There's this linkage between women’s educational and aspirational futures and the declining birth rate. There was this anxiety that white, native-born, middle-class women were having smaller families."

In 2025, Sherman observes, Republicans "invoke pronatalist rhetoric in support of their top culture-war causes."

READ MORE:Senator schools Musk on 'what makes America great’ after billionaire calls him a 'traitor'

Elizabeth Gregory, director of women's gender and sexuality studies at the University of Houston in Texas, believes that pronatalists fail to see the big picture when it comes to the economic affect that having more kids has on women.

Gregory told The Guardian, "Childbearing can reshape a woman's entire future. This idea that the child is the only person in the dyad loses a real understanding of how embedded and dependent children are on their mothers. Fertility affects many, many parts of culture and talking about it can’t be reduced to just a few soundbites."

READ MORE:'Ridiculous': Anger grows as health insurance premiums rise even faster than inflation

---

rww

03/10/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

===

an 2 25

During the 2024 presidential race, progressive filmmaker/activist Michael Moore predicted that female voters — furious over draconian anti-abortion laws and the MAGA movement's overt misogyny — would give Democratic nominee Kamala Harris a decisive victory. But Donald Trump defeated Harris by roughly 1.5 percent in the popular vote (according to the Cook Political Report), and receiving 53 percent of the female vote wasn't enough to get Harris past the finish line.

Salon's Amanda Marcotte, over the years, has often stressed that when GOP women cater to "misogyny," that doesn't mean that GOP men will respect them. And in an article published on February 26, she argues that this disrespect is evident during Trump's second presidency.

"Forty-five percent of female voters backed Trump in 2024, despite his overt misogyny," Marcotte explains. "Most, no doubt, believed that complicity would protect them and that the attacks would be centered on other women. But while the GOP certainly wants to strip liberal and feminist women of their rights, male MAGA leaders are showing increasing interest in bringing Republican women to heel, both culturally and through the force of law. After all, they are more likely to live and work with Republican women. If they want to feel the full flowering of male domination, it's Republican women they need to see submitting."

READ MORE:'This will kill people': GOP blasted for gutting Medicaid to pay for $4.5 trillion tax cut

Marcotte cites specific examples, noting that Christian nationalists, including Pastor Joel Webbon, are pushing to oust right-wing activist Kristan Hawkins as head of a student anti-abortion group.

"It started after she objected to Republican legislators introducing bills to charge women who get abortions with murder — an extreme move she fears will backfire on the movement," Marcotte observes. "But mostly, it was about growing male anger on the Christian Right that women are allowed leadership positions at all."

Webbon and the TheoBros movement, Marcotte adds, are "clamoring more loudly, in recent months, about their wish to strip women, especially their own wives, of the right to vote." And according to The New Republic's Sarah Stankorb, more and more Christian nationalists are calling for the repeal of the U.S. Constitution's 19th Amendment.

"This isn't mere idle chatter, either," Marcotte warns. "House Republicans passed a bill, which stalled in the Senate, this session to require citizens to have a passport or birth certificate matching their name to vote. This would be a back-door ban on voting for any woman who took her husband's last name and doesn't have a passport — an estimated 69 million women. It would also disproportionately affect Republican women, who are more likely to be married, more likely to have changed their name and less likely to have a passport."

READ MORE:'Flood the zone': Donald Trump's relentless lying explained by scholars

Marcotte continues, "Similarly, there's been a slowly rising volume on the right of talk about banning no-fault divorce, fueled by Republicans like Vice President JD Vance saying it's too easy for women — even those in abusive marriages — to leave their marriages."

The Salon journalist argues that "Republican women are fools" if they believe that an "increasingly misogynist MAGA movement" will spare them.

"On the contrary, because Republican women tend to be in closer proximity to Republican men," Marcotte warns, "they're far more likely to be on the receiving end of anger over talkback or other perceived insubordination."

READ MORE:'Grave moral evil': Republicans are moving to impeach judges over anti-DOGE rulings

*Amanda Marcotte's full article for Salon is available at this link.

---

AN 2 25

Trump was able to be elected president a second time partly by mobilizing his base of Christian nationalists. This anti-Democratic group has an “us vs. them” mentality, believing that America is on the verge of an apocalypse and that they are being persecuted. In her new book, "Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy," journalist Katherine Stewart investigates this voter base. Salon published an interview with her Tuesday.

This subculture, Stewart argues, believes America should move past democracy. “They believe the U.S. is not founded on principles, but on a specific religious and cultural heritage,” she said. “They argue America is on the brink of an apocalypse, owing to the rise of equality and what they call ‘wokeness.’ They argue democracy, as a system, isn't sufficient to meet the ‘challenges’ of feminism and equality. They believe the democratic rules no longer apply, because we're facing this absolute apocalypse of equality. They want an authoritarian leader who puts himself above the law, who's going to seize the reins of power and scrap the rule of law in favor of the iron fist.”

One of the three major tenants of this mindset is the belief that the country is nearing an apocalypse.

READ MORE:'A lot of MAGA': 20 million Americans could lose health coverage under new GOP bill

“This is what authoritarian leaders do,” she explained. “Christian nationalism is not just an ideology. It's also not just a political movement. It's a mindset… First is ‘us versus them’ or ‘pure versus the impure,’ or those who properly ‘belong’ in the country, and those who do not. Second, there's a sense of persecution. They claim white conservative Christians are being persecuted more than any other group in society. Third is the sense that we're facing an apocalypse. They share this view with the new right. It's always, ‘If we don't win this election, we're gonna go under the control of the Illuminati and the devil's gonna be controlling us for hundreds of years. So it's any means necessary to ‘save’ us from this terrible fate.”

“Those three ideas,” she continued, “clear the way for the acceptance of an authoritarian leader, someone who doesn't respect the rules, who will punish their enemies, and who will suspend the rule of law. If you look at what's happening in our politics today, you can see it playing out before our eyes. In the first weeks of the Trump presidency, we're seeing a version of Project 2025. They've been telling us for a long time they're going to smash the institutions that safeguard our democracy. That's what they're doing.”

But the members of this group have been “colossally misinformed.”

“Many of these supporters don't recognize that American democracy might be destroyed. Some don't care. They think it's more important to put a strong man in power to demolish the supposedly dangerous radical left. But whether they don't care or don't know, it's because they've been colossally misinformed. That's how they rationalize their choices at the ballot box. And I would have to say this is not just about Trump. Authoritarianism loves a misinformed public. The anti-democratic movement has funded this massive propaganda campaign that has led us to where we are today,” she said.

READ MORE:'Revoltingly un-American': Internet erupts after Trump posts photo crowning himself 'king'

Here is an excerpt from the book, published by Rolling Stone:

“Power has not softened the base of this movement. It’s not just blood that they’re after; they want a show. This is the thing that Trump surely understands best. Policy simply doesn’t matter. You can kill off grandma through vaccine denial, take away health insurance, bust unions, drive up inflation, and reward your billionaire friends with policies that benefit their bloated bottom lines. None of that matters as long as you give the people the pleasure of a good performance, where they can project their frustrations and resentments on the targets they have been trained to hate.”

---

rww

Christian Nationalists Plot To 'Seize The Institutions Of The Federal Government'

02/13/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

From the moment President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, self-proclaimed Christian nationalist Lance Wallnau immediately began plotting, declaring on election night that he and his fellow Christian nationalists now had four years to align with the White House to strengthen the Christian church in the United States and abroad while placing right-wing Christians inside the government to tear down spiritual "strongholds."

Shortly thereafter, Wallnau proclaimed that once Trump took office, "the government and the church" would begin "moving together to build the ekklesia" to take control of "the government mountain" globally. ("Ekklesia" is a term used by dominionists to refer to the church as God’s governing body on Earth.)

Wallnau then announced something he called The Nehemiah Project, which is committed to "partnering the prophetic collaboration of government and church and business together to take all the domains we can while we have the wind to our back."

Recently, Wallnau appeared on "The War Room" with Steve Bannon, where the two discussed how the Christian right can use the newly re-established White House Faith Office, run by right-wing pastor Paula White, to "seize the institutions of the federal government."

"Reformation is different than simply a religious renaissance," Wallnau said. "It's the recapturing of institutions—oh, this is what makes the left go crazy when I say these things. It's the recapturing of education, of media, of business, of government, and it's recapturing them with the ideas of Western civilization, which is the ideas of Christian civilization."

"We've got a foothold with Paula White," Wallnau added. "But the expansion of that has got to be the underrepresented Christian population, which is over half the United States in all sectors in what we call the high places of culture, or the mountaintops of culture."

This is the language of Seven Mountains Dominionism, of which Wallnau has long been a leading promoter. Seven Mountains Dominionism is a radical theology associated with the New Apostolic Reformation that advocates having right-wing Christians control all aspects of society. Followers of Seven Mountains theology believe that they are to “do whatever is necessary” to take control of the seven main “mountains” that shape our culture—education, government, media, business, arts and entertainment, family, and religion—in order to implement the will of God throughout the nation and the world.

"How would you propose to use both of these—the task force and the new Faith Office—to seize the institutions of the federal government?" asked Bannon.

"There are three arteries that make this happen: Legislation, litigation and the shaping of public opinion," Wallnau replied, explaining that they intend to pass laws and file lawsuits to further their Christian nationalist agenda while simultaneously using the power and influence of the media, the government, and the church to shape public opinion in support of that agenda.

"Paula White has to be careful [about] what she says in public.," Wallnau stated. "[But] I believe I might have learned that from her."

---

see musk for anno

salon 2 25 amanda

Musk does not read to most people as a religious man. The tech billionaire who is attempting to take over the entire federal government through his "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) was once even regarded as an atheist.In 2013, Musk scoffed at the idea "that there's some superconsciousness watching over our every movement." He argued that evolutionary theory was better than a supernatural explanation for making sense of our world. As he ransacks the federal government, trying to push out federal employees and lay waste to the ability of regulatory agencies to do their work, the last thing most people will assume motivates him is Christian fervor.

Over the summer, Musk told Jordan Peterson during an interview that while he's not "a particularly religious person," he would say, "I’m probably a cultural Christian."

For Musk personally, it probably doesn't. But his efforts to evacuate the federal government of the every day, non-political employees nonetheless serve a Christian nationalist agenda, which Musk is no doubt aware of. The secular-seeming brand of DOGE serves a useful propagandistic purpose by concealing how much Musk is following the Project 2025 playbook developed by Christian nationalists for the explicit purpose of remaking America in the fundamentalist image. Musk is the obnoxious, trolling face of the operation, but he works hand-in-glove with the Project 2025 author who called for an "army" of people with a "Biblical worldview" to replace the existing federal workforce. The explicit plan is to replace federal workers who Musk forces out with people who pass "ideological purity tests,"largely based on their eagerness to make America something very much like a theocracy.

While Musk is snagging most headlines with his loud-mouthed antics, his partner in the federal purge operation is Russ Vought, a self-described Christian nationalistwho Trump appointed to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Vought has developed the justification for ignoring the clear language of the Constitution, arguing this is a "post-constitutional" moment, in which law-breaking is justified to impose his theocratic vision on the country. Having Musk cover for Vought is savvy. Polls may show people's approval of Musk sinkingthe more they see of him, but his clownishness and personal success probably soften people's willingness to see him as the threat he is. Vought, however, is every inch a type most Americans know well and loathe: the creepy religious fanatic.

---

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.*

---

Project 2025 was clear that its primary goal was to "use government power" to "restore the American family," which is defined strictly in terms of male-dominated heterosexual couples with children. In its list of alleged threats to the "family," the playbook lists phrases like "sexual orientation," "gender equality" and "reproductive health." The document goes into elaborate detail about how federal offices can be used to implement this compulsory and narrow heterosexuality, from abortion bans to replacing reproductive health services with abstinence-only lectures to even reimagining child support programs to bully women into remarrying ex-husbands.

The secular-seeming brand of DOGE serves a useful propagandistic purpose by concealing how much Musk is following the Project 2025 playbook developed by Christian nationalists for the explicit purpose of remaking America in the fundamentalist image.

If one looks away from Musk to Trump officials who have legal appointments, the Christian nationalist agenda that Musk is assisting becomes more obvious. Last week, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced the suspension of rules barring discrimination against LGBTQ people in low-income housing and even homeless shelters. The move will especially affect queer teenagers, who are often homeless after being kicked out by right-wing parents. Turner justified putting teenagers on the street by declaring, in his official statement, that this is what "the Lord established from the beginning." Project 2025 called for HUD to end "corrosive progressive ideologies across the department’s programs." Drastically reducing the existing HUD workforce so MAGA apparatchiks could control people's housing access — based no doubt on their prejudices — is outlined in this vision.

The purge at the Department of Justice (DOJ) has largely been covered as part of Donald Trump's "revenge" tour against everyone who tried to hold him accountable for alleged crimes during and after his first term in office. That is absolutely part of it, of course, but it also helps lay the groundwork for the Project 2025 goal of using DOJ powers to force the Christian right's agenda on normal people. Trump's new attorney general, Pam Bondi, has already been hinting in public that she is open to using federal prosecutors to prosecute doctors who mail abortion pills to women in states where clinics have been forcibly shut down. Louisiana is queuing up her first opportunity, by demanding the extradition of a New York-based doctor to their state, where they plan to put her on trial for providing abortion pills to a Louisiana teenager.

Related

Musk took all their power, so Republicans remake Congress into a ministry of disinformation

If Bondi bites, as legal experts Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo explained at Rewire News, that opens the door for a broad Christian nationalist agenda outlined in Project 2025 to terrorize people for providing birth control, sex toys, or even sex education materials. The document argues that prosecutors can revive the Comstock Act, a 19th-century law that criminalized the mailing of "obscene" materials, which were broadly defined to cover all of these items. Project 2025 does not hold back from characterizing even basic sex education in this way, defining obscenity so broadly that even providing a "how to use a condom" manual — online or in a paper pamphlet — would be enough to be charged with a crime. Flushing the DOJ of good lawyers, so that they can be replaced with far-right hacks who hate birth control and queer people, is a first step to making this theocratic vision a reality.

If that sounds preposterous, it's worth noting that demonizing contraception and sex ed was central to Musk's illegal efforts to end USAID. He and Trump both repeatedly attacked a program in Mozambique that provided $5 million in contraceptives, though they inflated the number exponentially to make it $100 million and falsely claimed it was going to "Hamas" instead of young women in Africa. They've also suspended HIV-prevention drugs from being distributed overseas to anyone who isn't a pregnant or breastfeeding woman, who are at risk of transmitting the virus to babies. Anyone who isn't a baby is clearly considered deserving of death, because Christian fundamentalists believe you only get the virus through "sin."

Musk's past atheism and tendency to sleep with many different women hasn't stopped him from warming to the Christian right's loathing of sexual freedom. He's started echoing Christian right propaganda that paints the birth control pill as dangerous and unnatural. His friend, fellow tech billionaire Peter Thiel, has heavily invested in publications that promote the far-right Christian view that sex is only for marriage, and within marriage, it's only for procreation. (Thiel exempts himself from following his own prescriptions, as he's married to a man.)

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

Musk isn't ready to say he believes in God, but this shift to the right on sexual health issues is part of his larger embrace of Christian nationalism. Over the summer, he told Jordan Peterson during an interview that while he's not "a particularly religious person," he would say, "I’m probably a cultural Christian." He tried to frame this as a positive thing, with vague claims to believe in "the teachings of Jesus," but as Victor Tangermann of Futurism pointed out, this is ridiculous. Pointing to Musk's "long track record" of treating other people like dirt, hoarding wealth, and stoking discord, Tangermann writes, has nothing to do with the Jesus "who deeply opposed wealth inequality and supported the poor and outcasts." As David French at the New York Times pointed out, the illegal cuts to USAID have taken money from "Christian organizations, including evangelical organizations, that serve poor and marginalized people at home and abroad."

But Musk has indeed embraced the cultural mores of Christian nationalists, whose faith is less about Jesus and more about using power to enforce their racist, sexist, and anti-queer views on the rest of Americans.Musk is obsessed with raising the birth rate and has explicitly noted, "the more religious, the less educated, and the poorer, the higher the birth rate." It's not much of a leap to see what his conclusion is: that to drive up birth rates, he needs to make ordinary people poorer, less educated, and more religious. He may not believe in God, but he certainly finds it useful to force right-wing Christianity on others as a means of control.

Read more

about this topic

===

RWW

02/14/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

After New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on federal criminal charges in September, the man soon embraced Donald Trump in an overt attempt to get the president to overturn his case. As Manhattan federal prosecutors readied to bring the bombshell indictment charging the mayor with destroying evidence and instructing people to lie to the FBI, Trump’s Justice Department issued an order to drop the case, a letter obtained by The New York Times reveals.

The Department of Justice allegedly dropped the charges against Adams in exchange for his cooperation in Donald Trump’s immigration plans.

Project 2025 was clear: First, purge federal workers. Then replace them with theocrats and fanatics.

The Trump administration’s decision to delete a DOJ database of cases against Capitol riot defendants places those who seek to preserve the historical record in direct opposition to their own government.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth invited conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec to travel with him on his first overseas trip this week to visit European allies, scooped the Washington Post on Thursday.

Faith Life Church began as a small basement Bible study 30 years ago led by founders Gary and Drenda Keesee. It opened its New Albany megachurch in 2008, according to the Faith Life website. It is now part of a criminal investigation into accusations of sexual abuse.

---

02/10/2025 RWW

by

Kyle Mantyla

There’s little about the White House’s hiring practices that appear normal. For example, asking applicants, "Was Jan. 6 an inside job?” is ludicrous.

Musk and Trump say they promote free speech. They seem to only defend racist speech.

Collecting donors, voters, TikTok viewers and high-powered friends on his way into Trump’s inner circle.

Recently, Montana state Rep. Lukas Schubert took to X to warn that “South Africa stands as a reminder of what’s to come in America” if Democrats “implement their explicit anti-white discrimination policies.” But Schubert has spread other far-right, racist talking points on X, including the claim that diversity as a “code word” for “anti-white.”

Kanye West made a Super Bowl ad on his phone to promote a website he’s currently using to sell t-shirts with swastikas on them.

Usually, when Republicans want to push Christian Nationalist legislation, it’s through bills promoting the Ten Commandments in schools under the guise of “history and tradition” or attacking LGBTQ people using the rationale that they violate God’s preferences as expressed in the Bible. But sometimes they just take the hoods off and dispense with even trying to come up with a secular-sounding justification for their religious agenda.

---

an 2 25

in a “meandering” speech filled with off-script jokes, recycled campaign lines, and religious-themed policy announcements, President Donald Trump addressed religious and political leaders at the controversial National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. He pledged to “protect Christians” and announced plans to direct the U.S. Department of Justice to create a task force to “eradicate” what he called “anti-Christian bias.”

“Well, we wanna bring religion back stronger, bigger, better than ever before. It’s very important,” the President declared. “We have to have religion and it suffered greatly over the last few years, but it’s coming back.”

“We have to bring religion back. We have to bring it back much stronger. It’s one of the biggest problems that we’ve had over the last fairly long period of time. We have to bring it back.”

IFrame Content

He promised to “protect Christians” in schools, the military, in government, workplaces, hospitals, public squares, and said, “I will always protect religious liberty,” as he continued unveiling religious policy promises.

READ MORE: ‘Democracy Weeks Away From Disintegrating’: Democratic Senator Issues Warning — and a Plan

“And that is why today,” he declared, “I’m announcing that I will be creating a brand new presidential commission on religious liberty. It’s gonna be a very big deal, which will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right. Unfortunately, in recent years, we’ve seen this sacred liberty threatened like never before in American history. There’s nothing happened like the last four years what’s happened with so many things have gone bad, but religion, what they’ve done, and the persecution that they’ve executed, have been just horrible.”

“The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible. The IRS, the FBI, terrible, and other agencies,” Trump alleged. “In addition, the task force will work to fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers, nationwide. We’ve never had that before, but this is a very powerful document I’m signing, you’ve got it, you get it now.”

IFrame Content

Trump praised himself for “showing up to the Prayer Breakfast,” falsely implying that his predecessors had not. He also hinted at the possibility of running for a third term—an idea some Republicans are backing with congressional legislation—and firmly asserted that the President of the United States should be a person of faith.

READ MORE: ‘Demagoguery’: Comer and Republicans Melt Down When Democrat Tries to Subpoena Musk

“We have a mandate and lets say the most consequential election in 129 years, and that’s good because I’m a believer, like you’re a believer, and we want to have a believer in this position,” Trump said.

“I really believe you can’t be happy without religion, without that belief,” he added. “Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.”

IFrame Content

The President mentioned the tragic loss of 67 lives in a recent mid-air crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, saying their time on earth was over but they are now with God. He swiftly transitioned to talk about the assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, declaring, “It was God that saved me,” and claiming his son Don’s embrace of religion had increased as a result.

IFrame Content

Before falsely claiming, as he has countless times before, that his election allowed Americans to once again say, “Merry Christmas,” Trump said that “from the very beginning of our republic, America has always been a nation founded by people of faith and strengthened by the power of prayer and united by four simple, but very beautiful words: ‘in God we trust.’ And you all know there was a movement to get that out.”

“In God We Trust,” was officially adopted as the motto of the United States in 1956.

He also told attendees, “we get rid of woke over the last two weeks.”

The American Humanist Foundation on Thursday declared that the “National Prayer Breakfast and its ties to the Fellowship Foundation, an extreme Christian Nationalist organization, are a sham. Holding a government-run, taxpayer-funded Christian ceremony in the U.S. Capitol disrespects the secular ideals that founded this country.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Democrats Vow to Hold the Floor ‘All Night’ to Block Trump ‘Project 2025’ Nominee

===

---

an 2 25

'Incites hostility': Republicans pass bill to require Ten Commandments in Montana schools

---

02/04/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Upon taking office less than a month ago, President Donald Trump immediately unleashed a blitzkrieg attack, filling his administration with far-right ideologues whose primary qualification is personal loyalty to him while setting techbro oligarch Elon Musk loose to wreak havoc upon the federal government.

For this, Trump has received glowing accolades from Christian nationalists who are thrilled that their allies are now in control.

During a recent episode of the "Contra Mundum" podcast, C. Jay Engel gloated that representatives of the online right are now in power.

"This is something that has been festering, but they never had the mechanisms to influence policy until right now," Engel said. "We have our guys are in Washington and I think that the momentum is on our side. This isn't going away."

IFrame Content

William Wolfe, a former Trump administration official and radical Christian nationalist, is likewise elated about the fact that Trump is filling his news administration "with people who are our guys."

"Trump 2.0 is shock and awe, pursuing a fantastic conservative and right-wing agenda that Christians absolutely can and should be excited about," Wolfe recently rejoiced.

IFrame Content

Right-wing pastors Brooks Potteiger and Joshua Haymes of Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, a far-right church located outside of Nashville, TN, that is aligned with Christian nationalist pastor Douglas Wilson and counts Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as a member, are equally thrilled.

"Winning, winning, winning," said Haymes during a recent podcast. "It's a good time to be a conservative, but [also] a Christian; to see the law of our land starting to comport more and more with the word of God."

"What we're experiencing right now is the result of many, many faithful Christians praying—actually praying—and then actually getting to work on the ground," Haymes added. "The wind is at our back. It's time to draw swords and go full force into battle."

"Absolutely," agreed Potteiger, saying that Trump's election is an example of what "faithful obedience through really hard political turmoil" can achieve.

"This could be, in 500 years in American history—if God would be very gracious to hold us together, if we wouldn't have the fate of Rome—where they turned back and said, 'This is when Christ did a special work in this nation," Potteiger declared.

---

rww

01/31/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

At news conference, Trump read a list of disabilities he calls disqualifying, but his administration started such hiring in 2019.

Kash Patel helped keep the QAnon movement alive on Truth Social, interacting with Q accounts, appearing on QAnon podcasts, and signing his children’s books with a QAnon catchphrase.

With Trump’s return to the presidency, Project 2025, a 920-page blueprint for authoritarianism in the U.S., spearheaded by the powerful and extreme far-right Heritage Foundation, is becoming a reality, affecting all Americans and people around the globe.

Trump has revived his 1776 Commission (a response to the 1619 Project) and wants to make the Semiquincentennial celebration (250th anniversary of independence in 2026) a rip-roaring patriotic educational bonanza. Can you imagine all the Trump merch with Trump250 on it?

Upon taking office, President Trump issued executive orders which banned federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and rescinded an executive order which prohibited discrimination in federal contracting. In response, Jeremy Carl boasted that Trump “implemented” every recommendation from a book he wrote decrying “anti-white racism.”

They may have heard a very powerful dog whistle.

===

RWW

01/29/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Right-wing pastorJesse Leon Rodgers is the founder and chairman of the Christian nationalist organization City Elders, which seeks to "establish divine order in spiritual and civil governance" by bringing local pastors together with elected officials and religious-right activists. Rodgers himself is a hardcore theonomist who believes that far-right Christians such as himself are to be responsible for "installing people in civil government."

During a recent City Elders event, Rogers bragged that while his organization already has significant influence over determining who runs for office in his home state of Oklahoma, as it expands its efforts, it will be able to "determine who gets in public office."

"Increase, multiply, subdue; that's the divine pattern," Rogers said. "Increase has to do with expanded spheres of influence and control. I use that word editorially, I use it intentionally, but control is not in the sense of you have to dominate people; we have to dominate the devil. We have to control and be in control of the powers of Hell and darkness. That's the reason for expanded spheres of influence."

"We have a far greater sphere of influence than our numbers presently are in Oklahoma," Rogers bragged, saying that those considering running for governor "regularly call" and ask him if they should run for office.

"As a matter of fact, we had one this past week that's in a very significant office and called and said, 'I just want to get feedback from City Elders whether you guys think I should run for this office,'" Rogers said. "This past week, I had three different ones running for office contact me."

Rogers said his organization is working toward establishing "spheres of influence in every county" in Oklahoma and once that is accomplished, "it won't just be people running for lieutenant governor or for Senate or House, there will be people running for offices across the state of Oklahoma that will go to that local City Elders council and say, 'I want you to pray for me because I'm running for office.'"

"At some point," Rogers declared, "we will determine who gets in public office."

"That's God's design," Rogers added. "That's God's intent. Not that the church be some little group on the other side of the tracks scratching out a little bit of influence. God gave the keys of the kingdom to the ekklesia. It should be godly men and women who determine who gets in public office."

RWW

01/29/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

At the signing of the Laken Riley Act, President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is directing the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold up to 30,000 migrants who are living illegally in the United States and cannot be deported to their home countries.

A leaked memo from the Defense Intelligence Agency shows personnel were instructed to suspend observances of certain holidays that do not specifically honor white men, including Holocaust Remembrance Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month.

The White House budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing federal grants, according to a copy of a memo obtained by The Washington Post, after the administration’s move to halt spending earlier this week provoked a backlash.

Andrew Kloster, a self-described “raging misogynist” with a public history of racist comments and insistence on loyalty to President Donald Trump, has been installed as general counsel for the federal government’s human resources agency, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

At a Jan. 28, 2025 press conference, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that, under a new policy, “independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators” will be able to apply for White House press credentials. Since the announcement, several antisemitic and Christian nationalist figures claimed to have applied.

The Christian nationalist ideology sits at the core of Trump's plans for America. From cutting DEI programs to stripping away reproductive freedoms, Trump is privileging one, specific group.

Trump owes his initial rise in part to Christian nationalists, who once considered him a modern Cyrus, or a flawed vessel for God’s will. In the years since he first came to power, he has become something of a holy figure, whom many consider to be anointed by God. When he survived an assassination attempt last July, some had all the proof they needed. God’s hand was on Trump — and to oppose God’s man was to oppose God Himself.

an 125

Journalist/author Katherine Stewart is known for her in-depth reporting on the Religious Right, which she has been highly critical of over the years. The titles of her books — among them, "The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children" and "The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism" — underscore her view that far-right white evangelicals and Christian nationalists pose a major threat to religious freedom in the United States.

In her book, "Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy" — which has a February 18 release date on Amazon — Stewart warns that an alliance between Christian nationalists and billionaire oligarchs is pushing "an end to pluralistic democracy."

The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt examines the book in an article published on January 19.

READ MORE:Trump’s second term could face the 'same disastrous end' as Grover Cleveland’s: presidential historian

Stewart, according to Gabbatt, warns, "Money is a huge part of the story, meaning that huge concentrations of wealth have destabilized the political system. Second, lies, or conscious disinformation, is a huge feature of this movement. And third, God, because the most important ideological framework for the largest part of this movement is Christian nationalism."

Gabbatt notes that although "billionaire oligarchs" and Christian nationalists "may not seem to have much in common," the "aim" of their "unholy alliance" is "the same: bringing an end to democracy in the U.S. as we know it."

According to Stewart, "The best label I can find for the phenomenon — and I do not pretend it is a fully satisfactory label — is 'reactionary nihilism.' It is reactionary in the sense that it expresses itself as mortal opposition to a perceived catastrophic change in the political order; it is nihilistic because its deepest premise is that the actual world is devoid of value, impervious to reason, and governable only through brutal acts of will."

Stewart adds, "It stands for a kind of unraveling of the American political mind — a madness that now afflicts one side of nearly every political debate."

Gabbatt points out, however, that Stewart, in her book, "insists the situation is not hopeless."

READ MORE:Biden preemptively pardons members of January 6 panel and other Trump targets

Stewart argues, "There's no feature as of yet in the American political system that would ensure that the MAGA movement is going to rule indefinitely. And frankly, I take heart from the fact that those of us who believe in democracy and its core principles probably represent a majority and not a minority of the population. I continue to believe more Americans support a democratic political system over some sort of cronyistic, kleptocratic and theocratic system that has authoritarian features."

---

---

RWW

01/17/2025

by

Peter Montgomery

The America First Policy Institute, a MAGA movement think tank founded by former Trump aides, has raised millions in tax-exempt funds to promote policies that would undermine public education, restrict access to abortion, limit voter registration and voting, roll back environmental protections, gut government’s ability to regulate corporate behavior, pursue campaigns against transgender people, and more.

AFPI has provided money, an institutional home, and political platforms to many of the people Trump has nominated to run the country; **quite a few high-level Trump nominees have AFPI connections, including:

Trump’s first public speech after winning the 2024 election was at an AFPI gala at Mar-a-Lago, where he was joined by other MAGA luminaries, including HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and “Department of Government Efficiency” leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

AFPI founder Rollins has bragged about the group’s “revolutionary” plans to seize control of the “administrative state.” The group’s agenda for the incoming administration—its “transition project”—is in some ways even more radical than the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. AFPI believes Trump should be allowed to fire and replace any federal employee at will – potentially converting the entire federal workforce into a massive and corrupt political patronage system. AFPI has reportedly prepared 300 executive orders for Trump.

As an officer at the America First Policy Institute, Bondi tried to undermine special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump by arguing that his appointment was unconstitutional. She oversaw what the Brennan Center has called “a number of troubling voting rights and election lawsuits,” leading the pro-democracy organization to conclude, “Her record on voting and elections raises questions about her ability to be the attorney general the American public deserves.”

In a case in which AFPI sought to empower local election officials to delay or block certification of elections, AFPI’s arguments were “meritless and radical,” according to the Brennan Center. In another case filed shortly before, even notorious pro-Trump Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk rejected AFPI’s “emergency” request to block a Biden executive order on voter registration that had been in place for several years. Kacsmaryk wrote that AFPI’s request provided “no direct evidence” to support its claims. The Brennan Center noted that the lawsuit “served to amplify baseless conspiracy theories about noncitizen voting.”

AFPI is funded in part by Tim Dunn, who the Texas Monthly has called “the billionaire bully who wants to turn Texas into a Christian theocracy.” Dunn is notorious for funding smear campaigns against Texas Republicans who don’t fall in line with his demands. Dunn poured millions of dollars into the effort to elect Trump to a second term, and supports other right-wing causes, like the Convention of States’ efforts to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. In a 2019 speech to Convention of States, Dunn argued that the Bible is “mainly about politics” and said that COS is triggering a Great Awakening.

Not so surprisingly, AFPI promotes Christian nationalist rhetoric; AFPI leaders have described their efforts as part of a “spiritual war.” AFPI’s political arm, which is chaired by Dunn, partnered with dominionist Lance Wallnau—who believes right-wing Christians are meant to control the government and every other sphere of influence in society--to help Trump return to power. Dunn himself reportedly told former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, who is Jewish, that only Christians should be in leadership positions in the legislature.

Also in leadership at AFPI is Trump spiritual and political adviser Paula White, who has repeatedly called Trump’s opponents demonic and kicked off his pre-insurrection rally with a prayer for “holy boldness.” White chairs AFPI’s Center for American Values.

AFPI’s faith director Richard Rogers, who took part in Wallnau’s “Courage Tour,” appeared on The Jim Bakker show this week, where he said there will be a “faith director” in every government agency in the new administration. He predicted that the “prayer warriors” who “rose up” on Trump’s behalf in 2024 will “have more power than Elon Musk.” He described AFPI as a “data-driven machine” that worked “hand-in-hand” with the RNC to boost turnout among low-propensity voters.

AFPI claims “biblical foundations” for each of the ten “pillars” of its right-wing policy agenda, which it calls “10 Pillars for Restoring a Nation Under God.” It asserts, “The Ten Commandments and Christian teachings have been the foundation that created the American legal system.” AFPI’s website declares, “This fight is not just about the culture of America; it’s about the kingdom of God and the Church’s divine mission to be the salt and light of our day in an era of increasing darkness.”

---

rww

01/16/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Georgia State Senator Colton Moore (R) was arrested at the State Capitol on Thursday while attempting to attend the governor’s State of the State address.

Hegseth is not only a proponent of Christian Nationalism, as it is commonly understood as the fusion of government with conservative Christian values, but an advocate for a revolutionary theocratic vision for the overthrow of the Constitution of the United States.

It’s hard to find strong enough adjectives to describe the unmitigated disaster the senate hearing on the nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense was. Even the few Republicans who had expressed previous concerns about his nomination handled him with kid gloves.

Antisemitic white nationalist Elijah Schaffer appeared on The Baptist Bias — a Rumble show hosted by Christian extremists Jonathan Shelley and Benjamin “Ben the Baptist” Naim. During the show, Schaffer declared that women who have abortions “should be put to death,” and joked about bombing Planned Parenthood facilities.

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. set out in late 2021 to hawk a conspiracy theory-drenched book attacking Anthony Fauci for his work to limit the spread of infectious diseases, he ran into a problem. Mainstream TV networks weren’t interested, due to Kennedy’s penchant for spreading falsehoods about childhood vaccinations, Covid, and other topics.

Tulsi Gabbard’s spiritual “guru” called gay people “perverts” and spewed homophobic slurs when she was involved in his tiny group, an audio recording obtained by the Daily Beast reveals.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) invoked God and religion to harshly question Martin O’Malley, the former Commissioner of the Social Security Administration and a former Governor of Maryland, about his personal views on abortion and his Catholic faith.

The infamous paramilitary group has a new honcho, and designs to influence cops, politicians, and the Boy Scouts.

===

CONTEXT

AN 1 25

J. Dylan Sandifer is now a sociology professor at the University of the District of Columbia, but Sandifer didn't grow up in the U.S. capitol. Sandier was raised in East Texas and had a strict evangelical fundamentalist upbringing — and now rejects that ideology.

In a biting think piece published by The New Republic on January 13, Sandifer emphasizes that one of most troubling characteristics of far-right evangelical Christian fundamentalists is their disdain for "critical thinking." And that disdain, Sandifer warns, poses a threat to democracy itself.

"Growing up in the evangelical church in the piney woods of East Texas, the world felt circumscribed by an ever-present fear — not just of sin but of ideas that might challenge the worldview handed down to those of us in the pews," Sandifer explains. "Everything outside the Christian framework — including secular music, television, and books — was discouraged. Just as I signed multiple purity pledges throughout my preteen and teen years, promising to avoid not just sex, but even impure thoughts, we were taught to practice absolute abstinence from dangerous ideas."

READ MORE:['Utterly inadequate': Conservative warns Trump 'major war' is looming — and he’s not ready

The "evangelical distrust of intellectual inquiry," Sandifer observes, "has found a powerful ally in American right-wing politics" — going back to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr.'s alliance with President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s.

"The rise of Jerry Falwell Sr.'s Moral Majority and its embrace by the Reagan campaign provided organizational structure to these fears, helping translate religious anxieties about intellectual corruption into political action," the sociology professor observes. "Building on the foundation laid during the Reagan Administration, figures like Pat Robertson continued to leverage this partnership in the 1990s through organizations like the Christian Coalition of America."

Sandifer adds, "They capitalized on fears of moral decline to mobilize voters and influence policy, solidifying evangelical influence within the Republican Party."

With President-elect Donald Trump's encouragement, Sandifer warns, the "alliance between evangelical Christianity and conservative politics" has "fostered a cultural paranoia that seeks to limit the range of acceptable ideas."

READ MORE:[Revealed: Allies are grilling career intel staff to ensure total loyalty to Trump

"In an era of rising authoritarianism and deepening social division," the sociology profess writes, "our capacity to think critically about ideas rather than fear them may well determine whether democracy survives. The question isn't whether we can protect ourselves from ideas, but whether we can develop the intellectual resources to evaluate ideas thoughtfully."

READ MORE:['It is tremendous': Kremlin insiders explain how Trump is already helping advance Putin’s goals

===

rww 1 25

Drenda Keesee Is Intent On Bringing Seven Mountains Dominionism Into Office Right-wing pastor/conspiracy theorist Drenda Keesee is now a county commissioner in Ohio and she is bringing her Seven Mountains Dominionism theology with her: "We need to share God's kingdom principles so that we can have righteousness rule."](https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/drenda-keesee-intent-bringing-seven-mountains-dominionism-office)....

rww

Laurie Cardoza-Moore Working to Convince Trump to Impose Christian Nationalist Education Standards | People For

01/07/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

In 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis imposed his far-right political agenda on the state's public school classrooms in various ways, among them being a new civics training initiative that was infused with Christian nationalist propaganda.

Shortly thereafter, Trump-loving, anti-Islam religious-right activist Laurie Cardoza-Moore bragged that she had been instrumental in shaping Florida's new civics education standards and thereby ensuring that public school students in the state are taught that this nation "was founded on the Torah."

Cardoza-Moore, founder of the Christian Zionist group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, recently appeared on the "Focus Today" program, where she announced that she hopes to push this Christian nationalist agenda into schools across the country once Donald Trump returns to the White House.

"I have reached out to Linda McMahon requesting a meeting with her about education reform," Cardoza-Moore said. "The Trump administration needs to implement the policy that Gov. DeSantis implemented in the state of Florida."

"We were involved in drafting the gold standard of curriculum for history, civics, world history, Middle East history, social studies," she continued. "And with that, Florida became the first state in the country to teach the role the Hebrew Bible played in the founding, the role that it played in the formation of our form of government—the republic actually comes out of Torah. So, we're trying to get President Trump to initiate those same procedures [and] call for an emergency review of civics and social study standards across the United States."

Video URL

IFrame Content

The United States' republican form government was in no way based on the Torah or the Bible, as Right Wing Watch explained the last time Cardoza-Moore made this statement:

Cardoza-Moore's emphasis on "the Hebrew Bible" and "the Torah" is a reflection of her Christian Zionism, an evangelical belief that Christian must support and defend the state of Israel as its existence is necessary for the return of Jesus Christ. Her comments are simply another way of stating the false Christian nationalist claim that the United States was founded on the Bible—a claim meant to justify their efforts to dismantle the separation of church and state.

---

rww

01/02/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Within hours of the New Year’s attack in New Orleans, the president-elect simultaneously flunked tests of accuracy, decency and credibility.

David Brody, a Christian pro-MAGA TV host on Real America's Voice, called for a "blanket crackdown on mosques" by the government after two potential attacks on New Year's Day.

> As part of his ongoing efforts to brainwash children into Christianity, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters just released the new standards for public school social studies classes. (These are the required topics teachers must incorporate into their lessons.) And, as expected, the standards include all kinds of religious indoctrination.

Trump isn't going after gray areas. If the Journal is right, he plans to enact policies that he flat out knows to be illegal. He's just hoping that his hand-picked Supreme Court will let him do it.

> H.W. Crocker III thinks Western civilization is in trouble. He supports conservative Christian moral values and has decried the rise of a new, secular America where a growing number of people answer “none” to surveys asking which religion they practice. He’s lauded the Confederacy and its soldiers and generals in books like the “Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War” and “Robert E. Lee on Leadership.” And, this year, he picked up a new job: communications consultant for Sen. Josh Hawley’s Senate campaign.

---

rww 1 25

The Nehemiah Project: Lance Wallnau's Christian Nationalist Plot To Take Over The World Lance Wallnau says that when Trump takes office, "the prophets are going to be collaborating with government officials." Therefore, Wallnau is launching something called "The Nehemiah Project" that seeks to use the Trump White House to spread Christian nationalism globally.](https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/nehemiah-project-lance-wallnaus-christian-nationalist-plot-take-over-world)

GO BACK TO SEGR 60’S?

'Segregated?' Republican ridiculed for call to return to 'where America was in the 1960s'

David Badash

Penn historian tears apart Christian nationalist claims: 'A past we never had'

// NOEM RESEGR ACADEMIES CHARTER PAROCHIAL

AN 12? 24

MAGA Republicans ramp up plan to 'indoctrinate' public schools with Christian nationalism

12 24 rww

12/12/2024

by

Kyle Mantyla

Art Ally is a religious-right activist and the founder of the Christian investment firm The Timothy Plan, through which he finances Christian nationalist training programs for pastors such as those run by far-right pastor Paul Blair.

Ally appeared on the Truth & Liberty Coalition's program Wednesday night, where he dismissed environmentalism as "a bunch nonsense."

Video URL

IFrame Content

"All you have to do to shoot this environmentalism—and it's all an agenda, all driven to run people into fear and you can control them—if you want to shoot a hole in the environmental nonsense that is being promoted by the ultra-liberal folks, just take a cruise," Ally declared. "Get out in the middle of the ocean and look around. To think that man has a capacity to affect that in any way is just total nonsense, We can't; God is in control."

"If we had global warming as being a real threat to us, explain to me why we aren't setting new high records every year in our average temperature," he continued. "'Well, this is the hottest year since 1923.' Well, why hasn't it been every year since then working up to this? We need to just start thinking again instead of just listening to this agenda nonsense."

Far be it from us to question the opinion of a Bible-based financial planner, but the data collected by scientists at NASA tells a different story.[ graph steep]

12/11/2024 rww

by

Kyle Mantyla

rww

12/09/2024

by

Kyle Mantyla

White nationalist and anti-Semite Nick Fuentes was arrested in Illinois last week on a charge of battery after he allegedly pushed a woman down the stairs of his home and pepper sprayed her last month.

Kash Patel’s history of railing against the deep state says less about his outrageous fantasies than it does about his sinister opportunism.

Applicants for government posts, including inside the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies, say they have been asked about their thoughts on Jan. 6 and who they believe won the 2020 election.

Donald Trump confirmed his plans to pardon supporters who were involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, during a Sunday interview on “Meet the Press.”

Donald Trump has just rewarded his lawyer Alina Habba with a plum job in his new administration: counselor to the president.

A Christian nationalist college founded by one of the country’s top anti-gay and anti-abortion conservatives is celebrating U.S. Rep.-elect Gabe Evans (R-CO) as its “first-ever graduate to be elected” to Congress.

---

AN 12 24

MAGA Republicans ramp up plan to 'indoctrinate' public schools with Christian nationalism
---

mma 12 24

...Webbon believesthat the American people are too degenerate, stupid, and cowardly to abide by the Constitution and must therefore be governed by a Christian dictator. This dictator, Webbon believes, must “rule with an iron fist” and force everyone to, at the very least, “pretend to be Christian.”

Under his preferred form of Christian nationalist theocracy, Webbon wants to see the Apostles’ Creed added to the Constitution; abortion, pornography, no-fault divorce, in vitro fertilization, and birth control outlawed; non-Christians kept out of his neighborhood; immigrants shot for trying to enter the country; adulterers put to death; and women banned from voting and publicly executed for making false claims of sexual assault....

===

A N 11 24

Hegseth, president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of Defense, has close ties to an Idaho-based Christian nationalist church that aims to turn America into a theocracy.

Hegseth is a member of a Tennessee congregation affiliated with Christ Church, a controversial congregation in Moscow, Idaho, that has become a leader in the movement to get more Christianity in the public sphere.

In an appearance last year on the Christ Church-connected streaming show “Crosspolitic,” Hegseth talked about how building up fundamentalist Christian education systems is important in what he sees as a “spiritual battle” with the secular world. He sees Christian students as foot soldiers in that war and refers to Christian schools as “boot camp.”

“We’re in middle phase one right now, which is effectively a tactical retreat where you regroup, consolidate and reorganize and as you do so, you build your army underground with the opportunity later on of taking offensive operations – and obviously all of this is metaphorical and all that good stuff,” he said on the show.

Hegseth did not immediately respond to requests for an interview.

Hegseth has spoken positively about Christ Church Pastor Doug Wilson’s writings

Christ Church is led by Pastor Doug Wilson, who founded the Calvinist group of churches called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC. CREC has congregations in nearly all 50 states and several foreign countries. Hegseth’s church is a member of CREC, and Hegseth has spoken positively of Wilson’s writings.

Wilson and his allies have a rigid patriarchal belief system and don’t believe in the separation of church and state. They support taking away the right to vote from most women, barring non-Christians from holding office and criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community.

Recently, Wilson has increased his influence nationally as he’s built a religious, educational and media empire. His Association of Classical Christian Schools has hundreds of fundamentalist schools around the country, and his publishing outfit Canon Press churns out dozens of titles a year as well as popular streaming shows that highlight unyielding socially conservative ideals.

In the recently released podcast, “Extremely American” (created by this reporter), Wilson says one of his goals is to get like-minded people into positions of influence. In an emailed response for this story, he said he’s closer to that post-election and that he supports Hegseth’s nomination, though he downplayed any influence he has on him.

“I was grateful for Trump’s win, and believe that it is much more likely that Christians with views similar to mine will receive positions in the new administration,” he said.

Hegseth nomination could threaten cohesion, diversity of U.S. military, experts say

That’s what worries Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein, who is the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Weinstein says Hegseth, if confirmed as secretary of Defense, would threaten the cohesion of a religiously and racially diverse U.S. military.

“Pete Hegseth is a poster child for literally everything that would be the opposite of what you would want to have for someone who’s controlling the technologically most lethal organization in history of this country,” he said.

Weinstein sees Hegseth’s nomination as an example of the dangers of Project 2025, a 900-page policy paper written by far-right political activists. It lays out a plan to gut the federal government and install Christian nationalist ideals.

“Christian nationalism is an absolute fatal cancer metastasizing at light speed (for) the national security of this country,” he said. “It is a Christian version of the Taliban.”

Matthew D. Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, said Hegseth is “one of the most extreme far right figures ever nominated to a cabinet post, at least in modern memory.”

Taylor said he’s broadly concerned about Christian nationalists, who tend to take a dim view of democracy, potentially having a lot of sway in this administration.

“I think we should expect a profound degradation of our democratic norms of the rule of law, and I think we are edging closer to a de facto Anglo Protestant establishment, of the kind where Anglo Protestant Christianity as the de facto official religion in the United States,” he said.

Hegseth faces some headwinds in his nomination process due to multiple marital sex scandals and the recent revelation that hepaid a woman who accused him of sexual assault in exchange for her not speaking about it. He denies he assaulted her but admits he paid her. He’s also gotten criticism for tattoos that are symbols of the Crusades and wrote a book titled “American Crusade,” where he derides Muslims.

Before becoming a TV personality, Hegseth led the conservative veterans group Concerned Veterans for America, which advocated for increased privatization of veterans’ health care.

He has also said that women should not be allowed to serve in combat roles in the military, and has complained about what he terms “woke” policies in the military.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and X.

===

---

rww random but //

11/18/2024

by

Kyle Mantyla

Ryan Walters has already been under fire for using state money to purchase Trump Bibles for classrooms.

All of the officers were involved in the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which independent reviews have blamed on both the Trump and Biden administrations.

Donald Trump has confirmed that he will declare a national emergency and use the US military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

Donald Trump has nominated a Project 2025 author to lead the Federal Communications Commission.

Documents obtained by The Post provide extensive detail about allegation and the response by Trump’s defense secretary pick.

An attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee told ABC News in an interview that former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid both his adult clients for sex.

An exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation has discovered that those Christian nationalists have set their sights on a remote Middle Tennessee county, hoping to attract hundreds, even thousands, of like-minded people from across the country as part of efforts, in the words of one activist, to “radicalize Main Street.”

---

rww

11/18/2024

by

Kyle Mantyla

---

AN 11 24

Texas State Board of Education signals support for Bible-infused curriculum

//

MAGA superintendent’s mandatory Trump prayer video is against the law: report

---

an 11 24

concerns are mounting over Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Fox News host and military veteran Pete Hegseth. Hegseth is a vocal opponent of the military’s multiculturalism and decision to allow women to serve in combat, promises to purge the military of generals disloyal to Trump and sports tattoos connected with neo-Nazi and white nationalist movements. “Here’s a man who wrote a book declaring his intention to wage, not metaphorical, but actual war within the United States,” says Jeff Sharlet, an expert on the rise of far-right extremism in the United States. Sharlet explains how Hegseth and Mike Huckabee, Trump’s choice for U.S. ambassador to Israel, have Christian nationalist and Christian Zionist views that ultimately work to whip up animosity toward domestic enemies of the far right.

IFrame Content

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency.” I’m Amy Goodman in Denver, Colorado, broadcasting from PBS12 right here in Five Points Media Center, also home to our colleagues at Free Speech TV, a wonderful media center, joined by Democracy Now!’s Nermeen Shaikh in New York.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Concerns are mounting over Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Fox News host and military veteran Pete Hegseth. CBS News reports that Hegseth was one of 12 National Guard members who were removed as guards for President Biden’s 2021 inauguration over possible extremist ties. Hegseth has tattoos associated with the white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements, including what’s known as a Jerusalem cross, a symbol used by Christian nationalists.

Meanwhile, officials in Monterey, California, have confirmed police investigated Hegseth as part of an alleged sexual assault that occurred in 2017 at a hotel where Hegseth addressed the California Federation of Republican Women.

AMY GOODMAN: Pete Hegseth has also been a vocal opponent of the Pentagon’s embrace of multiculturalism and the Pentagon’s decision to allow women to serve in combat. Hegseth, who once served at Guantánamo, made headlines in 2019 for pushing Trump to pardon U.S. soldiers accused of war crimes, including one convicted of murder.

We’re joined now by Jeff Sharlet, journalist and author, professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College. His book, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. Professor Sharlet’s new piece for Religion Dispatches is headlined “Meet Pete Hegseth, the Man Who Will Lead the Entire US Military — A Man Deemed an 'Extremist' by the US Military.”

Well, let’s start right there, Jeff Sharlet. Explain what you mean. Who called him an extremist, and what are Pete Hegseth’s views?

JEFF SHARLET: The number one person who called Pete Segseth an extremist is Pete Hegseth. It’s page one of his new book, The War on Warriors. It’s the way he leads out his interviews, this idea that he was too extreme for today’s “woke” military, dominated, as he puts it, his words, by trans, lesbian, Black females. And so, he tells a story of being pushed out of the military. We can’t actually confirm that. No one can confirm that. I think what’s more important about it is that he wants that story out there. He wants it known that he is too far to the right for the Armed Forces.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Jeff Sharlet, could you explain? What do you think led Trump to name him?

JEFF SHARLET: So, Pete Hegseth, one, he’s from Central Casting. He’s got the chiseled jaw. He’s got the biceps that he flexes on his Instagram showing off his tattoos that are from the white supremacist world.

But he really came to Trump’s attention through his advocacy for three military personnel charged or convicted of war crimes, and most famously Eddie Gallagher, the Navy SEAL who was — his own men said that he stabbed to death a teenage prisoner who was receiving medical care, shot deliberately a young girl. And Hegseth used his platform to say — to sort of amplify Trump’s idea — we’ve heard that Trump says the “one rough hour” that violence is needed. And Trump liked it.

But more than that, Hegseth promises in his book the first war he’s going to wage is against the U.S. military — that’s whom he describes as the domestic enemy, the enemy within — to purge the generals who are disloyal to Trump and replace them [inaudible] who will do absolutely the commander’s will. And I’m not paraphrasing. What’s startling to me about this pick and the reaction to it is we speak of it as concerns. Here’s a man who wrote a book declaring his intention to wage, not metaphorical, but actual war within the United States. That’s what he says. He says this is not a political project anymore. This is a civil war.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Is anything known at all about his foreign policy positions? What does he think about the position of the U.S. military around the world?

JEFF SHARLET: That’s actually kind of — that’s another part of what makes him appealing to Trump, is, on the one hand, he writes, in traditional fascist style, that war is absolutely necessary for what he calls normal men to realize their masculinity. On the other hand, like Trump, he presents this kind of isolationist posture. It’s not that he doesn’t want Israel to wage total war; he doesn’t care as much about it. So, then he says, “OK, so, where is this war? The war is within, and we will depend on the so-called normal men in Israel.”

He is, however — and this is important — he’s a Christian nationalist. He believes absolutely in the idea of the ingathering of Israel as a stage toward the Book of Revelation in the Bible. So, he sees Israel’s war on the Palestinians as biblical prophecy and one that must be supported for the sake of Christendom.

AMY GOODMAN: And we want to continue on that strain and also talk about Governor Huckabee, also a proud Christian nationalist, who President Trump has nominated to be the ambassador to Israel. But I wanted to stick with something you said for one moment and that you wrote about, Jeff Sharlet, in your piece. You laughed about, you know, his biceps. But it’s what’s on his biceps, those tattoos. “On his chest he’s had inked a 'Jerusalem cross' — a symbol of the crusaders’ holy war against Muslims and Jews — and on the flip side of his bicep there’s this, featured on his Instagram: 'Deus Vult,' God wills it, is more crusader kitsch — and popular with White supremacists.” Talk more about this. And then we’ll play what he has to say to, for example, to Netanyahu.

JEFF SHARLET: So, Hegseth talks a lot about his tattoos. They’re important to him. He began getting them around 2016. The very first one was a cross with a sword running down the middle, which he said was a tribute to one of his favorite biblical verses, Matthew 10:34. This is taken by those who want not a peaceful Christianity, but a war religion. It’s where Christ says, “I come to bring not peace, but the sword.”

He then starts adding this, as I say, crusader kitsch, because it’s important. The Jerusalem cross, it was — is always a political symbol. It’s not a symbol of spiritual struggle, just like “Deus Vult.” But this imagery comes into popular culture not through deep study of history, but through a 2005 Ridley Scott movie, The Kingdom of Heaven. Much like the right at one point was emulating Braveheart, now they’re emulating this movie, this idea of this crusader knight who wages holy war against Muslims, against Jews.

In Hegseth’s book, he talks at great length about the story of Gideon from the Book of Judges. And what’s interesting to him about Gideon is that Gideon’s first step was to purge the enemies within. That was the first battle. And then he emphasizes another part. Gideon goes to war. And we sort of know this. These are sort of Bible stories. But the part that he really likes is that after they won the battle, Gideon orders his men to hunt down every one of the other force and, in Hegseth’s words, “eliminate them all.”

That’s the idea of this sleeve of tattoos, which mixes American nationalism, an AR-15 folded into an American flag, 1775, the year the Army was founded, but also part of sort of the mythos of J6, a group that he has had very positive things to say about.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, we’d like to turn now to ask about President-elect Trump’s selection of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a leading U.S. Christian Zionist who’s openly advocated for Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 2008, Huckabee declared, quote, “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” This is Huckabee speaking in 2017, when he was visiting an illegal Israeli settlement.

MIKE HUCKABEE: Israel would only be acting on the property it already owns. I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria. There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities. They’re neighborhoods. They’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Jeff Sharlet, that’s Huckabee speaking in 2017. So, if you could comment on what he said and also why Trump has selected him?

JEFF SHARLET: I mean, Huckabee is a sort of a key element of the Trump coalition. He brings in evangelicals, and particularly kind of the older, more traditional evangelicals. He’s a Southern Baptist. And he’s also been involved with Israel for a long time. As he says, since 1973, he leads pilgrimages of Christians.

It’s important to understand that in all his advocacy for Israel, this comes from no particular care for the Jewish people, but, as he puts it, he says, “It’s because I’ve read the end of the book,” and by which he means the Book of Revelation. And again, like Hegseth, he sees Israel as playing a role in a battle not so much between Israelis and Palestinians, but as between Christendom versus the real enemy.

There’s an episode of his show in which he talks about who’s really behind Hamas. And I tuned in, thinking, you know, he was probably going to talk the various ideas and so on. And instead, he sounded like the old Saturday Night Live character: “Satan.” Hamas is, he argues, demon-filled — again, not a metaphor for him.

So this is the man who is sort of representing the United States in Israel now, who is as fully fundamentalist as even the furthest-right element of the Israeli government right now, and sees this as a holy war — and again, kind of like Hegseth — in which any step is justified. You are fighting for God, and that’s the end of the story for him.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeff Sharlet, you have written this book, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. You certainly have extensively followed white nationalists, white supremacists. Where do Christian nationalists and Christian Zionists fit into this picture? I mean, he calls himself a Christian Zionist. You heard Huckabee — and by the way, he was the governor of Arkansas. His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is now the governor of Arkansas, and she was the spokesperson for the first President Trump White House. But where does he fit? Where do Christian Zionists fit into this whole story? And how do Jewish Zionists relate to them? And how does Israel, people like Netanyahu — how do they rely on Christian Zionists?

JEFF SHARLET: Huckabee likes to brag about his special relationship with Netanyahu. And Israel has — or, right-wing Israel governments have said, “Look, Christian Zionists are useful to us, so we’re going to support them.” In fact, the right-wing Israeli governments have said Christian Zionists are actually our better American allies than American Jews.

But Christian Zionism has in some ways been folded into Christian nationalism. Every Christian Zionist is a Christian nationalist, but not every Christian nationalist is a Christian Zionist. Christian nationalism is the larger view — and it tells us something more about what Huckabee is doing. When you go through his archive, so often when he’s talking about Israel, what he’s really talking about is, from his point of view, a struggle for power on the battleground that really matters, which is the United States. And so, for instance, he talks more — when he wants to talk about Hamas, he often talks about Harvard. He talks about elites, these sort of — again, this idea of the enemy within. What happens in Israel is theologically important to him, but it’s more useful politically in the United States. And that’s where it brings us back around to Christian nationalism, this idea of a kind of — not so much a pious nation as a holy war nation, and the war is within.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeff Sharlet, we want to thank you so much for being with us, journalist and author, professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College, author of The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. We’ll link to your piece, “Meet Pete Hegseth, the Man Who Will Lead the Entire US Military — A Man Deemed an 'Extremist' by the US Military.”

===

rww

11/12/2024

by

Kyle Mantyla

===

an 11 24

MSNBC's Joy Reid has often compared Christian nationalist ideology to "Gilead," the Christianist theocracy depicted in author Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel "The Handmaid's Tale." Christian nationalism is a major part of former President Donald Trump's game plan for a second term if he wins the 2024 election, and in a report published by Politico on February 20, journalists Alexander Ward and Heidi Przybyla describe the role that MAGA Republican Russell Vought would play in Trump 2.0's Christian nationalist agenda.

Ward and Przybyla explain, "An influential think tank close to Donald Trump is developing plans to infuse Christian nationalist ideas in his administration should the former president return to power, according to documents obtained by Politico…. Vought, who is frequently cited as a potential chief of staff in a second Trump White House, is president of The Center for Renewing America think tank, a leading group in a conservative consortium preparing for a second Trump term."

Christian nationalists, Ward and Przybyla note, "believe that" the United States "was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life."

READ MORE:**'Each person' will 'serve' Jesus: Embattled Republican’s Christian nationalism revealed**

"As the country has become less religious and more diverse," the Politico reporters explain, "Vought has embraced the idea that Christians are under assault and has spoken of policies he might pursue in response. One document drafted by CRA staff and fellows includes a list of top priorities for CRA in a second Trump term."

Ward and Przybyla continue, "'Christian nationalism' is one of the bullet points. Others include invoking the Insurrection Act on Day One to quash protests and refusing to spend authorized congressional funds on unwanted projects, a practice banned by lawmakers in the Nixon era."

Although he has had a close alliance with far-right white evangelicals, Trump himself is not an evangelical but rather, was raised Presbyterian and comes from a Mainline Protestant background.

Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias, tweeting Politico's report, posted, "Trump is not personally religious but the Trump/Heritage Project 2025 plan is to staff the government top to bottom with right wing psychos who'll do everything possible to ban abortion, restrict birth control, etc."

READ MORE:['Wrong answer': Ex-RNC chair schools Lara Trump on 'number one responsibility' of GOP organization

Project 2025 is Trump and his allies' plan for giving the United States' federal government a top-to-bottom MAGA makeover if he wins a second term.

Ward and Przybyla report, "The documents obtained by Politico do not outline specific Christian nationalist policies. But Vought has promoted a restrictionist immigration agenda, saying a person's background doesn't define who can enter the U.S., but rather, citing Biblical teachings, whether that person 'accept(ed]) Israel's God, laws and understanding of history.' Vought has a close affiliation with Christian nationalist William Wolfe, a former Trump Administration official who has advocated for overturning same-sex marriage, ending abortion and reducing access to contraceptives."

READ MORE:[Mike Johnson’s 'Christian nationalism' is 'a greater threat to America than al-Qaida': strategist

*Read Politico's full report at this link.

09/23/2024 rww

by

Peter Montgomery

The Courage Tour, organized by Trump-promoting dominionists Lance Wallnau and Mario Murillo, and co-sponsored by the MAGA movement organization America First Policy Institute, rolls into Pennsylvania this week on its tour of 19 swing counties that could decide the outcome of the presidential election. The event will be held Friday night and all day Saturday in Monroeville, which is located east of Pittsburgh.

Scholar Matthew Taylor, who attended a Wisconsin stop, called the tour “the most targeted and tactical voter mobilization effort done by Christian nationalists ever,” adding that “they’re doing it hand in glove in many ways with the Trump campaign and with the apparatus of the Trump campaign through an organization like AFPI.”

Indeed, the Courage Tour exemplifies the de facto merger between the MAGA movement and dominionist Christian nationalists. AFPI, a “think tank” organized by and filled with former Trump administration officials, is an active participant in Project 2025, another example of the shared authoritarian goals of Trumpworld and the Christian nationalists who helped put Trump in power in 2016 as part of their long-term plan to take “dominion” over every sphere of influence in society. Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk has also supported the tour.

In 2023, AFPI President Brooke Rollins, a former Trump adviser who had been preparing his second-term agenda before he lost the 2020 election, held an America First Summit where she discussed AFPI’s Vision 2025, a preview of Project 2025’s plans for the aggressive use of government power to promote the far-right agenda. Rollins happily admitted that their “ideologically revolutionary” goal is to “seize control of the administrative state” as part of “an America First confrontation against anti-conservative institutions.” That echoed language used by the Heritage Foundation when it launched Project 2025 as a plan for the MAGA movement to “take the reins of government.”

The Courage Tour’s combination of tent revival-style religious rallies with political mobilization reflects the beliefs of New Apostolic Reformation figures like Wallnau and Murillo that spiritual revival will lead to political transformation of the country to bring it into alignment with their particular biblical worldview. Wallnau has said the tour’s purpose is to break “demonic strongholds” that have supposedly kept Republicans from winning elections, and to prepare Christians to rule and reign after Christ’s return by training them to “occupy territory now.” In other words, the Courage Tour is an example of NAR “spiritual warfare” in pursuit of earthly power—for Trump and for themselves.

Right Wing Watch reported that when the tour stopped in Wisconsin in July, the leader of a group called The Lion of Judah urged people to sign up to serve as election workers so that they could be in effect a “Trojan Horse” for the Christian nationalist political movement. At an earlier stop in Michigan, Christian nationalist political operative David Barton spread false Christian nationalist history.

Researcher Jenny Cohn has pointed out that Rob Pacienza, senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida—a longtime center of Christian-right political organizing—is a senior fellow in the Center for the American Dream at AFPI. This Wednesday, Sept. 25, Pacienza will kick off 40 days of prayer leading up to the election with an online event with Courage Tour speaker Alveda King. Pacienza’s project comes with a daily prayer guide that includes prayers for policies protecting life “from conception until natural death” and “restoration” of marriage being limited to one man and one woman. It includes a prayer that “Christians would use the power we have as citizens to rein in big government so that the State never becomes our Master.” It also urges people to pray that God would “remove those from office who oppose Him” and “cause chaos and confusion among groups who oppose Him and His people so that their plans are thwarted.”

---

rww

10/29/2024

by

Kyle Mantyla

Their flex today turned out to be a four-hour marathon of praise music, speakers, and a lengthy intermission before Trump arrived. The extensive speaker lineup included several superstars of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) a growing charismatic movement led by a loose network of apostles and prophets who believe Christians are called to take over the government.

Christian nationalist tours timed to the election showcase the power and ambition of a movement aimed at erasing the separation between church and state.

Steve Bannon was released from a federal prison in the predawn hours of Tuesday morning after completing his four-month sentence.

A three-part audio series exploring the controversial alliance between Donald Trump and the UFC, and it's profound impact on America's socio-political landscape.

By obsessively trying to have ‘balanced’ discussions, mainstream television news keeps platforming extremists.

If Donald Trump returns to the White House, the fate of the U.S. press may rest on whether corporate executives who control mammoth multimedia conglomerates are willing to prioritize the journalistic credibility of the news outlets they oversee over their own business interests.

===

PENDING //

===

10 24 badash

A massive new study finds a large number of Republicans, Trump supporters, and conservatives support violence under the guise of saving the country or ensuring the “rightful” leader is put in the White House.

Three in ten Republicans (29%) believe “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” according to the nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization PPRI’s “2024 American Values Survey.”

Nearly one in four MAGA Republicans (23%) “say that if Trump loses the election, he should declare the results invalid and do whatever it takes to assume office.” That view is also held by nearly one on five (19%) Republicans overall, including those who do not support Trump.

MAGA Republicans, or “Republicans who view Trump favorably are three times as likely as those who hold unfavorable views [of Trump] to support political violence (32% vs. 11%).

RELATED: ‘Zero Remorse’: Trump Doesn’t Condemn Gunman Who Allegedly Threatened FEMA Workers

More than one in five Republicans (22%) agree that “if the 2024 presidential election is compromised by voter fraud, everyday Americans will need to ensure the rightful leader takes office, even if it requires taking violent actions.”

The study also looked at the politico-religious component of support for political violence, and found one-third (33%) of “Christian nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers” agree that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.”

Additionally, one-third of Latter-day Saints (33%) and nearly one in three white evangelical Protestants (28%) “agree that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.”

Where Americans get their news appears to be a factor in their views on issues including violence and immigration.

“Americans who trust conservative news outlets are the most likely to support political violence (41%), followed by 30% of those who most trust Fox News, 18% of those who do not watch any TV news, and 13% of those who most trust mainstream TV news.”

READ MORE: ‘God, Religion and Teaching of the Commandments’: Eric Trump Says Dad Saved ‘Christmas

Six in ten Republicans (61%) agree that “immigrants entering the country illegally today are poisoning the blood of our country,” PRRI’s survey finds, along with a “majority of Americans who most trust far-right news (70%) or Fox News (65%).”

Similarly, nearly two-thirds of Republicans (65%) support the “Great Replacement Theory,” and agree that “immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” PRRI also finds that the “vast majority of far-right news (83%) and Fox News viewers (66%) agree with this theory,” as do the majority of Christian nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers (63%) and white evangelical Protestants (62%), as well as half (50%) of Latter-day Saints.

“Nearly eight in ten Republicans (79%) favor putting undocumented immigrants in encampments,” PRRI also found. “The vast majority of Americans who most trust far-right news (91%) or Fox News (82%) favor militarized encampments for undocumented immigrants.”

“White evangelical Protestants (75%) are most likely to favor militarized encampments for undocumented immigrants, followed by the majority of white Catholics (61%), white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants (58%), and Latter-day Saints (56%).”

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and these answers … are keeping me up at night,” PRRI president and founder Robert P. Jones told Axios. “It’s all pretty dark and worrisome.”

Axios had reported: “The growing number of Republicans willing to shun democratic norms — and possibly embrace violence — comes as Trump continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him and is saying the 2024 election is already rigged.”

“Jones said those supporting the loser of the election doing whatever it takes to assume office are essentially endorsing a coup against the United States.”

Last week, Jones told MSNBC’s Joy Reid (video below), “there are [survey] questions that we have had to write during the Trump era as social scientists that I never thought we would have to write.”

“So to write that question and put it on a public opinion survey and say, we actually need to know what the American people think about this statement, that whether immigrants are poisoning the blood of the country, right, is just, I think we just pause for a minute, to say how astonishing that is.”

He added, “we’re all taught to kind of not be knee-jerk and kind of use the Nazi analogy…but like, ‘poisoning the blood’ — Mein Kampf uses the word blood 150 times,” referring to Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto.

“That’s Hitler’s word, right? And it’s often, it’s almost always used in this way, this kind of idea of purity and defilement, contamination, and it’s a politics of disgust that we’re really seeing here.”

Watch Jones on MSNBC below or at this link.

---

===

===

rww 10/18/2024

by

Kyle Mantyla

On October 12th one of the most remarkable political statements of any religious leader in this or any election season was broadcast live from an all-day rally of tens of thousands of people on the Washington Mall. The event, called A Million Women, was staged by some of the leading apos

Ziklag and the Courage Tour, the far-right groups that hosted the Republican vice-presidential nominee, are charities that can’t legally intervene in political campaigns.

Last week’s MAGA-inflected spectacle cast Kamala Harris as demonic, and Trump an avatar of biblical justice.

Bigoted Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon declared on an Oct. 16, 2024 livestream that the world rightfully belongs to Christians, such as himself, as they were promised “dominion” over it. Webbon also stated that Christians are “destined to colonize” not just the world, but also “the stars.”

In lawsuits filed across the country, attorneys who worked to overturn Trump’s 2020 defeat are alleging rampant voting fraud.

Elections are supposed to be decided at the ballot box. But this year, Donald Trump’s campaign appears to be trying to win on a different field of battle. With dozens of lawsuits already filed across the country, the Republicans are using state and federal courts as a key pillar of their strategy to retake the White House.

Last week, a lawyer who worked for the Florida Department of Health resigned, and a letter obtained Thursday by the Miami Herald indicates that he didn’t like the state agency’s decision to prosecute television stations for airing political ads.

===

rww

10/04/2024

by

Kyle Mantyla

They control Republican politics in the state. Now they’re poised to take their theocratic agenda nationwide.

Religious interest groups are queuing up a series of high-profile appeals at the Supreme Court this fall that could further tear down the wall separating church and state, seeking to take advantage of a friendly 6-3 conservative majority that has rapidly pushed the law in their favor in recent years.

Aligned Christian communities like the [Highland Rim Project] are actually springing up all across the country, from Doug Wilson’s misogynist compound in Moscow, Idaho, to an orthodox Catholic enclave in Hyattsville, Md. What makes New Founding’s community noteworthy is the company’s dark political connections.

Former Colorado election official, Tina Peters, was sentenced to nine years in jail on Thursday for her role in helping to access Mesa County’s election system as part of a pro-Trump plot to alter the 2020 election outcome.

Chris Reed, former president of MorningStar Ministries, is starting a new church in South Carolina five weeks after resigning from the prophetic ministry and admitting to sexual misconduct with an adult student.

The New Apostolic Reformation is “the greatest threat to US democracy you’ve never heard of.”

===

September 30, 2024 rww

Christian nationalists more likely to support 'all forms of authoritarianism': report an 9 24

year in hate

old Bigotries Melded With New Conspiracies Burgeon White Christian Nationalism

===

an 9 24

Deep-red states meet 'wall of hostility' in forcing Christian nationalism on public schools

===

rww

August 13, 2024

===

rww

A Christian Nationalist ‘Trojan Horse’ In The Election Room

Kyle Mantyla | July 31, 2024}:

In 2023, self-proclaimed Christian nationalist and unabashed Trump cultist Lance Wallnau announced his intention to travel the country ahead of the 2024 elections in order to break the “demonic strongholds” in swing states that are supposedly preventing Republicans from winning elections. That idea eventually merged with the revival Fire and Glory Tour that Wallnau was doing with fellow MAGA cultist Mario Murillo, resulting in plans to merge political rallies with Christian revival meetings in order to help former President Donald Trump return to the White House.

Dubbed “The Courage Tour,” Wallnau and Murillo have so far held events in Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan, consisting of Christian nationalist political organizing during the day and evening sessions focused on spiritual revival and miracle healing. The purpose of these events, as Wallnau explained earlier this year, is to prepare Christians to rule and reign when Jesus Christ returns by training them to “occupy territory now.”

The plan for training Christians to rule in the End Times by getting them politically involved today was on full display when the Courage Tour stopped in Wisconsin this week, and longtime political activist Joshua Standifer urged attendees to sign up to serve as election workers this November so that they can function as a “Trojan horse” for the Christian nationalist political movement.

Standifer leads an organization called The Lion Of Judah that believes “it’s time that Christians led by the Holy Spirit take back the mountain of Government and transform our nation.”

Talk of taking control of “the mountain of government” flows from Seven Mountains Dominionism, a radical theology associated with the New Apostolic Reformation that advocates having right-wing Christians control all aspects of society. Followers of Seven Mountains theology believe that they are to “do whatever is necessary” to take control of the seven main “mountains” that shape our culture—education, government, media, business, arts and entertainment, family, and religion—in order to implement the will of God throughout the nation and the world. Wallnau is a leading proponent of Seven Mountains Dominionism and the theology is at the center of his Courage Tour efforts.

During his remarks on Monday, Standifer urged the conservative Christians in the audience to become election workers, not just volunteers, because “when the polls start to close or chaos unfolds, they’re gonna kick the volunteers out” while right-wing Christians will remain behind to be “the ones counting the votes.”

“I promised you guys an action plan,” Standifer said. “We spent months calculating and creating, meeting with experts, something that we felt like could take Christians and put them in a place of influence. Just imagine: It’s election night. Chaos is happening. The polls are closing. The volunteers are getting kicked out, but what if we had Christians across America and in swing states like Wisconsin that were actually the ones counting the votes and making sure what’s happening?”

Standifer urged the audience to sign up for his “Fight The Fraud” campaign, which will teach them “how to become an election worker in four easy steps.”

“A lot of people don’t realize this, but in Wisconsin, you can get paid to be an election worker,” he announced. “On election night, what happens is when the polls start to close or chaos unfolds, they’re gonna kick the volunteers out. You are actually going to be a paid election worker. You’re going to be trained by your local municipality. I call this our Trojan Horse in; they don’t see it coming, but we’re going to flood election poll stations across the country with spirit-filled believers.”

IFrame Content

The Trump-controlled Republican Party has also launched a major effort to put MAGA-minded election officials in place and recruit poll workers who could be primed to create chaos by Trump’s repeated insistence that the only way he can lose the election is that Democrats cheat. David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who heads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told the Associated Press that for the Republicans to recruit people “in a way that feeds your voters with the idea that the election is going to be stolen, that prepares them to be angry if their candidate loses — that can be very dangerous.”

---

---

July 18, 2024 rww

---

an 7 24

'Advocating Christian nationalism': Analysis unveils Josh Hawley’s 'chilling radicalism'

July 8, 2024 rww

While Feucht often frames himself as a Washington outsider, arguably his most powerful ally is a figure who hovered along the edge of his Rotunda concert, hands raised in prayer: a Republican strategist named Timothy Teepell.

A fundamentalist congregation called Christ Church wants to make Moscow an explicitly Christian city, governed by Biblical principles. To accomplish this, they and their allies are buying up big swaths of real estate and opening businesses to increase their footprint and economic might.

Janet Porter’s latest project, titled “The Child Protection Bill,” attempts to capitalize on the success of the legislative mechanism made infamous by Texas’ 2021 heartbeat bill, which bans abortion after six weeks – before many women are aware of their pregnancy.

The leader of the Heritage Foundation issued an unhinged declaration on Tuesday, telling liberals that they are currently on the business end of “the second American Revolution,” which could turn bloody if they resist.

Conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tried to celebrate American history over the Independence Day weekend ― but got schooled by critics after she botched some basic details.

Indiana’s GOP lieutenant governor nominee has spent years livestreaming his so-called prophecies and wild political ramblings.

A network of Russia-based websites masquerading as local American newspapers is pumping out fake stories as part of an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the US election, a BBC investigation can reveal.

===

July 8, 2024 rww

David Barton Vows to Ensure the Republican Platform Aligns With the First Twelve Chapters of Genesis

rww 6 24

Oklahoma Superintendent Orders Public Schools to Teach Bible as White Christian Nationalists Go ‘On Offense’

Christian Nationalists' Anti-LGBTQ Plan: Allow Anyone To Sue Teacher, Librarian 'Groomers'

June 26, 2024 rww

charlie Kirk’s Turning Point connects far-right extremists with the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign

The Turning Point event this past weekend featured a number of extremists, with at least two speakers using the phrase “Christ is king” — an antisemitic dog whistle long favored by the white nationalist “groyper” movement

WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MADELINE PELTZ, SOPHIE LAWTON & ALEX KAPLAN

PUBLISHED 06/18/24

Several right-wing extremist figures spoke at a weekend event organized by conservative radio host Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action, which is partnering with the Republican National Committee and former President Donald Trump's campaign. At least two speeches included the phrase “Christ is king,” an antisemitic dog whistle long favored by white nationalists.

Speakers at The People’s Convention included right-wing pundit Candace Owens, who has a history of making antisemitic remarks and appears to be associating herself with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes; neo-Nazi collaborator and Pizzagate conspiracy theory peddler Jack Posobiec; and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The presence of these figures is not surprising, given the significant ties Kirk and Turning Point have to right-wing extremists and white nationalists.

The three-day summit illustrated how Turning Point Action and its affiliate Turning Point USA have come to serve as a bridge between official Republican Party institutions and the more openly bigoted and extremist elements of Trump’s movement. Over the weekend, CNN reported that the Trump campaign is working with Turning Point Action. Politico wrote that Turning Point “has become a central player in the party apparatus,” as “part of recent collaborations between the [Trump] campaign, RNC and outside groups.” In May, The Washington Post reported that the RNC was adopting a “leaner” approach and was considering outsourcing much of its voter outreach to TPUSA and other right-wing organizations.

Speaking directly after Kirk on the event’s opening day, Owens opened and closed her speech with the phrase “Christ is king” — a slogan long used by Fuentes’ “groyper” movement that has gained antisemitic connotations through its use in far-right-wing contexts. Last November, Owens used the phrase to troll Ben Shapiro, her then-colleague at The Daily Wire — one flare-up in a monthslong feud between the two. The Daily Wire and Owens “ended their relationship” in March, according to CEO Jeremy Boreing.

“When you do come together and you do start a family, for the love of God, put Christ first,” Owens said, prompting an audience chant of: “Christ is king.”

“Correct, and we’re going to lead out on that chant,” Owens responded.

Owens then claimed that Democrats and liberals are bringing “the full weight of the government” against Trump, but that “Trump is just one step — they’ve always been after Jesus Christ.”

“Christ is king,” Owens said in closing.

Video

CitationFrom the June 14, 2024, Rumble livestream of Turning Point USA's The People's Convention

On the third day of the event, Posobiec echoed Owens.

“We understand this is a war against the demonic, this is a spiritual war!” Posobiec shouted, raising a rosary in his clenched fist. “We can only defeat a spiritual war with Christ as king because Christ is king.”

“Christ is king,” he repeated.

That phrase wasn’t the only example of the groypers’ influence on Turning Point. In 2021, Chet Hanks attempted to manufacture a viral moment for himself by calling for a “white boy summer,” but the phrase was quickly adopted by neo-Nazis and other extremists, including followers of Fuentes. On Sunday, Posobiec took the stage next to a banner reading “WHITE BOY SUMMER” and tossed hats branded with the slogan to the crowd.

Video

CitationFrom a June 16, 2024, Rumble livestream of Turning Point USA's The People's Conference

Posobiec then introduced Jones, appearing fresh off a court order to liquidate his assets in order to pay surviving members of the Sandy Hook massacre whom he’d repeatedly defamed by claiming the shooting was a false flag.

“The answer to 1984 is 1776,” Jones said before attempting to lead the crowd in a “1776” chant — a dog whistle that signifies opposition to the anti-racist 1619 Project.

“Just three or four days ago, the great folks at Turning Point Action invited me on here. I’m very blessed and honored to be here,” Jones said before pushing an election denialist conspiracy theory. “We are in the very center, the TCF Center, where almost four years ago, in the dead of night, they stole the election not just from our amazing president, but from us.”

Later in his speech, Jones repeated another conspiracy theory he’d helped spread in May when he falsely claimed President Joe Biden had hatched a scheme to kill Trump. “They are going to try to assassinate President Trump, make no mistake about that,” Jones said.

Video

CitationFrom a June 16, 2024, Rumble livestream of Turning Point USA's The People's Conference

Posobiec, standing next to Jones, praised his career. “Alex Jones has spent 30 years being the loudest voice for freedom, for liberty, and for anti-war that this world has seen,” Posobiec said.

Other notable speakers included anti-LGBTQ extremist James Lindsay and QAnon conspiracy theory peddler Scott Presler, who was present during the January 6 attempted insurrection and previously worked at anti-Muslim hate group Act for America. In March, RNC co-chair Lara Trump said she was interested in hiring Presler to be “part of the team” to help with “the largest legal ballot harvesting operation in the entire country,” which will be “started by the RNC.”

===

note martha ann triggered by pride flags

===

Christian Nationalist Pastor Paul Blair Melts Down Over Pride Month

[Kyle Mantyla

Paul Blair is a far-right pastor and Christian nationalist who runs an organization called Liberty Pastors, which is dedicated to training pastors to become more involved politically. To that end, Liberty Pastors regularly hosts multi-day retreats around the nation where local pastors and their spouses are instructed by right-wing speakers like Rick Scarborough, Mat Staver, Rick Green, E.W. Jackson, Alex McFarland, and others on how to become members of a modern-day “Black Robe Regiment.” The gatherings are financed largely by religious-right activist Art Ally, founder of the Christian investment firm The Timothy Plan, and are generally limited to 100 pastors so that attendees have an opportunity to interact with the speakers personally “and that really helps with this transformation of their ministry,” Blair claimed last year.

“Over three days at a luxury hotel, we have 20 hours of their time where we literally teach them biblical principles of civil government,” Blair has bragged.

Blair is also a longtime anti-LGBTQ activist, and his virulent bigotry was on full display during a recent episode of his “Liberty Pastors” program during which he ranted about Pride Month.

“This is child abuse,” Blair fumed while showing a photo of a child holding hands with his mother at a Pride event. “This person will one day will stand before God and give an account, but the damage that she is doing to this young man and the likelihood that he is going to wind up on drugs and contemplating suicide because of his mother’s abuse; you’re right, this is child abuse.”

Blair grew even more outraged when he showed a photo from 2015 of a father kissing his young son at a Pride event in New York, and expressed dismay that no one had put the father “face down on the concrete.”

“It’s one thing when this pervert is going to kiss this pervert, but this is abuse of a child,” he said. “This is pedophilia.”

“What’s this wench smiling about?” Blair demanded to know while pointing at a female spectator.

“And this fa**ot over here? What’s he’s smiling about over there?” Blair seethed while pointing at a male spectator. “They ought to be intervening and putting this guy face down on the concrete for abusing this child. I can’t imagine that this is going on in the streets in the United States of America and there’s no one here that’s godly enough or courageous enough to protect this child from this. One day, these men and these accomplices to the crime will stand before God and they’re gonna give an account.”

===

mta? doku ‘Bad Faith’ a Must-See for Americans Concerned About Christian Nationalism

as the aggressive Christian nationalism that infuses the MAGA movement and Republican Party intensifies, journalists and filmmakers are paying closer attention to the threat this political ideology and its adherents pose to freedom in America. A must-watch new documentary, “Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy,” will be available for streaming on AppleTV, Amazon Prime, and Google Play beginning Friday, April 26.

Directed by Stephen Ujlaki and Christopher Jacob Jones and narrated by Peter Coyote, “Bad Faith” makes masterful use of archival and current footage of Christian nationalist religious and political figures, infographics, and interviews with scholars, religious leaders, political analysts, and even a former Trump administration official.

The film draws a compelling through line from the scheming power-building of Paul Weyrich, the right-wing operative who recruited Jerry Falwell and other evangelical preachers to create the religious-right as a political movement in the late 1970s, to the institution-destroying antidemocratic ambitions of MAGA insiders like Steve Bannon, as well as Donald Trump’s dominionist “prophets” and “apostles” and the Jan. 6 insurrectionists they inspired.

As Owen Gleiberman noted in a review for Variety, “what sounded like crackpot raving” from Weyrich’s tear-it-all-down manifesto 15 years ago is “now the cutting edge of the mainstream Republican Party.”

“Bad Faith” explains how that transformation happened, documenting the role played by the Council for National Policy, a partnership between anti-regulation, economically libertarian oil barons and the religious-right leaders who intended to remake the Republican Party, take over the Supreme Court, and use their political power to enforce “traditional” views of family, sexuality, and gender on the rest of the nation.

The Koch brothers poured tens of millions of dollars into “a state-of-the-art political data platform” that Council for National Policy groups use to collect personal information—including personal mental health, behavioral health, and treatment data—and use that information to micro-target individuals. (In “God & Country,” another documentary released earlier this year, Ralph Reed is shown bragging that his organization tracked “147 different data points” on the conservative Christians they targeted for turnout operations.)

“Bad Faith” also connects the modern Christian nationalist movement to a longer history. As the Rev. William Barber points out in the film, the use of religion to justify “all kinds of evils” is not a new phenomenon. At its peak in 1924, the KKK claimed 8 million members, mostly white evangelicals. Linda Gordon, author of “The Second Coming of the KKK,” describes that movement’s belief that new immigrants were subverting the destiny of America to be a white Protestant country. Sound familiar?

Sociologist Samuel Perry notes in the film that Christian Nationalism emerges at times of cultural conflict when those in power—mostly White Christian men—think their power is threatened. Randall Balmer, author of a 2021 book that shares the “Bad Faith” title, describes how court rulings challenging the tax-exempt status of racially segregationist schools, not abortion, motivated evangelical leaders to seek political power in the 1970s. They settled on abortion as a more politically palatable motivator than the defense of racial segregation. As “Freedom Road” author Lisa Sharon Harper notes, religious-right activists targeting the Supreme Court waved the banner of abortion in order to advance white supremacy.

As “Bad Faith” makes clear, religious-right leaders viewed Trump as a powerful blunt weapon in a long-term political and spiritual war against the federal government and institutions dominated by progressive forces. “The Council’s gambit had paid off,” the film notes about Trump’s time in office. “Christian nationalists were firmly embedded at the highest levels of government. The Supreme Court had an absolute majority of justices poised to overturn landmark civil and women’s rights decisions. Paul Weyrich’s vision of a Christian nation was becoming a reality.”

That explains why Christian nationalist leaders were willing to dismantle democracy to keep Trump in power. Members of the Council for National Policy and its political action arm went into “full combat mode” to promote Trump’s big lie, and, as Right Wing Watch documented, they supportedhis efforts to keep power after the 2020 election, portraying it as a holy war between the forces of good and evil. As Samuel Perry notes in the film, viewing politics as spiritual warfare between the forces of God and Satan makes it easy for those who see themselves on God’s side to “justify just about anything.”

While Rev. William Barber offers “Bad Faith” viewers hope that a nationwide justice-seeking movement can reach some of the people who have embraced the Christian nationalist movement, the documentary also argues that our democracy is more fragile that most Americans understand. The Republican Party, says strategist Steve Schmidt, is “more extreme, more dangerous, more committed to the autocratic project of gaining power than it was on Jan. 6, 2021. And this has to be confronted. And there is no issue that supersedes it.”

The Christian nationalist movement is going all-out to put Trump back in power, and its Project 2025 is preparing to “take the reins of government” if he wins. But the political infrastructure built by the Christian right and its allies is far bigger than Trump himself. “Regardless of what happens to Donald Trump, it’s the machinery of the Council for National Policy that has the staying power,” says Anne Nelson, author of “Shadow Network.” “And it’s that machinery that presents the lasting threat to our democracy.”

*“Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy”is a Panarea Production. Directed, Produced and Written by Stephen Ujlaki. Co-Director/Co-Producer: Chris Jones. Executive Producers: Peter D. Graves, John Ptak, Todd Stiefel, Mike Steed. Co-Producer: Doug Blush.

===

Christian Nationalist Joel Webbon Claims To Have The Support Of ‘Massively Influential People’

By Kyle Mantyla | June 4, 2024 rww

During a of his “Theology Applied” podcast, far-right pastor Joel Webbon said that his critics would be shocked to learn that “massively influential” and wealthy people are reaching out to him to voice their support for his radical Christian nationalist agenda.

Webbon is an ardent Christian nationalist who believes that the American people are too degenerate, stupid, and cowardly to abide by the Constitution and therefore must be governed by a Christian dictator who “just rules with an iron fist” and forces everyone to, at the very least, “pretend to be Christian.” Under this Christian leader, Webbon says, the Constitution will be amended to include the Apostles’ Creed, abortion, pornography, no-fault divorce, in vitro fertilization, and birth control will all be outlawed, and women will be banned from voting.

On Monday’s podcast, after Webbon and his guest, fellow Christian nationalist Adam Robles, discussed the need for the United States to be ruled by an “American Caesar” or “Protestant Franco,” they both agreed that Christian nationalism is not just some small, fringe movement.

“I think people would be surprised if you found out the kinds of people that we’re talking to and are following us,” Robles said. “It’s very easy to mock Christian nationalism as a small movements, it’s fringe, nobody cares. And as far as I’m concerned, they can keep doing it.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Webbon agreed. “Without sharing too many details or names, it is a fact that people—massively influential people, high, high, high, high up—it’s not just that we have a speculation; no, they are calling us, texting us, ‘Hey, I saw what you posted on Twitter. I think that’s really good. Hey, I watched your podcast, I think that’s really good.’ I’m talking massive celebrities. Millionaires, if not billionaires.”

“You can keep patting yourself on the back and consoling yourself that Christian nationalism will go away,” Webbon said. “It won’t. It won’t. You might as well go ahead and get with the program.”

IFrame Content

In addition to serving as pastor at Covenant Bible Church in Texas, Webbon is also the founder of Right Response Ministries through which he organizes events like “Blueprints for Christendom 2.0: Seven Doctrines for Ruling the World,” which took place earlier this year andfeatured militant Christian nationalists like Doug Wilson and Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers as speakers.

===

Joel Webbon Says Women Shouldn't Be Allowed To Vote

===

an 5 24

at Texas GOP convention, Republicans call for spiritual warfare]

(https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/28/texas-gop-convention-elections-religion-delegates-platform/)" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

SAN ANTONIO — From his booth in the exhibit hall of the Texas GOP’s 2024 convention, Steve Hotze saw an army of God assembled before him.

For four decades, Hotze, an indicted election fraud conspiracy theorist, has helmed hardline anti-abortion movements and virulently homophobic campaigns against LGTBQ+ rights, comparing gay people to Nazis and helping popularize the “groomer” slur that paints them as pedophiles. Once on the fringes, Hotze said Saturday that he was pleased by the party's growing embrace of his calls for spiritual warfare with “demonic, Satanic forces” on the left.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/JFkqsROPRlcFcL99azhBNmhW0bY=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/ee33b4da54577749111fe238d8b0bd90/0905%20Impeach%20Trial%20Day%201%20BD%20TT%2013.jpg)

From left: Conservative activists Steven Hotze and Jared Woodfill enter the Senate gallery during the afternoon session of Day 1 of the Ken Paxton impeachment trial in the Texas Senate on Sept. 5, 2023. Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune

“People that aren’t in Christ have wicked, evil hearts,” he said. “We are in a battle, and you have to take a side.”

Those beliefs were common at the party’s three-day biennial convention last week, at which delegates adopted a series of new policies that would give the party unprecedented control over the electoral process and further infuse Christianity into public life.

Delegates approved rules that ban Republican candidates — as well as judges — who are censured by the party from appearing on primary ballots for two years, a move that would give a small group of Republicans the ability to block people from running for office, should it survive expected legal challenges. The party’s proposed platform also included planks that would effectively lock Democrats out of statewide office by requiring candidates to win a majority of Texas’ 254 counties, many of which are dark-red but sparsely populated, and called for laws requiring the Bible to be taught in public schools.

Those moves, delegates and leaders agreed, were necessary amid what they say is an existential fight with a host of perceived enemies, be it liberals trying to indoctrinate their children through “gender ideology” and Critical Race Theory, or globalists waging a war on Christianity through migration.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/fzcMrsQQEKXRO3FPEF7YT6aOTHo=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/da9c4842dbc8e8cb35ddbcee11590f3b/0523%20GOP%20Convention%20EH%20TT%2031.jpg)

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speaks during the Texas GOP Convention on Thursday, May 23, 2024 in San Antonio. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

Those fears were stoked by elected officials in almost every speech given over the week. “They want to take God out of the country, and they want the government to be God,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Thursday morning.

“Our battle is not against flesh and blood,” Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, said Friday. “It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

”Look at what the Democrats have done,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Saturday. “If you were actively trying to destroy America, what would you do differently?”

*[“The house is on fire”: Texas GOP plots its next chapter amid civil war, depleted staff, funding drops]

Controlling elections

The Texas GOP’s conventions have traditionally amplified the party’s most hardline activists and views. In 2022, for instance, delegates approved a platform that included calls for a referendum on Texas secession; resistance to the “Great Reset,” a conspiracy theory that claims global elites are using environmental and social policies to enslave the world’s population; proclamations that homosexuality is an “abnormal lifestyle choice”; and a declaration that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected.

The 2024 convention went a step further.

It was the first Texas GOP convention set against the backdrop of a civil war that was sparked by the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and inflamed by scandals over white supremacists and antisemites working for the party’s top funders:{, West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks.}: This year’s convention was also sparsely attended compared to past years, which some longtime party members said helped the Dunn and Wilks faction further consolidate their power and elect their candidate, Abraham George, for party chair.

“What we're seeing right now is a shift toward more populism,” said Summer Wise, a former member of the party’s executive committee who has attended most conventions since 2008, including last week’s. “And the [party’s] infrastructure, leadership, decision-making process, power and influence are being controlled by a small group of people.”

(https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/_X93OkVqWjKf0MF0YqIovXarXM4=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/37d777dfbb61f282f112bd04a575cbbc/0523%20GOP%20Convention%20EH%20TT%2055.jpg)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, wave to attendees during the Republican Party of Texas convention in San Antonio on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

That shift was most evident, she said, in a series of changes to the party’s rules that further empower its leaders to punish dissent. The party approved changes that would dramatically increase the consequences of censures — which were used most recently to punish House Speaker Dade Phelan for his role in impeaching Paxton, and against U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales for voting for gun safety legislation.

Under the changes, any person who is censured by the party would be banned for two years from appearing on GOP primary ballots — including judges, who are elected in partisan races but expected to be politically neutral once on the bench. The party also voted to unilaterally close its primaries, bypassing the Legislature, in a move intended to keep Democrats from voting in Republican primaries.

“It’s pretty hypocritical,” Wise said of the changes, which legal experts and some party members expect will face legal challenges. “Republicans have always opposed activist judges, and this seems to be obligating judges to observe and prioritize party over law — which is straight-up judicial activism.”

The convention came amid a broader embrace of Christian nationalism on the right, which falsely claims that the United States’ founding was God-ordained and that its institutions and laws should reflect their conservative, Christian views. Experts have found strong correlations between Christian nationalist beliefs and opposition to migration, religious pluralism and the democratic process.

*[Proposed Texas GOP platform calls for the Bible in schools, electoral changes that would lock Democrats out of statewide office]

Wise said she has seen parts of the party similarly shift toward dogmatic political and religious views that have been used “to justify or rationalize corrupting the institution and stripping away its integrity, traditions, fundamental and established principles" — as if “‘God wants it, so we can rewrite the rules.’”

“Being Republican and being Christian have become the same thing,” she said. “If you're accused of being a (Republican in Name Only), you're essentially not as Christian as someone else. … God help you if you're Jewish.”

The “rabbit hole”

Bob Harvey is a proud member of the “Grumpy Old Men’s Club,” a group in Montgomery County that he said pushes back against Fox News and other outlets that he claims have been infiltrated by RINOs.

“People trust Fox News, and they need to get outside of that and find alternative news and like-minded people,” Harvey, 71, said on Friday, as he waited in a long line to meet Kyle Rittenhouse, who has ramped up his engagement in Texas politics since he was acquitted of homicide after fatally shooting two Black Lives Matter protesters.

Rather, Harvey’s group recommends places such as the Gateway Pundit, Steve Bannon’s Breitbart News or the Epoch Times, a far-right website that also had a booth at this year’s convention and is directly linked to the Falun Gong, a hardline anti-communist group.

Such outlets, Harvey said, are crucial to getting people “further down the rabbit hole,” after which they can begin to connect the dots between the deep-state that has spent years attacking former President Donald Trump, and the agenda of the left to indoctrinate kids through the Boy Scouts of America, public schools and the Democratic Party.

Harvey’s views were widely-held by his fellow delegates, many of whom were certain that broader transgender acceptance, Critical Race Theory or “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives were parts of a sinister plot to destroy the country and take over its churches.

The culprits behind the ploy differed — Democrats, socialists or “globalists,” to name a few. But their nefarious end goals loomed over the convention. Fearing a transgender takeover of the Republican Party of Texas, delegates pushed to explicitly stipulate that the party’s chair and vice chair must be “biological” men or women.

At events to recruit pastors and congregations to ramp up their political activism, elected leaders argued that churches were the only thing standing between evil and children. And the party’s proposed platform included planks that claim gender-transition care is child abuse, or urge new legislation in Texas that's "even more comprehensive" than Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits the teaching of sexual orientation or gender identity in public schools.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/ciJpskJjFVkA32MexM-6q3bGI6M=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/8fc7586ac950819feeeabb4760560fb8/0523%20GOP%20Convention%20EH%20TT%2072.jpg)

Kyle Rittenhouse shakes hands with conventioneers at a meet and greet during the Texas GOP convention on Thursday in San Antonio. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

“Our next generation is being co-opted and indoctrinated where they should have been educated,” Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, said at a Friday luncheon for pastors and churches. “We are in a spiritual battle. This isn't a political one.”

For at least a half-century, conservative Christian movements have been fueled by notions of a shadowy and coordinated conspiracy to destroy America, said Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at Southern Methodist University who focuses on movements to put the Bible in public schools.

“It's like the boogeyman that won't go away, that gets summoned whenever a justification is needed for these types of agendas,” he said. “They say that somebody is threatening quintessential American freedoms, and that these threats are posed by some sort of global conspiracy — rather than just recognizing that we're a pluralistic democracy.”

In the 1950s, such claims were the driving force behind the emergence of groups such as the John Birch Society, a hardline anti-communist group whose early members included the fathers of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Trump. After decades of dwindling influence, the society has seen a revival since Trump's 2016 election. And in the exhibit hall last week, so-called Birchers passed out literature and pamphlets that detailed the New World Order's secret plans for "world domination."

Steve Oglesby, field director for the Birch Society's North Texas chapter, said interest and membership in the group has been on the rise in recent years — particularly, as COVID-19 lockdowns and international climate change initiatives have spurred right-wing fears of an international cabal working against the United States.

"COVID really helped," he said, adding that the pandemic proved the existence of a global elite that has merely shifted its tactics since the 1950s. “It’s not just communism — it’s the people pulling the strings.”

Throughout the week, prominent Republicans invoked similar claims of a coordinated conspiracy against the United States. On Friday, Patrick argued that a decadeslong decline in American religion was part of a broader, “Marxist socialist left” agenda to “create chaos,” including through migration — despite studies showing that migrants are overwhelmingly Christian. Attorney General Ken Paxton echoed those claims in his own speech minutes later, saying migration was part of a plan to "steal another election."

“The Biden Administration wants the illegals here to vote,” he said.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/XrT-lkapyY0opApzI2UV_yF-8JE=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/f65ff0a8564b0acdb321e69bd3b233c7/0523%20GOP%20Convention%20EH%20TT%2011.jpg)

Ella Maulding and Konner Earnest watch as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speaks during the Republican Party of Texas convention in San Antonio on Thursday, the first day of the gathering. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

As Paxton continued, Ella Maulding and Konner Earnest held hands and nodded their approval from the convention hall’s front row. Last year, the two were spotted outside of a Tarrant County office building where Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist and Adolf Hitler fan, was hosted for nearly seven hours by Jonathan Stickland, then the leader of Dunn and Wilks' most powerful political action committee. They eventually lost their jobs after The Texas Tribune reported on their ties to Fuentes or white nationalist groups.

Maulding has been particularly vocal about her support for Great Replacement Theory, a conspiracy theory that claims there is an intentional, often Jewish-driven, effort to replace white people through migration, LGBTQ+ acceptance or interracial marriage. Once a fringe, white nationalist worldview, experts say that Great Replacement Theory has been increasingly mainstreamed as Republican leaders, including some who spoke last week, continue to claim that migration is part of a coordinated effort to aid Democrats. The theory has also been cited by numerous mass shooters, including the gunman who murdered 22 Hispanic people at an El Paso WalMart in 2019.

Five hours after Paxton and Patrick spoke, Maulding took to social media, posting a cartoon of a rabbi with the following text: “I make porn using your children and then make money distributing it under the banner of women’s rights while flooding your nation with demented lunatics who then rape your children.”

David Barton

Kason Huddleston has spent the last few years helping elect Christians and push back against what he believes is indoctrination of children in Rowlett, near Dallas. Far too often, he said, churches and pastors have become complacent, or have been scared away from political engagement by federal rules that prohibit churches from overt political activity.

Through trainings from groups like Christians Engaged, which advocates for church political activity and had a booth at this year’s convention, he said he has been able show more local Christians that they can be “a part of the solution” to intractable societal ills such as fatherlessness, crime or teen drug use. And while he thinks that some of his peers’ existential rhetoric can be overwrought, he agreed that there is an ongoing effort to “tear down the family unit” and shroud America’s true, Christian roots.

“If you look at our government and our laws, all of it goes back to a Judeo-Christian basis,” he said. “Most people don’t know our true history because it’s slowly just been removed.”

He then asked: “Have you ever read David Barton?”

Since the late 1980s, Barton has barnstormed the state and country claiming that church-state separation is a “myth” meant to shroud America’s true founding as a Christian nation. Barton, a self-styled “amateur historian” who served as Texas GOP vice chair from 1997 to 2006, has been thoroughly debunked by an array of historians and scholars — many of them also conservative Christians.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/Pr4f05aMyQrJ6_1ubGg9az8vwjQ=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/7acf1f2412dd7df9c6f492e50a5f07ee/BD%20INC%20Barton%20David%20748%202012)

David Barton, left, of WallBuilders, at a Texas Eagle Forum reception at the Republican Party of Texas convention in Fort Worth on June 7, 2012. Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune

Despite that, Barton’s views have become widespread among Republicans, including Patrick, Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. And his influence over the party was clear at last week’s convention, where his group, WallBuilders, maintained a booth and delegates frequently cited him.

This year’s platform, the votes for which are expected to be released later this week, included planks that urged lawmakers and the State Board of Education to “require instruction on the Bible, servant leadership and Christian self-governance,” and supports the use of religious chaplains in schools — which was made legal under a law passed by the state Legislature last year.

Warren Throckmorton, a former Grove City College professor and prominent conservative, Christian critic of Barton, told the Tribune that the platform emblematized Barton’s growing influence, and his movement’s conflicting calls to preserve “religious liberty” while attempting to elevate their faith over others. The platform, he noted, simultaneously demands that students’ religious rights be protected, and for schools to be forced to teach the Bible.

“What about the other students who aren’t Christians and who don't believe in the Bible?” he said. “This is not religious liberty — it’s Christian dominance.”

As Zach Maxwell watched his fellow Republicans debate and vote last week, he said he was struck by the frequency and intensity with which Christianity was invoked. Maxwell previously served as chief of staff for former Rep. Mike Lang, then the leader of the ultraconservative Texas House Freedom Caucus, and he later worked for Empower Texans, a political group that was funded primarily by Dunn and Wilks.

He eventually became disillusioned with the party’s right wing, which he said has increasingly been driven by purity tests and opposition to religious or political diversity. This year’s convention, he said, was the culmination of those trends.

“God was not only used as a tool at this convention, but if you didn’t mention God in some way, fake or genuine, I did feel it was seen as distasteful,” he said. “There is a growing group of people who want to turn this nation into a straight-up theocracy. I believe they are doing it on the backs of people who are easily manipulated.”

Nancy Leclerc poses for a photo in front of a GOP elephant statue during the Texas GOP convention in San Antonio on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/28/texas-gop-convention-elections-religion-delegates-platf

rww 5 24

Earlier this month, Right Wing Watch posted a couple of clips of far-right pastor Joel Webbon laying out his Christian nationalist vision for America in which this nation is controlled by a Caesar-like dictator who “rules with an iron fist” and forces everyone to at least “pretend to be Christian.”

[vid]

In response to Right Wing Watch’s post, Webbon dedicated anentire episode of his podcast to insisting that his call for dictatorship was being misrepresented because, he claimed, he was merely speaking descriptively (i.e., explaining what could happen) and not prescriptively (i.e., explaining what should happen).

We’re not sure we buy that defense, especially given Webbon’s explicit declaration that “men must be governed” and “you need a Caesar-type” dictator to do that governing could certainly be interpreted as a prescriptive statement.

IFrame Content

We are even less convinced by that defense after watching the rest of Webbon’s podcast as he very clearly laid out a prescription for how he’d like to see his Christian nationalist worldview implemented.

“I love the Constitution,” Webbon claimed. “I absolutely love it. If there was anything that I would do to the Constitution at all—if revival swept through the land, or we got an American Cesar and he was Christian … One of the first things that I would advocate for is not even changing the Constitution, but simply adopting to the Constitution a preamble of the Apostles Creed.”

“Other than that, I love the Constitution,” Webbon added.

Webbon later insisted that nations must be governed by men who use their power to ensure that “we will serve the Lord, whether you like it or not.”

“We are going to behave as a Christian people,” Webbon proclaimed. “And what does that mean? It means we’re going to ban pornography. It means we’re going to ban no-fault divorce. It means we are going to absolutely, utterly abolish abortion, including in vitro, including the hormonal birth control pill, every single one of its forms; not just the Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas, but we’re going to go down to the local CVS and we’re going to start knocking those pills off the shelf. No more human sacrifice. So, a civil magistrates can do that. He can and should do that.”

Webbon concluded by completely agreeing when his co-host asserted that it is preferable to see the United States become a Christian nation under whatever form of government is necessary to achieve that result rather than to see it remain a republic.

“I’d rather have a Christian monarchy than our current state of affairs,” Webbon replied.

---

rww 5 24

there is no myth that Christian nationalists love repeating more than the claim that the Bible was the source most frequently cited by the Founding Fathers. And Tim Barton of WallBuilders has a particular love for spreading this false claim, which makes sense given that it originated with his father, Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton.

On yesterday’s episode of “WallBuilders Live,” the younger Barton was at it again.

“When people talk about America being a secular nation, it’s really because they don’t understand the history, they haven’t done the research,” Barton said. “And there’s some people that claim to have done the research, and [say], ‘We don’t see it.’ Well, you have to be completely intentionally ignoring it when it’s so evident.”

“We can point to books like ‘The Origins of American Constitutionalism,’ where a group of professors went through and they documented who the Founding Fathers quoted and cited the most in their writings,” Barton continued. “And what they identified was that 34 percent of all of the quotations they found in the Founders’ writings were quotations from the Bible. They only included things that were in quotation marks. … [While] they’re only measuring what’s in quotation marks, they acknowledged that they recognized so many Bible references that were very obvious Bible references that weren’t in quotation marks, that [had] they included what the very obvious things were, they would have been far higher than 34 percent of the quotes and references to the Founders’ writings coming from the Bible.”

“This wasn’t a study done by a group of Christian professors,” Barton concluded. “This was a study done by intellectually honest professors who were saying, ‘We just want to see what really influenced the Founding Fathers,’ and the Bible is so far above and beyond any other influence on the Founding Fathers, as far as evidenced in their writing.”

IFrame Content

As Right Wing Watch has explained multiple times, this claim is rooted in a 1984 study conducted by professor Donald S. Lutz of the University of Houston that sought to identify which writers and sources of ideas were most cited in “the political writings of Americans published between 1760 and 1805.” Lutz found that the Bible was cited most frequently solely because many of the pamphlets included in the research were sermons that had been reprinted for mass distribution. Once the sermon pamphlets were excluded, Lutz reported that quotes from the Bible appeared no more frequently in the political writings of the era than citations of the classical or common law. More importantly, Lutz also noted that when the focus was solely on public political writings from 1787 to 1788, when the U.S. Constitution was written and ratified, “the Bible’s prominence disappears” almost completely.

In 1988, some of the contents from that study made their way into a book Lutz wrote called “The Origins of American Constitutionalism” and, predictably, it does not say what Barton claims it does. What Lutz’s book actually says is that “approximately 80 percent of the political pamphlets published during the 1770s were reprinted sermons” and that his study found that “about three-fourths of all the references to the Bible came from reprinted sermons.” Lutz said that he included about “one-third of all significant secular publications” in his study, but only “one-tenth of the reprinted sermons.” Had the two sources been “strictly proportional” in his study, Lutz said it “would have resulted in an abundance of religious references.”

When biblical citations contained in sermons were excluded, Lutz reported that the citation of the Bible among secular works represented “about 9 percent of all citations—about equal to the percentage for classical writers.”

Lutz did not find, as Barton asserted, that “34 percent of all of the quotations … found in the Founders’ writings were quotations from the Bible.” And Lutz most certainly did not say, as Barton claimed, that if indirect references to the Bible had been included in the study, there “would have been far higher than 34 percent of the quotes and references to the Founders’ writings coming from the Bible.”

Barton was deliberately misrepresenting what Lutz wrote in both his study and his book, and he presumably knows that. But what Barton also presumably knows is that his audience does not know this, which is why he and so many other Christian nationalists continue to repeat it, because doing so helps them promote their own modern-day right-wing political agenda.

===

April 29, 2024 RWW

===

rww 4 24

s the aggressive Christian nationalism that infuses the MAGA movement and Republican Party intensifies, journalists and filmmakers are paying closer attention to the threat this political ideology and its adherents pose to freedom in America. A must-watch new documentary, “Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy,” will be available for streaming on AppleTV, Amazon Prime, and Google Play beginning Friday, April 26.

Directed by Stephen Ujlaki and Christopher Jacob Jones and narrated by Peter Coyote, “Bad Faith” makes masterful use of archival and current footage of Christian nationalist religious and political figures, infographics, and interviews with scholars, religious leaders, political analysts, and even a former Trump administration official.

The film draws a compelling through line from the scheming power-building of Paul Weyrich, the right-wing operative who recruited Jerry Falwell and other evangelical preachers to create the religious-right as a political movement in the late 1970s, to the institution-destroying antidemocratic ambitions of MAGA insiders like Steve Bannon, as well as Donald Trump’s dominionist “prophets” and “apostles” and the Jan. 6 insurrectionists they inspired.

As Owen Gleiberman noted in a review for Variety, “what sounded like crackpot raving” from Weyrich’s tear-it-all-down manifesto 15 years ago is “now the cutting edge of the mainstream Republican Party.”

“Bad Faith” explains how that transformation happened, documenting the role played by the Council for National Policy, a partnership between anti-regulation, economically libertarian oil barons and the religious-right leaders who intended to remake the Republican Party, take over the Supreme Court, and use their political power to enforce “traditional” views of family, sexuality, and gender on the rest of the nation.

The Koch brothers poured tens of millions of dollars into “a state-of-the-art political data platform” that Council for National Policy groups use to collect personal information—including personal mental health, behavioral health, and treatment data—and use that information to micro-target individuals. (In “God & Country,” another documentary released earlier this year, Ralph Reed is shown bragging that his organization tracked “147 different data points” on the conservative Christians they targeted for turnout operations.)

“Bad Faith” also connects the modern Christian nationalist movement to a longer history. As the Rev. William Barber points out in the film, the use of religion to justify “all kinds of evils” is not a new phenomenon. At its peak in 1924, the KKK claimed 8 million members, mostly white evangelicals. Linda Gordon, author of “The Second Coming of the KKK,” describes that movement’s belief that new immigrants were subverting the destiny of America to be a white Protestant country. Sound familiar?

Sociologist Samuel Perry notes in the film that Christian Nationalism emerges at times of cultural conflict when those in power—mostly White Christian men—think their power is threatened. Randall Balmer, author of a 2021 book that shares the “Bad Faith” title, describes how court rulings challenging the tax-exempt status of racially segregationist schools, not abortion, motivated evangelical leaders to seek political power in the 1970s. They settled on abortion as a more politically palatable motivator than the defense of racial segregation. As “Freedom Road” author Lisa Sharon Harper notes, religious-right activists targeting the Supreme Court waved the banner of abortion in order to advance white supremacy.

As “Bad Faith” makes clear, religious-right leaders viewed Trump as a powerful blunt weapon in a long-term political and spiritual war against the federal government and institutions dominated by progressive forces. “The Council’s gambit had paid off,” the film notes about Trump’s time in office. “Christian nationalists were firmly embedded at the highest levels of government. The Supreme Court had an absolute majority of justices poised to overturn landmark civil and women’s rights decisions. Paul Weyrich’s vision of a Christian nation was becoming a reality.”

That explains why Christian nationalist leaders were willing to dismantle democracy to keep Trump in power. Members of the Council for National Policy and its political action arm went into “full combat mode” to promote Trump’s big lie, and, as Right Wing Watch documented, they supportedhis efforts to keep power after the 2020 election, portraying it as a holy war between the forces of good and evil. As Samuel Perry notes in the film, viewing politics as spiritual warfare between the forces of God and Satan makes it easy for those who see themselves on God’s side to “justify just about anything.”

While Rev. William Barber offers “Bad Faith” viewers hope that a nationwide justice-seeking movement can reach some of the people who have embraced the Christian nationalist movement, the documentary also argues that our democracy is more fragile that most Americans understand. The Republican Party, says strategist Steve Schmidt, is “more extreme, more dangerous, more committed to the autocratic project of gaining power than it was on Jan. 6, 2021. And this has to be confronted. And there is no issue that supersedes it.”

The Christian nationalist movement is going all-out to put Trump back in power, and its Project 2025 is preparing to “take the reins of government” if he wins. But the political infrastructure built by the Christian right and its allies is far bigger than Trump himself. “Regardless of what happens to Donald Trump, it’s the machinery of the Council for National Policy that has the staying power,” says Anne Nelson, author of “Shadow Network.” “And it’s that machinery that presents the lasting threat to our democracy.”

*“Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy”is a Panarea Production. Directed, Produced and Written by Stephen Ujlaki. Co-Director/Co-Producer: Chris Jones. Executive Producers: Peter D. Graves, John Ptak, Todd Stiefel, Mike Steed. Co-Producer: Doug Blush.

---

mma 4 24

two right-wing media figures with extremist backgrounds and connections are planning a “United For Israel” countermarch on April 25 in response to the reportedly peaceful student-led pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, with one claiming the campus has “been taken over by radical Pro-Hamas protestors,” and the other urging “every Christian who can” to “join us in standing with Israel.”

Christian nationalist media figure Sean Feucht has used a member of the Proud Boys as security at an event he held, while right-wing radio host Eric Metaxas has admitted to punching an anti-Trump protester in the face in 2020.

Other far-right media figures such as Laura Loomer and Andy Ngô have also promoted the march to their hundreds of thousands of social media followers. Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes was also reportedly seen on Columbia University’s campus near the protest the day before the scheduled countermarch.

---

April 12, 2024 rww

From traditional Christian-right figures to secret societies envisioning a ‘national divorce,’ a growing contingent of radical activists is planning for Christian supremacy.

Fiery debate over a bill to protect health care workers who provide abortion and gender-affirming care from out-of-state lawsuits crossed a line in the Maine House, leading lawmakers to formally censure a pair of colleagues on Thursday.

On his BlazeTV show, Auron MacIntyre interviewed longtime white nationalist Kevin DeAnna about the potential demise of VDARE — a racist, anti-immigrant website he writes for. MacIntyre also promoted the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy, and praised white supremacist figures like Sam Francis and Pat Buchanan.

The woman who went viral for hugging former President Donald Trump at an Atlanta Chick-fil-A is a longtime conservative activist connected to the “BLEXIT” organization.

CROW’s 7 stories on the Christian Right that you need read this week.

“We’re on the brink of absolute societal collapse. I don’t want any more immigration, legal or illegal. So, we need to pressure more Republicans into adopting this position. People like to say it’s xenophobic. People like to say it’s too nationalistic. Well, I think that, you know, nationalism keeps you safe. Profiling keeps you safe. Discrimination keeps you safe.”

---

---

3 24 rww

The Christian nationalist program “FlashPoint” has, since its inception, served as a platform for spreading wild conspiracy theories and Christian nationalist disinformation.That pattern continued when “FlashPoint” hosted an event in Oklahoma last week at which former Rep. Michele Bachmann delivered a speech overflowing with falsehoods about the supposedly Christian nature of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

While reminiscing about obtaining her law degree from Oral Roberts University, a right-wing evangelical university located in Oklahoma, Bachmann bragged that her professors required the students to learn about the founding of this nation using “primary source documents.”

IFrame Content

“So they had us read what is it that the founders read? Who are the philosophers they read?” Bachmann said. “The number one document they referred to when they were trying to figure out what kind of a country we should be; guess what? The Bible!”

As Right Wing Watch has explained multiple times, this claim is a deliberate misrepresentation of a 1984 study conducted by professor Donald S. Lutz of the University of Houston that sought to identify which writers and sources of ideas were most cited in “the political writings of Americans published between 1760 and 1805.” Lutz found that the Bible was cited most frequently solely because many of the pamphlets included in the research were sermons that had been reprinted for mass distribution. Once the sermon pamphlets were excluded, Lutz reported that quotes from the Bible appeared no more frequently in the political writings of the era than citations of the classical or common law.

More importantly, Lutz also noted that when the focus was solely on the public political writings from 1787 to 1788, when the U.S. Constitution was written and ratified, “the Bible’s prominence disappears” almost completely.

Undeterred, Bachmann continued to spread obvious falsehoods.

“[The Founders] looked at all societies throughout all history,” she claimed. “They said, ‘We’ve got a unique chance in all the world to create a society. What should it look like? What should it be based on?’ They studied all societies and those forms of government, and they decided—when they had done all that—they needed to search the word of God. And so you can take the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence [and] you can literally tie it to a Bible verse; about every three or four words, it’s based upon another area of Scripture.”

This claim is, of course, also entirely false.

Both of Bachmann’s claims are either misleading or outright false, which seems to be a common theme as time and again, Christian nationalists spread blatant falsehoods in defense of their ideology, leading one to wonder why, if their position is true, do they have to keep lying to try and “prove” it. Clearly, they simply do not care about the truth as long as these myths remain useful in convincing Americans that the Christian nationalists’ political agenda is justified by our history.

---

---

March 14, 2024 rww

=

===

an 3 24

Ron DeSantis and his allies in the GOP-controlled Florida State Legislature have been major allies of the Religious Right, pushing a socially conservative agenda in public schools. State lawmakers have passed a bill that would allow religious chaplains to offer students counseling in public schools, and the bills awaits DeSantis' signature.

In an opinion column published on March 17, MSNBC's Zeeshan Aleem argues that if DeSantis does sign the bill into law, it will be an egregious violation of the United States' separation of church and state.

The Religious Right and Christian nationalists have been claiming that there is no such thing as separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution, but the Constitution's First Amendment clearly states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The late Norman Lear's People for the American Way, over the years, has emphasized that while the U.S. promises freedom of religion, government has no business promoting one religion over another.

READ MORE:**'Christian nationalism' is a dangerous perversion of both religion and politics: conservative**

Aleem warns, "The emerging crusade to install school chaplains should be understood as an outgrowth of rising Christian nationalism, and an alarming threat to America’s students. It violates the spirit of the First Amendment for public schools to hire religious administrators who have the opportunity to indoctrinate students with their religious beliefs."

The MSNBC columnist notes that the Florida bill's "requirements for serving as a volunteer chaplain are virtually nonexistent."

"Public schools inviting chaplains onto campus raises obvious First Amendment questions," Aleem explains. "School districts will be picking and choosing religious figures to come onto campus to provide children with services that would typically be carried out by a school counselor — guidance on issues such as academics, relationships, mental health, trouble at home, bullying and future career ideas. But instead of drawing from education and training specific to counseling young people, chaplains would be drawing from their spiritual beliefs."

The columnist adds, "At the bare minimum, this means schools would be priming students to think of specific religions as an educational resource."

READ MORE:**'Handmaid’s Tale': Biden campaign blasts Trump Christian nationalism plans**

The "specific religions" part, according to Aleem, is important. Although Christian nationalists believe the U.S. is a "Christian nation," there is nothing in the Constitution that favors Christianity over Judaism, Islam, Hinduism or any other religion.

"Chaplains infiltrating public schools would constitute state-sponsored promotion of religion, in violation of the First Amendment's commitments to a secular state," Aleem writes. "In Florida's bill, parents would have to consent to allow their child to see such a cleric, but in some other states’ bills — including Texas’ policy — no consent is required."

READ MORE:[Far-right group that calls Biden 'the antichrist' is now the 'center of gravity' in evangelicalism

*Zeeshan Aleem's full MSNBC column is available at this link.

===

===

rww 3 24

Texas state Rep. Matt Schaefer appeared on a Christians Engaged livestream[, where he put his radical Christian nationalist worldview on full display, declaring that every elected official at every level is obligated to “worship God” and ensure that biblical commands are turned into public policy.

Schaefer, who insists that every elected official must “really understand what the Bible says” before running for office, proclaimed that any government that failed to use its power to uphold “biblical mandates” is in direct rebellion against God.

“The first biblical command for all rulers and all persons in authority is to worship God,” Schaefer said. “It’s all over the Bible. Look at the cycle of Israel and all the kings and the rulers that came along; when they obeyed, they had blessing, and then when they disobeyed, they had curses. The overriding command to every person, and every king, every state representative, every county commissioner—doesn’t matter what level—is to worship God and to love him. If you’re not doing that, then you’re out of his will.”

“All government is established by God, and if you’re not doing it his way, then you’re in disobedience,” he added. “There’s only two courses: there’s obedience or rebellion. Those are really the only two options for any elected official.”

Later in the interview, Schaefer explained just what this means in practice when he asserted that right-wing Christians have a “biblical mandate” to use the power of the state to outlaw abortion in the name of “pure religion.”

“A Christian has to be a steward of civil government,” Schaefer said. “I think there are very practical issues like the issue of abortion. In the book of James, it talks about pure religion, and that’s taking care of sick, going into the widow and the orphan in their distress. That is pure religion.”

“If you look at that word ‘orphan,'” he continued, “when a woman has gone into a Planned Parenthood clinic and she’s sitting in the waiting room, and she’s filling out the paperwork, and she signs that bottom line—that consent—for that doctor to kill her child, and she puts the pen down on the clipboard and hands it back to the nurse, in that moment, that child has become an orphan because no earthly mother or father stands there to protect that little girl or a little boy anymore. And so as Christians, we have a biblical mandate to visit the orphan in their distress. And we do that through public policy. We do that through our elected representatives. How can you neglect that? How can we neglect the orphan inside the mother’s womb when we have a chance to vote on people who will decide whether that is legal or not?”

---

Staffers behind Mayorkas impeachment outed as veterans of Christian nationalist groups - Alternet.org

an 3 24

the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is likely to begin in the US Senate this week. It is expected to be quickly tabled or dismissed by Democrats, who hold the majority and have criticized House Republicans for bringing the case to trial despite a lack of "high crimes and misdemeanors" the Constitution requires to necessitate impeachment.

Both Senate Democrats and Republicans have criticized the Mayorkas impeachment as a political stunt. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) said his Republican counterparts in the House of Representatives were engaging in the "worst, dumbest exercise and use of time" for an impeachment that was "obviously dead on arrival." Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) dismissed it as "political theater from a Republican Party that can't do any real legislative work."

And as if to underscore that point, one journalist has exposed the staffers who authored the articles of impeachment as seasoned veterans of far-right, Christian nationalist groups.

READ MORE:'Dumbest exercise': Pro-Trump senator blasts House GOP's impeachment of Mayorkas

In a thread on X (formerly Twitter), Jonathan Larsen — who most recently worked for The Young Turks and MSNBC — tweeted multiple pieces of evidence tying the staffers who steered impeachment efforts to several prominent Christian right groups he described as having a "theocratic" agenda. He noted that the leaders of these groups have "used lies to dispatch political foes," like Mayorkas.

Stephen Siao, who is the staff director of the GOP-controlled House Homeland Security Committee, is also the chief of staff for Rep. Mark Green (R-Tennessee), who chairs the committee. Larsen found that Siao is the former grassroots director of Heritage Action (the political arm of the far-right Heritage Foundation, which is behind the controversial Project 2025 campaign). He has additional experience with Hillsdale College — led by board chairman Pat Sajak of Wheel of Fortune fame — which is one of the leading organizations behind the evangelical right's crusade against LGBTQ+ rights. Siao also began his DC career at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has played an influential role in numerous Supreme Court decisions benefiting the religious right — like the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores case in which corporations were given a "religious exemption" for denying employees' contraception care.

Siao is also a member of the Council for National Policy (CNP). As Larsen reported, CNP executive director Bob McEwen is a member of the secretive far-right organization The Family (also known as The Fellowship), which is the primary organizer of the annual National Prayer Breakfast. That organization was notably a prominent backer of Uganda's legislation to implement the death penalty for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

According to Larsen, both Siao and his own deputy recently attended educational sessions hosted by the Faith & Law Project. Larsen tweeted a description of the Faith & Law's 2022 conference, in which the organization sought to help "thought leaders and policymakers" apply a "Biblical worldview" to their "public square vocation." That conference was entitled "Christian Faithfulness in Public Service: Essential characteristics of a Christ-follower on Capitol Hill." Larsen also tweeted a statement from a female staffer on Green's committee, who wrote that she "frequently ask[s]" how her "personal faith should influence" her legislative work, and that the Faith & Law retreat would help her "answer that question."

READ MORE:'We're getting close': Ex-Trump official calls on fundamentalist Christians to 'heed the call to arms'

The ideology of Christian nationalism asserts that the United States was founded as a Christian nation (many of the founding fathers were actually Deists) and that public policy should be crafted for the explicit promotion of Christianity. A 2023 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution found that more than half of Republicans polled said they wanted the US to be an explicitly Christian nation.

After he was officially elected as Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) invited anyone curious about his politics to "go pick up a Bible." He also said that the separation of church and state was a "misnomer" in a CNBC interview.

READ MORE:Mike Johnson's 'Christian nationalism' is 'a greater threat to America than al-Qaida': strategist

---

an 2 24 no lnx

Tuesday's episode of MSNBC's The ReidOut, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson spoke with host Joy Reid Tuesday about one of the most "frightening" aspects of a potential second Donald Trump administration.

Reid pointed to a Tuesday Politico report highlighting the fact that Russell Vought, former Trump director of the Office of Management and Budget is spearheading the potential administration's efforts to inject Christian nationalist ideals into the US government.

The MSNBC host emphasized that during a second Trump term, the United States government could eventually mirror Argentina's government — which has become an "the ultra-capitalist state" under its president — if the MAGA hopeful is successful in implementing a Christian nationalist state.

READ MORE: 'Handmaid’s Tale': Biden campaign blasts Trump Christian nationalism plans

"We don't want to do that. We really don't want to do that," Robinson replied. "I lived in Argentina. I love Argentina, the people and everything, but we don't want to follow their terms of government and how they raise their government. Vought wants to give Christian nationalism an image makeover and make it a bright and sunny and good thing. The Constitution — it doesn't really say separation of church and state, according to him. That piece — the Politico piece — about his plans is really frightening."

The longtime Post columnist emphasized, "One of the most frightening things is his apparent plans to bring back one of Trump's worst appointees, Michael Flynn, who pops up in that story later on. And he's become a christian nationalist nut. I guess he always was or has been for a long time. I'll tell you, this is extreme and it is — it's not irreversible, but this is really terrible for the country. And the Republican party is fine with this, and it's not only allowing it, but aiding and abetting it, and pushing it forward in a very deliberate way."

Watch the video below or at this link.

---

---

---

rww February 15, 2024

“God & Country,” a new documentary about Christian nationalism, is set to be released this week. Produced by Rob Reiner and based on Katherine Stewart’s book “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism,” the film explores that ways in which far-right Christian activists use and misuse religion and the Bible for political purposes and the role that Christian nationalism played in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The roster of right-wing figures featured on the film reads like a who’s who of Right Wing Watch posts over the years; the film’s credits include thanks to Right Wing Watch for providing source material. In anticipation of the film’s release, we have put together his a quick overview of just who these activists are to help viewers understand their views and roles within the larger Christian nationalist movement.

---

February 9, 2024 rww

---

---

Mike Johnson invited a Christian nationalist media figure to serve as the House of Representatives’ guest chaplain | Media Matters for America

===

rww January 29, 2024

Far-right pastor Dusty Deevers was elected to a seat in the Oklahoma state senate during a special election in December. Deevers ran as an unapologetic Christian nationalist, vowing to apply “the word of God to every issue” and to push to abolish abortion, pornography, and no-fault divorce, Upon taking office, Deevers immediately introduced legislation that seeks to enshrine those campaign promises into law.

Last Friday, Deeversappeared on the “Conversations That Matter” program, where he perfectly encapsulated the Christian nationalist worldview and bluntly laid it out for everyone to see.

:{:{“Governing is about the use of authority and what is the standard for the use of authority,” Deevers[pix]}:

(https://youtu.be/HYPd7YHE8iI).

“God prescribes servants of his to govern as his mediators on this Earth. So, he has prescribed governing and then he has also prescribed the means for our governing and that means is in accordance with his word. If we do otherwise, then we are essentially usurping the sovereign role of God through Christ, who has been seated above every power in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth.”}:

“So, that’s our marching orders, and it’s pretty straightforward,” Deevers added. “If you want to talk about Christian nationalism, [this is] what we mean by a Christian nation.”

Deevers asserted that forcing non-Christians to live in country governed exclusively according to the Christian nationalist interpretation of the Bible is an example of Christian “grace,” as such a system of government leads to “the best life for anyone and everyone whether they believe in [God] or not.”

“They’re getting a measure of grace from being in proximity to the true Christianity,” Deevers declared. “Whenever Christians are voted into office, it’s not just good for Christians, it’s good for the wicked as well.”

“[God has] spoken his word how the world is to be ordered and that ordered good is the best life for anyone and everyone whether they believe in him or not,” he continued. “So, it is a grace to all under the jurisdiction of a Christian leader who will bow the knee to Christ, it’s a grace to all of them.”

There is no room for compromise or consensus in politics, Deevers stated.

“Either you’re coming under the rule of God, your Creator, who is also gracious and sent his son, or you’re going to come under the rule of the serpent,” Deevers proclaimed. “So, it’s a serpentine theocracy or a rule of God, and there’s not a space in the middle.”

“Jesus is king and we obey him, and anything he says to do is what is best, and it will happen and accordance with his will and his timing,” Deevers said. “I won’t play politics if you think that there’s a space to take God’s rule and reign and to tamper with it and to practice cunning with the Scriptures.”

---

---

rww 1 24

Christian Nationalist Floyd Brown Is Kari Lake’s Campaign Chairman

Kyle Mantyla | January 24, 2024

During Tuesday night’s “FlashPoint” broadcast, religious-right activist Floyd Brown revealed that he is serving as campaign chairman for Kari Lake’s campaign for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Lake is a far-right MAGA cultist and stolen-election conspiracy theorist who ran unsuccessfully for governor of Arizona in 2022, though she steadfastly refuses to accept her defeat. She is now running to be the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in the 2024 election and she has reportedly tapped Brown to lead her campaign.

Brown was a guest on last night’s “FlashPoint” program, prompting host Gene Bailey to disclose Brown’s connection to the Lake campaign, which Brown confirmed.

“My title is Campaign Chairman and I’m very active in the campaign,” Brown revealed on “FlashPoint.” “I really felt lead of the Holy Spirit to be involved in her campaign as part of my worship in 2024.”

IFrame Content

Brown is a full-blow Christian nationalist who has advocated for Christians to gain control over America by taking over local governments, declaring that “every church should run their town.” [twts] vid

Floyd Brown, founder of The Western Journal, declares that right-wing Christians must "take back America" by having their church literally take over their town: "Every church should run their town."

---

---

how explicit is trump on theocracy? see eric war on xian gubmint weaponization

---

---

1 24 rww --> public witness

For the Fourth of July last year, Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri wanted to push his version of Christian Nationalism, so he tweeted a quote from Patrick Henry — the U.S. founder famous for declaring, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Hawley shared with his 1.4 million followers as Henry’s words.

Only problem is Henry never said that.

The quote actually comes from a 1956 article by someone else (since Henry had been dead for over 150 years by that point). In a 1989 book attacking the constitutional idea of church-state separation, evangelical pseudo-historian David Barton, a mentor of Speaker Mike Johnson, apparently read the piece incorrectly and attributed the words to Henry. After numerous scholars pointed out its real origin, Barton retracted that and other false quotes he used to claim U.S. founders wanted a “Christian” nation.

But the zombie quote lives on, frequently used by those pushing Christian Nationalism to justify their ideology and policies. After Hawley tweeted it out, numerous scholars and journalists quickly noted the quote was fake. Unrepentant, Hawley left the fake quote up, refused to apologize or even admit the deception, and instead claimed people were attacking him for pointing out history. He tweeted the next day, “I’m told the libs are major triggered by the connection between the Bible and the American Founding.”

After fist-pumping for Christian Nationalism and running away from the truth, Hawley doubled down on his effort to undo our constitutional system.

Since then he has continued his quest to rewrite history with misleading claims. In October, he penned a piece for Compact magazine arguing conservatives should fight to create a “Christian democracy for America.” Now, he’s gone even further in a nearly 4,400-word essay for First Things, a conservative Christian magazine whose editor in 2016 quickly shifted from “Never Trump” to endorsing Trump and transforming the publication in that direction. Founded by the late Catholic priest Richard John Neuhaus, it has become a leading Christian platform for pushing nationalism.

Hawley’s piece, the main article in the February issue (and already published online), notes his vision from the start with its title: “Our Christian Nation.” And while he doesn’t attempt to quote Patrick Henry in the piece, the essay suffers from the same misunderstanding of U.S. history along with misrepresentations of Christianity. It also advances the cause of Christian Nationalism with odd arguments and non sequiturs.

But it’s not merely an intellectual exercise. The bad history and theology are necessary to justify dangerous public policies. The senator who became the congressional face — and fist — of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection wants to get his hands on much more than just our elections.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) gestures toward a crowd of Donald Trump supporters gathered outside the U.S. Capitol to protest the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral college victory on Jan. 6, 2021. (Francis Chung/E&E News and Politico via AP)

Given his prominence as a U.S. senator generally expected to mount a presidential campaign in a future cycle, his essay offers an important — and alarming — look at a vision to remake America into a place that privileges a narrow slice of conservative Christianity. So this issue of A Public Witness considers Hawley’s argument for “our Christian nation” to unpack where he’s wrong and why it matters.

Dissenting Voices

As his essay’s title notes, Hawley argues in the piece that “America has been a Christian nation.” He insists the founders intended that, even though they didn’t mention it in their writings or in the Constitution (where they instead prohibited religious tests for office).

Given the lack of evidence about a desire for a “Christian nation” from important figures like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Hawley instead looks elsewhere to back his claim. So he repeatedly invokes the Puritans, including John Winthrop, a British colonist from before the founding era. Hawley cites Winthrop’s idea of the new land as a “city upon a hill” (from a speech in which Winthrop also offered a theological foundation for the genocide of Native Americans). But Hawley leaves out the other side of the debate in Winthrop’s colony about the role of religion in government....$

---

---

rww 1 24

earlier this month, racist conspiracy theorists Edward Szall and Lauren Witzke welcomed antisemitic fascist Vincent James onto their “CrossTalk” program where the three asserted that gay people should be forced back into the closet so that they won’t get beaten up, abused, and harassed … by people like them.

Just days following that program, Szall was in Iowa for the Republican presidential caucus and managed to have his photo taken with former President Donald Trump.

On the latest episode of “CrossTalk,” Szall recounted his meeting with Trump, which prompted Witzke to fantasize about Trump going “full dictator.”

“Did you tell him to go scorched earth?” Witzke asked Szall. “I would have told him, ‘President Trump, I want you to throw Hillary Clinton in Gitmo, Obama in Gitmo, just all of them. Clean up the federal government and send them to Guantanamo Bay.’ I hope he goes full dictator, scorched earth, catapulting illegals over the wall. That would be awesome.”

Szall replied that he could not reveal the details of “any private conversation” he had with Trump, but did say that Trump “told us he has really appreciated our work.”

IFrame Content

Witzke, who was the Republican nominee for a seat in the U.S.Senate in 2020 and has said that she is “seriously considering” running again in 2024, has become increasingly open about her desire to see Trump returned to power so that he can execute his political enemies and turn this nation into a “theocratic monarchy” under the permanent control of the Trump family.

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Witzke is not the only white nationalist vocalizing her support for a Trump dictatorship. Just last night, white nationalist Christian fascist activist Tyler Russell used a livestream broadcast on Nick Fuentes’ “anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-Black, antisemitic” streaming platform to proclaim that “we want Trump to be the dictator.”...twt]

---

---

1 24 rww

Bill Cook Says Those 'Involved In Election Fraud' Will Be 'Struck Dead By God'

---

AN 1 24

During a December 19 campaign event in Iowa, 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump promised far-right white evangelicals that if he returns to the White House in January 2025, he will set up a Christian nationalist task force within in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Trump told the crowd, "As soon as I get back in the Oval Office, I'll also immediately end the war on Christians. I don't know if you feel it. You have a war. There's a war…. Upon taking office, I will create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias to be led by a fully reformed Department of Justice that's fair and equitable. Its mission will be to investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment and persecution against Christians in America."

MSNBC's Sarah Posner, in an opinion column published this week, slams Trump's proposal as yet another example of Trump's "authoritarian" mindset and his emphasis on "the theme of Christian persecution."

Posner, author of the 2021 book "Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind," explains, "In recent campaign stops and on social media, Donald Trump has reprised lies aimed at inciting his Christian Right base against Joe Biden. These tirades, centered on the false charge that the Biden Administration is persecuting Christians, aren't just Trump's typically dubious claims. Much like Trump's lies about a stolen election, they are designed to immerse his loyalists in a grievance-laden alternative reality in which Trump alone can rescue them from an evil government threatening their freedom."

Trump, Posner warns, will continue to "feed the Christian Right’s persecution complex."

"One needs to look no further than Trump's efforts during his first term, combined with his 2024 pledges to govern like a dictator, to see the authoritarian steps he is taking when it comes to 'protecting' his base's religious freedom," Posner writes. "He is leaving little doubt that he will do whatever it takes to retain the loyalty of the base that has stood by him through an insurrection, two impeachments, and now, multiple criminal indictments. He is saying loudly and clearly that as part of his broader disparagement of the rule of law, he would shred everyone else's rights in the name of his loyalists' 'freedom.'"

READ MORE:'I won the election and he was the loser': Biden torches Trump

*Read Sarah Posner's full MSNBC column at this link.

---

---

Christian nationalists’ new anti-divorce campaign risks increasing domestic violence: report - Alternet.org

---

AN 12 23

The U.S. Supreme Court has leaned conservative for decades, but a key difference between the High Court of the 1990s and the High Court of 2023 is the strong influence of social conservatives. Former Justice Anthony Kennedy and the late Justice Sandra Day O'Connor were conservative Ronald Reagan appointees but often sided with liberals when it came to abortion and gay rights; today's Supreme Court is much more sympathetic to the religious right.

In Oklahoma, social conservatives are pushing for a taxpayer-funded Catholic school — inspiring, according to Politico's Heidi Przybyla, heated debates over what the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment says about the separation of church and state. And social conservatives, she reports, may have a sympathetic audience at the Roberts Court.

"At issue is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma's push to create the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would be the nation's first religious school entirely funded by taxpayers," Przybyla explains. "The school received preliminary approval from the state's charter school board in June. If it survives legal challenges, it would open the door for state legislatures across the country to direct taxpayer funding to the creation of Christian or other sectarian schools."

Paul Collins, a legal expert at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, believes that the religious right could have a major advantage if the Oklahoma debate goes to the Roberts Court.

Collins, author of the 2008 book "Friends of the Supreme Court: Interest Groups and Judicial Decision Making," told Politico, "The Christian conservative legal movement, which has its fingerprints all over what's going on in Oklahoma, is a pretty small, tight-knit group of individuals. They recognize the opportunity to get a state to fund a religious institution is a watershed moment. They have a very, very sympathetic audience at the Supreme Court. When you have that on the Supreme Court you're going to put a lot of resources into bringing these cases quickly."

The religious right has been claiming, for decades, that there is no such thing as separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution — a claim promoted by far-right House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana). But critics of the religious right, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the late Norman Lear's People for the American Way, have been countering that although the First Amendment promises freedom of religion, it is very clear about government not favoring one religion over another.

The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

READ MORE:How the Supreme Court could make same-sex marriage into second-class marriage

Attorney Andrew Seidel, whose book "American Crusade: How the Supreme Court is Weaponizing Religious Freedom" was published in 2022, warns that the religious right has gained considerable influence on the Roberts Court.

Seidel told Politico, "Schools are the last bastion of church-state separation, and they have been the target of Christian nationalists and the shadow network for decades. That's why it's so striking. In 2022, they got a change in the personnel on the court thanks to [conservative legal activist Leonard] Leo."

READ MORE:Mike Johnson's legal views 'openly promote' his 'strain of Christianity above all over faiths': expert

*Heidi Przybyla's full article for Politico is available at this link.

---sha

---

an 12 23 ah?

after veteran Democratic strategist James Carville compared far-right Christian nationalists to al-Qaeda, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) demanded an apology. But Carville hasn't backed down, maintaining that Christian nationalists are pushing a form of religious extremism that is not unlike al-Qaeda's ideology in Islamist fundamentalism.

In a report published by The Guardian on December 24, journalist Alice Herman focuses on the links between Christian nationalism and far-right "patriot" groups such as the Patriots of Ozaukee County, Patriots United and Patriot Academy.

"Many, including the Ozaukee County organization, openly embrace Christian nationalist rhetoric and ideology, arguing that the laws of the U.S. government should reflect conservative Christian beliefs about issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights," Herman explains. "Their religious interpretation of the U.S.'s founding has propelled these groups not only into fights over elections administration, but also, against vaccine requirements and protections for transgender people."

Christian nationalists, Herman notes, are pushing "numerous bills to restrict voting access."

"Many patriot groups in (Wisconsin) are animated by the Christian nationalist viewpoint," Herman reports. "Patriots of Ozaukee County declares, on its website, that it views as fundamental 'truths' that 'God is our creator' and 'Jesus is our savior.' The Ozaukee County group has also hosted Constitution Alive! events touting the claim that the U.S. constitution is a Christian document, led by the Patriot Academy organization, a Christian nationalist group that also offers weapons courses."

Herman adds, "They're not alone. Patriots United, a group in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, exemplifies the typical rhetoric of the Christian Right, describing its membership as 'constitutional conservative Christians who seek to glorify and honor God' with the explicit aim of increasing 'Christian influence' in local government."

READ MORE:Mike Johnson wants Dems to condemn James Carville for comparing 'Christian nationalism' to al-Qaeda

---

Anti-LGBTQ Christian Nationalist Leader Joins Arkansas State Library Board | Right Wing Watch

---

an ah 12 23

when Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) was ousted as speaker, some liberal and progressive pundits feared that House Republicans would pick someone even more to the right. And that's exactly what happened.

After three weeks of chaos, House Republicans unanimously voted to confirmed Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) as speaker. Johnson, a far-right Christian nationalist, was among the MAGA Republicans who favored overturning the 2020 presidential election results and keeping Donald Trump in the White House despite the fact that he lost to now-President Joe Biden.

The fact that Johnson is a practicing Christian isn't the thing that troubles his Democratic critics. President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) both consider themselves devout Catholics; the Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) is a Protestant minister, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg isn't shy about being a churchgoing Episcopalian.

Rather, it's the type of Christianity Johnson embraces that worries his critics. Johnson has been up front in his view that the United States should be governed according to a severe and extreme form of Christian nationalist fundamentalism.

In an article published on December 20, The New Republic's Melissa Gira Grant describes Johnson as "the most disturbing and influential Christian nationalist of 2023." And the "salient question" about the speaker, she argues, is, "How did so many people — including myself, to be honest — not see Mike Johnson coming?"

"The answer is that Johnson went this long passing as yet another Republican because many of us didn't pay enough attention to the warnings from those who track the rise of Christian nationalism and who have been deeply troubled by it for a long time," Grant writes. "Johnson has not moderated his Christian nationalism with his political ascent…. Johnson is not the only member of Congress who seeks to rule the United States according to 'biblical values,' but he is the one most clearly groomed for this role by the Christian Right."

Grant elaborates, "He spent years moving in secretive circles. He found mentors and future supporters among those on the right who have been pushing the mainstream conservative movement, urging its members to unleash their most extreme tendencies. Johnson was made by those groups and networks; now, they have a powerful ally third in the line of presidential succession. They made him powerful, and he owes them."

READ MORE:Mike Johnson wants Dems to condemn James Carville for comparing 'Christian nationalism' to al-Qaeda

*Melissa Gira Grant's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.

==

---

---

an 12 23

the Washington Post and the New York Times have been providing in-depth, detailed reporting on Project 2025, Donald Trump and his allies' game plan for giving the United States' federal government a total MAGA makeover if he wins the 2024 GOP presidential primary and defeats President Joe Biden in the general election.

Project 2025, according to reporting in the Post and the Times, is designed to undermine the country's system of checks and balances and make sure anyone working in the federal government is an unquestioning Trump loyalist. And critics of Project 2025, from liberals and progressives to right-wing Never Trump conservatives, have been attacking it as a recipe for full-fledged authoritarianism.

In an opinion column published on December 13, MSNBC's Sarah Posner zeros in one of the troubling elements of Trump's Project 2025 agenda for a possible second term: an emphasis on "Christian nationalism."

Posner has had a lot to say about Trump's alliance with far-right white evangelicals; she's the author of the 2021 book "Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind."

"Whatever Republicans like Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota may claim," Posner warns, "Donald Trump was not 'being funny' about governing as a dictator. …. We know he meant it because we saw what he did in his first term, including after his 2020 loss. We also know he's not joking because he has an army of right-wing activists who are bent on carrying out their own authoritarian agenda for the Christianization of the federal government, especially at the Department of Health and Human Services."

Project 2025's "Christian Right agenda," Posner notes, is outlined in the Heritage Foundation's "Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise" — a document she describes as "the blueprint for a possible Trump second term." Some of its proposals for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) come from Trump ally Roger Severino.

"In the Heritage document," Posner explains, "Severino makes clear that punishing blue states remains a key goal. He proposes cutting off Medicaid funding to states like California that require coverage for abortion services in health insurance. Severino also promotes the right-wing trope that protection of LGBTQ rights is a malevolent ideology deployed by soulless bureaucrats to crush the freedom of religious Americans."

READ MORE:Texas judge fighting for 'right' to not marry gay couples cites 'the scriptures'

*Sarah Posner's full MSNBC column is available at this link.

---

---

11 23 rww

Rep. Brandon Prichard

last month, Christian nationalist North Dakota State Rep. Brandon Prichard appeared on a local television program called “Ladies of Another View” where he attempted to defend his Christian nationalism by spreading misinformation and falsehoods.

Prichard appeared on the program to discuss the criticism he had received in the wake of posts he made on social media declaring that every member of Congress must “submit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ” and that “every conservative state should put into code that Jesus Christ is King and dedicate their state to Him.”

Prichard insisted that he had nothing for which to apologize because American history proves that his worldview is the same as the Founding Fathers.

“Here’s the deal,” Prichard boldly proclaimed, “history is on our side. History is on the side of the conservatives on this issue. The first thing that happened at the Constitutional Convention was what? It was Benjamin Franklin coming in front of everybody—he was actually one of the most agnostic of them all—and said that we need to plead to the heavens and pray for our country. And it was a Christian prayer; they had a Christian pastor come and say a prayer.”

“As early as the 1980s,” Prichard continued, “Ronald Reagan dedicated the country to Jesus and had a National Day of Prayer enshrined into our law.”

“So, I think that it’s crazy to suggest that that our country is not, at bare minimum, a Christian nation,” Prichard concluded.

IFrame Content

vid?]

Nearly everything Prichard cited in support of his Christian nationalism is false.

As Right Wing Watch has explained before, while Benjamin Franklin did urge the delegates at the 1787 Constitutional Convention to pray for help in drafting the Constitution, it was certainly not the “first thing that happened” at the convention and, more importantly, Franklin’s suggestion was ignored by the rest of the delegates. So no, the Constitutional Convention did not have “a Christian pastor come and say a prayer.”

If the Constitution’s authors had wanted to require members of Congress to “submit to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” as Prichard believes they should, they had a chance to do so; instead, they banned any religious test for public office.

Furthermore, President Ronald Reagan never “dedicated the country to Jesus,” whatever that even means, and the National Day of Prayer was enshrined into law in 1952 by President Harry Truman.

If, as Prichard claimed, “history is on our side,” then why do he and so many other Christian nationalists keep spreading falsehoods in their effort to “prove” it?

---

Christian Nationalist Pastor Running for Office In Oklahoma

---

Sarah Sanders Appoints Christian Nationalist Anti-LGBTQ Activist to Arkansas Library Board  | Right Wing Watch

---

an edit bd 11 23

there exists in this country a small community of people who grew up with religious authoritarians, but no longer lives among them. As a consequence of having grown up with them, this small community knows something that the rest of the country doesn’t know – that religious authoritarians may sound like kooks, but they’re extremely dangerous.

This small community knows the kookiness is the point. If religious authoritarians can make people, especially young people, believe anything, they can control them, not just their choices, but the way they think. If they think the choice is between individual identity and group identity, they will gladly surrender their individualidentity.

This is why the small community I’m talking about no longer lives among religious authoritarians. They can’t, not without experiencing psychic death. They understand the subtle dangers of living among people who believe that everyone in the group must think and act and speak the same way, and that a difference of opinion is betrayal.

This small community I’m talking about, because they have such intimate knowledge of religious authoritarians, knows something else that the rest of the country does not know. They know the unique horror of witnessing “normal people,” which is to say, people who did not grow up among religious authoritarians, laughing at the religious authoritarians and all the unbelievably kooky things that they say.

This unique horror is not a consequence of religious insult. The small community I’m talking about started doubting everything they were taught as children a long time ago. This unique horror is a consequence of knowing what the rest of the country doesn’t know – that the kookiness is the tool by which religious authoritarians exert control. That’s not something to laugh at, then dismiss as inconsequential.

And yet that’s what the rest of the country seems to be doing when religious authoritarians, such as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, say things that are stupendously kooky. “Normal people,” which is to say, people who did not grow up among religious authoritarians, seem to think that Johnson and his comrades can’t possibly believe what they say, so what they say can be dismissed as partisan politics.

The question, for those of us who are part of the small community I’m talking about, isn’t about the dangers posed by religious

authoritarians. We already understand them. Rather, the question is about getting “normal people,” who can’t possibly understand the trauma of trying and failing to live among people who demand psychic death as the price of membership into the group, to understand the danger.

I posed that question to Matthew Sheffield. He seems to be a fellow member of the small community I’m talking about. He’s also an outcast of the rightwing media apparatus that labors to hide the dangers of religious authoritarianism. He’s now committed to pluralistic democracy, he said, as the founder of the Flux Media Network.

“The beliefs of Mike Johnson and his fellow extremist Christians are so idiotic that the natural reaction for many non-religious people is to point and laugh – not realizing that evil is usually also ridiculous.”

JS: You said: "Many people who are secular or non-fundamentalist theists don't pay attention to the disturbing worldview of people like new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson." Can you explain please?

MS: Christian fundamentalism has been a minority opinion in the United States since Biblical literalism became a movement in the early 20th century, inspired by the work of people like John Nelson Darby.

In the south, this theology was explicitly intertwined with the "Lost Cause" myth about the Confederacy's defeat in the Civil War into a regional form of Christian nationalism that began spreading into other regions at the expense of mainline and progressive Protestantism.

The eventual religious identity politics that emerged, Confederate Christianity, is not popular. Its doctrines are obscure and often devolve into picayune debates about Bible verses that most people don’t know.

The southern flavor of its sermonizing and its explicit anti-intellectualism make Confederate Christianity distasteful. A vast majority would rather have their teeth pulled than listen to obvious scammers like evangelical preacher Kenneth Copeland.

Despite its comparative obscurity, only 10 percent of Americans are committed Christian nationalists, because it is a political identity more than a religious one. Confederate Christianity punches far above its weight thanks to hundreds of national and regional groups who motivate fundamentalist citizens to vote.

Most journalists have only been trained to be interested in the activities of prominent elected officials, so more obscure figures like Mike Johnson have long managed to evade their scrutiny.

At the local level, far-right Christians often mask their rhetoric in secular language, so they are often able to pull off things like

taking over school boards without others noticing.

JS: It seems to me that the problem of explaining the dangers is sheer disbelief. How do communicators like you address that problem?

MS: The beliefs of Mike Johnson and his fellow extremist Christians are so idiotic that the natural reaction for many non-religious people is to point and laugh – not realizing that evil is usually also ridiculous.

For those who are Christian but not fundamentalist, a common reaction is to simply roll their eyes.

I get where they're coming from.

Johnson believes that Noah's ark was real and that humans lived with dinosaurs. These are asinine superstitions. But he also believes homosexuality is a Satan-inspired choice that should be illegal and that birth control should be criminalized. Voltaire's aphorism that believing in absurdities leads one to justify atrocities is absolutely true.

The vicious ignorance of Johnson and his fellow Confederate Christians presents a real conundrum for those of us who are committed to pluralistic democracy. People seem to have an easier time recognizing screaming dictator-wannabes like Donald Trump for what they are than they do with folksy authoritarians.

That realization is why I decided to launch a comedy news discussion podcast called "Doomscroll" with my friend Lisa Curry.

Ridiculing the stupid beliefs of the Christian right is an important thing to do because there are a lot of smart people who were born and raised as fundamentalists who innately know that the beliefs are false and contradictory. But the humorous jabs must always carry the larger truth that these ideas are not only foolish, they are dangerous.

JS: On the funding of truly liberal media, you said there's no shortage of money. It's just spent in ways different from rightwing

media.

MS: As my friend Anne Nelson has documented in her book, Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right, there is a lot of money out there for center-to-left activists and causes. Unfortunately, much of this money is not spent with an eye toward public advocacy. From the very beginning of their movement, reactionary elites realized that they were a small minority but that it didn't matter because they could use voter suppression and advocacy media to suppress their opponents' voters and whip up their own.

The other crucial advantage of funding advocacy media is that these investments are more durable and can eventually become

self-sustaining, as Fox, talk radio, and far-right podcasts have become.

There are tens of millions of people who want to hear a progressive message in the media, but Democratic donors seem to prefer wasting their money on advertising that's ineffective and short-lived.

This needs to change, especially since rightwing propaganda is beginning to fill in the gaps in local media left by the decay of

traditional media outlets. Those who control the information will control the age. People who believe in liberal values need to fund

them.

JS: You have explored "how American evangelicalism is collapsing on itself." That's a bold statement that I have to hear more about.

MS: People often perceive religion and science to be in conflict, but up until the last 100 years or so, they were the same thing. The

Bible, Quran, Vedas and other ancient scriptures were not just theological sources. They were also scientific explanations for how

things came to be and how they work. But once the disciplines of science, history and linguistics emerged, it soon became evident to educated people that these books were about as accurate as Homer's Iliad.

Unfortunately, while the academic world came to accept evolution, the pagan origins of Judaism, and a host of other discoveries, this knowledge did not filter down to religious fundamentalists. The central problem of our age is that religious fundamentalism has been utterly humiliated in the intellectual realm and that its adherents (of any faith) are only now realizing it – to their great

consternation.

JS: You said: "Hope is the belief that we're capable of something better and the determined desire to make it so." Can you go into that more?

MS: The continuously successful efforts of pro-choice advocates to protect abortion rights through ballot initiatives demonstrates that people like us are the majority, but we must use this power to usher Confederate Christianity into the dust-bin of history.

Public opinion surveys show that people born after around 1975 are dramatically less likely to believe in scriptural literalism, and that each successive generation of Americans is more supportive of racial justice, bodily autonomy and sound reasoning.

The reactionaries who took over the GOP have been aware of this. The minoritarian strategy that they were able to effect for several decades was predicated on manipulating people through religion, sexism or racism into supporting their corrupt and authoritarian candidates.

As I discussed recently on my other podcast, "So This Just Happened," the Christian right knows that its time is coming to an end.

Far-right former Senator Rick Santorum spoke for many of his compatriots this past Election Day when he lamented that it was a

"secret sauce for disaster" that young Americans are interested in supporting abortion access and decriminalization of marijuana.

It's important to celebrate victories like we experienced in 2023, but the arc of history will only bend if we make it. Demographics are not destiny. The future belongs to those who can achieve it.

---

Far-right Christian nationalist claims Mideast peace deal will be engineered by the Antichrist - Alternet.org

---

11 23 an

to many liberals and progressives — including those who identify as Catholics or Mainline Protestants — the religious right's views on Israel are a major contradiction.

Far-right white evangelicals consider themselves very pro-Israel and pro-Zionist, but they also believe that Jews will face eternal damnation unless they convert to evangelical fundamentalist Christianity before they die. The left often attacks Christian nationalists as antisemites, yet the evangelical far right believes that according to the New Testament's Book of Revelation, Israel will play a key role in Jesus Christ's return to the Earth.

Much has been written about House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-Louisiana) far-right Christian nationalist views. But in an article published by The New Republic on November 8, journalist Audrey Clare Farley zeros in on a specific aspect of the new speaker's fundamentalism: the radical form of Zionism he embraces.

Johnson, Farley notes, shares the ideology of Christian nationalist Pastor John Hagee, who opposes a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.

"Johnson and Hagee appear to be run-of-the-mill Christian Zionists, fueled by fantasies of a cataclysmic war in the Middle East that brings about the second coming of Christ, wherein all Muslims — and Jews, for that matter — either convert or face eternal damnation," Farley warns. "It would be easy to dismiss these evangelicals and their apocalyptic fervor, but that would be a mistake, as their conceptualizations of Judaism and Israel are shared by many who are not so overtly eschatological, nor even Christian."

Farley adds, "In recent days, narratives of Jewish and Israeli exceptionalism have proliferated, as conservatives frame Hamas' October 7 massacre as a blow, more fundamentally, to the West. These narratives go to show, rather paradoxically, the extent to which Jews remain an alien 'other' in the minds of those working so assiduously to retro-fit them into their story of 'Judeo-Christian' civilization.'"

The journalist points out that Hagee and other "Christian Zionists" are vehemently anti-Islam — a view that countless Jews reject.

READ MORE:Speaker nominee Mike Johnson is a 'virulent Christian nationalist' and anti-LGBTQ 'MAGA extremist': critics

"Many Jews, for their part, prefer to stand with the people in Palestine," Farley observes. "They realize that their struggles are interlocking, and that they can support safety and liberation for both."

READ MORE:'Yearns for theocracy': Mike Johnson once suggested 'religious litmus test' for politicians

{Audrey Clare Farley'sfull article for The New Republic is availableat this link.}:

---

Johnson’s 'symbol of Christian warfare' exposes his ties to aggressive Christian nationalism: report - Alternet.org

---

---

Christian nationalists and right-wing media figures embrace the war between Israel and Hamas as a sign of the End Times | Media Matters for America

---

an ah?1123

in his new book, "The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future," author Robert P. Jones — founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) — examines the role that far-right Christian nationalism has played in white supremacy. Jones discussed his book and the disturbing results of PRRI's latest American Values Survey during an interview with Salon's Chauncey DeVega.

The survey, Jones warns, found a "rise in support for political violence" to be "particularly troubling."

Jones told DeVega, "The main findings of the survey are pretty stark, troubling and worrisome. We're clearly in for a pretty rough ride in this country over the next 12 months. There is all the awful violence in Israel, and that is spilling over into the U.S. A child was stabbed to death near Chicago by his landlord in a hate crime against Palestinians. Many Jewish students are not feeling safe on university campuses. There are threats against both synagogues and mosques around the country. These are tough times."

The author/PPRI founder added, however, "But I do have hope. This fall, as I’ve been touring the country in the wake of the publication of my new book, 'The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future,' I've encountered countless people working in local contexts doing the hard work of reckoning with the injustices of our past, repairing the rifts in their communities, and protecting our democracy — not just in blue states, but in places I feature in the book like Mississippi and Oklahoma."

Jones discussedTrump's popularity among Christian nationalists, who, he warns, have a very racist mindset.

"For many of these leaders, be it Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, or Mike Johnson, when they use the word 'Christian,' it is racially coded," Jones told DeVega. "When they say 'Bible-believing Christians,' they are not talking about Black folks and the AME Church. They're not talking about Latino Catholics. They are specifically talking about white evangelical Protestant Christians."

Jones was vehemently critical of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) during the interview, citing him as a prime example of how dangerous "white Christian nationalism" is.

READ MORE:'Just pure evil': Scarborough hits Trump for comparing Jan. 6 'thugs' to Hamas' hostages

"Mike Johnson is a white Christian nationalist in a tailored suit," Jones told DeVega. "He believes that America is a promised land for white European Christians and that protecting that reality and future is above everything else. Johnson is deeply steeped in that white Christian nationalist worldview, which also includes not believing in the separation of church and state. Behind Johnson's polished public persona is a fairly extreme kind of vision of a white Christian America and a willingness to make the country fit that reality. And that includes overturning an election, such as on January 6, which Johnson supported."

READ MORE:'Strong spokesman': Why Johnson's election is 'like winning the lottery' for evangelical Christians

*Read Chauncey DeVega's full interview with Robert P. Jones at this link.

---

---

one guy on twit/

an 8 23

Religious Right has had a stranglehold on the GOP since the early 1980s, when conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) warned that members of his party were making a huge mistake by embracing far-right evangelical Christian fundamentalists. More than 40 years later, the GOP/Religious Right alliance is as strong as ever. And the term "Christian nationalism" is being used to describe MAGA-minded white evangelicals who are extreme even by Religious Right standards.

In an article published by Religion News on August 23, reporter Bob Smietana takes a look at the activities of Owen Strachan — a right-wing evangelical Southern Baptist seminary professor who is now calling out some of the overt racism he is seeing among Christian nationalists.

Strachan, according to Smietana, has described Christian nationalism as "the unbiblical view that we must preserve white ethnicity to build a Christian nation." And the extremists he is calling out include Gab founder Andrew Torba and author Matt Walsh (a self-described "theocratic fascist").

On August 18 on X, formerly Twitter, Strachan declared, "By the minute, we are smoking out white nationalism — godless ethnocentrism — in Christian circles. By grace, we will fight this wicked ideology."

Smietana explains, "(Strachan) felt the need tocall out the trend earlier this month after a video appeared of Walsh saying that white Americans needed to have more children to save the country from outsiders. Strachan had already seen comments from Torba on social media, since deleted, saying that God created different ethnic groups with a purpose and that preserving them 'is to preserve God's creation and is therefore an inherent good.'"

Smietana notes that Christian nationalism has become "a hot topic."

"In its extreme form," the reporter warns, "the ideology claims special privileges for Christians — including the right to rule, no matter what the outcome of elections — and often views Jews, Black Americans, immigrants and progressives as God's enemies. Early forms of Christian nationalism were outspokenly antisemitic and racist and were especially opposed to interracial marriage."

---

---

https://www.alternet.org/christian-nationalism-2661573247/

an imi 8 23

charges that public schools are subjecting children to leftwing indoctrination are proving to be mostly over-hyped or not at all based in fact. Yet, there’s evidence, according to a new report, that a fast-growing sector of the charter school industry is engaged in indoctrination, only, in this case, the schools are instructing children in white, conservative ideology.

The report, “A Sharp Turn Right: A New Breed of Charter Schools Delivers the Conservative Agenda” by the Network for Public Education (NPE), finds that charter schools that market to families a “classical” or “traditional” approach to schooling are essentially catering to parents and politicians that follow “right-wing ideology.”

Using keyword searches, news stories from local and national media, and examinations of charter school websites and other resources, the authors claim to have “identified a representative sample”—273 currently open charter schools—that resemble their definition of what constitutes a right-wing educational agenda.

The report authors offer this number with the caveat that “we are confident there are schools and even chains we missed.”

Two principal criteria the authors used to determine the political leanings of the schools were whether they offered what’s commonly called a “classical” curriculum or a “back-to-basics” curriculum and/or whether the schools’ websites made politically conservative or religious references or were “designed to attract white conservative families.”

Other evidence the authors looked for to determine a school’s political orientation was whether the charters’ owners or founders had publicly stated overtly conservative political beliefs or had substantial connections to right-wing individuals or advocacy groups.

Some charters blatantly signaled their education agendas by, for example, having a cross on their buildings or exhibiting religious symbols or hyper-patriotic messages in school common areas.

The report also accuses this sector of the charter school industry of enrolling mostly white and middle-class and wealthy families anddiscouraging attendance of low-income and non-white families....

---

---

~ not judeo xian

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/is-america-a-christian-nation

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/victory-channel/election-denier-and-qanon-supporter-melody-jennings-says-christian-nationalist

---

---

rww 8 23

the religious-right organization Christians Engaged will be holding a conference in Texas in November, at which various right-wing activists, as well as state and federal legislators, will be speaking, includingRepublican Rep. Michael Cloud**. In anticipation of the upcoming event, Christians Engaged founder Bunni Pounds used her podcasttoday to play the remarks that Cloud delivered at the organization’s 2022 conference.

Predictably, Cloud’s remarks were steeped in Christian nationalist mythology, beginning with his misrepresentation of remarks contained in a letter that John Adams sent to Thomas Jefferson in 1815.

“Let me read part of that letter to you,” Cloudbegan. “[John Adams said], ‘The question before the human race is this, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it. In other words, whether authority is originally in the people, or whether it has descended through time through a succession of rulers.’ And then they kind of came to this conclusion, he says, ‘Or has it been brought down from Heaven by the Holy Ghost?'”

“These are the people who wrote the documents,” Cloud declared. “[And critics are] trying to tell us there’s no Christian influence in America.”

Not only did Cloud ignore the context of Adams’ letter, but he fundamentally misrepresented and misquoted what Adams wrote.

Adams was responding to an earlier letter from Jefferson in which Jefferson discussed the Napoleonic Wars that had roiled Europe for years and Napoleon’s short-lived return to power. Adams replied by insisting that political power belongs to the people and mocked the idea that it can be bestowed upon rulers (like Napoleon or European monarchs) by “Popes and Bishops or via “fictitious Miracles.”

The question before the human race is, Whether the God of nature Shall govern the World by his own laws, or Whether Priests and Kings shall rule it by fictitious Miracles? Or, in other Words, whether Authority is originally in the People? or whether it has descended for 1800 years in a succession of Popes and Bishops, or brought down from Heaven by the holy Ghost in the form of a Dove, in a Phyal of holy Oil?

Adams did not declare, as Cloud suggested, that political power “has been brought down from Heaven by the Holy Ghost”; Adams was, in fact, mocking that very notion.

Furthermore, Cloud’s claim is a straw man; historians and others who dispute the dishonest Christian nationalismpromoted by people like Cloud do not claim that there was no Christian influence during the colonial era, rather they note that the authors of the U.S. Constitution had every opportunity to create a Christian government if they wanted to, but instead chose to prohibit the establishment of an official religion and ban religious tests for public office.

Cloud continued, “We as the church of God have got to stand up and understand that we have the authority. We should look to Christ. What did he say? For all of human history, we’re waiting, like, ‘What does God really care about?’ And the thing that Christ talked about over and over, [like] in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, ‘The Kingdom, the Kingdom, the Kingdom, the Kingdom, the Kingdom.’”

“Christ came to establish a kingdom on Earth that would operate under different principles than all the kingdoms of the Earth would operate, and he asked us to be a part of it,” Cloud said. “He asked us to be ambassadors of that kingdom, to help establish it here on Earth. So everybody say, ‘I’m in the government.’ You’re in the government!”

“You know, people say, ‘Well, the Bible is not a political book, and we shouldn’t be involved,’ and I’m just like, ‘Have you ever read it?'” Cloud asserted. “It’s like every single chapter is like dripping in it!”

---

rww

August 7, 2023 

Tags: Dutch Sheets Gene Bailey Janet Porter Jason Rapert Mark Burns Leftovers

---

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/christian-nationalist-political-operative-chad-connelly-is-organizing-secret-meetings-between-gop-presidential-candidates-and-right-wing-pastors/

---

not sure this cts

no lnx an 7 23

A 'sloppy error': Analyst slams 'theocratic' Josh Hawley for using fake historical quote

Alex HendersonJuly 05, 2023

Ever since the Religious Right achieved prominence in the Republican Party in the early 1980s —much to the dismay of the late conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) — far-right Christian fundamentalists and white evangelicals have been claiming that the United States is a "Christian nation." But there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that gives Christianity priority over any other religion.

The Constitution's 1st Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Catholics and Protestants most definitely enjoy religious freedom under the 1st Amendment, but so do Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Bahais, Rastafarians and members of other faiths.

READ MORE: How Pat Robertson helped shape the radical Christian nationalism Barry Goldwater warned against

In a July 4, 2023 post on Twitter, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) promoted the false claim that the U.S. was "founded on" Christianity — and misquoted Founding Father Patrick Henry in the process.

:{:{}:

}:

The far-right MAGA Republican quoted Henry as saying, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."

But Henry never said that. Twitter users fact-checked Hawley by pointing out that the quote was from a 1956 article about Henry in The Virginian — not something that Henry, who died in 1799, actually said. The article was written 157 years after Henry's death.

MSNBC's Steve Benen, producer of "The Rachel Maddow Show," did some additional fact-checking in an opinion column for MaddowBlog published on July 5

READ MORE: Flag-waving' liberal Norman Lear, now 100, warns against the 'threat of authoritarianism' America faces

"On the surface," Benen argues, "it's obviously unfortunate to see a senator — a graduate of Stanford and Yale — make a mistake like this, especially as so many other Republicans also fall for fake quotes. But let's not brush past the underlying point the Missouri Republican was trying to make by way of a made-up line: Hawley seems certain that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, with members of one faith tradition — his own — enjoying exalted status over others."

Benen emphasizes that the U.S. was not "founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ" as Hawley claims.

"Thomas Jefferson — in an actual quote — wrote in 1802 that our 1st Amendment built 'a wall of separation between church and state,'" Benen notes. "In 1797, John Adams agreed: 'The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.'"

The Religious Right has repeatedly claimed that "separation of church and state" isn't in the U.S. Constitution, but while the 1st Amendment doesn't use those exact words, the concept is mostly definitely present in the "no law respecting an establishment of religion" declaration. And "separation between church and state," as Benen points out, were the exact words of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson.

"It's unfortunate that Hawley made a rather obvious mistake," Benen laments, "but more important than the senator’s sloppy error is the fact that a prominent Republican senator thought it’d be a good idea to tout an inherently theocratic vision on the 4th of July."

READ MORE: 'Tell it to God': Evangelical pastor spars with Ted Cruz over Uganda’s 'Kill the Gays' law

Read Steve Benen's full MaddowBlog column at this link.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Atheists are among the most likely to be vaccinated for COVID — and white evangelicals are among the least ›

White evangelicals have a 'troubling' bond with 'cruel and racist' Tucker Carlson: conservative ›

Why far-right White evangelicals are among Vladimir Putin’s strongest American supporters ›

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

Evangelicals should think twice about supporting Trump in 2024 ... ›

Do White Evangelicals Think Trump Is Jesus? ›

Evangelicalism Thrived Because it Enabled White Christians to ... ›

---

---

raw 6 23

no lnx

In the wake of Donald Trump's indictment over his handling of classified information, some worry that the anger and resentment that led to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has been kicked back into high gear. According to extremism expert, author and podcast host Brad Onishi, the religious underpinnings that inspired the violence on Jan. 6 could spark violence once again.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Onishi said that while it's good that no violence erupted outside the Miami courthouse where Trump was booked this week,"there are little fires everywhere that are pointing us toward deep civil unrest and deep mistrust in our public square."

Onishi says that "Christian nationalism is pervasive in right-wing American politics at the moment," and it emanates from politicians, pastors, and Fox News hosts.

Christian nationalism seeks a nostalgia for a time when America was the “city on a hill," Onishi says.

"The narrative now is that that city on the hill has been overrun by interlopers, and those for whom the country was never intended. So maybe we need to 'build a wall' around the city, because it needs protection — too many folks have gotten in and ruined it and eroded the order that we need in the country."

According to Onishi, when Christian nationalists talk about "freedom," what they really mean is "living out your role in God’s hierarchy."

"They may see the trans person, for example, as not living according to their God-given gender," Onishi said. "So just by being on the subway, or being in their kids’ school, they’re making them less free, because the order is all out of whack. And therefore they need to do something about it. They need to go tear down displays at Target or put forth anti-trans legislation."

Christian nationalists believe that America is on the precipice of an Apocalypse, but they don't see it as the end of the world -- they're more focused on the end of the United States, he said.

:{:{}:

}:

"It is sense of a cosmic war between good and evil. Many Christians believe that they are characters in an epic, and that the ending hasn’t been written yet in terms happens to the United States," Onishi says.

Read the full interview over at Rolling Stone.

---

---

rww -->  https://www.azmirror.com/2023/06/05/janae-shamp-az-senator-proudly-flies-flag-adopted-by-fringe-far-right-extremists/

West Valley Republican state senator proudly displays a flag tied to Christian nationalism and other extremist movements on her desk on the floor of the Arizona Senate, though she says she has embraced the symbol for its historical meaning and doesn’t care that “fringe groups” have adopted it.

The white flag with a pine tree on it and the phrase “An Appeal to Heaven”was originally used by George Washington and the Continental Army. It was later adopted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as its naval and maritime flag from 1776 until 1971, when it was replaced by a similar flag that did not include the phrase “An Appeal to Heaven.” 

In recent years, the flag has been adopted by evangelical Christians and Christian nationalists, who see the flag as a rallying call. Christian nationalists believe that the United States is Christian nation that should base its laws and practices around the teachings of Christianity. For followers of the movement, the flag symbolizes what they view as America’s Christian roots. 

The flag has also been embraced by far-right extremist organizations like the Proud Boys and some neo-Nazi groups.

Arizona Sen. Janae Shamp, R-Surprise, rejected the notion that her use of the flag indicates anything beyond her commitment to fighting to protect “our liberty and freedoms” from “the too many wanna be kings who inhabit elected office and (government) bureaucracies.”

“Something that has had a particular meaning for 250 years retains its original meaning, no matter which fringe group might seek to co-opt it,” Shamp said in an emailed response to questions about the flag. “I hope and pray that my fight enjoys a similarly favorable outcome as (George) Washington’s original struggle, and that I will succeed in restoring at least some small measure of liberty before I’m done. 

“That’s why I fly the flag. I don’t know who else uses it or for what.” 

Shamp did not respond to questions about whether she embraced the beliefs of Christian nationalism, and said she doesn’t know anything about Christian dominionism, a closely related belief system. She called the Arizona Mirror’s line of inquiry “lazy” and “an attempted hit.” 

“I work everyday with people of all faiths and even some who hold no particular faith or even no faith at all. That’s how America works,” she wrote. “So anybody stupid enough to try to put me into some sort of discriminatory box deserves the public ridicule they’ll get for trying to convince people of something so obviously wrong.”

To investigative journalist, author and researcher David Neiwart, who has written extensively about the far-right and conspiracy theorists, the lines between many different groups have begun to blur as a “universe” of far-right groups from QAnon, militias, white supremacists and others have gained political influence, particularly among conservatives. 

:{Most of them, however, share a few things in common, he said, including beliefs in “right-wing authoritarianism” and the alleged supremacy of Christianity.:{}:

}:

And after looking at the various people:{ and }:{things:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}::{ Shamp has supported over the years, including various extremist and Christian nationalist figures and causes, Neiwart said it’s clear to him that Shamp ascribes to those beliefs.  }:

“She is definitely a Christian nationalist, she is definitely QAnon, and a fully enraptured Trumpite,” Neiwert said.  

Christian nationalism and Christian dominionism 

While a surge in Christian nationalism in recent years has garnered media attention — due in part to high-profile conservatives like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has explicitly declared herself a Christian nationalist, and the backing of influential leaders like white nationalist Nick Fuentes — Christian dominionism has similarly been on the rise, though with much less fanfare. 

WhileChristian nationalism centers on the idea that God intended America to be a Christian nation — one without religious pluralism — and that Christians should control all levels of government and society, Christian dominionism holds that Christians should take total control over most aspects of society. 

One of the more popular Dominionist beliefs is in the so-called “Seven Mountain Mandate,” which draws from the biblical book of Revelations and requires Christians to invade the “seven spheres” of society: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. In doing so, American life can be reshaped to hew to conservative Christian values. 

The idea has been embraced and promoted by people like Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk and Paula White, the televangelist who served as a “spiritual advisor” to Donald Trump while he was president. 

According to Neiwart, the key difference between Christian dominionism and nationalism is that dominionists want everyone under Christian rule, while nationalists think everyone should convert to Christianity.

“Christian nationalists take it a step further than Christian Dominionists,” Neiwart said, adding that a dominionist wouldn’t care if a Muslim was present, “they just want them under the thumb of Christian leaders.”

One of the biggest promoters of Christian nationalism and dominionism has been disgraced Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, who has claimed that he is waging “spiritual warfare” and building an “army of God.” Flynn is alsoknown to associate with other known Dominionist groups. 

Shamp is a fervent supporter of Flynn’s, and has posted praise of Flynn often on social media. The recent COVID-19 special committee she co-chaired was sponsored in part by an organization that Flynn co-founded. 

“I get goosebumps every time General Flynn talks about our great Nation!” Shamp said in a December 2021 post accompanied by a video of Flynn. 

At a Trump rally in Florence in January 2022, Shamp told Business Insider that the “No. 1 person standing up for ‘we, the people’ is probably Gen. Michael Flynn.” 

She explained that Flynn was helping fight for the “grassroots, for citizens to get involved, for us to take our country back” from the “political elite.” Flynn later endorsed Shamp in her bid for the Arizona Senate. 

Shamp, a conservative from Surprise, has also been found to have shared a number of QAnon posts on her Facebook, including some linked to Neo-Nazis and antisemites. 

The flag and extremism 

The flag, which Shamp displays on her desk and in her Twitter banner image, has also been connected to extremist groups and violent events. During the violent events of Jan. 6, the flag was seen being carried by a number of individuals.  

It has also been adopted by groups that support the likes of Fuentes, who during protests over mask mandates and COVID vaccines, flew the flag, as well as at their annual gatherings, according to Neiwart. 

That is what in part makes it hard to know who exactly was flying the flag at the riots on Jan. 6, far-right extremists or Christian nationalist types, Neiwart said, but that doesn’t change one underlying thing. 

“I would say Christian nationalism as a phenomenon is one of the real undergirding movements involved in the insurrection,” Neiwart said, adding that the militias and other groups such as the OathKeepers all had underlying Christian nationalist roots or beliefs. “All these Christian patriots that formed these militias are Christian nationalists as well.”

Shamp’s flag is not the first time the flag has appeared in the Arizona Senate, either. 

Last year, the Secular Coalition of Arizona pointed out that a small version of the flag was being displayed on the security desk in the Arizona Senate; it was later removed. A spokeswoman for the Arizona Senate Republican caucus did not respond to multiple requests for comment about what policies, if any, the Senate has regarding the display of flags. 

A larger version of the flag was displayed in the second-floor lobby of the Arizona House of Representatives last year, as well. Again, after the Secular Coalition of Arizona inquired about the flag, it was quietly removed. The flag had previously been displayed in the chamber in 2017. 

The Secular Coalition of Arizona sees the flag as a violation of the constitutional doctrine requiring a separation of church and state. 

For Neiwart, the appearance of the “An Appeal to Heaven” flag in Arizona, and statehouses across the country, is troubling.

“It is a pretty clear sign that this stuff has been mainstreamed and that is not a good thing,” he said. “I don’t think Americans typically awake to an existential threat until it creates a disaster of monumental proportions.”

---

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/jeanine-pirro/foxs-jeanine-pirro-appears-christian-nationalist-program-flashpoint-warn-takedown

On May 30, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro joined the Christian nationalist show FlashPoint for an interview where she pushed Christian nationalist rhetoric about a supposed “takedown of religion,” framed American Christians as increasingly under attack from “transgender nonsense,” and announced that she will be at the show's in-person “tent revival” event in June.

FlashPoint, a show that Rolling Stone recently described as “a rising media platform for Christian nationalists,” airs twice weekly on The Victory Channel’s TV and streaming channels, including on Rumble. The show is helmed by a panel of regular contributors who are longtime Christian nationalist figures and self-proclaimed “prophets,” including pro-Trump “prophets” Lance Wallnauand Hank Kunneman. Wallnau and Kunneman often push hard-right politics and make apocalyptic predictions about political opponents. In the last few months, Wallnau has called Biden the “antichrist,” referred to opponents of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill as the “trans taliban,” andwarned that God may soon start killing those who are “persecuting” Trump, while Kunneman said last year that Biden should be in prison for “treason” and a “demonic agenda.”

Christian nationalism, which contends that the U.S. is a fundamentally Christian nation and should be governed by right-wing Christian beliefs, has been on the rise in Republican politics and among right-wing media figures. FlashPoint has seemingly leveraged this wave of Christian nationalism to attract more mainstream conservative media figures as guests, including Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, former President Donald Trump, and now, Fox’s Jeanine Pirro.

Pirro, who currently co-hosts Fox’s top-rated program The Five, appeared on the May 30 edition of FlashPoint, where the host, megapastor Gene Bailey, noted that his audience is “mainly conservative Christians” and that the show is not “fair and balanced,” adding, “We're the — way to the right of center. We’re unabashedly bold about who we are.” (Unlike Fox’s former motto “fair and balanced.”) The host asked Pirro: “When you see the left and what they’re doing, what is it you think … our audience needs to know that you feel like most of America doesn't understand about this current situation?”

Pirro warned the audience of a “takedown of religion” and erosion of “Judeo-Christian ethics” in America, claiming, “America is moving so far from that foundation that we are in a dangerous point that every person who is a person of religion or a person of God understands the inherent dangers of what is happening in America today.” Pirro elaborated that due to moving away from religion, “we are flirting with the kind of destiny that only destroyed nations and fallen empires find themselves in.” During the interview, Pirro also framed Christians as persecuted and warned that “people of faith need to worry about not just what's being taught in schools in terms of transgender nonsense, but what is happening in our society today against religion." [vid]

gENE BAILEY (HOST): When you see the left and what they're doing, what is it that you think — now our audience,Judge, is mainly conservative Christians — we don't say we're fair and balanced. We say we're the — way to the right of center. We're unabashedly bold about who we are. What is it that our audience needs to know that you feel like most of America doesn't understand about this current situation? 

JEANINE PIRRO (GUEST): Well, you know, I think that — look, this country was found on the Judeo-Christian ethics.We, you know, when I was the judge in my courtroom above my bench, it said “In God we trust.” I think that America is moving so far from that foundation that we are in a dangerous point that every person who is a person of religion or a person of God understands the inherent dangers of what is happening in America today.

We are flirting with the kind of destiny that only destroyed nations and fallen empires find themselves in. And so that's why I wrote the book Crimes Against America. What the left is doing to our children in schools and to Americans across the board, and especially to those believers, people who believed in God and are faith-driven, is it is destroying them.

And, you know, we saw it with the Dobbs decision. When our own Department of Justice would not follow its own rules of making an arrest of anyone who is parading or protesting in front of a Supreme Court justice’s home in the hope of getting them to change their opinion. Not one of those people was arrested, but you could rest assured that everyone, everyone who was involved in any way — and some of them who were clearly innocent and found to be not guilty by juries later — who got involved in any kind of pro-choice objection ended up being arrested and ended up being prosecuted.

But any of the pro-life centers or the pregnancy centers, any of the attacks on them were not even — they were not even investigated. And so, when you look at what is happening, the takedown of religion in America, it forebodes a very difficult future.

…

And I think that people of faith need to worry about not just what's being taught in schools in terms of transgender nonsense, but what is happening in our society today against religion.

Pirro was also recently announced as a guest for an in-person FlashPoint Live “tent revival” event next week. Past FlashPoint Live events have made headlines for their overt Christian nationalism and for appearances by high-profile Republican politicians such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). One of FlashPoint’s regular guests, right-wing apostle Dutch Sheets, prayed over Greene at one such event and insisted she was “covered in the blood of Jesus.”

In addition to the Christian nationalist figures such as Wallnau and Kunneman appearing at FlashPoint Live’s June 8-9 event in Ohio along with Pirro, the lineup includes actor Jim Caviezel, who recently openly embraced the QAnon conspiracy.

[vid]

pirro’s interview on FlashPoint and upcoming “tent revival” appearance are just two examples of Fox’s apparent connections to the Christian nationalist movement. Fox has regularly hosted Russ Vought, the Christian nationalist figure who is reportedly advising Republicans on how to gut the federal aid programs, and the network has also propped up a harassment campaign against libraries that pushed the movement’s talking points. Additionally, since November, Fox Business has been profiting from weekly sermons from a Christian nationalist pastor airing on the network as paid programming.

==

---

TEXT BAK 6 23

i thot xian3 nat'l fail but ok 6 23

SEE FOUR

endit112/18  basically evang 3 (mega) , but includes dominionist hard core? white nat'lism?

see also xian ID identity // Rove xian just footsoldiers by unbeliever

paleo-cath opus dei deus vult?

see kirk

macho ~ fem

html endit1

bak 8 22

---

rww Tags: Jesse Duplantis Christian Nationalism

---

---

rww 5 23 -->

https://religionnews.com/2023/05/24/fighting-what-it-views-tyranny-michigan-board-declares-itself-constitutional-county/

...>The resolution, which is largely symbolic, is influenced by the writings of a Wisconsin pastor who promotes the idea of resistance to civil authority. The commissioners who voted for the resolution, all Christian, are committed to the idea that God has blessed America.

We wish to highlight freedoms and constitutional rights which have been violated over the past few years as well as those currently at risk due to societal and political pressures,” said Ottawa County vice chair Sylvia Rhodea in a prepared statement prior to the vote Wednesday (May 24).

Among those violations she mentioned was a “required affirmation of a Marxist DEI value system for some county positions,” which she said conflicts with her religious beliefs. (DEI is an acronym for “diversity, equity and inclusion,” an organizational framework that promotes full participation of people or groups that have historically been underrepresented.) She also noted individual freedoms that were “repeatedly violated” during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 9-1 vote, with the lone Democrat on the Board of Commissioners opposing the measure, came after midnight, following six hours of public comment. It was the latest foray for the newly elected board, which swept into office in January on a platform of restoring the county’s Judeo-Christian heritage and thwarting tyranny, government overreach and injustice.

Hundreds of residents of Ottawa County crammed into the commissioners’ meeting room and an overflow room on Tuesday. By a 3-2 ratio, they begged the commissioners not to adopt the resolution.

;If every local governmental unit saw its role as interpreting and following the Constitution as they see fit, our democracy would collapse and our country would fall into chaos,” said Milton Nieuwsma of Holland, Michigan, who spoke up at the meeting.

The>resolution adopted ;not to authorize or appropriate funds, resources, employees, agencies, contractors, buildings, or offices for the purpose of enforcing any statute, law, rule, order or regulation that restricts the rights of any law-abiding citizen affirmed by the United States Constitution.”

It was not clear if the county intended, for example, to resist a red flag law that aims to keep firearms away from those at risk of harming themselves or others. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the red flag law on Monday

.

Ottawa County, which voted for Donald Trump by >nearly 60% in 2020, is a deeply red county in a blue state that went for President Joe Biden.

Last year, a newly formed organization called Ottawa Impact unseated eight incumbent Republican county commissioners to win a controlling majority of the 11-member board. (Two of those commissioners have since publicly distanced themselves from the group but nonetheless voted to approve the “constitutional county” resolution.)

"Vice-Chairperson Sylvia Rhodea, second from right, speaks during an Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meeting, Tuesday, May 23, 2023, in Grand Haven, Michigan. Vice Chairperson Sylvia Rhodea, second from right, speaks during an Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meeting, May 23, 2023, in Grand Haven, Michigan.

The new commissioners became politically active after the county and state health departments shut down a Hudsonville Christian school for not complying with a 2020 coronavirus mask mandate that resulted in an outbreak.

While Ottawa County has long been the province of Dutch settlers with

a distinct Calvinist brand of Christianity, it has recently been consumed by a more muscular form of evangelical Christianity common in other parts of the country. That Christianity, sometimes called Christian nationalism, maintains that preserving a Christian America may require overturning laws.

RELATEd  https://religionnews.com/2023/05/17/what-is-christian-nationalism-anyway/">What is Christian nationalism, anyway?

In their first meeting on Jan. 3, the new commissioners fired the county administrator and legal counsel, closed the county’s office for diversity, equity and inclusion and attempted to demote the health officer. They also changed the county motto from “Ottawa County: Where You Belong” to “Ottawa County: Where Freedom Rings.”

;They are about this far-right agenda of ‘We’re going to do things their way,’ and by the way, ‘we’re going to use Scripture to get there,’” said Roger Bergman, the sole incumbent Republican commissioner who was not defeated in 2020. He was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

In drafting the resolution to become a “constitutional county,” the commissioners were relying on the writings of Matt Trewhella, a Brookfield, Wisconsin, pastor who in the 1990s created an anti-abortion militia and more recently has been active in promoting the idea of resistance to civil authorities based on the ideas of John Calvin and the Magdeburg Confession of 1550, which called on Protestant pastors to resist political tyranny.<

Pastor Matthew Trewhella gives an online sermon in an Oct. 2022 video>Pastor Matt Trewhella gives an online sermon in an October 2022 video. Video screen grab

Trewhella gave a talk at an Ottawa County GOP fundraiser on May 10, where his self-published 2013 book, “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates,” was available. His newest venture is a website called County Before Country: Expanding God’s Kingdom through Christian Localism.

Both Joe Moss, the new chairman of the county commission, as well as Rhodea, his vice chair, endorsed Trewhella’s book and made a YouTube video to promote his ideas.

“Understand, the wicked tyrants always count on the blithe compliance of the lesser authorities in order to get their evil down in the fabric of society,” Trewhella said at the May 10 GOP fundraiser, according to an audio recording of his talk. “The interposition of the lesser authorities is massively important to stop evil in a nation.”

County commissioners are generally tasked with overseeing the health and safety of residents. They supervise those who plow the roads, maintain the parks and issue licenses and certificates.

Resolutions like this, say law experts, have no teeth.<;re assertions of ideological spleen,” said Nicholas Bagley, a law professor at the University of Michigan. “It’s a way for the counties to signal that they are unhappy with the direction the state is going. But legally the declarations are meaningless.”

Still, many residents expressed shock and dismay at their county commissioners’ actions Tuesday. They included a Michigan State University student who was barricaded in a gym on campus during the Feb. 13 mass shooting that resulted in the deaths of three students. She  begged commissioners not to disregard new gun safety laws.

David Barnosky, a retired pipeline surveyor who began a Facebook group called Ottawa Objects, said the new commissioners have abrogated power that is not theirs.

“They think they know everything,” said Barnosky. “They’re not even close.”

RELATED: https://religionnews.com/2023/01/06/a-christian-nationalist-taxonomy/">Who are the Christian nationalists? A taxonomy for the post-Jan. 6 world

This story was reported with support from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation

---

---

Hundreds of Christian conservatives gathered in Nashville, Tennessee, last week for a two-day “FlashPoint Live” conference held at Cornerstone Church. FlashPoint is a program that airs on The Victory Channel, a television network founded by televangelist Kenneth Copeland, that has been dedicated to spreading disinformation, conspiracy theories, and Christian nationalist rhetoric since its creation in 2020.

Among those who spoke at the FlashPoint event in Nashville was televangelist Jesse Duplantis, a prosperity gospel preacher who is fond of bragging about how rich he is. Duplantis, like so many other Christian nationalist activists, is also quite fond of spreading historically and biblically baseless claims about the supposedly Christian founding of the United States.

Preaching on Thursday night, Duplantis kicked things off with a confusing and downright false recounting of the supposed manner in which God laid out his “vision of America” to George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

“God did something with the United States of America that he never did with any other nations because he created it with a Judeo-Christian ethic,” Duplantis said. “He gave a vision to four men way back when when this nation started off. One was George Washington, the first president of the United States. Number two was Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary treasurer of the United States. [Third was] the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay. And then the fourth president of the United States, James Madison. And through those four men, God gave the vision of America about what they should do.”

“God wanted this vision for this America that he would put his providence in,” Duplantis continued. “Now, the author of the Constitution of the United States is President James Madison, who was the fourth president of the United States. But he had this vision that God placed in him. You see, what they wanted was not a United States of America, they wanted free and independent states so each could do their own thing. Free and independent states.”

“James Madison, who’s called the author of the Constitution, he was supposed to say, ‘We the people of free and independent states.’ That’s the way it was supposed to happen, but God changed the word on the day that he spoke it there for the Constitution. He said, ‘We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,’ you know, the preamble. So, what happened is God united this United States together on that day under a document called the Constitution of the United States.[vid]

we don’t even know where to begin debunking Duplantis’ claims because nothing that he said makes much sense. First of all, while Washington, Madison, and Hamilton were all delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, John Jay was not. Other than penning five of the 85 essays that came to be known as the Federalist Papers, Jay didn’t play any particularly central role in the Constitution’s construction or ratification.

Duplantis’ confusing assertion that God somehow “changed the words” that James Madison was supposed to speak when creating the preamble to the Constitution makes even less sense, given that the preamble was written by Gouverneur Morris, a delegate from Pennsylvania. The language about “free and independent states” appeared in the Declaration of Independence, and the idea that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention aimed to create a government in which every state “could do their own thing” is precisely the opposite of what was intended.

As Right Wing Watch has explained before:

The creation of a strong central government was precisely what was intended by those who crafted, signed, and ratified the Constitution. Having struggled through the American Revolution and the first years of independence with essentially no federal government under the Articles of Confederation, many Founding Fathers agreed that what was needed was a convention to “render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.” The Constitution that arose out of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was designed to remedy the weakness and diffusion of powers that hampered the federal government under the Articles of Confederation.

Duplantis, like so many other Christian nationalist activists, is willing to exploit the biblical and historical ignorance of his audience by making blatantly false claims and perpetuating the false narratives regarding the founding of this nation because doing so serves to promote the modern-day right-wing political agenda.

That is the reason why Right Wing Watch has repeatedly debunked these lies about the founding of our nation. Duplantis and others have an explicit political goal and seek to bolster their Christian nationalist agenda in order to undermine church-state separation and reverse progress toward equality by insisting that our laws and policies must coincide with their interpretation of the Bible.

Tags: Jesse Duplantis Christian Nationalism FlashPoint

---

---

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/christian-nationalist-mark-robinson-has-to-remind-himself-that-this-is-a-constitutional-republic-its-not-a-theocracy/

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirks-turning-point-usa-increasingly-leaning-right-wing-christian

mma 4 23

Kirk and his conservative student-oriented organization Turning Point USA have spent the last two years bolstering connections with faith leaders on the religious right and Christian nationalist influencers as part of a “mission” to “restore America’s biblical values.”

As part of this effort, TPUSA is pressuring pastors to push right-wing politics, deepening ties with extremist pastors and groups that push Christian nationalist talking points, and teaching kids Christian fundamentalist curriculums under the guise of more innocuous “patriotic” and “Christian education.”

Christian nationalism, which contends that the U.S. is a fundamentally Christian nation and should be governed by right-wing Christian beliefs, has been on the rise in Republican politics. According to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution, more than half of Republicans support Christian nationalism.

This undercurrent of right-wing religious fundamentalism has helped fuel a torrent of anti-LGBTQ legislation and anti-abortion laws in GOP-led state legislatures across the country. The 2022 midterm elections also saw increased fervor from the religious right on the campaign trail, such as in the candidacy of Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, who experts warned had centered the dangerous Christian nationalist ideology at the heart of his campaign. (Kirk, however, praised Mastriano as "a fabulous person.”)

Turning Point USA, Kirk’s student-oriented youth group which he founded to increase right-wing political influence, has historically focused on college campuses, where its student chapters have a troubling history of racist incidents. Kirk also has espoused virulently anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and lamented supposed Christian persecution.

TPUSA Faith was launched in 2021, with a Turning Point spokesperson saying that “it was a no-brainer to recreate” the TPUSA model of activism for the faith community. Kirk has depicted the country as engaged in a “spiritual battle,” and this latest initiative seeks to win that supposed battle by restoring “America’s biblical values.” After Kirk partnered with extreme pastors and religious right leaders, some observers noted that TPUSA has increasingly grounded its mission in “the theology of Christian nationalism” and religious fundamentalism.

Kirk pushes Christian churches to spread bigotry by separating them into three groups: The cowardly, the courageous, and the complicit

Since co-founding TPUSA Faith with far-right pastor Rob McCoy, who reportedly played a key role in Kirk’s rejection of the principle of the separation between church and state, Kirk has traveled to churches across the country and attacked pastors he deems inadequately political.

At self-described “Christian extremist” Kenneth Copeland’s FlashPoint Live event in 2022, Kirk described what he sees as the three kinds of Christian churches: the “cowardly,” the “courageous,” and the “complicit.” He explained a simple litmus test for a “cowardly pastor” and church: “They didn't say a word after Roe vs. Wade was overturned. … They should resign from the ministry or find some courage because we just overturned one of the worst demonic decisions in the history of our country.” Kirk elaborated that “We should try to bring the cowardly pastors into the courageous category. We should challenge them.”

During the event, Kirk described Copeland’s audience and church as “the good type of ministry” and “the courageous church that stands boldly and speaks with moral truth.” Kirk downplayed and mocked criticisms of Christian nationalism, telling the audience that critiques of this ideology “means you're starting to care and they're getting scared.” Kirk also suggested that the only true faith that will lead to salvation is Christianity, and he baselessly fearmongered that “young people are being preyed on by government school predators and groomers.”

Kirk described “complicit” churches as going “out of their way for the seal of approval of the world,” ridiculing churches that put the “gay flag outside of their church or the Black Lives Matter flag." Earlier in the speech, he questioned whether the U.S. is a “conquered country” due to the presence of these flags.

Kirk's TPUSA Faith has partnered with groups associated with Christian nationalists

According to TPUSA’s 2021 Investor Prospectus, its TPUSA Faith initiative had a $6.4 million budget, making it one of the largest line items in the organization’s operating budget. TPUSA Faith's budget has seemingly funded a variety of events and programs, often in partnership with groups associated with Christian nationalists.

TPUSA Faith recently announced a partnership with Christian nationalist pastor and musician Sean Feucht for a “revival” tour in 2023 and 2024 called “Kingdom to the Capitol.” The tour has the intention of “visiting every single state capitol in America.” Feucht, TPUSA's new partner, built a profile during the COVID-19 pandemic with his fierce opposition to public health measures that temporarily closed churches, holding events in defiance that “often fused Christian nationalism with conspiracy theories about coronavirus vaccines and globalism.” Feucht recently embraced Christian nationalism overtly, declaring that Christians must “be the ones writing the laws” and that “we want God to be in control of everything.”

In 2021, Kirk launched TPUSA Faith’s “Saving America Tour” at megachurches around the country. At events, Kirk “melds the political with the spiritual” and frames political issues “as not just earthly policy differences, but part of the spiritual war between good and evil,” as described by The Arizona Republic. At one Saving America event in 2022, Kirk called on men in the audience to confront and physically prevent trans student athletes from competing in sports.

TPUSA Faith also holds annual pastors summits with right-wing pastors and figures. David Barton, a Christian nationalist activist who has worked for decades to end the separation between church and state, is listed as a speaker at this May’s annual gathering. Last year’s summit featured Mat Staver, who runs the anti-LGBTQ extremist group Liberty Counsel; right-wing pastor Jack Hibbs; and Chad Connelly, the former RNC faith director who worked with Barton during the 2022 midterm elections to activate right-wing Christian voters by spreading debunked talking points about the Bible.

Starting in 2021, TPUSA Faith partnered with Patriot Academy on courses to teach “biblical citizenship” and other programming denying the separation of church and state. Patriot Academy is an initiative of Barton’s anti-LGBTQ group Wallbuilders that seeks to “train citizens to understand and influence government policy with a Biblical worldview.” TPUSA and Patriot Academy collaborated on “biblical citizenship” courses and a workbook that denies the existence of the separation between church and state. The website also notes that the “biblical citizenship” is critical as “we fulfill the Great Commission and ‘make disciples of all nations.’”

Through TPUSA Faith, Kirk holds monthly “Freedom Night in America” events at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, in an “effort to continue fighting America’s culture war … with the intent to call the faith community to action.” The watchdog Right Wing Watch has tracked and sometimes debunked Kirk when he has pushed popular Christian nationalist talking points at Freedom Night events, including claiming that the church is supposed to be the “counselor” to the government. Kirk recently held a Freedom Night event with TPUSA advisory council member and former Rep. Bob McEwen (R-OH), who is the current executive director of the Council for National Policy, a shadowy but influential right-wing networking group that serves as a political nerve center for the religious right. (Kirk is also reportedly a member of the Council for National Policy).

To further expand its influence in recent years, TPUSA Faith​ launched Freedom Life Church, a network of TPUSA-aligned congregations. TPUSA Faith also reportedly hired a network of over 30 full-time “faith representatives” to launch faith groups across the country.

Kirk has praised extremist figures in the Christian nationalist movement and endorsed the “Seven Mountain Mandate”

Kirk has closely associated with high-profile members of the Christian nationalist “dominionist” movement, which asserts that Christians have been called to exert God’s will on society. Lance Wallnau, a self-proclaimed “prophet” and “Christian nationalist” who has been dubbed the “father of American Dominionism,” popularized the “quasi-biblical blueprint for theocracy” that is at the heart of dominionism called the “Seven Mountain Mandate.”

The Seven Mountain Mandate demands that Christians impose fundamentalist values on American society by conquering the “seven mountains” of cultural influence in U.S. life: government, education, media, religion, family, business, and entertainment. Wallnau has an extensively documented history of extreme and violent rhetoric. Recently, he called Biden the “antichrist,” referred to LGBTQ people as the “trans taliban,” and warned that God may soon start killing those who are “persecuting” Trump.

In addition to endorsing the Seven Mountain Mandate himself in a 2020 speech, Kirk has interviewed Wallnau multiple times since 2020, including at TPUSA’s 2022 Young Women’s Leadership Summit. In an interview, Kirk lavished praise on Wallnau, calling him “one of my all time favorite people.” Kirk has also repeatedly appeared alongside Wallnau in interviews and at in-person events for Kenneth Copeland’s right-wing Christian network The Victory Channel, where Wallnau serves as a “regular” for its panel show FlashPoint.

Kirk has also aligned TPUSA with the right-wing cellphone company Patriot Mobile. The company is closely associated with the dominionist movement, explicitly defends Christian nationalism on its website, and has become a force in Texas school board politics against LGBTQ inclusion and curriculums that teach about diversity. Patriot Mobile has sponsored a TPUSA Faith event, Kirk’s podcast, and other TPUSA events; held special events with him; and sent a senior leader to speak at a TPUSA conference.

TPUSA’s increasing Christian fundamentalism has led to an increased focus on young kids

TPUSA announced last summer that it would open its first brick and mortar school, Turning Point Academy, in collaboration with Dream City Christian School in Arizona, a K-12 private school that claims the “current political and spiritual climate in the country is in turmoil.” Kirk has said that the “Christian, Classical, conservative, church-based” school is just "the first in a growing network of schools that will launch across the country in the coming years.”

As Media Matters previously reported, Turning Point Academy attempts to undermine what right-wing figures have labeled as threats to kids, assuring parents that “CRT, postmodernism, ‘Wokeism,’ deconstructionism, queer theory, radical LGBT agendas, and anti-American ideas such as the 1619 project will have no place at our institution."

TPUSA’s expansion into K-12 education also aligns the organization with a long-term goal of the Christian nationalist movement: teaching kids Christian fundamentalist curriculums under the guise of simply “patriotic” and “Christian education.”

---

---

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/guilty-as-charged-sean-feucht-proudly-admits-to-being-a-christian-nationalist/

---

---

rww 4 23

...In addition to promoting the Bartons, Patriot Mobile’s YouTube page also features dozens of videos of Rafael Cruz, the radical Christian nationalist father of Sen. Ted Cruz, leading prayers and Bible study. In a video posted Monday, Cruz ranted that schools accommodating transgender students is “an abomination before God,” declaring that “it is imperative that we as Christians” elect “committed believers that are going to govern according to the word of God to every position in government.” And that starts, Cruz said, with local school boards. [vid]

---

rww 3 23

church musician turned political activist Sean Feucht has teamed up with the religious arm of right-wing youth organizing group Turning Point USA for a two-year, 50-state road trip designed to bring Feucht’s mix of worship and hard-right politics to every state capitol.

After a kickoff event attended by seven members of Congress in the U.S. Capitol rotunda March 9, the “Kingdom to the Capitol” tour headed south with a swing through Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jackson, Mississippi, and Montgomery, Alabama this past weekend. In Alabama, Chief Justice Tom Parker, a longtime ally of the disgraced former Chief Justice Roy Moore, participated in the tour and invited Feucht to pray in the Supreme Court chamber.

Rep. Lauren Boebert was among the members of Congress who joined a small crowd in the U.S. Capitol March 9 to sing along with Feucht as he strummed his guitar. Afterwards, Feucht tweeted, “The Capitol became an Altar…There is ONE KING over America…”

Feucht, a missionary musician associated with controversial Northern California megachurch Bethel, ran for Congress in 2020 in what he said was obedience to a call from God. Despite playing up a Dec. 2019 visit to the Oval Office where he prayed over former President Donald Trump, Feucht did not make it through the primary. But the failed run hooked him on politics, and he formed a political group called Hold the Line in 2020 and ramped up his activism in opposition to public health restrictions on church gatherings that were designed to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Since then, Feucht has held “Let Us Worship” rallies on the National Mall featuring appearances by Sen. Josh Hawley, New Apostolic Reformation leader Ché Ahn, and dominionist Lou Engle, as well as video remarks from Trump. He also started a podcast; when Boebert was a guest, Feucht praised her as a “gangster for Jesus.”

While Turning Point USA was founded in 2012 with a libertarian bent, founder Charlie Kirk has since teamed up with Christian nationalists, and endorsed Feucht’s congressional run in 2020. In 2021, Kirk launched TPUSA Faith as a political vehicle for “restoring traditional biblical values in our nation” by pushing conservative pastors to get more active politically. It held its first summit for pastors last year. Kirk regularly makes “Freedom Night” presentations in churches.

Since his failed run for office, Feucht has established a beachhead for spiritual warfare two blocks from the U.S. Capitol in a rowhouse he has dubbed “Camp Elah,” which he says is a biblical reference to the stream where David picked up the stones that he used to slay Goliath.

Feucht and Kirk have both been influenced by Rob McCoy, a California pastor-politician who is allied with Christian Nationalist political operative David Lane. McCoy serves as TPUSA Faith’s co-chair. In an interview on Feucht’s Hold the Line podcast, McCoy acknowledged that his Calvary Chapel church has theological differences with Bethel’s charismatic Pentecostalism, but he praised Feucht’s political activism and his collaboration with TPUSA Faith. “We have an agenda,” Feucht said. “We want the kingdom of God to take over. It’s a clear agenda from heaven.”

Tags: Charlie Kirk Lauren Boebert Rob McCoy Sean Feucht Tom Parker Christian Nationalism Dominionism Election 2024 Hold the Line TPUSA Faith Turning Point USA

---

---

3 23 paywall?

https://www.texasobserver.org/christian-youth-radicalization-nationalism-texas/

---

rww 3 23

ight-wing commentator and youth organizer Charlie Kirk continues to host TPUSA Faith’s monthly Freedom Night in America events at churches around the nation where he consistently spreads historically baseless claims about the Constitution and the founding of this country.

On Wednesday night, Kirk and right-wing radio host Dennis Prager of Prager U appeared at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, where the duo misrepresented American history in order to promote the Christian nationalist agenda. During his remarks, Prager assured the largely Christian audience that despite their theological differences, they were all on the same side because it is his calling as a Jew to bring Christians “to God, and to the Ten Commandments, and the Bible.”

“I have a love affair with America’s Christians,” Prager said. “It’s reciprocated. I feel very loved by America’s Christians.”

Kirk kicked things off by asking Prager, who is Jewish and who has produced several books and lectures on the Torah, to explain just how vital the Bible was to the founding of this nation.

“Can you just speak a little bit about America’s founding roots and how the American founders knew the Torah,” Kirk suggested. “Deuteronomy was the most quoted of any book—secular or religious—in the writing of the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Declaration of Independence. We teach our kids in government schools that America was a secular nation, but in reality, it was the Bible that founded the philosophical tradition of the greatest nation ever to exist in the history of the world.”

The assertion that the Bible, and Deuteronomy in particular, were “the most quoted” sources during the founding era is a claim that Christian nationalists love to make, despite the fact that it is false.

As we have explained before, this claim relies on misrepresenting a 1984 study that examined the writers and sources of ideas that were most often cited in “the political writings of Americans published between 1760 and 1805.” The study found that the Bible was the most frequently cited source solely because many of the pamphlets included in the research were sermons that had been reprinted for mass distribution (and these sermons, predictably, contained frequent references to Deuteronomy). When the sermon pamphlets were excluded, quotes from the Bible appeared no more frequently in the political writings of the era than citations of the classical or common law. In fact, when the study focused solely on the public political writings from 1787 to 1788, when the U.S. Constitution was written and ratified, “the Bible’s prominence disappears” almost completely.

So, contrary to Kirk’s confident assertion, Deuteronomy was not the most quoted of any book—secular or religious—in the writing of the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Declaration of Independence.

Prager, of course, readily agreed with Kirk that “the founders quoted Deuteronomy more than any other biblical Book and any other secular book,” before adding an irrelevant bit of information designed to bolster Kirk’s false claims.

“The founders knew the Bible—the Torah, in particular—so well that [Thomas] Jefferson and [Benjamin] Franklin suggested that the Great Seal of the United States depict the Jews leaving Egypt,” Prager said. “These two were the least religious. They were not doctrinally Christian. They were God-centered—even Jefferson—but it just shows you how much the Torah meant to the founders of this country.”

While it is true that upon completion of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Jefferson and Franklin recommended the creation of a Great Seal for the new nation that featured an image of Moses, that recommendation was rejected by the Continental Congress. It was not until 1782 that a design featuring an eagle clutching arrows and an olive branch was finally chosen for the Great Seal.

None of these facts, of course, actually matter to Kirk because his goal isn’t to tell the truth or present an accurate view of history, but rather to convince Christian conservatives that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that they have a biblical obligation to ensure that it remains one. We’ve seen this same strategy used time and time again by pseudo-historian David Barton and other Christian nationalists.

Tags: Charlie KirkDennis PragerChristian Nationalism

---

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/charlie-kirk-is-still-spreading-historically-and-biblically-baseless-claims-to-justify-his-christian-nationalism/

---

---

yikes

poll xian natl

https://www.alternet.org/white-christian-nationalism-2659398796/

maya

A new national survey conducted by the Public Research Institute and Brookings Institution found that a majority of Republicans in the U.S. "are sympathetic to" Christian nationalism, The Guardian reports.

The survey finds more than 50 percent of Republicans identify as one of two groups, showing that 29 percent “of white evangelical Protestants qualify as Christian nationalism adherents,” and 35 percent “qualify as sympathizers.”

The Guardian reports:

The survey comes as the US experiences an increasing number of Americans shifting away from religious affiliations, as well as a declining number of churches across the country. Data released last year by the Pew Research Center found that Christians in the US could be a minority group by 2070.

READ MORE: Are evangelicals distancing from Trump?

Additionally, the survey shows that 50 percent of Christian nationalism supporters and 38 percent of sympathizers favor the “idea of an authoritarian leader ‘who is willing to break some rules if that’s what it takes to set things right.’”

Last year, NBC aired a clip of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) voicing her stance on the ideology.

"We need to be the party of nationalism," she said. "I'm a Christian and I say it proudly: We should be Christian nationalists."

Around the same time, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and potential 2024 GOP presidential nominee urged a private Christian college audience to "put on the full armor of God. The Tampa Bay Times reports DeSantis "is increasingly using biblical references in speeches that cater to those who see policy fights through a morality lens."

READ MORE: 'Mean-spirited, vulgar grab for power': This evangelical pastor is fighting back against Christian nationalism

Futhermore, in the same year, Politico and The University of Maryland also conducted a survey raising questions around Christian nationalism to U.S. Republicans. The survey found 61 percent of Republicans would be in "favor" of "the United States officially declaring the United States to be a Christian nation."

Building on that data, PRRI and Brookings Institution's survey now finds 57 percent "of Christian nationalism adherents disagree that white supremacy is a major problem in the country," while 70 percent "reject the idea that historical discrimination contributes to current challenges faced by Black Americans."

Additionally, 23 percent of Christian nationalism supporters "believe the stereotype that Jewish people in the United States hold too many positions of power," while 67 percent "say that people from some Muslim-majority countries should be banned from entering the U.S."

READ MORE: 'QMaga': How QAnon, MAGA and 'Christian nationalism' have pushed the GOP into 'madness'

As political violence increases in the U.S., supporters of Christian nationalism “are nearly seven times more likely than” non-supporters to believe “true patriots might have to resort to violence to save our country."

The Southern Poverty Law Center asserts "the [white nationalist] movement’s energy has shifted into more mainstream spaces in the aftermath of Jan. 6."

Of the population who agrees with resorting to said violence, the survey finds 12 percent “personally threatened to use or actually used a gun, knife or other weapon on someone in the past few years.”

The Guardian's full report is available to read at this link.

READ MORE: More than 60 percent of Republicans want the United States of America declared a Christian nation: report

---

an 2 23 maya

Preacher and former GOP Arkansas lawmaker, Jason Rapert's organization, the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) is leading the charge on influencing the enactment of laws that enforce Christian nationalist ideology in state legislatures across the country, Rolling Stone reports.

Per Rolling Stone, as the "first-of-its-kind organization" since the United States' inception, NACL specifically pushes "biblical" bills — legislation that cannot be identified as "mere stunts or messaging," but "dark, freedom-limiting bills that, in some cases, have become law."

Additionally, the former lawmaker noted that the organization is at "'the forefront of the battles to end abortion in the individual states' and also seeks to drive queer Americans back into the closet." He said, "for far too long, we have allowed one political party in our nation to hold up Sodom and Gomorrah as a goal to be achieved rather than a sin to be shunned."

READ MORE: 'Patriots might have to resort to violence': Survey shows 'most' GOPers sympathize with Christian nationalism

As Rapert confirmed to Rolling Stone, "NACL was the first and only para-legislative organization in the country to adopt the Texas methodology as a model law, and we promoted it to be passed in every state."

Rapert tweeted last year that "Sodom and Gomorrah idolized by the United States Government as directed by the #DEMOCRATS in control of our government. This is an embarrassment and defiles the history of our nation. I will never cease fighting to save our country from these mockers of all that is righteous."

Rolling Stone reports:

As a matter of policy, NACL members must pledge to 'uphold the sanctity of human life' from the 'moment of conception' to 'natural death'; to define marriage as the 'sacred union exclusively between one man and one woman'; and to oppose 'unhealthy influences such as alcohol abuse, drug addiction, pornography, prostitution, violence, gambling and crime.' Ironically, NACLs website is 'Powered by GoDaddy,' a web service firm that sells .sex and .porn domains.

READ MORE: More than 60 percent of Republicans want the United States of America declared a Christian nation: report

Additionally, the conservative preacher, according to Rolling Stone, has stated on his show, Save the Nation, he is a "'proud' Christian Nationalist," and "rejects that being a Christian Nationalist is somehow unseemly or wrong."

Andrew Whitehead, author of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, notes Christian nationalists "believe that this country was founded for Christians like them, generally natural-born citizens and white."

The Guardian reports guk recent national survey taken by the Public Research Institute and Brookings Institution "found that a majority of Republicans in the U.S. 'are sympathetic to' Christian nationalism."

Another survey also conducted by Politico and the University of Maryland discovered that "61 percent of Republicans would be in 'favor' of 'the United States officially declaring the United States to be a Christian nation.'"

READ MORE: 'Mean-spirited, vulgar grab for power': This evangelical pastor is fighting back against Christian nationalism

Likewise, Rapert believes the United States "was founded as a 'Judeo-Christian nation.'" Rolling Stone reports the minister also "believes the moment the founding fathers 'dedicated this nation to God' that 'Satan and his forces [have] put a target on the United States of America, trying to take us out.'"

Regarding the group's influence on nationwide legislation, NACL pushed the United State Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade last year. According to Rolling Stone, organization member and GOP Texas lawmaker, Bryan Hughes, spearheaded "the bounty-hunter bill that all-but outlawed abortion in Texas by allowing private citizens to sue women who terminate pregnancies after six weeks, and their doctors, in civil court."

Rolling Stone reports:

By the time that bill passed in Texas in Sept. 2021, it had been adopted by NACL as model legislation. The reproductive rights group NARAL later tracked copycat legislation in more than a dozen states. Rapert takes substantial credit for that spread: 'NACL was the first and only para-legislative organization in the country to adopt the Texas methodology as a model law,' he tells Rolling Stone, 'and we promoted it to be passed in every state.'

READ MORE: Do right-wing evangelicals really want a 'Christian nation'?

Rapert's group boasts constituents in 31 states, in addition to "a dozen 'model laws'" members can push forward in their state legislatures.

READ MORE: Why Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 'troubling' endorsement of Christian nationalism is an 'urgent threat'

Rolling Stone's full report is available at this link (subscription required). The Guardian's report is here.

---

an 2 23

A new report from the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism reveals that all extremist-related murders in 2022 were committed by right-wing extremists. More than four out of five extremist-related murders last year were committed by white supremacist right-wing extremists. The report finds that nearly all extremist-related mass killings were committed by right-wing extremists, and warns the number of those mass murders "is of growing concern."

"All the extremist-related murders in 2022 were committed by right-wing extremists of various kinds," the ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) reports, "who typically commit most such killings each year but only occasionally are responsible for all (the last time this occurred was 2012)."

"Left-wing extremists engage in violence ranging from assaults to fire-bombings and arsons, but since the late 1980s have not often targeted people with deadly violence."

RELATED: Watch: Club Q Owner Testifies Before Congress About 'Hundreds' of Messages of Hate He Received After Anti-LGBTQ Attack

The report adds: "White supremacists commit the greatest number of domestic extremist-related murders in most years, but in 2022 the percentage was unusually high: 21 of the 25 murders were linked to white supremacists. Again, this is primarily due to mass shootings. Only one of the murders was committed by a right-wing anti-government extremist—the lowest number since 2017."

Last year, COE notes, "domestic extremists killed at least 25 people in the U.S., in 12 separate incidents. This represents a decrease from the 33 extremist-related murders documented in 2021 and is comparable to the 22 extremist-related murders in 2020. It continues the recent trend of fewer extremist-related killings after a five-year span of 47-78 extremist-related murders per year (2015-2019)."

The Associated Press, pointing to the "especially high number" of extremist killings "linked to white supremacy" reports they "include a racist mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 Black shoppers dead and a mass shooting that killed five people at an LGBT nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado."

READ MORE: Watch: Alaska GOP Lawmaker Says It's a 'Benefit to 'Society' When 'Child Abuse Is Fatal' Because There’s a 'Cost Savings'

The "main threat in the near future will likely be white supremacist shooters, the report found," The AP adds. "The increase in the number of mass killing attempts, meanwhile, is one of the most alarming trends in recent years, said Center on Extremism Vice President Oren Segal."

In a separate article on that LGBT nightclub mass shooting, Club Q, also published Thursday, the AP reports the "22-year-old accused of carrying out the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs in November ran a neo-Nazi website and used gay and racial slurs while gaming online, a police detective testified Wednesday."

"Anderson Lee Aldrich also posted an image of a rifle scope trained on a gay pride parade and used a bigoted slur when referring to someone who was gay, Detective Rebecca Joines said."

---

---

an 2 23

in an Instagram post on July 22, 2022, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) declared, "I’m a proud Christian nationalist." Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is embracing the term "Christian nationalist" as well, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) has complained that she is "tired of this separation of church and state junk" — inspiring The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson, a Never Trump conservative, to say that Boebert "can go to Iran" if she feels that way.

Another Never Trumper, Washington Post opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin, is also troubled by the popularity of Christian nationalism within the MAGA movement. In her February 9 column, Rubin cites a Public Religion Research Institute/Brookings Institution poll released a day earlier as evidence that "Christian nationalists, in fact, harbor a set of extreme beliefs at odds with pluralistic democracy."

Survey respondents were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with statements like: (1) "U.S. laws should be based on Christian values," (2) "Being Christian is an important part of being truly American," (3) "The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation," (4) "If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore" and (5) "God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society."

READ MORE: More than 60 percent of Republicans want the United States of America declared a Christian nation: report

Rubin explains, "PRRI found that 10 percent ('adherents') of American adults believe in these ideas overwhelmingly or completely; 19 percent agree but not completely ('sympathizers'); 39 percent disagree ('skeptics') but not completely; and 29 percent disagree completely ('rejecters'). Who are these people? 'Nearly two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants qualify as either Christian nationalism sympathizers (35 percent) or adherents (29 percent).'"

The columnist adds, "Thirty-five percent of all Whites are adherents. Put differently, Christian nationalist adherents are a minority, but when combined with sympathizers, still comprise a stunning 29 percent of Americans — many tens of millions."

The poll, according to Rubin, shows that "Christian nationalists also make up the base of the Republican Party."

"If you thing this sounds like MAGA tripe," Rubin warns, "you’re right. This is the hardcore MAGA base…. To counteract Christian nationalism, we will need a positive, optimistic message that celebrates an inclusive, diverse democracy in which no American is more 'real' than another. What makes us unique — or 'exceptional' as the right likes to say — is that America isn’t defined by race or religion. Believers in American values have their work cut out for them."

READ MORE: 'QMaga': How QAnon, MAGA and 'Christian nationalism' have pushed the GOP into 'madness'

Read Jennifer Rubin’s full Washington Post column at this link (subscription required).

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/this-evangelical-pastor-is-fighting-back-against-mean-spirited-vulgar-christian-nationalism-report/

---

YIKES

rww 10 22

vid

Far-right activist and so-called “Stop the Steal” founder Ali Alexander went on a manic rant during his podcast Monday in which openly advocated for Christian fascism and “a violent Christian crusade” against his perceived political opponents.

Buoyed by reports that Elon Musk will purchase Twitter and that Kanye West was photographed wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt, Alexander expressed his conviction that his far-right worldview is gaining power and popularity, prompting him to lay out his vision for a fascist Christian nationalist theocracy.

“I refuse to walk into a future where it is commonplace to have sexual perversion in public,” Alexander declared. “It’s just not going to be the norm, not where we’re going. OK? You can call that whatever the hell you want. You can call that Americana, you can call that America First, you could call it fascism, you could call it a theocracy, you could call it Christian nationalism. You could call it age appropriate. How about that’s what we call it? I don’t give a crap what you call it.”

“We will not live in a future where violence doesn’t meet widespread perversion. Period,” he continued. “I am aligned with God that we will not march quietly into a future where you got all kinds of things hanging out at public eateries, restaurants, libraries, with or without children. It’s just not acceptable. That’s over. And I will train tens of millions of Americans to not denounce, to not flinch, when they see evil coming upon evil, destruction coming upon evil.”

“All the good faith that we have allowed our oppressors to be assigned, it’s gone,” Alexander said. “I’m not gonna bomb an abortion clinic, but if somebody did, I’m not denouncing it. I’m not calling for violence. I’m not calling for death. I’m explicitly saying, ‘Don’t do that,’ but if it happens, c’est la [vie]. OK? C’est la [vie]. You know, if they can poll a bunch of moderate Muslims and they don’t feel the urge to denounce radical Islam, guess what? This guy—Ali Alexander and Ali Alexander alone—but guess what? I’m going to be joined by tens of millions, maybe a couple hundred million Americans; we’re done. I’m going to finally teach people what is the moral allowable line that we can walk up to? What does the Bible allow us to get away with? ‘Oh, no. Ali’s going to show them the loopholes.’ You’re damn right I am.”

“I’m not gonna get beatified for this,” Alexander asserted. “I’m not going to reach sainthood, but I am here to say, ‘Fuck them.’ Fuck their nuclear war. Fuck their World War III. Fuck their rejection of peace. And if they don’t deal with the middle—the Elons and the Kanyes—then they should meet—I’m talking about the whole world—they should meet a violent Christian crusade. I mean it,100 percent. … And we’ve got to start conditioning each other for these mental models.”

---

an 1 23

More than once, the words “Christian libertarian” have been used to describe Bonnie Kristian. The journalist/author is known for her work for Christianity Today as well as Reason, and while Kristian is right-of-center politically, she is critical of the far-right Christian nationalism that has found a home in the Republican Party.

In an op-ed published by the Daily Beast on January 17, Kristian argues that if Christian nationalists succeeded in smashing liberalism in the United States, the country would not be peaceful and orderly as they claim. Rather, the result would be “horrific violence” and “forcible subjugation” of anyone who disagrees with them.

“Illiberalism is rising on left and right alike here in the United States,” Kristian writes. “Ideological anti-liberals — the sort of people who know what ‘David French-ism’ means, who explicitly reject liberalism’s insistence on tolerance and want to fundamentally change how our government works — don’t have the numbers to sweep to power…. That means their plan to overhaul American politics depends, at best, on a delusional belief that if we toss out liberalism, their party will somehow come out on top"

READ MORE: Texas GOP rep. hires 'Christian nationalist' who wants to execute drag show attendees

The libertarian continues, “At worst, however, it depends on something much darker: forcible subjugation of the many Americans who haven’t embraced their vision for a post-liberal United States. And that’s a plan which could only appeal to those who have forgotten the centuries of horrific violence that led the West to liberalism.”

Kristian notes that in an article published by the “conservative Christian” publication World on October 25, 2022, Baptist Andrew T. Walker posed the question: “Tell me, how are you going to achieve sufficient enough majorities in a nation where Christianity is in decline?”

Kristian’s response to Walker’s question: “Realistically, they won’t. Christian nationalism isn’t a decades-long evangelism program. It’s an illiberal politics supported by a minority of a minority of a shrinking demographic. The answer to Walker’s question, then, isn’t conversion and persuasion. It’s delusion — or force. Like other advocates of illiberalism, Christian nationalists typically don’t spell this part out. They don’t acknowledge the comparative unpopularity of their cause, and they certainly don’t openly endorse a return to the ideological violence that fueled demand for liberalism in the first place.”

According to Kristian, the “illiberal promise” made by Christian nationalists is a false promise.

READ MORE: Texas pastor openly calls on 'Christian nationalists' to 'impose their values on society'

“The illiberal promise is that once we’ve dispensed with liberalism’s inconvenience, uncertainty, and constant rumbles of public dispute, you will end up empowered,” Kristian explains. “Your morals will be enshrined in law. Your culture will be propagated by the government. Your friends will be rewarded and your enemies punished. But a litany of wars, inquisitions and purges show that for almost everyone, this promise is a lie. Without liberalism, you probably won’t end up empowered. You’ll end up bearably oppressed, if you’re lucky, or persecuted or dead if you’re not.”

Kristian adds, “Liberalism doesn’t have a perfect record of precluding injustice and peacefully settling disagreements. Anti-liberals’ charges of inconvenience, uncertainty, and the messiness of pluralism are fair. But unpopular ideological minorities, of all people, should realize it’s the best option we have.”

READ MORE: Watch: Torba warns GOP to not ‘disavow or condemn us’ because ‘Christian nationalists are the Republican Party

---

https://boingboing.net/2022/12/23/a-great-primer-on-the-rise-of-christian-nationalism-in-the-united-states.html

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/republicans-united-states-christian-nation/

---

9 22

rww

dominionist author, speaker, and political operative Lance Wallnau is a right-wing anti-LBGTQ activist, conspiracy theorist, and unabashed Trump cultist who has repeatedly praised authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He is also a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist who has urged former President Donald Trump to organize public rallies across the nation and infuse them with right-wing Christianity in order to bring about a revival in the United States'

[vid]

the reason Wallnau has urged Trump to hold such rallies is that Wallnau is one of the leading advocates of Seven Mountains dominionism, a theology connected to right-wing political ideology that teaches that Christians are to “do whatever is necessary” to take control of the seven main “mountains” that shape our culture—education, government, media, business, arts and entertainment, family, and religion—in order to implement the will of God throughout the nation and the world.

As Wallnau explained earlier this year, if right-wing Christians can gain control of the seven mountains, they can control a nation.[vid]

on Monday night, Wallnau announced on his Facebook page that he will be joining Donald Trump Jr. in speaking later this week at a fundraiser for election-denier and Christian nationalism promoter Doug Mastriano, who is the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania.

“I’m coming up from Dallas, Texas,” Wallnau said. “I’m paying to go. I’m putting a couple thousand dollars into making this event happen, to help this great guy, Doug Mastriano, take a stand. He’s getting beat left and right. Why? Because he’s standing up for Christian values and is a strong conservative and a MAGA Republican.”

“Doug is doing what God called him to do,” Wallnau continued. “I believe the spirit of God is going to show up in a unique way. They’re attacking everyone who is a Christian in politics as a Christian nationalist. All the Christians are pearl-clutching and handwringing about Christian nationalism. All the nervous religious types are all warning me, ‘Lance, don’t use the term Christian nationalist.’ This just makes me so mad I feel like coming out as a Christian nationalist, because the devil controls—it’s like the rainbow. The rainbow used to be in the Bible a sign from God of his covenant that he’d never destroy [humanity again], but then the LGBTQ movement got a hold of it and now if you put a rainbow on something [people ask], ‘Are you LGBTQ?’ It’s like the devil grabs stuff and brands it. It makes me so mad. I’m not willing to let Christianity or nationalism or love of nation be destroyed by the left, who’s like a ubiquitous force; they’re like a virus."[vid]

mastriano already has deep connections to QAnon conspiracy theorists, self-proclaimed prophets, New Apostolic Reformation dominionists, the antisemitic founder of Gab, and a theocratic offshoot of the Unification Church that worships with AR-15s. We can now add Seven Mountains-promoting Christian nationalists to this list.

---

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/christian-nationalism-2657874677/

spike rosary sales xian nat'l

---

---

8 22 an the conv

in the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections, some politicians continue to ride the wave of what's known as "Christian nationalism" in ways that are increasingly vocal and direct.

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Donald Trump loyalist from Georgia, told an interviewer on July 23, 2022, that the Republican Party "need[s] to be the party of nationalism. And I'm a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists."

Similarly, Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, recently said, "The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church." Boebert called the separation of church and state "junk."

Many Christian nationalists repeat conservative activist David Barton's argument that the Founding Fathers did not intend to keep religion out of government.

As a scholar of racism and communication who has written about white nationalism during the Trump presidency, I find the amplification of Christian nationalism unsurprising. Christian nationalism is prevalent among Trump supporters, as religion scholars Andrew Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry argue in their book "Taking Back America for God."

Perry and Whitehead describe the Christian nationalist movement as being "as ethnic and political as it is religious," noting that it relies on the assumption of white supremacy. Christian nationalism combines belief in a particular form of Christianity with nativist and populist political platforms. American Christian nationalism is a worldview based on the belief that America is superior to other countries, and that that superiority is divinely established. In this mindset, only Christians are true Americans.[real am]

Parts of the movement fit into a broader right-wing extremist history of violence, which has been on the rise over the past few decades and was particularly on display during the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

The vast majority of Christian nationalists never engage in violence. Nonetheless, Christian nationalist thinking suggests that unless Christians control the state, the state will suppress Christianity.

From siege to militia buildup

Violence perpetrated by Christian nationalists has manifested in two primary ways in recent decades. The first is through their involvement in militia groups; the second is seen in attacks on abortion providers.

The catalyst for the growth of militia activity among contemporary Christian nationalists stems from two events: the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff and the 1993 siege at Waco.

At Ruby Ridge, former Army Green Beret Randy Weaver engaged federal law enforcement in an 11-day standoff at his rural Idaho cabin over charges relating to the sale of sawed-off shotguns to an ATF informant investigating Aryan Nation white supremacist militia meetings.

Weaver ascribed to the Christian Identity movement, which emphasizes adherence to Old Testament laws and white supremacy. Christian Identity members believe in the application of the death penalty for adultery and LBGTQ relationships in accordance with their reading of some biblical passages.

During the standoff, Weaver's wife and teenage son were shot and killed before he surrendered to federal authorities.

In the Waco siege a year later, cult leader David Koresh and his followers entered a standoff with federal law enforcement at the group's Texas compound, once again concerning weapons charges. After a 51-day standoff, federal law enforcement laid siege to the compound. A fire took hold at the compound in disputed circumstances, leading to the deaths of 76 people, including Koresh.

The two events spurred a nationwide militia buildup. As sociologist Erin Kania argues: "Ruby Ridge and Waco confrontations drove some citizens to strengthen their belief that the government was overstepping the parameters of its authority. … Because this view is one of the founding ideologies of the American Militia Movement, it makes sense that interest and membership in the movement would sharply increase following these standoffs between government and nonconformists."

Distrust of the government blended with strains of Christian fundamentalism have brought together two groups with formerly disparate goals.

Christian nationalism and violence

Christian fundamentalists and white supremacist militia groups both figured themselves as targeted by the government in the aftermath of the standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco. As scholar of religion Ann Burlein argues, "Both the Christian right and right-wing white supremacist groups aspire to overcome a culture they perceive as hostile to the white middle class, families, and heterosexuality."

Significantly, in 1995, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols cited revenge for the Waco siege as a motive for the bombing of the Alfred Murrah federal building. The terrorist act killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.

Since 1993, at least 11 people have been murdered in attacks on abortion clinics in cities across the U.S., and there have been numerous other plots.

They have involved people like the Rev. Michael Bray, who attacked multiple abortion clinics. Bray was the spokesman for Paul Hill, a Christian Identity adherent who murdered physician John Britton and his bodyguard James Barrett in 1994 outside of a Florida abortion clinic.

In yet another case, Eric Rudolph bombed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. In his confession, he cited his opposition to abortion and anti-LGBTQ views as motivation to bomb Olympic Square.

These men cited their involvement with the Christian Identity movement in their trials as motivation for engaging in violence.

Mainstreaming Christian nationalist ideas

The presence of Christian nationalist ideas in recent political campaigns is concerning, given its ties to violence and white supremacy.

Trump and his advisers helped to mainstream such rhetoric with events like his photo op with a Bible in Lafayette Square in Washington following the violent dispersal of protesters, and making a show of pastors laying hands on him. But that legacy continues beyond his administration.

Candidates like Doug Mastriano, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania who attended the Jan. 6 Trump rally, are now using the same messages.

In some states, such as Texas and Montana, hefty funding for far-right Christian candidates has helped put Christian nationalist ideas in the mainstream.

Blending politics and religion is not necessarily a recipe for Christian nationalism, nor is Christian nationalism a recipe for political violence. At times, however, Christian nationalist ideas can serve as a prelude.

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/marjorie-taylor-greene-christian-nationalism/

https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/adam-kinzinger/

~ xian natl mtg am taliban

---

---

WEAPONIZE OMB, UNITARY?

mma 7 22

https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/center-renewing-america-preparing-next-republican-administration-govern

over the last several years, the United States has seen a dramatic rise in Christian nationalism, a loosely defined ideology that fuses patriarchy, xenophobia, and pretextual economic populism with an overtly biblical foundation and a deep distrust of democracy. This phenomenon has manifested in many ways, but one of the organizations driving the trend is a far-right think tank called the Center for Renewing America.

Several former Trump administration officials are associated with the group, including its president, Russ Vought, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump. Vought led the administration’s efforts to demonize critical race theory, including removing anti-racism training from federal agencies. He is a regular guest on Steve Bannon’s podcast War Room: Pandemic and on Fox News. His organization is one of several far-right groups under the umbrella of the Conservative Partnership Institute, whose top officials include former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and right-wing legal activist Cleta Mitchell. Both Meadows and Mitchell were intimately involved in Trump’s attempted insurrection, as were at least 18 other people associated with CPI, including CRA senior fellow Kash Patel,  former Trump Pentagon official.

Perhaps the most significant of Trump’s top coup allies is CRA senior fellow Jeffrey Clark, a former environmental lawyer at the Department of Justice who was hired by the think tank in June. About three weeks later, Clark was targeted in a raid by federal law enforcement. Little is publicly known about the investigation into Clark, but it may revolve around his proposal “to send a letter to state officials in Georgia falsely stating that the department had evidence that could lead Georgia to rescind its certification of Mr. Biden’s victory in that key swing state,” according to The New York Times.

CRA works on an array of disparate, seemingly unrelated issues. In addition to CRA-linked individuals’ considerable efforts to justify the January 6 insurrection, the organization has sown doubt about future “election integrity.” Vought has remained at the heart of the anti-critical race theory push even after he left OMB. He is virulently anti-trans, calling trans identity a “contagion” in a 2021 podcast, and CRA has supported anti-trans legislation and opposed laws that would ban discrimination based on sexual and gender identity. Senior fellow and immigration restrictionist Ken Cuccinelli and Vought successfully lobbied counties in Texas to declare that they were under “invasion” by migrants. CRA is also an active participant in the conservative legal community, as exemplified by its senior fellow Mark Paoletta, who prepared Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas for their confirmation hearings. Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Vought celebrated Paoletta’s central role in the court’s rightward shift.

What unites these issues is what Vought refers to as a “biblical worldview,” a concept that has long been prevalent on the religious right and refers to an all-encompassing ideology derived from a conservative interpretation of the Bible. Although Vought eschews the aesthetics of some of the street-fighting Christian fascists who terrorized Pride events in June, he overtly believes the United States should be a Christian nation. CRA’s mission is to “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought is signatory to a national conservative statement affirming that “the Bible should be read as the first among the sources of a shared Western civilization in schools and universities.” Most revealingly, in 2021 Vought wrote an opinion piece for Newsweek with the headline: “Is There Anything Actually Wrong With 'Christian Nationalism?'

Russ Vought: is there anything actually wrong with Christian nationalism

Vought argues that, no, there’s nothing wrong with Christian nationalism, so long as it’s defined in a circumscribed, non-threatening way.

“Once stripped of its superimposed liberal scar tissue, ‘Christian nationalism’ is actually a rather benign and useful description for those who believe in both preserving our country's Judeo-Christian heritage and making public policy decisions that are best for this country,” Vought writes.

This is a fig leaf. Christian nationalism as it actually operates — sometimes taking the modifier “white” at the beginning — endorses the racist “great replacement theory,” which posits that global elites are fueling non-white immigration to the United States to “replace” white people. The conspiracy theory holds that this upending of power relations will be done through demographic changes, and at the ballot box — which helps to explain CRA’s obsession with “secure borders” and “election integrity.”

For Vought, CRA’s issues of focus are not discrete policy battles. As he made clear recently on a right-wing podcast, he believes the country is in a Manichean war between the forces of good and evil. The battleground is so-called cultural issues, which, properly understood, are liberation movements to end racist and patriarchal oppression, but for Vought they must be opposed at every step of the way.

“These are the issues that if we don’t fight on we lose our civilization,” Vought said. “Critical race theory has to be front and center. Transgender contagion in our schools, impacting our daughters across the country, needs to be a front and center issue."

moment of truth pod]

vought wants to create an “army” of activists ready and waiting to serve in government who can be trusted to carry out a Christian nationalist agenda. And as former director of OMB, Vought has a unique insight into how to implement a whole-of-government approach to enacting a presidential directive, which is what he did with Trump’s initiative against so-called “critical race theory.”

“When the president says, ‘I want to not fund critical race theory through the federal government,’ that’s involving all of the agencies, and we have to then make sure that the president’s agenda is executed,” Vought said in the same interview [aud]

more broadly, Vought lamented that not enough religious right activists “operate on the basis of worldview.” As a result, less dogmatic “elite Christians” have adopted ideologies that “lack clarity at best” and are “damaging at worst.” Vought wants hardliners in the church and in the public sphere. In the context of running the government, that means replacing career staff with “ideologically committed individuals up and down the agencies.”

That idea aligns with the upcoming plans from the Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo, who, along with Vought and CRA, spearheaded the broader backlash against critical race theory. As Rufo said in a recent interview:

As we approach 2024, I will be publishing a policy paper on “eliminating left-wing ideologies in the federal government,” using the power of the presidency to fundamentally reshape the bureaucracy with a six-part program targeting budget, content, personnel, grantmaking, and oversight. The idea is to centralize ideological control over the federal agencies in the White House and create a team at the Office of Management and Budget to enforce it. We could easily wipe out a significant portion of the infrastructure for the left-wing ideologies within the federal bureaucracy and within the network of federal grantees and contractors, which would shift American politics in the right direction.

These plans are not theoretical. CRA is one of many hard-right organizations involved in the Heritage Foundation’s 2025 Presidential Transition Project, a coalition of zealots determined to avoid some of the shortcomings and incompetencies of the Trump administration. (Vought is a former vice president of the organization’s grassroot and advocacy arm, Heritage Action for America.)

Vought has made no secret of what he would do if given the opportunity to serve as a Cabinet-level appointee in a Republican administration. He would attempt to eliminate or drastically curtail the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and others.

“We got to get after these agencies we talked about before, the administrative state, big money, EPA, CDC, [and] NIH that's weaponized against the American people and we need to put them on the chopping block before we get to some other things down the road,” Vought said on Steve Bannon’s War Room.

A subsequent Supreme Court decision that drastically limited the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions would likely serve as a template for Vought to dismantle broad swaths of the executive branch’s regulatory authority.

Vought’s antagonism toward the regulatory state extends to aspects of federal law enforcement, but only when those agencies are investigating conservatives for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk asked Vought about the Department of Justice’s supposed persecution of conservatives, including his colleague Jeffrey Clark, and how he thought it should be addressed.  The long-term plan is to structurally change it,” Vought said. “We've got to deconstruct the state that is weaponized against the American people.”

Like other organizations that have sprung up to harness Trumpism in the last several years, CRA’s broad influence remains limited. But its success in promoting the backlash against critical race theory shows it shouldn’t be underestimated, even though that topic may not have had the electoral influence Vought and others have claimed. What’s undeniable is that Vought and his fellow travelers have sweeping ambitions and the zeal of a true believer. They are telling us exactly what they are going to do if they return to power at the federal level, and it is a chilling vision of theocracy and repression.

vid Citation From the June 27, 2022, edition of Real America's Voice's The Charlie Kirk Show

---

---

rww 6 22 random

andrew Torba celebrates how far the “dissident Christian right” has managed to move the Overton Window: “We have multiple members of Congress embracing Christian Nationalism. We have the most watched News show on TV talking about the Great Replacement. We have normalized the widespread use of the phrases ‘anti-White’ and ‘anti-Christian’ in normie right wing circles. We have eliminated the taboo of criticizing the Tribe.” FYI, by “the Tribe,” Torba means Jews.

Kandiss Taylor says she cried all day after receiving only 3.4 percent of the vote in Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial primary because it means the state has become “communist”: “This is the end to freedom as we know it.”

David Lane gripes that in today’s culture “vice parades proudly about in virtue’s raiment, wholly untroubled by the tens of millions of preborn babies killed in their mother’s womb, while injudiciously jubilant of the Supreme Court’s recent fictitious finding, in a 5-4 split, of the ‘right’ to same-sex intercourse and marriage in the Constitution.”

Todd Coconato is freaking out: “Most Americans are blind to what is happening and believe a media that is 90% owned by 6 corporations who spew talking points from the same woke corporations that are pushing that there are 68 genders and who are telling us we are racists and full of hate because we love our country and stand for our flag. They say we ‘cling to our bibles and guns’ and they would love to disarm us! I wonder why? In order to answer that, all we have to do is study history. When will the people wake up and understand how wicked these people are? What will it take for Americas to demand changes in our economic polices and from our compromised leadership? Or will we sleep walk right into UN Agenda 2030 with no resistance at all?”

Finally, Kent Christmas proclaims that God is going to release a “death angel” on the Earth that will take out “evil” leaders who are in public office: “They ain’t gonna be voted out, they’re gonna be removed out.”

Tags: Andrew Torba David Lane Kandiss Taylor Kent Christmas Todd Coconato Leftovers

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/qanons-influence-trumpified-radicalized-gop/

no lnx twt

QAnon’s influence continues to grow and expand in 2022's Trumpified, radicalized GOP

A QAnon flag on display in Richmond, Virginia on January 20, 2020, Wikimedia Commons

Alex Henderson June 03, 2022

QAnon conspiracy theorists suffered a major disappointment when Donald Trump was voted out of the White House in 2020, but their presence in the Republican Party and the MAGA movement didn’t go away. QAnon’s ideas have been promoted by far-right members of the U.S. House of Representatives such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado — and QAnon devotee Lauren Witzke, who lost to Democratic Sen. Chris Coons in Delaware’s 2020 U.S. Senate race, is a pundit in Christian nationalist media broadcasts.

Moreover, QAnon’s influence in the GOP has grown to the point that a QAnon activist — Wayne Willott, a.k.a. Juan O. Savin — is trying to get MAGA Republicans elected to secretary of state positions so that they will play key roles in the administration of elections. Journalist Will Sommer, in an article published by the Daily Beast on June 1, takes a disturbing look at Willott’s “growing influence” both inside and outside the QAnon cult.

According to Sommer, Willott is doing a lot more than promoting conspiracy theories online. He is the co-founder of a group called the America First Secretary of State Coalition, and his candidates have been running in GOP primaries in the 2022 midterms.

“While the 65-year-old Willott remains all but unknown outside of QAnon,” Sommer reports, “he’s a figure with growing influence in both the conspiracy-theory universe and the broader conservative movement…. The America First Secretary of State Coalition now stands poised to have its candidates win offices in key battleground states. One of the group’s candidates, Kristina Karamo, has already won the Republican nomination for the position in Michigan.”

Sommer adds, “Another candidate, 2020 election denier and Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem, has won Trump’s endorsement and looks set to win his state’s primary as well. If victorious in the general election, both candidates could play a key role in how electoral votes from their states are allotted in 2024.”

Alex Kaplan, a researcher for Media Matters, warns that Willott’s extremism should not be taken lightly.

Kaplan told the Beast, “If one of these candidates in the future gets elected, there is a QAnon influencer that could help lead to a constitutional crisis.”

QAnon conspiracy theorists have no problem believing ludicrous things. Supporters of QAnon claim that the United States’ federal government has been hijacked by an international cabal of child sex traffickers, Satanists, pedophiles and cannibals and that Trump was elected president in 2016 to fight the cabal. And some QAnon extremists, according to Sommer, believe that Willott is really John F. Kennedy, Jr.

“Thanks to his ties throughout the conspiracy theorist community and rumors that he’s JFK Jr.,” Sommer reports, “Willott’s star shot up on the right in 2020 and 2021. Signed copies of his book promoting QAnon have sold for hundreds of dollars on eBay. With Q, the originator of QAnon, silent since December 2020, Willott quickly became one of the leading sources of QAnon information.”

Sommer adds, “Willott’s rise to the top of the QAnon heap was abetted by the other QAnon promoters’ refusal to take the coronavirus vaccine. In the course of just a few months, two anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists who had promoted Willott, Robert David Steele and Cirsten Weldon, both died of COVID-19.”

A recurring theme with QAnon is that Democrats, including teachers, are “groomers” who are trying to harm children by promoting homosexuality and bisexuality in schools and pushing a transgender agenda. In 2022, anti-trans bills sponsored by far-right Republicans have been plentiful in state legislatures.

Journalist Kristi Pahr, reporting for Fatherly.com in late April, noted that at least 150 anti-trans bills had been introduced in state legislatures in 2022 — many of which were passed and signed into law.

“Given the onslaught of hundreds of bills that are under consideration, it can be hard for parents of trans kids or parents who are transgender themselves to know what’s happening where they live — and how to press lawmakers to fight against anti-trans laws,” Pahr reported. “That’s why one group, the Trans Formations Project, developed a tool for tracking discriminatory legislation so the public can find out what’s happening in their states. The project also lists contact information for state legislators and provides descriptions of any proposed legislation in easy-to-understand language, without all the legal jargon and vagueness that tends to obfuscate what passed laws would actually do to our kids.”

Pahr cited Texas, Utah, West Virginia, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Montana, Arkansas and Mississippi as examples of red states where anti-trans bills have become law. And Florida, a swing state, is the home of what has been widely criticized as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Pahr describes it as the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law, reminding Fatherly readers that the law is not only anti-gay, but also, anti-trans.

The anti-trans laws being introduced by far-right Republicans in state legislatures don’t mention QAnon specifically, but they underscore QAnon’s influence on the Republican Party. When Republicans talk about “groomers” in defense of anti-trans bills, it is right out of QAnon’s Democrats-want-to-harm-your-children playbook.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the GOP nominee in Pennsylvania’s 2022 gubernatorial race, is among the far-right MAGA Republicans and conspiracy theorists who hasn’t been the least bit shy about promoting QAnon. In July 2021, Media Matters’ Eric Hananoki reported that Mastriano had promoted QAnon in more than 50 tweets.

Christian nationalist Witzke has been another outspoken QAnon promoter. When Witzke ran for the U.S. Senate seat in Delaware that was once held by now-President Joe Biden, she lost badly: In 2020, Democratic incumbent Coons defeated her by 22%.

But the fact that Delaware Republicans nominated someone as extreme as Witzke in the first place is a frightening example of the GOP’s radicalization. And Witzke hasn’t grown any less extreme or any less kooky since 2020.

These days, Witzke is making her presence felt in Christian nationalist broadcasts. Witzke praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a symbol of Christian piety in February and applauded the invasion of Ukraine. And now, she is implying that Democrats in the federal government and their "RINO" (Republicans In Name Only) allies are behind a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas on May 24 that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Witzke believes that Democrats targeted Robb Elementary School not only to promote gun control, but also, because they are worried about Latinos voting Republican.

Witzke said, “I think about the conspiracy behind all of it. I’m like, OK, what do they gain from it besides the gun control push? But also, Hispanics are starting to vote Republican and conservative. They specifically targeted a school in an area that is majority Hispanic. It’s essentially Mexico is what it is.”

Witzke went on to say, “They’re watching as Hispanics are starting to lean more conservative, and these people are crazy. Midterms are coming up. And there’s no limit to how far they’ll go to change the public narrative on things. So, I think it was multi-faceted. Of course, it was a federal operation in order to implement gun control…. All this stuff is organized and operated.”

The claim that Democrats in the federal government are orchestrating mass shootings of schoolchildren because they believe it will help them politically is exactly the type of ludicrous conspiracy theory QAnon supporters are coming up with. And this type of thinking has become mainstream in the Trumpified, radicalized GOP.

From Willott and Witzke to Mastriano, Boebert and Greene, QAnon is more than a movement of fringe conspiracy theorists who make wacky claims online. It is now a prominent influence in the Republican Party, even influencing anti-trans, anti-gay laws they are passing. And if Republicans enjoy a major red wave in the 2022 midterms, QAnon’s influence will only grow.

---

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/christian-nationalism/

k joyce salon

If the New York Times' "1619 Project" and Donald Trump's 1776 Commission mark two defining moments in American history, as well as opposite sides of an ideological chasm, a new book by sociologists Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry identifies a third defining moment. It's not a new proposed founding, but rather an "inflection point," the moment when the nation's history could have gone in another direction.

In "The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy," Gorski and Perry argue that in the years around 1690 — when Puritan colonists began envisioning their battles against Native Americans as an apocalyptic holy war to secure a new Promised Land, when Southern Christians began to formulate a theological justification for chattel slavery — a new national mythology was born. That mythology is the "deep story" of white Christian nationalism: the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation, blessed by God and imbued with divine purpose, but also under continual threat from un-American and ungodly forces, often in the form of immigrants or racial minorities.

The result was an ethnic nationalism sanctified by religion as it established a new "holy trinity" of "freedom, order and violence," meted out variously to in-groups and out.

When rioters driven by that vision broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, they were just reenacting a story that has been told in this country for centuries. But it's a story that again threatens to "topple American democracy" unless, Gorski and Perry write, a new "united front" is formed to defend it.

Perry spoke with Salon this April.

You describe white Christian nationalism as the "San Andreas Fault" of American politics.

We see America torn apart by an authoritarian populism that was characteristic of Trump's movement, which distrusts any opinion not tied to the nationalist leader. There's a lot of distrust for experts, even medical experts when it came to COVID, in favor of somebody like Trump or organizations that put a conservative slant on all news related to politics, COVID, immigration, Muslims, all those things. So when we say white Christian nationalism is the San Andreas Fault, we mean it is a thread running through all of our current conflicts.

And the implication that we're waiting for the big one.

Exactly. We all observed the events that took place on Jan. 6 with horror and shock, but there's this puzzling juxtaposition of images from that day: violent chaos, suffused with Christian symbolism. There are "Jesus Saves" signs and Christian flags and a prayer in Jesus' name in the Senate chamber. Rather than see that event as fringe and those religious symbols as puzzling, we believe Jan. 6 should be thought of as an eruption of forces that have been building for a long, long time.

I appreciated the book's long historical view: You weren't just focusing on Jan. 6, but looking to the past to understand this idea of the "deep story" behind contemporary Christian nationalism.

From our perspective today, the white Christian nationalist deep story is that we as a country have our roots in white Anglo-Protestant culture, and that's what made us prosperous and successful. In the colonial era, we wouldn't have called it white Christian nationalism, but it would have tied together all the same elements: race, religion and nation. In the time of the Puritans, it could be called white Protestant Britishism: that the people to whom the land rightly belongs are white as opposed to Native American, Protestant as opposed to Catholic or any indigenous religious group, British as opposed to French or certainly the nations of Native Americans. White Christian nationalism in that form was just as exclusive, just as brutal, even apocalyptic in its thrust.

Manifestations of white Christian nationalism have ebbed and flowed throughout America's history, and usually they ebb and flow in response to threats against the ethno-cultural majority. Sometimes the enemies change. Early on it was Native Americans; later it was the French and Roman Catholics. At different times it was Asians and certainly Black Americans who were the out-group. Starting in the mid-20th century, it was socialists and all things associated with communism — which is racialized but also religious, because communists and socialists are thought to be godless. So all throughout American history, you see this tying together of race, religion and nation in the boundaries of who is and is not truly American. Who is not changes in response to the enemies. But the in-group is almost always the same. It's white, Christian and those who are either born in the U.S. or at least "belong" here as part of the dominant ethnic group.

The book includes a lot of original data research that's often absent from these conversations. What were some of your most surprising or compelling findings?

One thing we really wanted to contribute is to operationalize this thing called Christian nationalism and see how it plays in response to various issues. We collected all this national data over the last two years that allowed us to track national events — the election, COVID, George Floyd's and Ahmaud Arbery's murders, all these different factors. One of the most surprising findings is how differently Christian nationalism works for white and Black Americans, how stark the contrast is to the same questions. When African Americans hear the language of "Christian values" or "Christian nation," either it doesn't change their attitudes at all or they seem to think aspirationally about the country America should have been, but never was. When white Americans hear that language, they seem to think nostalgically about a time when the right people ruled and the right culture dominated.

I was also not only shocked but discouraged at how Christian nationalist ideology shaped responses when we asked who Americans went to for information about COVID. White Christian nationalism was powerfully associated with rejecting everybody's opinion about COVID-19 except for Donald Trump's.

I was also taken aback by how powerfully Christian nationalist ideology was associated with responses to the Capitol insurrection. White Christian nationalism powerfully predicted people blaming the violence on antifa or Black Lives Matter and placing none of the blame on Trump. We saw even a correlation between Christian nationalist ideology and supporting the rioters or being reluctant to say they should be prosecuted.

The association between Christian nationalist ideology and violence used for political purposes is one of the more sobering findings. We've collected more recent data since we finished the book, and there is a quite linear association between affirming Christian nationalist ideology and believing that things have gotten so far off track that true patriots may have to resort to physical violence. This is an ideology that doesn't just acknowledge violence as a possibility but in some ways actually affirms it as the way to get things done in our society.

White Christian nationalism supports the idea that the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun; it affirms the use of torture if it means national security; it affirms that police should be able to use any means necessary to maintain law and order. There seems to be this powerful connection between Christian nationalist ideology and support for violence to accomplish political goals, and often that means to control "problem populations."

You describe a "holy trinity" within white Christian nationalism of freedom, order and violence.

White Christian nationalism seems to be characterized by a libertarian mindset that's only applied to the inside group. The ideology powerfully predicted a belief that we need to protect the economy rather than the vulnerable during COVID and that socialism is anathema — actually, that socialists are the worst. White Christian nationalism predicts antipathy towards atheists and Muslims, but socialists are the real demonized group, because socialism represents everything that is leftist or "anti-American." It is not only an economic threat, but a cultural, ethnic and religious threat.

White Christian nationalism advocates for maximum freedom for our group. But there is also this connection between authoritarian violence and social order. Christian nationalism wants order in the form of hierarchies. Men on top. Whites on top. Christians on top. Heterosexuals on top. And any threats to that order are met with justified, righteous, good-guy violence. That is what we saw on Jan. 6: the justification of righteous violence in taking back our country from, in the words of the QAnon Shaman, "the tyrants, the communists and the globalists," and showing them "this is our nation, not theirs." So there is this kind of holy trinity: Freedom for us, order for everybody else. And when that order is violated, they get the violence.

You include a number of historical examples of how this played out, long before Jan. 6, at various times in American history, including in the post-Reconstruction era and through lynchings, which you describe as the "high mass" of white Christian nationalism. Why is violence such an important element?

A thread through our narrative is this metaphor of blood. White Christian Americans' place in the cosmos and in our country has always been interpreted through the idea of blood purity — that we are distinct and superior people. There is also the idea of bloody conquest: that America is out there and the land is ours and we are justified in using violence to take what God has given us. Then there is this idea of bloody apocalypse — that violence is an inevitable part of the story, that there is a cosmic struggle going on that will involve us going to war against evil forces who try to take away what God has given us.

One thing we try to underscore is that Americans gripped by the white Christian nationalist deep story see violence as inevitable. Christian nationalism doesn't seem to be too strongly associated with violence for its own sake. But violence in the service of our group and of control is what white Christian nationalism is about — not a celebration of it, but an endorsement of violence as a tool to maintain order and maximize our freedom and power.

Tell me about the idea behind "The Spirit of 1690" and where that fits into the narrative battle between "The 1619 Project" and Trump's 1776 Commission.

The 1776 project is one narrative of America's past: this whitewashed story where Anglo-Protestant values are the secret to our national prosperity, and yes, slavery was real, but it was an aberration. Obviously, "The 1619 Project" has a completely different narrative that sees slavery and white supremacy as a constant thread throughout our history, and that we as a nation were set on the trajectory of white supremacy because our roots are founded in it.

We take a slightly different approach from "The 1619 Project." We see contingency. We see opportunities throughout America's history where oppression could have been lifted. And yet we decided not to go in that direction but to continue to live according to this white Christian nationalist mythology. And of course, different from the 1776 project, we believe that white supremacy has been a constant thread throughout our nation's history, not one that had to be, but one we chose again and again and again.

Much of this mythology involves white Christian nationalism framing itself in a position of victimhood.

White evangelicals — the group most beholden to Christian nationalist ideology — have long been characterized by what sociologist Christian Smith called an idea of "embattlement." They constantly feel they are at war with a surrounding culture that aims to persecute or marginalize them. This is part of the Christian nationalist story, because when you believe your culture is inextricably linked to the state of the nation, and you believe it is not your story but America's story, when you start to see cultural change, you perceive that as an attack on your group.

It used to be that people like Jerry Falwell could look at pornography and say, "That is immoral" and use the language of "filth" or "degradation." America has shifted so profoundly that what Christians on the right now do is to evoke the language of religious freedom — to claim the defensive posture and say, "We are under attack for claiming our moral views." What is happening now is that language of rights or religious freedom is no longer a shield but a sword and a battering ram to slash at your cultural enemies and justify discriminating against certain populations, even in agencies that take money from the government.

It seems that language is also being used to cast voter suppression in defensive terms.

When we surveyed Americans in October 2020, we found that white Christian nationalism was the most powerful predictor that you already thought voter fraud was rampant, that we make it too easy to vote and that you would support hypothetical civics tests in order to vote or disenfranchising certain criminal offenders for life. This paints a picture of white Christian nationalism being fundamentally anti-democratic, that it supports limiting voting access to those who prove worthy — and the people who are worthy are the people like us. If there is a thread tying together today's white Christian nationalists with the founding fathers, it is that only white landowning Anglo-Protestants should be able to vote.

In subsequent surveys, we asked, "Is voting a right or a privilege?" Thankfully, the majority believe that voting is a right, which it is. But we found that white Americans who affirm Christian nationalist ideology are more likely to think voting is not a right, but a privilege. In other words, something we can take away.

The book discusses figures like Christian right revisionist historian David Barton. How has historical misinformation played a role in both getting us to this point as well as the conflicts we're seeing now around education?

One of the things we document is that Christian nationalist theology is powerfully associated not just with believing misinformation about COVID, QAnon or the Capitol insurrection, but about religion in American history. That you believe the Constitution references our obligations to God, which it does not. Or that the First Amendment says Congress can privilege Christianity, which it does not.

For years, we have known that evangelical Christians tend to do poorly on quizzes of scientific knowledge, not because they're ignorant per se, but because when they're asked questions about the Big Bang theory or evolution or even continental drift, they get those answers wrong because of ideology. Not because they don't know what the answer is, but because they intentionally say, "That isn't the way it went down." We find the same thing with Christian nationalism: It inclines Americans to affirm answers that paint Christianity as central to American history. Part of that is ideology, but another part is the misinformation put out by agencies like Barton's WallBuilders that contribute to the narrative that America has been evangelical throughout history.

We see the effort to try to control American history in Trump's 1776 Commission, which was led by executives at Hillsdale College, none of whom are professional historians. They threw together this document that is supposed to be a counter to "The 1619 Project," talking about American exceptionalism and slavery as an aberration, but all in all, America is great and here are the reasons why. That is an effort to control the narrative about who we are as a people.

We have always seen this and it's often tied to race. A great recent book, "The Bible Told Them So" by J. Russell Hawkins, argues that there was a segregation theology that motivated white evangelicals in the South. It wasn't just explicit racism, but this interpretation of the Bible that said segregation is good and God wants it that way. Over time, as it became clear they were losing, they developed separate institutions, and separate schools were among them. So in the late '70s, segregation theology started to morph into this "family values" conservatism that was ostensibly about protecting children.

So you have always seen this move on the Christian right to control education and raise fear about what children are being taught. How do you scare enough parents to be mobilized? By saying that nefarious elements are infiltrating the schools and they're going to infect your children. Within that, you have this push for homeschooling, for vouchers to defund public schools and support privatized education in which parents on the right can raise kids who are white, Christian conservatives, and you can maybe stave off the forces of secularization and diversity.

Toward the end of the book, you write about how other camps on the right, like Catholic integrationists and post-liberals, are also advancing ideologies complementary to white Christian nationalism. Can you talk about that coming together?

What we've seen in the political and religious realignment over the last few decades is the concern that the Christian right is no longer strong enough by themselves to win victories politically. That required them to relax the bounds of who is part of their team. So you see Christian conservatives on the right uniting groups that formerly did not like one another, like Catholics, evangelicals, Mormons and even "pro-Christian" secularists. Increasingly, we can't talk about a Christian right so much as a "pro-Christian right," because Christian identity isn't really necessary anymore. You can be a secular pro-Christian American and think "Christian" is an ethno-cultural category that supports traditional values. All of these identities are on the same team, since what you want is an institutionalization of white Christian ethno-culture and victories for the political right.

Over on the Democratic side, they have nothing close to that. This is why Republicans are a lot stronger as a group than many realize, because they're united around ideology and ethno-religious belief in a way that Democrats are constantly fractured.

Even though we see demographic decline among white Christians, the unity on the right belies the demographic numbers. We also know that Christian nationalist ideology ebbs and flows in response to threats: When you tell white Christians about their imminent demographic decline, they respond with greater Christian nationalism. If you are a savvy politician, you can stoke a Christian nationalist response that mobilizes people in your target audience to collective action.

You also talk about the need for a popular front that could counter white Christian nationalism. What would that look like and what would it require?

I think it will take everybody from never-Trump evangelicals all the way to the secular left. It's going to take concentrated effort to not only name this, but to make sure it can't be institutionalized any further in the name of religious liberty, and that political candidates can't continue to deploy the language of Christian threat without it being called out as dog-whistle language that just means white Christian ethno-culture. It's going to take organizations like the Baptist Joint Committee and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who are already trying to do this, and coalitions of Americans from all kinds of backgrounds to say this is what we're against.

That is difficult. Evangelical Christians, say, are understandably reticent to sign a document alongside people they fundamentally disagree with. Abortion is always going to be a sticking point. But we are confronted with a situation where the stakes may be high enough.

I'll say it this way: COVID should have been the asteroid that united us, but it just polarized us further. But if an asteroid was headed towards Earth, I wouldn't ask the neighbor next to me who they voted for in the last election. We would recognize that the threat is great enough to just focus on defeating this thing. For many Americans, it's going to take a recognition that the threat is that great.

One of the reasons we wanted to write the book is to say: This is the asteroid. This is the thing that is coming for democracy. And we've got to unite to overcome that.

---

---

see new world order:  melding of enemies

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/marjorie-taylor-greene-says-legal-challenge-to-take-her-off-the-ballot-is-a-globalist-ploy-for-a-one-world-government/

rww

rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene testifies in a Georgia courtroom today in a hearing to determine whether the far-right congresswoman can be barred from running for reelection for her role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. In preparation, she spent the day prior with Alex Jones—the radical conspiracy theorist who is under investigation for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection—insisting that the legal challenge to disqualify her candidacy is all part of the “globalist” ploy for a “One World Government.”

Georgia voters and a supporting legal group, Free Speech For People, filed the challenge against Greene, winning a victory last week when a federal judge ruled that the case could proceed. At the heart of the case is a provision in the 14th Amendment that forbids any member of Congress who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” from serving in office. The provision was passed years after the Civil War to prevent former Confederates from returning to their seats in Congress.

In making their case, lawyers for Free Speech For People point to evidence like a Jan. 5 tweet by Greene calling Jan. 6 a “1776 moment.” The judge on the case will make a recommendation to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who will then decide whether Greene remains on the ballot.

On Jones’ “InfoWars” Thursday, Greene insisted that the hearing was a “show trial” that has “nothing to do with Jan. 6,” and that she did nothing wrong. “They know there was no insurrection,” she told Jones. “That is their big lie.”

Jones agreed that the challenge was “so villainous,” declaring, “this is next level tyranny.”

“Clearly the globalists want to implode the country, Cloward and Piven to make us dependent and take control. And all the polls show a total collapse and realignment of Republicans,” Jones said. “How do you think the Democrats and the deep state are going to try to stop this populist peaceful uprising?”

“They don’t want me in there,” Greene said. “So these globalists that are completely trying to destroy our country and move us into their global economy and their One World Government to where NATO is telling us what, who they should go to war with, and the UN is running the entire world. This is what Democrats want. They know to achieve these goals they have to get the strongest fighters out. That’s why they’re coming after me, and they’re coming after Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, they went after Madison [Cawthorn].”

And who does Greene believe is behind it? Greene claimed that the attorney group lodging the challenge “is totally funded by George Soros dark-money groups.”

“They hope that we have a civil war,” Jones said, adding that it was the “devil system.”

Earlier in the show, Jones also compared Greene’s hearing to his own legal troubles stemming from comments he made about the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting.

“Well, I’m dealing with the same thing where I was found in default in a case of not giving them documents, but they have all the documents, and then I’m supposed to have a jury trial about how guilty I am but were not even allowed to speak at that trial,” Jones protested.

In addition to being investigated by both the House select committee and the Department of Justice for his role in instigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Jones is facing multiple defamation lawsuits after he called the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting a “hoax” and accused the parents mourning the death of their children of being paid actors. Jones failed to turn over documents to the judge in one of those cases and failed to show up to a hearing.

Toward the end of the show, Greene expressed her admiration of Jones. “I love those T-shirts, ‘Alex Jones was right,’” Greene said. “I need to get one of those.”

Tags: Alex Jones Marjorie Taylor Greene Capitol Insurrection conspiracy theories Georgia Jan. 6 InfoWars

---

related

MI gov kidnap --> entrapment/sting // false flag? sneaky tyrant?

rww 4 22

Ali Alexander, an organizer with the so-called Stop the Steal campaign, told radical conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Wednesday that “there is a time for legitimate violence when there is legitimate tyranny.” The two agreed that now is not the time but began to discuss what would constitute “legitimate tyranny.”

Alexander and Jones are people of interest to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Alexander organized the rallies and strategy of the Stop the Steal campaign, which perpetuated the Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and worked desperately to keep him in power, while Jones and his InfoWars’ crew spoke at the rallies and advertised the campaign on their networks.

In December, Alexander sat for eight hours of testimony in front of the House select committee and threw fellow rally organizers, Amy and Kylie Kremer and Katrina Pierson, under the bus; Jones says he pled the Fifth when he met with the committee. Last Friday, Alexander told the New York Times through a lawyer that he would cooperate with the Department of Justice in its investigation of the attack. But by Tuesday, Alexander joined Jones on “InfoWars” to suggest he would never do so.

On the Wednesday edition of “InfoWars,” Alexander repeated part of his conspiracy theory that he shared with Jones the day prior: that the Jan. 6 investigations were part of a “deep state” plot to get rid of elections, the Republican Party, and Christians, with the goal to usher in a “stateless New World Order.” A civil war orchestrated by the deep state would be central to this effort, according to Alexander. In response to Jones asking how to avoid such a civil war, Alexander suggested viewers pray, before discussing “legitimate violence.”

“The second byproduct of prayer is that it makes us sane,” Alexander said. “So when we’re getting this deluge of persecution, we’re not saying, in our gut primal level, ‘We need to go bomb something, we need to go shoot something’; it’s ‘I will not give them an inch or become the monster they want us to become.’”

“Now, folks, I’m going to say something really crazy,” Alexander continued. “I’m not going to deny that the people have the right of revolution. I’m not going to deny 1776. I’m not going to deny there is a time for legitimate violence when there is legitimate tyranny. And by the way, the Declaration of Independence even outlines—”

“Says it’s your right and duty,” Jones interrupted. “But they are just losing right now, we’re winning politically. We don’t want to do it yet, but you’re not denying we have the right.”

“Right,” Alexander replied. “I’m not denying the—I’m saying it’s not the time now, that’s for sure.”

“But it’s definitely a card we have in our hand we’re allowed to play,” Jones said.

“Right! Right,” Alexander said.

“When all else is lost you gotta do it,” Jones said.

“If they start ripping your children from your home and doing reassignment surgeries—” Alexander began.

“Everyone knows when the time is,” Jones interrupted. “The point is, anybody trying to lure you into plots to kidnap governors, anybody who wants you to offensively attack, that’s not what we do.”

“Frankly, a discerning mind and a mind in prayer, frankly, would not punch cops at the Capitol, would not  kidnap governors,” Alexander said.

“You know it makes us look bad!” Jones said

“And it won’t be successful,” Alexander said.

“Not only do I not want to randomly punch cops, it’s dumb!” Jones exclaimed.

“It’s very dumb,” Alexander agreed. “It’s dumb, and it displeases God I think. But you know, these cops need to stop complying with COVID orders and lockdowns and stealing.”

“Yeah, no, they’re putting themselves in that position,” Jones said.

Alexander regularly uses violent rhetoric and has called for civil war and rebellion. On the eve of the insurrection, Alexander led a Stop the Steal crowd in chants of “Victory or death!” and declared “1776 is always an option.”

As Luke O’Brien reported in HuffPost, Alexander considers violence a “natural right”:

On Twitter, Alexander had called violence a “natural right.” He was a prominent influencer on the platform, with almost 200,000 followers. “I am a sincere advocate for violence and war, when justified,” he tweeted in 2019. “I recognize no law above what is natural and good.” A militant Christianity has permeated his extremism; he has spoken often about being an agent of God.

Tags: Alex Jones Ali Alexander Capitol Insurrection conspiracy theories Jan. 6 violent rhetoric InfoWars

---

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/why-far-right-white-evangelicals-are-among-vladimir-putins-strongest-american-supporters-journalist/

---

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/christian-nationalists-maga-big-lie/

Former President Donald Trump is an unlikely icon of the White evangelical movement. He’s been through two divorces, he isn’t known for being very religious, he had an extramarital affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels (according to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen), and he’s a native New Yorker who speaks with a strong Queens accent.

The Trump of the 1990s was known for his appearances on “The Howard Stern Show,” not the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr.’s “The Old Time Gospel Hour” or the Rev. Pat Robertson’s “The 700 Club.”

But far-right White evangelicals and Christian nationalists continue to be a devoted part of his MAGA base. And a recent online panel discussion, hosted by The New Republic’s Michael Tomasky, examined the role that Christian nationalists could play in promoting the Big Lie in the 2024 presidential election.

The journalists who joined Tomasky during that event included David Daley, Adele Stan and Katherine Stewart, who reported on Christian nationalism’s role in promoting the Big Lie in an article published by The New Republic on January 10. Stewart’s article was headlined “The Shock Troops of the Next Big Lie,” and that’s how she views Christian nationalists who have been promoting Trump’s false claim that he really won the 2020 election — as shock troops who are more than happy to help Republicans overturn election results they don’t like.

During The New Republic’s panel discussion, named “Worshippers of the Big Lie,” Stewart explained, “The goal is really to persuade these pastors to turn out their congregations to vote the supposedly correct way. These kinds of get-out-the-pastors events are not new.”

Such events, Stewart added, have been promoting “whoppers” and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. And the events, according to Stewart, are designed to “stoke the persecution narrative” that’s “really important to the Christian nationalist movement” and “kind of prepare” evangelicals for “the next attempt to steal an election or delegitimize the consequences of an election that they don’t like.”

Stewart went on to explain what Christian nationalism is.

Stewart told Tomasky, Daley and Stan, “Christian nationalism is the idea that America was founded as a so-called Christian nation…. It’s completely, unfortunately bound up these days with a lot of Republican Party politics. The Republican Party sort of saw value in exploiting this movement, and they’ve now really been taken over by it, unfortunately.”

Watch the video below:

---

2 22 an nath

During my time as a boy attending an evangelical church and then later, when I attended an evangelical seminary, it was hard not to notice an underlying misogyny that seemed consistently present. As a man, I would be the head of the household. I was like Christ to my future wife. In fact, I once heard a sermon by prominent evangelical minister Tony Evans where he declared that wives must refer to their husbands as "Lord." In my church youth groups, we were separated by sex and the boys had bizarre discussions on the type of men we should become. There was a strong emphasis on being what they considered to be manly and tough, whereas young girls, of course, were encouraged to be nurturing, submissive and, most important, sexually pure.

When contemporary evangelical leaders push a message around Christian nationalism, I can promise you it always refers back to a time when the "traditional" roles of American households held fast. Making America "great again" is truly about bringing back a time when women were subject to their husbands' wills and whims, and the husbands were lords of the house.

Someone recently wrote to me, in response to one of my previous articles, wondering why so many evangelicals chose Donald Trump, a vulgar misogynist who shows no understanding of any element of the Christian faith, over other candidates who were much closer to the evangelical movement. The difficult answer is that most evangelical men long for the days when misogyny was cool, when women were under the thumb of their husbands and sexual harassment was almost universally accepted. Trump exemplified that approach — and a great many evangelicals loved him for it. Trump remains the favorite of the evangelicals not because any commitment to Christ or the Christian way of life — since he has none — but because of the widespread desire among evangelicals to take back control over their lives, and their wives. One of the major ways this has been expressed lately is through the ideology known as Christian nationalism.

As I understand it, Christian nationalism is an idea now widely accepted within the evangelical church that the U.S. is a Christian nation founded upon Christian principles — no matter what it may say in the Constitution. This commitment to the Christian faith, as a nation, is the reason God blessed the U.S. as the greatest nation that ever existed. God will only continue to bless this nation, however, as long as it remains a Christian nation. As America becomes more progressive and increasingly secular in terms of politics, culture and faith, then in this view God will remove his blessing and protection and great evils will befall our nation.

This remarkable theory has no connection to any of the teachings of Jesus Christ or his followers, and is completely irrelevant to the Christian faith. I will certainly admit that I have a heart for American idealism. I have officiated at numerous Veterans Day and Memorial Day services, and I have felt the love of country enormously, on those days and all the days in between. None of that, however, has anything to do with Christianity. God does not play favorites when it comes to nations, people or cultures. That entire idea is morally and theologically absurd.

In truth, Christian nationalism is based not in the Bible or the teachings of Jesus Christ, but on the idea of the traditional American family. As roles for women have changed, as divorce becomes more common, as same-sex marriage gains a firmer footing, and now with the movement for transgender rights and visibility becoming more public, the panic of the Christian nationalists becomes ever more desperate. This is where all that rage among evangelicals is coming from. Understand, most people are motivated politically based on how they perceive policy decisions affecting their day-to-day life. Nothing affects our lives more than what is happening to our families. When things fall apart at home, it can feel helpful — even if it's not healthy — to blame someone or something besides ourselves. For myself, I know that all my personal failures are mine alone. I can't blame MTV or Eminem or the LGBTQI population, the evangelical church, Trump, Biden, Obama, my mom, my dad or anyone else. The problem is in the mirror, as it is for everyone. Any effort to pass that blame along to others is quite human, and quite wrong.

My final point on Christian nationalism is around all the macho tough-guy stuff that seems to be on the lips of every right-wing leader. Being "tough" seems to be the only thing conservative commentators and evangelical leaders care about. Trump is supposedly the epitome of that and his little posse loves him for it. I won't pretend to understand it. After I graduated middle school, being tough just didn't seem that important. But for people like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jerry Falwell Jr. (before his fall) and of course Trump himself, it's important to keep pretending that they are a bunch of tough guys, even though they also claim to stand with Jesus Christ, a humble, meek and homeless teacher.

I'm no tough guy but I am happy to offer a challenge to any of these fake tough guys. Debate me anywhere, anytime. I am truly blue-collar, a member of the American working class. I am a Bible-believing minister and a flaming liberal. I believe that the Christian nationalist message comes from the devil himself. I am trying to save the name of the Christian faith and to stand up for American idealism. I oppose every part of the hypocritical, fake-populist agenda of the Christian nationalists and their enablers. I double-dog dare any of them, here and now, to stand up and take me on in public debate. Odds are they never will.

---

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/christians-are-right-wing-radical/

k j salon

earlier this week, a new Pew survey found that the share of Americans who believe Donald Trump was largely responsible for the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, has declined by nearly 10 percent over the past year, while the percentage of people who think he bears no responsibility has increased by almost as much. On Wednesday, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty released a new report that helps explain that shift: The same Christian nationalism that served as the unifying principle behind the Jan. 6 insurrection is also driving efforts among the faithful to rewrite the history of that day.

As two of the report's contributors, scholars Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry, co-authors of "Taking America Back for God," noted in a launch event on Wednesday, Christian nationalist support for Jan. 6 rioters has doubled in the past year, while support for prosecuting those rioters has declined by 20 percent. That suggests, said Perry, "that this ideology is powerfully connected to a reinterpretation of these events" in a way that could become "a powerful motivator for future potential violence."

At more than 60 pages and drawing on the work of a number of academics, journalists and researchers, "Christian Nationalism and the January 6 Insurrection" is the most comprehensive account to date of the role of the movement in the attack. Within the political and cultural universe of Christian nationalism, America is a special place: It was created as a Christian nation and its founding documents were divinely inspired. Christianity should and must have a privileged position in public life, and "true Americans" are understood to be "white, culturally conservative, natural-born citizens."

That ideology, argues the report, served both as the unifying theme for the various factions that joined in the assault on the Capitol as well as the "permission structure" that allowed participants to justify their violence. To call those fringe ideas is misleading: Surveys repeatedly find that close to half of the country supports the idea of fusing Christianity and civic life.

Christian nationalism also lends itself to a number of other convictions, notes the report. Surveys in early 2021 found strong associations between Christian nationalist views, such as the proposition that the federal government should declare America a Christian nation, and a whole range of far-right beliefs not directly connected to faith. Those include the disproved claim that Antifa or Black Lives Matter caused the violence on Jan. 6, while Donald Trump was blameless; support for various white supremacist and antisemitic beliefs; and even a willingness to accept the outlandish premises of QAnon.

Two-thirds of white Americans who strongly support Christian nationalist ideology believe that the 2020 election was rigged; 40 percent of them think that violence from patriotic Americans might be necessary to save the country; and more than 40 percent are convinced that Democrats are engaged in "elite child trafficking," said Whitehead.

The report includes some meditations on the movement's origins as well. Penn religion scholar Anthea Butler, the author of "White Evangelical Racism," writes that white Christian nationalism began moving more firmly into the mainstream after 9/11, as the "Holy War" coding of the "War on Terror" helped popularize its ideology, laying the groundwork for Trump's rise. The seemingly contradictory beliefs of Christian nationalism — that America is the greatest nation on earth thanks to its foundation in Christianity, and also that America has been overtaken by alien and even demonic enemies — only serves to keep the movement in a state of tense mobilization, observed journalist Katherine Stewart, author of "The Power Worshippers."

"It's astonishing to so many of us that the leaders of the Jan. 6 attack styled themselves as patriots," Stewart added at Wednesday's event. "But it makes a glimmer of sense once we start to understand that their allegiance is to a belief in blood, earth and religion, rather than to the mere idea of a government of the people, by the people and for the people."

Most of the report was written by Andrew Seidel, a constitutional attorney at the Freedom from Religion Foundation and author of "The Founding Myth." It consists of a meticulous accounting, drawing on hundreds of hours of video footage, of Christian nationalism's ubiquitous role in the lead-up to Jan. 6 and its execution. There are the flags, the signs, the cross and gallows that we've all seen.

There are also some less familiar pieces of evidence, such as the 50-person Christian choir singing about swords and taking possession of the land while the attack was underway. Multiple rioters recounted how God's hand or voice had urged them to enter the capital. One avowed white supremacist had convinced his parole officer to let him travel to Washington that week to hand out Bibles. And then there's the man who broke down Nancy Pelosi's office door, believing that "the crowd would tear her 'into little pieces,'" and later testified in court that God had been on Trump's side: "And if patriots have to kill 60 million of these communists, it's God's will."

Seidel also describes how the events of the previous two months — including the Million MAGA March in November, and the Jericho March events on Dec. 12 and Jan. 5 — served as test runs for Jan. 6 and a broader "permission structure that gave the insurrectionists the moral and mental license that they needed," through the promise that they were doing the Lord's work.

There's an exhaustive list of such examples. Paula White, "faith adviser" to the Trump White House, recorded nightly prayer videos calling on God to smite Trump's enemies. The Proud Boys prayed in the street and were "hailed as God's warriors." Evangelical speaker Lance Wallnau told his massive following, "Fighting with Trump is fighting with God," and said that angels were looking for some "risk takers" and "wild cards that are gonna go start something up."

"They marched around government buildings in state capitals and in D.C., including the Capitol and the Supreme Court, blowing on shofars and claiming to know God's will," said Seidel. "Sometimes I wonder how could we possibly have been surprised by the violence that day."

More than a year later, said the panelists, Christian nationalists continue to march under slightly new banners, leading efforts to suppress voting rights through gerrymandering and new legislation that would require everything from lifetime disenfranchisement of convicted felons to Jim Crow-style civics tests for would-be voters. Jemar Tisby, president of the Black Christian organization The Witness and author of "The Color of Compromise," said Christian nationalism is also animating numerous state and local fights, including culture-war battles like the manufactured debate over critical race theory, as well as efforts to silence dissenting Christians.

"Even the religious voices within the church are being labeled as critical race theory, as too liberal or progressive to be trusted, and even the communist and Marxist labels are being used," said Tisby.

Perry noted the mixed blessing found in recent polling that suggests Christian nationalist ideas as a whole have lost some support nationwide since Jan. 6. The other side of that, he added, is that groups that become more isolated also tend to become more militant. Indeed, added Seidel, researchers have seen an uptick in Christian nationalist pastors proudly and openly embracing the label.

Relegating Christian nationalism back to the margins, say the report's authors, will not be easy. That would require a national recommitment to the separation of church and state, countering the historical myths propping up Christian nationalist ideology, and coalition work between secular and religious allies.

"I don't really know if people understand how close we were to losing America that day," said Seidel. "If they decide to get a little more serious next time, we are in big trouble."

"America is really a shared ideal, and Christian nationalism refuses to share," said Seidel. "That's the choice we face: Christian nationalism or America. Because we can't have both."

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/chrisitan-nationalism/

Most of the far-right extremist movements that arose online and then in real life over the past decade—the alt-right, white nationalists, and other authoritarian proto-fascists—have been generally ecumenical and areligious in their rhetorical appeals and organizing, other than their frequent expressions of antisemitism. But that’s beginning to change, as Jack Jenkins explored this week at the Washington Post.

With “Groyper” leader Nick Fuentes leading the way, it’s becoming much more common to hear them embracing Christian nationalism—an ideology long embraced by the larger radical right, particularly the so-called “Patriot” movement. Moreover, a number of these white nationalists appear to be pushing even farther into a particularly ugly—and previously stagnant—brand of religious nationalism: Christian Identity, the bigoted theological movement claiming that white people are the true “Children of Israel,” that Jews are the literal descendants of Satan, and that all nonwhite people are soulless “mud people.”

As Jenkins reports, since the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, Fuentes’ white-nationalist “America First” organization has increasingly employed Christian nationalist rhetoric: Chanting “Christ is King” at the antiabortion “March for Life” last week and at anti-vaccine protests, using crucifixes as protest symbols, and similar rhetorical appeals. In a speech at the America First conference in Orlando in March at which he declared America “a Christian nation,” Fuentes warned his audience that America will cease to be America “if it loses its White demographic core and if it loses its faith in Jesus Christ.”

“Christian nationalism—and even the idea of separatism, with a subtext of White, Christian and conservative-leaning [influences]—took a more dominant role in the way that extremist groups talk to each other and try to propagandize in public,” Jared Holt of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab told Jenkins.

Christian nationalism has long been a feature of the nation’s extremist right, dating back to the original Ku Klux Klan of the 1860s and its later version in the 1920s. Fuentes’s rhetoric “could have come word-for-word from a Klan speech in 1922,” historian Kelly J. Baker told Jenkins. “The Klan’s goal here was patriotism and nationalism, but it was combined with their focus on White Christianity.”

This worldview was a powerful animating force at the Jan. 6 insurrection, embodied by the moment when the self-described “Patriots” entered the vacated Senate chambers, took over the dais, and proceeded to share a prayer led by Jacob “QAnon Shaman” Chansley.

A video captured by The New Yorker shows the moment: One insurrectionist shouts, “Jesus Christ, we invoke your name!” The men bellow “Amen!” Then Chansley begins to lead them in prayer, saying: “Thank you heavenly father for gracing us with this opportunity to stand up for our God-given inalienable rights.” He also thanks God for allowing them to “exercise our rights, to allow us to send a message to all the tyrants, the communists and the globalists that this is our nation, not theirs.”

He concluded: “Thank you for allowing the United States of America to be reborn. Thank you for allowing us to get rid of the communists, the globalists, and the traitors within our government.”

As historian Katherine Stewart explained in the New York Times:

A final precondition for the coup attempt was the belief, among the target population, that the legitimacy of the United States government derives from its commitment to a particular religious and cultural heritage, and not from its democratic form. It is astonishing to many that the leaders of the Jan. 6 attack on the constitutional electoral process styled themselves as “patriots.” But it makes a glimmer of sense once you understand that their allegiance is to a belief in blood, earth and religion, rather than to the mere idea of a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

A number of the groups, notably the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who led the insurrection similarly voiced their affinity for Christian nationalism. The morning of Jan. 6, as Jenkins reports, a group of Proud Boys led by Ethan Nordean—the primary leader of the men who later spearheaded the siege of the Capitol, were seen praying together.

At a gathering of Proud Boys near the Washington Monument on Dec. 11 captured on video by independent journalist Dakota Santiago for Religion News Service, Nordean had spoken about “sacrificing ourselves for our country” while speaking at an impromptu Proud Boys rally near the Washington Monument, according to footage provided to Religion News Service (RNS) by independent journalist Dakota Santiago.

Nordean—a notorious street brawler nicknamed “Rufio Panman”—described an epiphany he had during a protest about Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross:

I had a moment of realization where I was like, “You know what, I’m going to be diehard about everything in my life. I’m gonna be real.” Because everything that we have sacrificed—because you know how hard it is in this environment that we live in—it is time that you rise to the occasion. Be real.

Now you may not believe in that, but it’s important in the very least for my case for me, because this man did this thing. Just as we sacrifice ourselves for our country. A man provides and protects even when he’s not loved. That is what we do. We are hated but we do it in anyway, we keep showing up every day and we protect these people from these tyrannical dictators.

The same religious fervor has intensified in the aftermath of the insurrection, particularly as “Patriot” movement believers and their mainstream Republican enablers have doubled down with a gaslighting narrative insisting that what happened Jan. 6 wasn’t an insurrection, it was a righteous protest by Real Americans.

That narrative has been ardently adopted by Christian nationalists like the Trump supporters interviewed earlier this month by NPR:

Outside on the walkway, Murray Clemetson stands with an armful of hand-made signs he brought to church, such as, "Set the DC Patriots Free" and "We Are Americans, Not Terrorists." The law-school student and father of three —all home-schooled— was at the "Stop The Steal" rally in Washington, D.C., last year.

"The only insurrection that happened on Jan. 6 was by the agent provocateurs, paid actors, and corrupt police and FBI," he says, disputing all the evidence made public in the more than 700 criminal cases that the rioters were Trump fanatics.

The church the interviewers reported from is Ken Peters’ Patriot Church in Tennessee, one of the nation’s most prominent Christian nationalist congregations. Peters is a rabidly pro-Trump pastor who has appeared onstage in recent months with Mike Lindell, the “My Pillow” conspiracy theorist who claims Donald Trump was the victim of election fraud. Peters also spoke to the crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 at a pre-rally for the next day’s “Stop the Steal” protest that devolved into the Capitol insurrection.

Peters’ predilection for linking arms with violent white-nationalist thugs like the Proud Boys manifested itself in summer 2021 in Salem, Oregon, outside a Planned Parenthood clinic targeted by Peters’ “Church at Planned Parenthood” campaign. A phalanx of Proud Boys provided “security” for the event, including notorious brawler Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, currently in jail awaiting trial on assault charges.

The sermon Peters delivered during NPR’s visit to his church turned a similarly convenient blind eye to Donald Trump’s manifest flaws as a Christian hero. "We consider the left in our nation today to be a giant bully,” Peters said. “And when there is a bully on the schoolyard and somebody rises up and punches back, 'Hallelujah!' So we are thankful for Trump."

Then he added: "But you know what? If Trump passes away tomorrow, God forbid, does that stop us? Does that slow us down? Not one bit. We'll be looking for the next guy to lead the way."

Indeed, the long-term determination of Christian nationalists to impose a narrow sectarian view on American government and society are reflected in its legislative assault on state laws, an attempt to reshape U.S. laws from the ground up as well as the top down. Their program “Project Blitz,” revealed by journalist Frederick Clarkson in 2018—a detailed and complex system of proposed legislation with which Christian nationalist beliefs are gradually embedded within state laws—is only one example of the breadth and depth of their assault on liberal democracy.

"The use of Christian symbols, iconography, Scripture in efforts to dominate and exclude are as old the republic itself," Rev. Fred Davie, executive vice president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, told Trevor Hughes of USA Today. "It's deeply baked into our nation. It's deep, but it's also been proven time and time again to be wrong."

While many Christian nationalists are grounded in more traditional evangelical views, there is also a component who are cynically embracing religious fervor as a way of broadening their community of white supremacists and expanding their recruitment base.

"For them, it's just shorthand for identity," Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told Hughes. "There absolutely is a connection between far-right political extremism and far-right religious extremism, but I doubt these people are showing up at church every Sunday and reading their Bibles."

Research sociologist Matthew DeMichele told Hughes that many of today's religious displays are an "intense redeployment of old tactics."

"People don't want to say that this is a country founded on white supremacy. But we know that to be true," DeMichele said. "It's very important to understand that it's not new for white supremacists to have a Christian identity. But it is intriguing there has been the strengthening overlap of the white nationalists and those of Christian Identity."

The striking aspect of the surge of Christian nationalism has been its ability to unify sectors of the radical right, from militia-oriented “Patriots” to bigoted white nationalists to conspiracists like the authoritarian QAnon cult. Alex Newhouse, deputy director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies .  Besides faith, told Jenkins that social media have been powerful vectors for this confluence.

“This unification is pretty unprecedented,” Newhouse said. “The infusion of Christian nationalism throughout that unification process has been particularly interesting and, in my opinion, is going to end up being pretty dangerous.”

Newhouse particularly has noticed a sudden uptick, since 2019, of interest in Christian Identity, the infamous religious movement long associated with neo-Nazis, particularly the Aryan Nations operation in the northern Idaho Panhandle between 1978 and 2000, which was an Identity church. Newhouse noted that Christian nationalist appeals may “disguise a much more dangerous uptick in adoption of Christian Identity.”

One of the leading voices in this resurgence of Identity beliefs, Newhouse says, is Kyle Chapman, the cofounder of the Proud Boys-affiliated Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights who later attempted to create an explicitly racist and antisemitic offshoot called “Proud Goys.” (Chapman is currently awaiting trial in Idaho on charges of assaulting a health-care worker when he was hospitalized last November.)

Newhouse said Chapman has been interacting with Christian Identity influencers on the encrypted chat platform Telegram, while “blasting out Christian Identity propaganda.” Another key Trumpist figure—Qanon influencer GhostEzra,who has 300,000 followers on Telegram—posted explicit Identity messages. Identity theology—including references to the “two seedline theory,” which claims that Eve also mated with Satan in the Garden of Eden and thus gave birth to Jews—has been popping up with regularity on QAnon and Proud Boys channels on Telegram, Newhouse reported.

“There’s this gradual move toward a more revolutionary, burn-it-all-down posture, and I think Christian Identity for a lot of these people has become a way for them to organize their thoughts,” he said.

As Stewart explained in the NYT, Christian nationalist beliefs are not merely spreading among far-right extremists. Perhaps even more pernicious is their spread among mainstream conservatives in the media and especially within the Republican Party:

National organizations like the Faith & Freedom Coalition and the Ziklag Group, which bring together prominent Republican leaders with donors and religious right activists, feature “Seven Mountains” workshops and panels at their gatherings. Nationalist leaders and their political dependents in the Republican Party now state quite openly what before they whispered to one another over their prayer breakfasts. Whether the public will take notice remains to be seen.

As I’ve observed previously (while reviewing Stewart’s excellent review of Christian nationalism, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism): When viewed through the lens of its real-world outcomes, fundamentalist Christianity is less a coherent theology than it is a form of spiritual or religious totalitarianism, one that requires abject submission to what is actually a very perverse and narrow interpretation of the meaning of Scripture.

This approach translated naturally into political authoritarianism—the kind that Donald Trump practices. And Trump in turn has proven very adept at feeding the psychological needs of the kinds of personalities that adhere to such movements.

Many leaders of the Christian right like to dress up in red, white, and blue and announce themselves as true patriots. But they are the same people who seek to pervert our institutions, betray our international alliances, treat the Constitution as a subcategory of their holy texts, demean whole segments of the population, foist their authoritarian creed upon other people’s children, and celebrate the elevation of a “king” to the presidency who made a sport out of violating democratic laws and norms.

We can only be grateful that he is out of power now. And it will be incumbent on everyone who treasures their democratic institutions to do everything in their power to defend them against this lethal tide of extremism now.

---

---

RWW tag:

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/christian-nation/

DECEMBER 13, 2021 11:49 AM

Christian Nationalist MAGA Pastor Mark Burns Declares ‘We’re Here to Take Over!’

DECEMBER 7, 2021 11:48 AM

MAGA Pastor and GOP Congressional Candidate Mark Burns Declares That All Laws ‘Contrary to God’s Word’ Must Be Overturned

NOVEMBER 30, 2021 2:52 PM

ADF Drafted Mississippi’s Abortion Ban to ‘Eradicate’ Roe. SCOTUS Hears the Case Wednesday

NOVEMBER 16, 2021 1:57 PM

Trump Attorney Jenna Ellis Had Her Own Coup Memo That Team Trump Used to Pressure Pence

OCTOBER 8, 2021 12:15 PM

E.W. Jackson Tells Religious-Right Activists They Will Defeat Marxism, Homosexuality, and Other ‘Works of the Devil’

OCTOBER 7, 2021 5:09 PM

Right-Wing Christians Must Indoctrinate Other People’s Children Into a Biblical Worldview, Says FRC’s George Barna

OCTOBER 6, 2021 3:01 PM

Virginia GOP Gov. Candidate Glenn Youngkin, Public Officials Join Family Research Council’s Far-Right Festival

OCTOBER 5, 2021 9:07 AM

‘We Are Now in Wartime,’ Right-Wing Activist Mario Murillo Tells Intercessors For America’s ‘Prayer Warriors’

OCTOBER 4, 2021 10:54 AM

Madison Cawthorn Releases a Historically and Theologically Incoherent Christian Nationalist Election Ad

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 1:16 PM

North Carolina’s Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson Puts His Christian Nationalism on Full Display

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 5:28 PM

Dominionism and Christian Nationalism Returned to National Mall at ‘Let Us Worship’ Rallies

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021 12:14 PM

Sean Feucht’s ‘Super-Spreader’ Road Show Returns to Washington, D.C.

JULY 30, 2021 10:38 AM

Sarah Palin Says She’ll Run for Senate if God Wants Her To, Christians Do More to Support Her

JUNE 08, 2021 5:08 PM

Texas Creates ‘1836 Project’ to Promote ‘Patriotic Education’ and ‘Christian Heritage’

MAY 27, 2021 12:07 PM

Family Research Council Launches ‘Center for Biblical Worldview’

MAY 14, 2021 1:14 PM

Trump’s ‘Prayer Warriors’ Are Rallying Around Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

MAY 11, 2021 5:08 PM

Trumpist State Sen. Doug Mastriano Is Preparing for God’s Call to Run for Governor of Pennsylvania

APRIL 30, 2021 11:10 AM

Steve Bannon Praises Anti-LGBTQ Promise Keepers for Promoting ‘Warrior Ideal of Christian Men’ With Football Stadium Gathering

APRIL 16, 2021 4:01 PM

Liberty University Ditches Falkirk Center Name, Announces New Class of Culture War Fellows

MARCH 17, 2021 9:51 AM

RIP, Falkirk Center. Hello, Liberty U ‘Freedom Center’

---

see am fest krk

---

rww

Early in 2021, Christian nationalist home-schooling advocate, author, and podcaster Heidi St. John launched a bid for U.S. Congress in Washington state’s 3rd Congressional District. Outraged by incumbent Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s vote to impeach former President Donald Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, St. John decided to try and unseat her in the GOP primary by appealing to MAGA voters, denouncing public libraries as “evil organizations,” and pledging to “be a mom for America.”

Earlier this month, St. John appeared on the “Stand Up For The Truth” podcast, where she sounded Seven Mountains and Christian nationalist themes that have been central to her campaign, describing politics as “a spiritual battle” and vowing to “bring back the name of God into the political sphere.”

“[Politics is] in my blood,” St. John said. “And I think it should be in the blood of every Christ follower. Politics determined policy, and it is policy that has murdered 63 million of our unborn in this country. It is policy that has gotten us into the mess that we are in as a nation, and we need wise people and godly people to ascend to positions of authority in the nation.”

“What we’ve observed over years and years and years is a church deciding to pull itself out of arguably one of the most important aspects of the culture, which is determining our laws and determining the policy that governs the people here,” she continued. “Christians belong in every sphere of influence. We have a command to be strong and courageous. [God] did not say, ‘Be strong and courageous except for in the political sphere, stay out of that one.’ No, we belong in every sphere of influence. We belong in medicine. We belong in entertainment. We belong in education. And we belong in politics.”

“[Christians] should be canvassing, they should be helping clean up the voter rolls, they should be running for positions of authority in every sphere of influence,” St. John added. “We bring back the name of Jesus, we bring back the name of God into the political sphere and we say out loud, ‘What is the biggest problem in our country? We have turned away from God.'”

“This is a spiritual battle,” St. John declared. “We know that we serve the Lord of Heaven’s armies. We serve the creator of the universe, the one who spoke the world into being. He can do anything. And I think he’s calling his people back out of hiding and out of the shadows and into the battle and onto the battlefield.”[pixvid: armour up xian soldiers it's game on!]

---

an 1 22

...Confronting White Christian Nationalism

“There are very good Christians who are compassionate and caring. And there are very bad Christians. You can say that about Islam, about Hinduism, about any faith. That is why I was saying that it was not the faith per se but the adherent. People will use their religion to justify virtually anything.” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Christian nationalism has influenced the course of American politics and policy since the founding of this country, while, in every era, moral movements have had to fight for the Bible and the terrain that goes with it. The January 6th assault on the Capitol, while only the latest expression of such old battlelines, demonstrated the threat of a modern form of Christian nationalism that has carefully built political power in government, the media, the academy, and the military over the past half-century. Today, the social forces committed to it are growing bolder and increasingly able to win mainstream support.

When I refer to “Christian nationalism,” I mean a social force that coalesces around a matrix of interlocking and interrelated values and beliefs. These include at least six key features, though the list that follows is anything but exhaustive:

* First, a highly exclusionary and regressive form of Christianity is the only true and valid religion.

* Second, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity are “the natural order” of the world and must be upheld by public policy (even as Latino Protestants swell the ranks of American evangelicalism and women become important gate-keepers in communities gripped by Christian nationalism).

* Third, militarism and violence, rather than diplomacy and debate, are the correct ways for this country to exert power over other countries (as it is our God-given right to do).

* Fourth, scarcity is an economic reality of life and so we (Americans vs. the world, white people vs. people of color, natural-born citizens vs. immigrants) must compete fiercely and without pity for the greater portion of the resources available.

* Fifth, people already oppressed by systemic violence are actually to blame for the deep social and economic problems of the world — the poor for their poverty, LGBTQIA people for disease and social rupture, documented and undocumented immigrants for being “rapists and murderers” stealing “American” jobs, and so on.

* Sixth, the Bible is the source of moral authority on these (and other) social issues and should be used to justify an extremist agenda, no matter what may actually be contained in the Good Book.

Such ideas, by the way, didn’t just spring up overnight. This false narrative has been playing a significant, if not dominant, role in our politics and economics for decades. Since childhood — for an example from my own life — I’ve regularly heard people use the Bible to justify poverty and inequality. They quote passages like “the poor you will always have with you” to argue that poverty is inevitable and can never be ended. Never mind the irony that the Bible has been one of the only forms of the mass media — if you don’t mind my calling it that — which has had anything good to say about the poor (something those in power have tried to cover up since the days of slavery).

In many poor communities — rural, small town, and urban — churches are among the only lasting social institutions and so one of the most significant battlegrounds for deciding which moral values will shape our society, especially the lives of the needy. Indeed, churches are the first stop for many people struggling with poverty. The vast majority of food pantries and other emergency assistance programs are run out of them and much of the civic work going on in churches is motivated by varying interpretations of the Bible when it comes to poverty. These range from outright disdain and pity to charity to more proactive advocacy and activism for the poor.

Geographically, the battle for the Bible manifests itself most intensely in the Deep South, although hardly confined to that region, perhaps as a direct inheritance of theological fights dating back to slavery. For example, although there are more churches per capita than in any other state and high rates of attendance, Mississippi also has the highest child poverty rate, the least funding for education and social services for the needy, and ranks lowest in the country when it comes to overall health and wellness. It’s noteworthy that this area is known as both the “Bible Belt” and the “Poverty Belt.”

This is possible, in part, because the Bible has long been used as a tool of domination and division, while Christian theology has generally been politicized to identify poverty as a consequence of sin and individual failure. Thanks to the highly militarized rhetoric that goes with such a version of Christianity, adherents are also called upon to defend the “homeland,” even as their religious doctrine is used to justify violence against the most marginalized in society. These are the currents of white Christian nationalism that have been swelling and spreading for years across the country.

A moral movement from below

“We live in a moral universe. You know this. All of us know this instinctively. The perpetrators of injustice know this. This is a moral universe. Right and wrong do matter. Truth will out in the end. No matter what happens. No matter how many guns you use. No matter how many people get killed. It is an inexorable truth that freedom will prevail in the end, that injustice and repression and violence will not have the last word.” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu

In the Poor People’s Campaign (which I co-chair with Reverend William Barber II), we identify Christian nationalism as a key pillar of injustice in America that provides cover for a host of other ills, including systemic racism, poverty, climate change, and militarism. To combat it, we believe it’s necessary to build a multiracial moral movement that can speak directly to the needs and aspirations of poor and dispossessed Americans and fuse their many struggles into one.

This theory of change is drawn from our study of history. The most transformative American movements have always relied on generations of poor people, deeply affected by injustice, coming together across dividing lines of all kinds to articulate a new moral vision for the nation. This has also meant waging a concerted battle for the moral values of society, whether you’re talking about the pre-Civil War abolition movement, the Populist Movement of the late nineteenth century, labor upsurges of the 1930s and 1940s, or the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Today, to grasp the particular history and reality of America means recognizing the need for a new version of just such a movement to contend directly with the ideology and theology of Christian nationalism and offer an alternative that meets the material and spiritual needs of everyday people....

---

aha did not see how imp to bannon and fascist coup:

an ah 1 22

On MSNBC and CNN, coverage of the one-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021 insurrection had a consistently dark tone. That day was portrayed as one of the most disturbing in U.S. history and a full-fledged assault on liberal democracy. But on Steve Bannon’s far-right “War Room” podcast, the mood was totally different; the former White House chief strategist, Never Trump conservative Tim Miller stresses in The Bulwark, was celebrating violent insurrection, not speaking out against it.

“In the week leading up to the first anniversary of January 6, I dove into ‘the War Room’ to see how the OG ‘Stop the Stealers’ were processing the fallout from their botched putsch,” Miller explains in an article published by The Bulwark on January 11. “What I found was that their effort to overthrow the government has been undeterred by the initial setback of Joe Biden being inaugurated. While Republican elites try to minimize the events of January 6, ‘the War Room’ and their minions have continued to take the coup both literally and seriously.”

Miller continues, “In their view, the Biden ‘regime’ is illegitimate, and the regime’s medical establishment has covered up nearly a half a million deaths from the COVID ‘vaccines.’ In 2022, they aim to put so many of their people in positions of power throughout state and local governments that next time, there will be nothing anyone can do to stop their quest for power. And this crusade is infused with an unmistakable religious fervor and appeal to a quasi-Christian nationalism that calls its devotees into action. As crazy as their show may sound on its face — and let me tell you, it seems very crazy — anyone who cares about American democracy should take that prospect very seriously indeed.”

During Bannon’s January 3-6 shows, Miller observes, his guests included a who’s-who of MAGA extremists — including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro and Trump lawyer/former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Miller warns that while Bannon’s show comes across as a theater of the absurd, that doesn’t make it any less dangerous.

“If it weren’t for the domestic terrorism and the threat to democracy,” Miller writes, “the whole thing would be an over-the-top laugh riot…. Put it all together, and what you have is a show that offers Trump supporters a fascistic MAGA cosplay where they are the main characters, and the aggrieved victims, and also the all-powerful heroes…. From this vantage, the uprising that led to the January 6 riot is not a thing of the past, but an exercise to be learned from in their ongoing effort to ensure that they gain enough power so that next time the Democrats, and the establishment Republicans, and the Never Trumpers won’t be able to deny them total victory — and it’s part and parcel with their broader effort to tear down not just the government, but any American institution that might threaten their ability to control the levers of power.”

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Steve Bannon worries Mitch McConnell is a 'direct challenge' to ... ›

'Ultra-nationalist' Steve Bannon wants to organize a 'new fascist ... ›

Steve Bannon faces criminal charges over Jan. 6 panel snub ... ›

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

Steve Bannon Confronts Mike Lindell Over Trump-Appointed ... ›

Steve Bannon charged with criminal contempt of Congress : NPR ›

Steve Bannon: This Man Is the Most Dangerous Political Operativ

---

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/jan-6-christian-nationalism/

In the midst of the invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Jacob Chansley, the bare-chested man in Viking horns who's come to be known as the QAnon Shaman, stopped his fellow marauders in the Senate chamber to pray. "Thank you Heavenly Father for gracing us with this opportunity … to send a message to all the tyrants, the communists and the globalists, that this is our nation, not theirs," he said. "Thank you for filling this chamber with patriots that love you and that love Christ. Thank you for allowing the United States of America to be reborn."

The prayer, caught on video by New Yorker reporter Luke Mogelson, was just one moment among hundreds that day illustrating how deeply the insurrection was intertwined with Christian nationalism. Across the sea of protesters in and outside the building, t-shirt and ball-cap slogans proclaimed it: "Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president"; "God, Guns, Trump"; or, on the sweatshirt of a man helping construct the rough gallows erected on the Capitol lawn, "Faith, Family, Freedom." (The gallows itself was quickly covered in handwritten notes — "as if it were a yearbook," observed lawyer and author Andrew Seidel — reading "Hang them high" and "In God We Trust.")

Elsewhere, protesters carried gigantic portraits of Jesus and replica statues of the Infant of Prague, or chanted about the blood of Jesus washing Congress clean. A long-haired blond man sang praise songs into a microphone plugged into a stack of amplifiers he was wheeling on a hand-truck. A Nebraska priest performed an exorcism on the Capitol building to banish the demon Baphomet, who he claimed was "dissolving the country" in order to "bring it back as something different." One rioter later indicted for breaking into the Capitol was actually a cast member in a touring production of "Jesus Christ Superstar." Another, Leo Brent Bozell IV, came from a long line of Christian right activists: His father, L. Brent Bozell III, founded the right-wing Media Research Center and his grandfather, L. Brent Bozell Jr., wrote speeches for Joseph McCarthy and a manifesto for Barry Goldwater.

"It was evident to anyone watching that there was this religious character to what was going on, both in the Trump movement writ large but particularly in the leadership of the 'Stop the Steal' movement," said religious studies scholar Jerome Copulsky, co-director of a new website, Uncivil Religion, dedicated to collecting "digital artifacts" of Jan. 6 religiosity and exploring what it means for, say, violent protesters to dress up like Captain Moroni — a legendary warrior from the Book of Mormon — or sing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" alongside fellow protesters carrying Confederate flags. "It wasn't just the Stop the Steal rally, then the assault," Copulsky continued. "People really wanted to display their religious commitments, literally wearing them on their sleeves."

The Uncivil Religion project developed from a Twitter hashtag, #CapitolSiegeReligion, created by author and religious historian Peter Manseau and based on his sense that the religious subtext (and text, and blaring headline) were "*the* story of what happened" on Jan. 6. In Manseau's view, religion wasn't an incidental element, but had been the driving motivation that had brought many people to the Capitol. Much of that had begun much earlier, with Christian right leaders — both official and self-declared — framing the 2020 election, and the rest of America's polarized conflicts, as an all-or-nothing showdown between good and evil.

Some were national names, like Samaritan's Purse president Franklin Graham, who in August 2020 warned in a Christian Broadcasting Network interview that if Trump lost, churches would close down and Christians would be attacked. But that message was echoed so widely, in both religious and secular conservative media and across numerous niche religious right communities, that allegations about the "stolen" election became nearly inseparable from messages of apocalyptic faith.

Much of that was on display on Dec. 12, 2020, in Washington, when a large-scale interfaith prayer protest, the Jericho March — widely seen as a forerunner to Jan. 6 — brought together a number of religious right factions to pantomime the biblical Battle of Jericho in praying to "bring down the walls of the Deep State." The carnivalesque full-day rally — organized, as journalist Sarah Posner reported, by two then-current employees of the federal government — featured an odd fusion of charismatic evangelicalism, Christian Zionism and right-wing Catholicism. There was contemporary Christian praise music and Virgin of Guadalupe iconography; a rendition of "Ave Maria" that concluded with the singer whooping "Giddy up"; and the female pastor of a New England pro-cannabis church wearing Catholic vestments while blowing on a Jewish shofar.

Emceeing the event was evangelical radio host Eric Metaxas, author of a bestselling biography of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a key figure in building an alliance between conservative evangelicals and Roman Catholics. Metaxas had become increasingly extreme throughout the Trump era. The week of the Jericho March rally, he told TurningPoint USA founder Charlie Kirk that the 2020 election was like "somebody is being raped or murdered … times a thousand," and that conservatives would need "to fight to the death, to the last drop of blood" to keep Trump in office.

That December rally featured several notable names on the Catholic right, including a bishop from Texas who refused to acknowledge Biden as president-elect, a nun who had delivered a fiery pro-Trump address at the 2020 Republican National Convention and, most prominently, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a dissident Catholic figure who had once been the Vatican ambassador to the U.S. but fell into disgrace after calling for Pope Francis' resignation in 2018. Since then, Viganò has turned into a sort of alternative pope for disaffected Catholic traditionalists at odds with their more moderate pope, and in 2020, he published an open letter to Trump warning that a "deep church" was working with the "deep state" to use the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests to undermine his presidency. After Trump tweeted a link to the letter, Viganò attracted so much support on the broader right that when he appeared, via video, at the Jericho March — praying "for the conversion of public officials who have become accomplices in public fraud" — an audience largely composed of evangelical Protestants cheered alongside his Catholic fans.

Evangelical speaker Lance Wallnau, who in 2016 famously compared Trump to the biblical figure of Cyrus — a "heathen" king who nonetheless served as the instrument of God — also sounded the theme of intra-religious conflict. "This is the beginning of a Christian populist uprising. There is a backlash coming," he said. "And you're going to see this wrecking ball of a reformation hit the church as well … because it's going to divide between those who are awake and those that are asleep. … There is a great awakening coming, and this is the spark that is starting it right now."

Not all speakers at the Jericho March were religious leaders in the traditional sense. Stewart Rhodes, the devoutly Christian founder of the militia group the Oath Keepers, was on hand to urge police and military members to prepare to fight Chinese "proxies" in the U.S., who he claimed were working to install Joe Biden as their "puppet."

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn, freshly pardoned by Trump for lying to federal investigators, appeared in a flag bandana to talk about spiritual war and lead the crowd in an "Our Father." And conspiracy-theory talk-show host Alex Jones delivered a barn-burning near-sermon, proclaiming, "This is the beginning of the great revival before the Antichrist comes. World government, implantable microchips, Satanism — it's out in the open. The Bible is fulfilled, Revelation is fulfilled."...And there was Ali Alexander, the bombastic founder of the Stop the Steal movement, who appeared frequently on stage alongside Metaxas, vowing that if Biden was installed as president, Alexander and his supporters would return to "occupy D.C. full of patriots," adding, "We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us."

In the following weeks, Alexander repeatedly underscored the religious dimensions of his mission. In late December, he...https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/stop-steal-organizer-ali-alexanders-pre-january-6-calls-violence-weve-got...told the Epoch Times-affiliated NTD television network, "We are in a fight of good versus evil, of light versus the darkness, and a global order over sovereign citizens. … I believe that this is a metaphysical fight and we are channeling all energy in heaven and on earth towards a favorable outcome."

On New Year's Eve in 2020, Alexander announced on Twitter that he was converting to Catholicism, in part, he explained, because he'd become convinced that the Catholic Church had been "infiltrated" by an "earthy [sic] order that works in concert with Satan himself against the Church," and that he had been personally called to join the battle. And when the Jericho March returned to Washington on Jan. 5, for a slate of protest events leading up to the following day's MAGA march, Alexander spoke again, whipping the crowd into a

"The Jericho March put a definite religious imprimatur on Jan. 6," said Posner. "After Jan. 6, the organization put a note on their website that they condemned violence. But they held multiple rallies in which they talked repeatedly about the election being stolen, that God told them they must have the church 'roar,' and that they were going to be like Joshua's army in the Bible and the walls of the Deep State would fall."

...But no matter how explicit — and violent — the religious rhetoric swirling around Stop the Steal was, it was little recognized before the Jan. 6 attack. "We have gotten so used to religious language used by evangelicals and other religiously-affiliated officials that the danger that was there — whether at the Jericho March or the Jan. 6 rally that led up to the attack on the Capitol — was really just noise to some people," said Anthea Butler, chair of the religious studies department at the University of Pennsylvania. "And then it happened, and everyone pretended to be shocked. But that's willful ignorance about the role religion has played in the last 40 or 50 years in the Republican Party. It hasn't just been this alliance of how to get people elected, but has had this element of things that have fed upon each other to create a monster that threatens democracy."

That has remained central to the legacy of Jan. 6, as religious leaders have used the rhetoric of faith to minimize and redirect responsibility for the violence of that day: whether it's people like Wallnau or South Carolina televangelist Mark Burns blaming "antifa soldiers" for perpetrating a false-flag operation to smear Trump supporters; Mike Huckabee suggesting, in email newsletters over the last six months, that Nancy Pelosi may have orchestrated the attack, and casting indicted Jan. 6 protesters as political prisoners; or former Vice President Mike Pence, in a December interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, downplaying the very attack in which an angry mob called for his execution.

The rest of its legacy is more diffuse, but no less troubling: Metaxas suggesting that the creation of COVID-19 vaccines is akin to experimenting "with the bodies of Jews we murdered in the concentration camps," or Viganò writing that COVID exists merely as a "psycho-pandemic"; Wallnau calling "wokeness" the religion of the Antichrist and, on the eve of the Jan. 6 anniversary...that if America is to be one nation under God, it must have only one religion. More systematically, there's the fact that much of the religious organizing energy that went into Stop the Steal has now transferred itself, as Posner , into mobilizing the Christian right on behalf of voter suppression initiatives.

A year later, none of the religious fervor that helped drive Jan. 6 has vanished, says Copulsky. "It's built into the fabric of American life. There's a radicality to it, but this didn't come out of thin air. And it's not going to go away. It's incumbent on religious leaders and organizations to think about what that means....

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/confrontational-christian-nationalists-are-pushing-anti-vaxxer-extremism-report/"...

How 'confrontational Christian nationalists' are pushing anti-vaxxer ... ›

These Christian nationalists believe Capitol rioters are the real ... ›

Here's how Christian nationalism drove the Jan. 6 insurrection ... ›

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

Opinion | 'The Capitol Insurrection Was as Christian Nationalist as It ... ›

More Christian Nationalist Violence Is Likely After Jan. 6 | Time ›

Opinion | Christian Nationalism Is One of Trump's Most Powerful...

---

omg npi

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/extremist-christians/

paul r salon

progressive policies and positions are supposed to be rooted in reality and hard evidence. But that's not always the case when it comes to the culture wars that have such an enormous impact on our politics — especially not since the unexpected evangelical embrace of Donald Trump in 2016, culminating in the "pro-life" death cult of anti-vaccine, COVID-denying religious leaders. If this development perplexed many on the left, it was less surprising to a small group of researchers who have been studying the hardcore anti-democratic theology known as dominionism that lies behind the contemporary Christian right, and its far-reaching influence over the last several decades.

One leading figure within that small group, Rachel Tabachnick, was featured in a recent webinar hosted by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (archived on YouTube here), as part of its Religion and Repro Learning Series program, overseen by the Rev. Dr. Cari Jackson. Tabachnick's writing on dominionism can be found at Talk2Action and Political Research Associates, and she's been interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air.

Her presentation sheds important light on at least three things: First of all, the vigilante element of the Texas anti-abortion law SB 8. Second, the larger pattern of disrupting or undermining governance, including the "constitutional sheriffs" movement, the installation of overtly partisan election officials and the red-state revolt against national COVID public health policies. While Donald Trump has exploited that pattern ruthlessly, he did not create it. And third, the seemingly baffling fact that an anti-democratic minority feels entitled to accuse its opponents — including democratically elected officials — of "tyranny."

Some dominionist ideas — such as the biblical penalty of death by stoning — are so extreme they can easily be dismissed as fringe, others have been foundational to the modern religious right, and still more have become increasingly influential in recent years. Those latter two categories are what we need to understand most, say both Tabachnick and Jackson.

"One of the things that struck me, as a relative newcomer," said Jackson, a former Congregationalist minister, "was that there was not sufficient understanding about the theological frames used by many individuals who are opposed to abortion." She continued, "I'm a strategist in a lot of ways, and one important strategy, I believe, must be to understand what the teachings and the theological frames are" on the other side. Which links directly to the question of what progressive activists need to do differently in this changed environment.

This failure to understand the nature of dominionism has hampered activists, not just in the realm of reproductive justice, but across an entire spectrum of political issues, both cultural and economic. Jackson discussed her own background, raised within a conservative Christian worldview.

"I was taught a very individualistic approach," she said, "taught that we shouldn't pay taxes, because doing so enabled people who were not working, and enables people whose lifestyle we don't agree with." There's nothing new about such views, but dominionism provides believers with an even stronger foundation for them.

Jackson describes her current understanding of religious faith as highly intersectional: "We believe that to understand the attacks on abortion also invites us — or even requires us — to look at attacks on voting, to look at attacks on immigrants, attacks on prison reform, attacks on equal pay and on and on," she said. "It's all of the same cloth: They are all attacks on humans flourishing. That's my language. The God of my understanding wants all of us to flourish in who we are."

the language of dominionism is strikingly different, to put it mildly. In her webinar, Tabachnick played a clip of one of the movement's leading figures, C. Peter Wagner, providing a definition:

Dominion has to do with control. Dominion has to do with rulership. Dominion has to do with authority and subduing. And it relates to society — in other words what is talked about, what the values are in heaven [that] need to be made manifest here on earth. Dominion means being the head and not the tail. Dominion means ruling as kings. It says in Revelation chapter 1:6 that "he has made us kings and priests," and check the rest of that verse, it says "for dominion." So we are kings for dominion.

Later she provided a definition from Frederick Clarkson, author of the 1997 book, "Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy":

Dominionism is the theocratic idea that regardless of theological view, means, or timetable, Christians are called by God to exercise dominion over every aspect of society by taking control of political and cultural institutions.

Wagner, who died in 2016, is known as the founding father of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), one of the two main branches of dominionism, which grew out of the Pentecostal and charismatic traditions within evangelical Christianity. Dominionists in the other branch, known as "Christian reconstructionism," come out of conservative Calvinism, with a focus on bringing government and society under biblical law. They tend to be more circumspect, often obfuscating their true intentions and avoiding the word "theocracy" in favor of "theonomy," for example. But not Wagner, as can be seen in the title of his 2011 book, "Dominion!: Your Role in Bringing Heaven to Earth." The NAR talks constantly about taking dominion over the "seven mountains" of society: education, religion, family, business, government, arts and the media.

But it's the other branch, the Christian reconstructionists, who have excelled at strategic organizing and providing blueprints across different right-wing constituencies for almost 50 years. They are the ones Tabachnick focused most of her presentation on, specifically two key figures: Rousas John Rushdoony, the movement's master theologian, and his son-in-law Gary North, a prolific strategist, propagandist and networker who was once a staffer for Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian hero.[ayn radical indiv ~ jesus charity]

Christian reconstructionism, Tabachnick explained, is "about bringing government in all areas of life under biblical law, a continuation of the Mosaic law in the Old Testament, with some exceptions." This dispensation would include, "according to Gary North, public execution of women who have abortions and those who advise them to have an abortion."

In a recent private presentation, Frederick Clarkson asked a rhetorical question: "People have long said that there should be Christian government, but if you had one, what would it look like? What would it do? Rushdoony was the first to create a systematic theology of what Christian governance should be like, based on the Ten Commandments, and all of the judicial applications he could find in the Old Testament — including about 35 capital offenses."

But the "Handmaid's Tale"-style extremism of dominionists' ultimate vision shouldn't really be our focus, Tabachnick told Salon. "Nobody cares about the theocratic, draconian future envisioned by reconstructionists because they don't believe it will happen," she said.

What's happening right now, however, is that this ideology has had tremendous impact on more immediate politics. "Christian reconstructionism is the merger of a distinct brand of Calvinism with Austrian School economics," Tabachnick said. "In other words, it's an interpretation of the Bible grounded in property rights." The results have been far-reaching:

For more than 40 years, its prolific writers have provided the foundations and strategic blueprints for the attacks on liberation theology and the social gospel, as well as many other streams of Christianity which do not share the Reconstructionists' belief in unfettered capitalism as ordained by God and its fierce anti-statism.

The larger religious right's attack on public education, the social safety net and most government functions are largely grounded in the writings, strategies and tactics formulated by reconstructionist writers. Reconstructionism is not the only (and certainly not the first) source of interposition and nullification in this country. However, much of what is currently being taught today about using interposition to undermine the legitimacy of government is sourced in reconstructionism.

This idea of "interposition" comes through what's known as the doctrine of the "lesser magistrate," which we'll return to below. But its significance — especially in the post-2020 Republican Party — has only recently become apparent. Reconstructionism's initial appeal was more immediately, as Tabachnick explained in the seminar:

What Rushdoony provided is a package that included attacking what these fundamentalists hated and feared most in society, often expressed in terms of "This is communist. This is socialist." But Rushdoony provided a way to sacralize these ideas, and at the same time not just tear down the old order, but provide a blueprint for the new order.

Everyone didn't have to agree on the blueprint, she said: "Rushdoony's ideas went out in bits and pieces. The Christian right leaders took what they wanted and discarded what they didn't."

"Christian reconstructionism, as articulated by Rushdoony, provided a standard by which everyone else had to measure themselves," Clarkson told Salon. "Not everyone on the Christian right agreed with Rushdoony and his fellow Reconstructionist thinkers on, for example, the contemporary application of capital crimes listed in the Old Testament. And followers were often at pains to distinguish themselves."

Clarkson cites the case of conservative Presbyterian theologian Francis Schaeffer, who disagreed with Rushdoony on the applicability of biblical law, but became a driving force behind the anti-abortion activist movement Operation Rescue. That "militant Schaefferism," Clarkson said, "led activists to think: What's next, beyond political protest and stopping abortion? This is where the conversation has been in the Christian right for decades."

The doctrine of the "lesser magistrate," mentioned above, first emerged into public discourse out of Operation Rescue. But it did so as part of a larger, more complicated story.

There's a long history of right-wing opposition to federal authority, particularly grounded in the 19th-century defense of slavery and continuing in the defense of Jim Crow segregation. In his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke specifically of the governor of Alabama "having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification."

As detailed by Randall Balmer in "Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right," the religious right wasn't initially fueled by opposition to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, but by opposition to a lesser-known decision in 1971, Green v. Connally, which threatened the tax-exempt status of racially discriminatory institutions, most famously the evangelical stronghold Bob Jones University.

Anti-abortion activists have long sought not just to bury that past but to stand it on its head, somehow equating Roe v. Wade with the notorious Dred Scott decision of 1857 and claiming the moral heritage of abolitionism.

"Throughout these movements there is also an attempt to turn the tables on the claims of racism," Tabachnick said in her webinar. "This is one of the roles that anti-abortion activism as abolition plays. Also, there's a promotion of narratives that provide a different history and legal justifications for interposition, nullification and even secession. One of the things that Christian reconstructionism has added to this dialogue is the concept of the lower magistrate."

As Tabachnick explains it, the "lesser magistrate" is a heroic figure who "resists the tyranny of a higher authority" — defining "tyranny" in biblical terms, potentially including any number of popular or common-sense laws or policies. This notion first gained salience in the anti-abortion context in the 1980s and '90s, as Tabachnick went on to explain.

"Many violent anti-abortionists have justified their actions in reconstructionist teachings," she said. "One of these was Paul Hill, who studied under one of the major reconstructionist leaders and corresponded with others." Hill went on to murder Dr. John Britton, a physician who performed abortions, as well as Britton's personal bodyguard, in 1994. Hill was executed in 2003, but the reconstructionist movement sought to cast him out well before that.

"Gary North responded, after the murders had taken place, in a book called 'Lone Gunners for Jesus,'" Tabachnick said. His message to Hill was, "You're going to burn in hell, you've been excommunicated. This was because Paul Hill stepped outside the bounds of the guidelines set by the movement."

To explain this, she quoted a passage from another book by North that offered qualified support for Operation Rescue: "We need a statement that under no circumstances will Operation Rescue or any of its official representatives call for armed resistance to civil authority without public support from a lesser magistrate."

"On the basis of their belief of what the law or the word of God is, they are allowed — on the advice, on the interposition, of a lesser magistrate — to commit acts of violence," Tabachnick continued. North was seeking to control or curb anti-abortion terrorism, but without rejecting it in principle. Murdering abortion providers — or even murdering women seeking abortions — could be morally justified, with the blessing of a lesser magistrate.

This is relevant to SB 8 in Texas in at least two ways. That bill bans abortions after six weeks and is enforced not by state officials, but by deputizing private individuals to sue anyone who performs the procedure or "aids and abets" it. First of all, giving private individuals these vigilante-style rights seems a lot like making them into "lesser magistrates," however narrowly constrained.

Second, the Supreme Court's refusal to stay the law — which clearly violates the Constitution and existing precedent, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued in her dissent — can be seen as an example of the doctrine in action. In more normal circumstances, the court would have stayed the law pending consideration on the merits, even if a majority of justices intended to overturn precedent. That's how common law has worked for centuries.

But biblical law isn't common law, especially as reconstructionists understand it. Under the doctrine of the "lesser magistrate," Roe is not precedent but an instance of tyranny — and the justices have a duty to God to resist it. Of course, not even Amy Coney Barrett or Clarence Thomas has said anything like that, but it's entirely consistent with their behavior — as well as with their silence, since openly making such an argument would clarify just how radicalized they have become. But adherents of the doctrine of the lesser magistrate must surely appreciate the drift in direction.

Nor is the doctrine limited to abortion cases, as already noted. Matthew Trewhella is a pastor who was a prominent leader of violence-prone wing of the anti-abortion movement in 1990s, and author of the 2013 book, "The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates," which greatly heightened its visibility.

"Trewhella is now all over radio and the internet," Tabachnick said in her webinar, "claiming to meet with state legislators and attorney generals at the moment, with the cause of fighting the 'tyranny of mask mandates' and vaccination for COVID. So you can see how this is a concept that is not just limited to abortion. It is a concept that can be used in resistance of government authority all over the country in all different kinds of ways — FEMA, EPA, Bureau of Land Management and so forth."

Trewhella isn't breaking new ground here. Clarkson's 1997 book "Eternal Hostility" describes him making similar arguments in a speech to an anti-tax group in Wisconsin. He was just one figure among many spreading the seeds of reconstructionist resistance to federal authority among militia members, "freemen" and anti-abortion activists at the time.

"This movement believes that rights come from God and not from any government," Tabachnick told Salon. "Therefore, any 'rights' that conflict with their interpretation of God's law are not actually rights. They are 'humanist' or a product of man's laws and not God's laws. This theme of 'human rights' versus inalienable rights from God has been at the center of the Christian Reconstructionist movement since its beginnings."

She pointed to "What's Wrong With Human Rights," an excerpt from a book of the same name by the Rev. T. Robert Ingram published in "The Theology of Christian Resistance," a collection edited by North. Ingram sweeps aside the Bill of Rights as "a statement of sovereign powers of states withheld from the federal authority of the Union," and turns instead to the Virginia Declaration of Rights, authored by George Mason in 1776.

The first section of the Virginia Declaration, beginning "That all Men are by Nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent Rights," is dismissed by Ingram for omitting any mention of God, as an "error of unbelief which falsifies all the rest that is said about human life." The second, beginning "That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from the People; that Magistrates are their Trustees and Servants, and at all Times amenable to them," he dismisses as well: "The meaning could not be more clear, nor more opposite Biblical thought. The ruling proposition of Scripture and Christian doctrine is that 'power belongeth unto God.'" In short, there are no human rights.

The connection to the doctrine of the lesser magistrate is clear: Power comes from God, not the people. Whatever the people want is irrelevant. Whatever laws they may pass are irrelevant, too, if they go against God. "Tyranny" is whatever the Christian reconstructionist decides he doesn't like.

Elsewhere, Ingram denigrates freedom of speech and the press:

Freedom of speech and freedom of press are, in fact, applied seriously only to giving government protection to instigators of riot and rebellion, as well as those who would undermine human order by more subtle attacks on morals and customs.

As for the right to dissent, he calls it "not a lawful claim to own or to do something, which is the true right," but "a turning upside down of right and wrong, calling good evil and evil good." Similarly, there is no scriptural right to "resist authority," only that granted by the false doctrine of "human rights."

Ingram's interpretation of the Civil War is that "Yankee radicals inflamed the Northern peoples to mount the Civil War in the name of a 'human right' to be free ... if they did not destroy the whole Southern Order, they did at least dismantle its vast and efficient plantation economy." The civil rights movement, unsurprisingly, is understood as a defiance of "Tradition, law, and custom, which preserved public peace and order in the bi-racial state of the union, both North and South," and became "the target of the right to resist in the 60's, the supposed human rights justifying the violent means."

Tabachnick didn't dig into this text in her webinar, but it serves to illustrate her central principle: "This attack on the very concept of 'human rights' can be found throughout today's religious right."

Jackson told Salon that the most important part of Tabachnick's presentation came "when she talked about humanism and the humanistic frame, from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those who are within the dominionist camp see that as contrary to God. I read those same documents and I say, this is pointing us toward the direction that God wants for us. They look at it and see that as counter to God, because humanism from their perspective is something very contrary to God."

If we take such arguments seriously, then we understand why for dominionists there is nothing wrong with breaking any law at all, so long as "God wills it" and you have the blessing of a so-called lesser magistrate. This is the reconstructionist argument supporting a whole range of chaotic right-wing activity today, including baseless claims that the 2020 election was a fraud. After all, the fundamental reconstructionist argument is that all such democratic government is illegitimate.

"The goal of reconstructionism is to tear down the existing order and reconstruct a new society based on biblical law," Tabachnick said. "Even if we assume that this vision of a theocratic America will never come to fruition, it's important to recognize the movement's impact on the ideas, strategies and tactics of the larger religious right and its role in sacralizing the actions of other anti-statist fellow travelers.

"As I wrote almost a decade ago, the theocratic libertarianism of Christian reconstructionism has been surprisingly seductive to Tea Partiers and young libertarians — many of whom may not realize what is supposed to happen after the government is stripped of its regulatory powers."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

How the coronavirus pandemic shows that Christian white ... ›

Christian extremist says 'righteous anger' made him confront women ... ›

How 'confrontational Christian nationalists' are pushing anti-vaxxer ... ›

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

Holy Hate: The Far Right's Radicalization of Religion | Southern ... ›

Christian terrorism - Wikipedia ›

It's Time to Talk About Violent Christian Extremism - POLITICO ›

---

---

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/white-christianity/

cdv

since at least the 1980s, the conservative movement has increasingly been governed by faith, which can be described as a belief in things that cannot be proved by empirical means. In practice, this means that the Republican Party and the larger right-wing movement's policies and ideology across a range of issues — the economy, the environment, science, health care, democracy and the rule of law — have little if any basis in fact.

In the Age of Trump, movement conservatism has metastasized or devolved into its purest form: American fascism, a form of religious politics taken to its most illogical extreme. Facts, truth and even the conception of reality itself are being replaced with lies, fictions, and fantasies that serve the American fascist movement and its leader.

As public opinion polls and other research have repeatedly shown, white right-wing Christians, especially Protestant evangelicals, have pledged their loyalty to Donald Trump and his movement. Many view him as a literal prophet or savior: His evident immorality has been rationalized as somehow necessary to his prophetic role.

Violence is a key feature of the new American fascism, as dramatically illustrated on Jan. 6 but also at many other moments. Trumpists and other Republican fascists, many or most of whom identify as Christian, have widely embraced political violence, including outright terrorism, as a necessary measure to "protect" their "traditional way of life" against "radical socialist Democrats, Black and brown people, Muslims, LGBTQ people and pretty much all Americans who still believe in the constitutional separation of church and state and the rule of law.

Together, these forces exist in a state of collective narcissism and shared malignant reality. In that relationship, white right-wing Christianity is a nexus or type of glue.

To discuss this profoundly disturbing phenomenon, I recently spoke with Anthea Butler, professor of religious studies and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a guest on MSNBC, CNN, PBS and the BBC, and her essays have been featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Religion News Service and MSNBC. Butler's new book is "White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America".

In this conversation, she discusses the phenomenon of "white Christianity" and its role in the Age of Trump and America's current crisis of democracy. She also explores the specific role this phenomenon played in the events of Jan. 6 and the ascendant fascist movement, and its crucial role in legitimating and normalizing the society-wide moral crisis catalyzed and empowered by the Age of Trump.

Toward the end of this conversation, Butler warns that too many white people have erroneously convinced themselves that racial privilege will protect them from escalating right-wing Christian terrorism and related political violence.

This conversation has been edited, as usual, for clarity and length.

Imagine that American democracy is a patient in the hospital. If you were a type of religious figure — a priest, an imam, a rabbi or the like — what counsel would you be offer that patient in this dire moment?

I will answer that question in the context of the Catholic tradition. In that faith tradition there is something called "extreme unction." This is when you are on your deathbed, and they come to you to give you a prayer. Before the changes of Vatican II, the priest also carried a little kit, which had what would be used for communion and other needs. If I were diagnosing democracy right now in America, it is in a state of extreme unction. American democracy is in its last moments and it is going to need a miracle to get up from that deathbed. I would whisper in that patient's ear right now that you had better decide to fight back or you are dead in the next 15 minutes. Your 15 minutes are about up.

What would penance look like?

Continuing with the Catholic tradition. Most of the time the penitence, in the old Catholic tradition, would involve beating oneself. Self-flagellation. There would be bloodletting. You would not want someone else to make the bloodletting happen for you.

In the case of American democracy, especially with the Democratic Party, they are holding on to some old, tired notion that they are still in power and that the things that they have counted on before will work for them in this moment of crisis. The Democrats are counting on Black folks standing in line for 20 hours to vote. They are counting on Black people to ignore the fact that the Democrats have not done much for them. The Democrats are counting on the good Black Christians to come and save them, once again, from themselves.

There are all these political leaders and others who claim to be Christians and say that America is supposedly a "Christian nation." But there is little talk of the many forms of evil both summoned and empowered by the Age of Trump. How is this being reconciled?

There are two primary reasons, as I see it. Half the time they do not believe that there is in fact a devil. Moreover, many of these Christians are the devils at work in this society. Two, if you don't believe in the devil, then you don't have to deal with anything that is evil.

Instead, you use language such as "people are misguided" or "they have the wrong idea" or "they didn't really mean to lie like that." Evangelicals of the 1950s, and even the '60s and early '70s, would have looked at Donald Trump and said that he was the Antichrist. Now evangelicals worship him. To be clear, I am not offering a position on whether not I believe that Trump is the Antichrist or whether he should be worshipped. I'm just telling you what is happening.

Donald Trump, his regime and the Republican fascist movement are objectively evil. How do white Christians explain away such behavior?

Because they're in a bubble. Their pastor is reinforcing these messages. The people they live around are reinforcing these messages. They listen to Fox News. Their other information sources reinforce the same message.

Let's be frank: I don't care how many times they carry a Bible. Half of them are not reading it anyway. One may think that these people are evangelical Christians and therefore they know scripture. Yes, some of them do. These evangelicals may know it very well. But even though these evangelicals say, "I'm living by scripture," the reality is that they are living by the scriptures that are written by their politicians and their pastors.

The Jan. 6 coup attempt and attack on the Capitol was an act of white right-wing Christian terrorism against multiracial democracy. Given the Christian iconography and behavior seen on Jan. 6 — that huge cross, the prayers, the horns, and other examples — why do mainstream news media and others refuse to state such obvious facts?

It's intentional. They cannot come to grips with the fact that the Christianity of America is just like any other fundamentalist religion that gets weaponized in order to hold on to power. Therefore, they have to continue to tell themselves that everything that happened on Jan. 6 was an aberration and not something religious in nature. Those people are not "Christians" like us.

But the reality is that those people are you. And not only are those people you, they sat with you in the pews. They prayed with you. And if they had succeeded on Jan. 6, you would be right there on their side. And you would say that God must have blessed them to be able to overthrow the United States government.

Can you explain more about the horns and specific prayers that were used on Jan. 6?

They had horns, what are known as the ram's horn or the shofar, which appeared in the Old Testament. Those horns were blown before the walls of Jericho came down. It was like a battle. Those horns were used in rituals in ancient Judaism. That horn is also used in Jewish rituals today to mark certain kinds of events, whether that's Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. The blowing of the horn means that we are going into battle — in this context, that God is going with us into the Capitol.

The kinds of prayers we saw on Jan. 6 at the Capitol are called "imprecatory prayers." There are the kinds of prayers used when you want your enemy to die. On Jan. 6 they believed that they were on a mission from God to go into the Capitol and get Nancy Pelosi, Mike Pence and other people they saw as enemies.

And that huge Christian cross?

They used that cross to be like the crusaders during the European Middle Ages.

Tate Reeves, the Republican governor of Mississippi, recently said that Christians are not afraid of the coronavirus because they believe in "eternal life." How did you process his assertion? The country is in the midst of a deadly plague, and right-wing leaders are summoning God and their faith to encourage people not to take proper health precautions.

Those words are a claim that "we" are not afraid of death because we Christians. It is a claim of certainty on going to heaven. It will all be fine, because if you die from the coronavirus then you are going to see Jesus. Well, what if Jesus is not there? What if there's no Jesus? What if you just drop straight down into the pit of hell?

I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but the way in which the governor of Mississippi spoke about the pandemic was as though if you die, then it is all going to be all right. What kind of sense does that make?

As a matter of public policy, Christian nationalists, dominionists and other Christian fascists are trying to impose their End Times eschatological fantasies onto secular America in opposition to the Constitution and the separation of church and state. These are fantasies of death and destruction. These white right-wing Christians literally seem to be seeking out death.

They do in fact appear to be seeking out death. They have this huge desire to live the way they want to live without restraint. At some point it is death for you, but it is not death for them.

One of the dimensions here that many people do not understand is that when the pandemic started and many of these red-state and other right-wing leaders were telling people not to wear masks, they were kind of hoping that the "right people" would die. We know who the "right people" are.

Now, people in red states are dying and those Republican and other right-wing leaders can't get out of the spiral of telling people not to get vaccinated. They were hoping that all the people of color were going to die. But now in the red states, it's a lot of white folks dying. A lot of white children are going to die, and they still are doubling down on the same thing. It hasn't changed.

What is "White Christianity"?

White Christians tend to do very different things than Black Christians or Asian American Christians or Latino Christians in this country. You can be a Black Christian and believe in white evangelicalism. You can be Black and a Christian and be bought out and sold out to white evangelicalism or white Christianity because you accept the premises of what these white preachers are telling you, especially about how you're supposed to love America for example.

There are Black Christians, and others, who are not being discerning about what is Christianity, as opposed to what is better described as White American Christianity.

For some Christians, the question becomes, "Well, I'm a red-letter Christian," which basically refers to how the words of Jesus are red in the Bible. "I believe what Jesus says." My intervention there is: If that's the case, great. That means you have to be for the poor and all that comes with that.

White Christianity is a Christianity that is based on the following: Jesus is white. Jesus privileges white culture and white supremacy, and the political aspirations of whiteness over and against everything else. White Christianity assumes that everybody should be subsumed under whiteness in terms of culture and society.

White Christianity assumes that it does not have to look at poverty. We see this in the form of the so-called prosperity gospel, and that any blessing you get from God is because God favors you. If anybody else is out of favor, let's say some poor kid in Northwest Philadelphia who doesn't have enough to eat, well, that's just too bad because they're not blessed of God.

When suffering happens, it's blamed on anybody else but God.

As part of the right-wing culture war narrative there is a martial language that includes Christianity. There is talk of "Christian struggle" and "Christian war." What are the connections between such militant language and actual right-wing violence?

That language has a long history in this country. There's war imagery all through Biblical scripture. There are war songs that people sing in churches. This idea about battling for the Lord, whether we're talking about the Crusades or the Civil War or fighting communism and everything else, is embedded in our history. That language of war and fighting is being used to incite people now.

Most people in America do not want such violence to happen. The problem is that if you've got enough people who want such an outcome, who can make it hell for everybody else, and there are people in power who want to use the public to create decay and destruction, such violent language is going to be used to that end. Donald Trump knows how to push every one of these buttons.

How do you explain the role of white Christianity in the right-wing disruptions and threats of violence at local school board meetings about "critical race theory," vaccinations and other topics?

It is as though nobody remembers the 1950s, when white people were standing outside yelling and screaming and cussing Black children who were actually integrating these schools. These were Christians who were in churches, who were out there yelling and spitting and screaming. Women especially. Evangelicalism and harsh rhetoric have always been part and parcel of this.

We need to quit talking about evangelicalism as though it is some type of coddling religion and understand it for what it has been and what it is doing.

The language of "religious freedom" is central to the power of white Christianity in America. Other religions are rarely able to make such claims and have them accepted as normal or reasonable by the public, or especially by the Supreme Court and political leaders. In practice, the "freedom" of white Christianity is something unique in America. Muslims, for example, are rarely if ever afforded such protections and special rights.

The rhetoric of freedom is being used to elevate "freedom" for white Christians and to suppress freedom for everyone else. In order to remain on top, the freedom of everybody else is being suppressed. These types of white Christians want you to do what they want you to do. In turn, you will be controlled by them. Limiting women's reproductive freedoms is a way to keep everybody in check.

What is the role of white privilege in explaining why so many white Americans are able to deny the serious dangers embodied by white Christian fascist violence?

White privilege convinces many white people that they will not personally have to deal with the violence. They believe that, unlike other people, they will just be able to melt away into the background when the violence happens and nobody is going to shoot people who look like them.

White privilege has convinced them that nobody's going to take their home away from them. Nobody's going to kill their kids. Nobody's going to march them out as an example and shoot them. White privilege has convinced them that they can take some type of loyalty oath or pledge and they will be safe.

---

---

same one as cspan booktv?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/this-is-american-fascism-a-disturbing-event-will-bring-together-gun-nuts-trumpians-and-doomsday-christianists-report/

AH

Freedom Festival is a far-right event held in Greenley, Pennsylvania and organized by a combination of Moonies and gun manufacturers. The speakers at this year's event will include former National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch and former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, and according to Daily Beast reporter Jose Pagliery, their presence at Freedom Festival underscores the ever-increasing radicalization of the Republican Party.

"Few Americans are even aware that the gun company Kahr and a rural Pennsylvania doomsday church — both run by the same ultra-rich Korean family — hold an annual 'Freedom Festival' that attracts gun enthusiasts and the type of people who attach 'Don't Tread on Me' flags to the back of their trucks," Pagliery explains in an article published on October 8. "But in the wake of the failed January 6 insurrection, the event's amalgamation of sovereign citizens and alt-truthers has taken on a new meaning. And now, it's even got an all-star lineup."

Ryan Busse, a former gun industry executive, warns that the presence of a former NRA spokesperson at Freedom Festival is "legitimizing" extremism.

Busse told the Beast, "It's going to send a message across the country that this is normal, that this is OK. This is American fascism being developed right before our eyes. This is like 1936 Germany in a symposium."

Busse went on to say, "The one that concerns me the most is Dana Loesch. She's treated by gun consumers like royalty, and here she is legitimizing this insanity. That scares me."

Pagliery notes that Kahr Firearms Group, which manufactures semi-automatic weapons, is run by a family of Moonies. Founded by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon during the 1950s, the Moonies are a Christianist cult known for conspiracy theories, End Times themes and a far-right ideology.

"While Sun Myung Moon became a prominent figure in the American conservative movement — founding the Washington Times newspaper — one of his sons, Justin Moon, founded the Kahr gun company in 1995," Pagliery explains. "And another son, Hyung Jin Sean Moon, inherited an offshoot of the church that goes by the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary and warns about 'the End of Times.' With the patriarch now deceased, his sons have largely merged their worlds."

Pagliery continues, "The reverend son now refers to his church with a more militant name — Rod of Iron Ministries — an allusion to his unification of disparate ideas: faith and guns. And churchgoers wear metal crowns on their heads, signifying individuals' ultimate sovereign authority over themselves. They also carry semi-automatic rifles like AR-15s and AK-47s, fashioning their guns like pious medieval knights would a sword."

The Moonies are not white supremacists; Rev. Sun Myung Moon was Korean. But according to J.J. MacNab of George Washington University's Program on Extremism, that doesn't make them any less dangerous.

MacNab told the Beast, "They've never really gotten the attention I think they should, because they're not a White supremacy group. Anybody that's pushing such a hearty mix of guns and religion are problematic to me. And the doomsday element is there. It's effectively talking about death."

Busse finds Freedom Festival's combination of religious extremism, guns, conspiracy theories and Trumpism to be incredibly toxic.

The former NRA member told the Beast, "It's what I fear: anything that will gin up people to buy more guns, hate people more, and vote for people like Trump. It's all of that on steroids. Doesn't the Klan meet in the dark out back behind uncle's barn? This is right out in the open."

---

---

Christian nationalists in California are making an aggressive push to have embattled Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) recalled. The candidate they are advocating for heavily aligns with their own political agenda.

According to a new report published by Right Wing Watch, far-right Christian leaders and Republicans are advocating for conservative radio host Larry Elder.

Holding a sharp position on key conservative issues like abortion, voting rights, and COVID mitigation, Elder has received an influx of support from conservatives religious leaders.

One of his strongest supporters is Ché Ahn, a Pasadena, Calif.-based religious leader working to get as many evangelicals as possible to vote on the recall.

In fact, Ahn has a long history of advocating for Republican candidates and controversial policies the party has long worked to enact.

On Jan. 5, just one day before the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, Ahn appeared at the "Stop the Steal" rally which was organized to stir up the pro-Trump base. At the time, Ahn reportedly circulated misinformation about the presidential election by telling Trump-supporting rallygoers "that the election was stolen but that Trump would remain in office."

"We're gonna rule and reign through President Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ," he declared.

Over the last several weeks, a number of similar events have been held to boost Elder's campaign but the publication highlights one event in particular as it sheds light on how Christian nationalists are using religion to justify their political goals.

Per the publication:

"A Sept. 2 California Pastors Town Hall sponsored by the Salt & Light Council focused in part on the recall election. Bishop Art Hodges urged pastors to bring their ballots to church and to portray voting as a sacred duty. 'It is our duty as Christians in America,' he said, to ensure God's continued blessing on the U.S. by 'choosing leaders who will honor biblical values and morality.' Hodges presented talking points favoring the recall, which began with Newsom performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples and running through a litany of complaints, including 'Cash payments to illegals.'"

California's special election will be held on Tuesday Sept. 14.

---

aha/yikes indist betw xian nat'l, evanG AND QANON?!

https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/christian-nationalists-believe-capitol-rioters-as-victims-report/

ME

christian nationalists are attempting to put a different spin on the Jan. 6 insurrection. While most Americans have witnessed some degree of the deadly series of events that have transpired, Christian nationalists believe the rioters who stormed the CApitol are actually the victims, according to Americans United.

"The assault by a pro-Trump crowd should have posed something of a dilemma for Christian nationalists, who often pose as "law and order" conservatives, given that police officers were assaulted by an out-of-control mob," the publication reports. "But the same Christian nationalists who had assailed Black Lives Matter over anti-police-brutality protests just months earlier couldn't bring themselves to condemn the violence at the Capitol."

As a result of their refusal to hold rioters accountable and accept what actually happened, more conspiracies have been birthed.

For example, Jeff Jansen, head of Global Fire Ministries, has repeatedly claimed Trump will rise to power again; a dangerous lie national security experts believe will only infuriate the Trump base more when it does not come to pass.

"The Trump administration is on its way in; the pedophilia Biden administration – the fake administration – Biden's administration is on its way out," Jansen said. "I don't care if you like it or not, it doesn't matter. We all know what took place, and God is going to do something amazing in this nation and through this nation. It's revival time. It's revolution time."

As a result of Christians like Jansen, there is a growing concern that the conspiracy-driven prophetic movement is becoming "one of the fastest-growing corners of Christianity," according to New York Times reporter Ruth Graham.

Offering her perspective of Christian prophets' actions, Graham previously wrote:

"Many are independent evangelists who do not lead churches or other institutions. They operate primarily online and through appearances at conferences or as guest speakers in churches, making money through book sales, donations and speaking fees. And they are part of the rising appeal of conspiracy theories in Christian settings, echoed by the popularity of QAnon among many evangelicals and a resistance to mainstream sources of information."

Although there have been efforts to launch a bipartisan committee to investigate the Capitol insurrection, Christian nationalists have joined Republican lawmakers' plight not to further investigate.

In the normal world, the pushback against the formation of a 1/6 commission also raises questions since Christian nationalists claim to believe rioters were actually victims.

However, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, has praised Republican lawmakers for blocking the effort by way of the filibuster as he described the commission as nothing more than "political theater." He also accused Democratic lawmakers of pushing to change the narrative although footage of the day makes it clear what transpired.

"This is about political theater, plain and simple," Perkins wrote in a column. "It's about creating a narrative, aided by the media, that all Republicans are dangerous extremists. At least GOP leaders are pushing back and insisting that they won't be a part of the Democratic charade."

Christian nationalists' disturbing perspective and continued efforts to support Capitol rioters suggests the movement will not wane anytime soon.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

'Vanilla ISIS': Terrorism expert breaks down the nightmarish ... ›

This PA lawmaker is a Christian zealot, an academic fraud and an ... ›

History of Christian nationalism played a dominant role in Capitol ... ›

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

Evangelical Leaders Raise Alarms About Christian Nationalism In ... ›

White Christian Nationalism: The Deep Story Behind the Capitol ... ›

Opinion | 'The Capitol Insurrection Was as Christian Nationalist as...

---

---

https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/in-god-we-trust/

City vehicles in Chesapeake, Virginia, will soon be getting religion.

At a meeting on July 13, 2021, city councilors unanimously voted in favor of a proposal that would see the official motto of the U.S., “In God We Trust," emblazoned on every city-owned car and truck, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of US$87,000.

Meanwhile, the state of Mississippi is preparing to defend in court its insistence that all citizens, unless they pay a fee for an alternative, must display the same four-word phrase on their license plates. Gov. Tate Reeves vowed last month to take the issue “all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court should we have to."

“In God We Trust" became the national motto 65 years ago this month. But over the past few years a string of bills and city ordinances has sought to expand its usage and presence. Such efforts include legislation requiring or encouraging the motto be displayed in government buildings and schools, on license plates and on police vehicles.

Mississippi license plates carry the motto.

State of Mississippi

The rise of bills across the country at this time is no coincidence. It fits with a concerted effort by Christian nationalists who view the motto as a tool to help legitimize an agenda of passing legislation that privileges conservative Christian values.

Christian nationalism is a political ideology that fuses conservative religious beliefs with a – usually white – American identity. Christian nationalists assume that the laws of the land should be based on Christian morals.

As a scholar of religious and political rhetoric, I have observed how Christian nationalists are using what I call “theistnormative" legislation – government-endorsed policies, rituals, laws and symbols that use vague religious references, such as “God" – to encourage people to view the United States as a theistic collective – that is to say, as a nation of believers in God.

From coins to national motto

Christian nationalists played a key role in getting “In God We Trust" put on coins during the Civil War and ever since have attempted to use the motto as “proof" that the United States is a Christian nation.

Early Christian nationalists criticized the Founding Fathers for failing to recognize the United States as an explicitly Christian nation in the Constitution. An early Christian nationalist organization, The National Reform Association, pushed for a “Christian Amendment" that would correct what they called the “original sin" of not recognizing Jesus Christ in the Constitution.

Their efforts failed. But Christian nationalists had better success in getting the more ambiguous motto “In God We Trust" put on coins in 1864. It followed a report to the U.S. Treasury by the director of the U.S. Mint, James Pollock, an active member of the National Reform Association, in which he asked: “We claim to be a Christian Nation – why should we not vindicate our character by honoring the God of Nations in the exercise of our political Sovereignty as a Nation?"

[pix]

Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase amends 'In God is our Trust' to 'In God We Trust' in an 1863 letter to James Pollock, director of the Philadelphia mint.

National Archives and Records Administration

Amid fears of “atheistic communism" during the Cold War a century later, Christian nationalists in the U.S. again tried and failed to pass a “Christian Amendment." But they again found success in advocating for legislation that used vague religious references, culminating in the adding of “under God" to the pledge of allegiance and making “In God We Trust" the national motto on July 30, 1956.

Since it became the national motto, conservative Christians have used “In God We Trust" to justify opposing abortion rights and same-sex marriage by suggesting that they violate the principles embedded in the motto.

Earlier this year, Mississippi state Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith justified legislation that would ban voter registration on Sundays by holding up a dollar bill and saying, “This says, 'The United States of America, in God we trust.' … In God's word in Exodus 20:18, it says 'remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.'"

While most Christian nationalists claim to support religious freedom – which would seemingly apply to all faiths – most believe Christianity, specifically white conservative Christian values, should be privileged in the public sphere.

'Project Blitz'

Christian nationalists have increasingly turned to “In God We Trust" bills as a way to further legitimize their agenda. This is particularly evident in the “Project Blitz" initiative, led by the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, which states its aim as “restoring Judeo-Christian principles to their rightful place."

Project Blitz started in 2015 with the purpose of “blitzing" the country with legislation advancing Christian nationalism. As David Barton, a leader in the initiative, explained in a 2018 conference call with state legislators: “It's kind of like whack-a-mole for the other side; it'll drive 'em crazy that they'll have to divide their resources out in opposing this."

One such success in Project Blitz was in Chesapeake, where the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation is based. The organization successfully pushed for the motto “In God We Trust" to be displayed at the City Hall.

After Project Blitz generated negative publicity in 2018, it was misleadingly rebranded as “Freedom for All." During a recorded strategy meeting that was later circulated by the social justice think tank Political Research Associates, Lea Carawan of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation explained, “As soon as we understood that they knew they were on to us, we changed the name; shifted things around a little bit […] we've renamed and moved on but it's moving just as strong and just as powerfully."

Up to 2018, the initiative had helped more than 70 bills relating to their agenda get proposed. The group continues to have successes in getting legislation not only proposed, but also passed. According to BlitzWatch, a group tracking Project Blitz initiatives, this includes bills that support Bible readings in schools and policies that allow adoption and foster agencies and health care providers to deny services based on religious grounds. But it is the “In God We Trust" bills that have seemingly been the most successful for Project Blitz.

Pushing America's 'Christian heritage'

According to the initiative's 2020-2021 playbook – which was obtained by the religion news website Religion Dispatches – “In God We Trust" bills aim to recognize “the place of Christian principles in our nation's history and heritage."

While those behind “Project Blitz" claim the bills are not about converting people to Christianity, they also argue that the U.S. should be a Christian nation whose laws and policies “reflect Judeo-Christian or biblical values and concepts."

As such, “In God We Trust" bills set the foundation for more explicitly conservative Christian legislation.

The playbooks suggest “In God We Trust" bills can “shore up later support for other governmental entities to support religious displays" to help America accept its “Christian heritage." The Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation also recommends legislators push for other types of bills including, as stated in their 2018-2019 playbook, a resolution to establish policy “favoring intimate sexual relations only between married, heterosexual couples."

The risk of opposing

What makes “In God We Trust" bills so successful is that they often receive bipartisan support. In Louisiana, for example, it was a Democratic governor who signed the 2019 bill requiring the motto be displayed in all schools. Politicians who do oppose “In God We Trust" bills run the risk of being labeled as “anti-faith."

Despite its being the national motto for only 65 years, Christian nationalists have framed “In God We Trust" as part of the U.S.'s founding tradition. Moreover, the motto has become an important rhetorical weapon for Christian nationalists – using it to advance their belief that governments and people are to “trust in God," and more specifically their perception of a conservative Christian God.

Kristina M. Lee, Ph.D. Candidate in Rhetoric, Colorado State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

ATMs in Churches Across the US? Why Cash Is Considered Sacred ... ›

Atheists are 'not to be tolerated': 7 states still have bans on non ... ›

This PA lawmaker is a Christian zealot, an academic fraud and an ... ›

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

'In God We Trust' Signs Go Up In South Dakota Public Schools, As ... ›

The Legislation Placing “In God We Trust” on National Currency | US ... ›

In God We Trust license ... - Wisconsin DMV Official Government Site ›

---

https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/christian-nationalism/

ME

The insurrection on the U.S. Capitol may have been influenced by former President Donald Trump's dangerous rhetoric but the history of Christian nationalism likely paved the way for the deadly unrest that erupted on Jan. 6, according to Talking Points Memo.

A new op-ed written by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove — a known spiritual writer, Duke Divinity School graduate, and evangelical Christian. —highlights the distinctive presence of Christian symbolism at the Trump rally.

From Pastor Paula White's opening prayer at the disgraced former president's "Save America" rally and rioters' victory prayer inside the Senate chamber after invading the Capitol, to the "Jesus 2020" banner that soared outside the U.S. Capitol, symbols of distorted Christianity were visible in Washington, D.C., although many were not televised.

Wilson-Hartgrove noted, "the presence of Christians and Christian symbolism at the Capitol riot was so pronounced that several pro-Trump pastors felt compelled to make public statements condemning the violence in the days that followed." However, the problem appears to be far deeper than one religious leaders can condemn.

In a recent report about the extensive planning leading up to the insurrection, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) also noted that many different extremist groups appeared to be organized and under the direction of many different leaders all gathered in the name of "saving America."

For decades now, right-wing conservatives have used Christianity to justify many facets of extremism, barbarism, and the many lies perpetrated to support the existence of Christian nationalism. Jan. 6 proved to be a pivotal example of how Christianity has influenced the rise of right-wing extremism:

"Nothing in recent history has exposed the lies of Christian nationalism more clearly than a riot at the U.S. Capitol, waged in the Christian God's name. We cannot pretend that what we witnessed on Jan. 6 was a strange departure from the normal practice of Christian nationalist organizations. It was a harvest of the narrative they have sown for the past four decades."

In order to move in a direction that would lead to a resolution for this widespread problem, Wilson-Hartgrove notes that "facing the truth of Christian nationalists' complicity" could be the first step in the right direction.

Wilson-Hartgrove concluded, "But facing the truth of Christian nationalists' complicity in the Capitol riot may help other Christians see what Rev. Barber taught me so many years ago: that there is a way for Christian people of faith to work with their secular and non-Christian neighbors to reclaim a moral narrative that can push the country toward a more perfect union."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Coalition of church leaders warn against 'Christian nationalism' and ... ›

How the coronavirus has exposed the religious right's racism ... ›

Here's how Christian nationalism in the US legislates evil and ... ›

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

Christian nationalists like Hawley and Cruz are embedded in US ... ›

It's time we evangelicals have a talk about Christian nationalism ›

Christian nationalism's Covid vaccine doubt threatens America's ... ›

---

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/religious-right-pre-election-push-calls-democrats-demonic-warns-against-muslims-secularists/

religious-right groups are making a last-minute push to turn out conservative evangelical voters for Donald Trump by sharing a Virginia pastor’s sermon that denounces theDemocratic Party as evil and demonic and warns evangelical Christians that if they don’t get more involved in politics, they will allow Muslims and secular humanists to shape the country.

In the sermon video, Pastor Gary Hamrick of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia, calls the election a “spiritual war” and says politicians who are “advancing a godless agenda” are “pawns of darkness.” Hamrick was one of the religious-right leaders who attended President Donald Trump’s speech at the White House in August accepting the Republican nomination for president.

Hamrick’s sermon is being promoted by White House aide Paula White’s Once Voice Prayer Movement, a political outreach project of the Trump White House in the guise of an online prayer group. One Voice Prayer Movement promotes dominionist leaders and Christian nationalist rhetoric, and White, herself, has a habit of portraying Trump’s political opponents as demonic.

Unlike most OVPM “prayer alerts”—in effect press releases promoting Trump and his administration—the promotion of Hamrick’s sermon didn’t bother to couch it as a “prayer request” or “prayer need” by the White House. The video was simply sent with a note praising its “boldness and clarity” and urging people to share it.

Closely aligned with One Voice Prayer Movement is Intercessors for America, a group of pro-Trump “prayer warriors” whose leader Dave Kubal helps run OVPM. IFA, whose monthly prayer calls regularly feature right-wing politicians, is also actively promoting Hamrick’s sermon with a five-day “sharing campaign” that began Saturday. IFA is sending its intercessors daily emails encouraging them to share selected clips from Hamrick’s sermon along with a link to copy of the full sermon published on IFA’s YouTube channel.

Hamrick’s sermon began with a dramatic build-up to those sitting in the pews as he delivered it. He said that some people might become so angry that they would leave the church. And he claimed that local law enforcement and state troopers were “stationed throughout the congregation” to enforce Virginia law against disrupting a religious service.

He told congregants that he is not angry with them personally, adding:

But I am angry with the spiritual forces of evil that have hijacked the hearts and minds of people in an effort to try to capture the soul of America. And I’m angry with demonic principalities, and by extension demonic principles that have influenced millennials, Gen Xers, and Gen Zers with godless philosophies and the doctrines of men. I am angry with politicians who are either knowingly or unknowingly pawns of darkness, instead of agents of light, who are advancing a godless agenda that is destructive to our country. And thus, I cannot be silent, I will not be silent and neither should you. America needs to wake up, and it starts with the church of Jesus Christ.

We need to wake up, Christian. We, we need to wake up, Christian. This is a battle. This is a war. This is not a game. It’s a spiritual battle that we are facing for the heart and soul of America and for the heart and soul of the next generation.

Hamrick grounded his sermon in the biblical book of Jeremiah, a prophet who warned of God’s wrath on nations that reject his law. He said the U.S. is at a crossroads, adding that if the body of Christ would get its collective act together and honor God “in this election cycle,” then perhaps God will have mercy on the country.

Hamrick rejected the “pushback” against what he calls his Election Day sermons from people who think pastors should keep politics out of the pulpit. Channeling religious-right pseudo-historian David Barton, Hamrick offered a presentation on pastors “leading the charge” in the Revolutionary War and at other moments in history. And he had a question for his congregants:

Okay, so let me ask you a question. Don’t you think that Rep. Ilhan Omar integrates her faith and politics? Don’t you think that Rashida Tlaib integrates her faith and politics? You better believe it. In fact, for those of you who are not aware, Joe Biden has already publicly declared that he will be adding Muslims to his administration. Listen to him yourself.

Hamrick showed a video that included Joe Biden speaking to Muslims and clips from a civic participation campaign encouraging American Muslims to vote. Hamrick claimed he was not sharing the video to disparage Muslim Americans, who also have freedom to worship in the U.S. But, he added:

Well, what I am saying is that if as Christians, somehow you believe the lie that faith and politics don’t mix, that pastors should stay out of that—it’s just too divisive—then by your apathy and your reluctance, you are actually helping to advance the doctrine and dogma of other world religions and of secular humanism, to influence this nation, rather than the values and virtues of Christianity. That’s what’s happening. Wake up! They’re not asleep. They’re not asleep. Why are Christians asleep today when it comes to this? Now, the fact is that only in recent times, have pastors kowtowed to political correctness, and remained silent or indifferent about faith and politics.

Hamrick read from a prayer guide distributed by Intercessors for America that contrasts positions in the Republican and Democratic Party platforms. He highlighted the Democratic Party’s—and the Biden-Harris ticket’s—support for LGBTQ equality. He said the Democratic platform’s call for “shared prosperity” is “political speak” for socialism. He praised Trump as the “most pro-life” and “most pro-Israeli” president the U.S. has ever had. He played a short video clip from a Trump speech in which Trump said “you still need help from the boss”—meaning God—and joked that he’s not the most famous person in the world because Jesus Christ is.

Hamrick told the Democrats in his congregation that theirs is no longer the party of FDR, JFK, or even Bill Clinton.

Listen to me, I’m going to speak truth to you. If you are a lifelong Democrat, your party has left you. Your party has left you. That ship has sailed. It’s true. I used to believe that the two-party system in America was much like a husband and a wife in a marriage, just differences. Just, you know, different people with different approaches and different perspectives but who shared a common goal and vision in life. And so, therefore, you could learn from each other’s different perspective, and you would balance each other out. I don’t believe that anymore. I believe that there is a liberal progressive agenda influenced by spiritual forces of evil, that if allowed to progress will be the demise of America. I believe it with all my heart. And while people are sitting around, foolishly talking about how they don’t like Trump’s tweets and his unfiltered style and his checkered past, meanwhile, the enemy is roaming around like a roaring lion looking for a nation to devour.

I know Trump is not going to win Miss Congeniality. Get over it! It’s not about personality. It’s about guardians of what is true and what is right in our day. That’s what we need to be concerned about.

Donald Trump is not our savior. Joe Biden is not our savior. Jesus Christ is our savior, and because he is my Savior, as for me in my house, I cannot, I will not vote for a candidate whose party platform advocates the murder of unborn babies, embraces same-sex marriage, encourages transgender behavior, and ignores God and his word in our culture.

I cannot. I will not. Cannot. Will not. Amen.

Listen, if you in good conscience cannot vote for Donald Trump, then don’t. But I don’t know how in good conscience a Christian can vote for an agenda that is evil.

Hamrick called a church that is “silent about the moral issues of our day “complicit in the evil,” like Christians in Nazi Germany that did not resist the regime’s persecution of Jews.

Hamrick’s sermon was posted on YouTube Oct. 18. As of Monday morning Oct. 26, it had nearly 140,000 views; a copy of the video posted by Intercessors for America had another 25,000 views.

Tags: Dave Kubal Gary Hamrick Paula White Intercessors for America One Voice Prayer Movement

==

---

// trump says all hucksters? 9/20

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trump-embraces-christian-nationalists-and-friends-gathered-in-dc-to-denounce-choice-lgbtq-equality-church-state-separation/

no vid

"The Return,” a Friday evening program and day-long rally Saturday near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., put the Christian nationalist vision of President Donald Trump’s religious-right supporters in clear focus.

Organizers hope that a second Trump term and a right-wing-dominated Supreme Court will help bring about a United States in which abortion is criminalized and treated as murder, LGBTQ people are denied legal equality and despised in culture as perverts, church-state separation has been dismantled and public school students recite officially sanctioned prayers, and law and policy reflect the Mayflower pilgrims’ covenant with God to build a society dedicated to advancing the Christian faith.

Speakers lavished praise on Trump and thanked God for his presidency; Trump returned the favor, sending a supportive “presidential message” that was read from the stage to cheers from the crowd, which covered most of a two-block stretch of the National Mall. Trump’s message quoted a phrase from George Washington, a favorite of religious-right leaders, in which the first president said that the “propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.” ​To that quote, Trump​ added, “As a country and a people, let us renew our commitment to these abiding and timeless principles.”

After Trump’s statement was read, “The Return” organizer Kevin Jessip used a Trump campaign slogan in his prayer. “Lord, you’ve raised him up for a time such as this,” Jessip prayed. “May he continue to lead this nation and make it great again, but more importantly, make it godly again.” ​Mixed in with the American flag-styled clothing and MAGA hats, some attendees wore “MAKE AMERICA GODLY AGAIN” caps.

“The Return” was called by End Times author Jonathan Cahn, who has sold millions of books claiming that U.S. history and current events are following a paradigm sent forth in the Bible. According to Cahn, the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. were a warning from God​ and by failing to respond with national repentance, Americans have earned God’s judgment. Cahn, who calls himself a Messianic rabbi, began the day by donning a Jewish prayer shawl and blowing on a shofar, which he said is how the Bible instructs that a “solemn assembly” should begin.

Cahn described the nation as “hanging in the balance” and said this year’s election has the potential to “seal the course of this nation toward judgment.”

Cahn began his keynote speech, billed as “a prophetic word to America,” with a joking warning that “if you came here for a politically correct message, you came to the wrong sacred assembly.” Cahn portrayed the U.S. as having violated covenants that pilgrims and Puritans made with God and that, like ancient Israel when it turned away from God, the U.S. is experiencing divine judgment for national sins, especially abortion and acceptance of LGBTQ people. ​“We war against the order and the nature of man and woman, of gender, of marriage, of life,” he said​“And we now watch​ the smiles of Heaven are being removed from the land.”

Cahn said the use of ​the rainbow—which he said “belongs to God”—as an emblem of the LGBTQ equality movement was inviting God’s judgment. Putting himself in the role of the biblical prophet Jeremiah, he smashed a clay jar to the ground as a symbol of what will happen to the U.S. if it fails to repent and return to God.

[vid]

"the Return” included personal testimonies of redemption and encouragement to individual and collective repentance for racism as well as political themes. The dozens of speakers—those who appeared in person and those who delivered messages by video—represented the breadth of the current Christian right political movement. Included were movement elders like Pat Robertson and James Dobson, leaders of political advocacy groups like the Family Research Council, and representatives of the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation, a Pentecostal movement whose leaders believe God has ordained modern-day apostles and prophets to transform Christianity and bring nations into alignment with their biblical worldview. Many speakers focused on the failure of the church to more aggressively engage in culture war battles. Several denounced “compromise” as a moral failing.

​Pierre Bynum, chaplain and national prayer director for the Family Research Council, said that the U.S. was once known as “a leading Christian nation” but has “fallen a long way.” Bynum’s theme was apathy, and he said the country would not be “imploding” if the church had been more outspoken​. ​“We’ve watched as prayer has been taken out of our schools​,” Bynum said. ​”We’ve watched as Bible reading has been taken out of our schools. Where were we? What were we doing? What were we thinking? What did we do? They took the Ten Commandments off the walls. They legalized abortion. They legalized same-sex marriage, defying the living God. Where were we? What were we doing? God has called us to be anything but apathetic​.”

Mark Gonzales, a POTUS Shield leader active in electoral politics, declared in the language of ​New Apostolic Reformation, “We’ve been anointed by God to transform society.” He called for an “awakening” in pulpits. “We want to walk in power and authority like never before,” he said.

Ché Ahn, a California pastor and New Apostolic Reformation leader, urged Christian leaders to repent for being spiritually lukewarm​ and called on them to be bold in their preaching:

I pray Lord God that we would see revival begin right here in the United States, the state you have given us as an apostolic nation, Lord, and leadership calling. I pray, Father, that you would raise up the next generation of leaders that would not bow their knees to any compromise, that would not be lukewarm. Lord, they would maintain that fervent first love relationship with you and love others.

…

Give courage to pastors in the pulpit. Lord, help us to speak the truth. Help us not to compromise, to define marriage between a man and a woman and not same-sex marriage. Forgive us not to speaking about the sins of homosexuality, abortion. Forgive us for hands that have shed innocent blood in our nation, God. Have mercy upon us, Lord.

Lord, I want to pray that you would overturn Roe v. Wade. Lord, I thank you with [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg being, uh, passed away, and Lord, I believe that [Amy Coney] Barrett will be the judge that will help us to overturn Roe v. Wade, that we will see a moral reformation, that we will see revival and transformation take place.

​Anti-choice activist Janet Porter ​continued the focus on abortion, thanking God for ​the state legislatures that have passed her abortion-banning “heartbeat” legislation and asking him to speed enactment in other states considering similar laws. “And through your grace, we pledge and proclaim, ‘America will end abortion, and no longer merely regulate it,’” Porter declared.

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, who appeared by video, denounced the “depravity” and “utter wickedness” of the “godless culture” in the U.S. He condemned “the murders of 62 million babies” through abortion and decried that marriage has been “redefined and perverted.” He recited a litany of the nation’s sins: “Sadly, she has prostituted herself with pornography, perversion, pedophilia, profanity, infidelity, greed, pride, sexual slavery, premarital sex, the LGBT ideology, illicit drugs, lawlessness, dishonesty, hatred, racism, wanton violence, family abandonment, public schools that are corrupting our young and apostasy.”

Ralph Drollinger, ​who teaches right-wing Bible studies to members of Congress and Trump administration officials, prayed, “May we be about aggressively fulfilling the Great Commission amongst the political leaders of our land today, that we might see more obedience of our public servants to your precepts, which … directly relates to the success or not of a nation.”

Conservatives’ favorite Hollywood couple, Kevin and Sam Sorbo, were on hand. Sam Sorbo portrayed the COVID-19 pandemic-related closure of schools as an opportunity for pastors to encourage parents to homeschool and avoid the “nefarious force” at work in “government schools”:

Nefarious forces in our government schools teach children disdain for their parents’ beliefs​  and disgust for our country, programming them to question their own biology, obey authority, and despise themselves​—to believe that they are accidents of nature and that survival of the fittest is the law of the land. This is child abuse. Looting, rioting​, and self-destruction are the natural byproducts of atheism, hedonism, and abortion—survival of the fittest. The ideological anti-God virus that now controls most of our public education institutions is a disease of the mind that no vaccine can ever cure. We declare the conflict of interest of a government that teaches its citizens to worship it instead of their God.

Anti-LGBTQ activist Jim Garlow repented over “national sins.” He included “destruction of the definition of marriage” in the same breath as the abuse of Native Americans, slavery, Jim Crow, and anti-Semitism. His wife Rosemary Schindler Garlow repented “as an American” and asked for forgiveness that “we have covenantal biblical governance” but “have not acknowledged you as the head of our nation.”

Cindy Jacobs, associated with ​the New Apostolic Reformation and POTUS Shield, thanked God for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, who some religious-right leaders believe has been anointed by God to end abortion in the U.S. Jacobs said God told her that he had heard the prayers offered during “The Return” and that in the days ahead he would demonstrate ​his plans to intercede in the election with visible signs in the sky such as triple rainbows and fireballs.

Former Trump campaign adviser Frank Amedia, who spent the week before “The Return” describing the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a “move of God” and warning that God is planning more “epic” actions as part of a pre-election “blast,” spoke Saturday evening. He once again warned people that this is not the time to stand in the way of God’s plans: “Beloved, I tell you, this is not a time to contend with God and his plan upon this nation and this Earth right now, for the fury of the Lord has gone out and shall accomplish that which he has said he shall do.”

Also participating were two Republican members of Congress from Texas, Rep. Michael Cloud—who began his remarks quoting a Bible verse, “Let God arise and his enemies be scattered!”—and Rep. Louis Gohmert. The Trump administration was represented by U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and U.S. Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback.

On the same day as “The Return,” Franklin Graham, another Trump-promoting evangelical leader, drew thousands of people to the National Mall for a “prayer march” from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol, with some of “The Return” speakers participating.

Tags: Che AhnCindy JacobsDonald TrumpFrank AmediaFranklin GrahamJames DobsonJanet PorterJim GarlowJonathan CahnKevin JessipKevin SorboLouie GohmertMark GonzalesMichael CloudPat RobertsonPierre BynumRalph DrollingerSam SorboAnti-AbortionAnti-ChoiceAnti-GayAnti-LGBTAnti-LGBTQChristian NationChurch-StateDominionismElection 2020New Apostolic ReformationFamily Research CouncilPOTUS Shield

---

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/heres-how-christian-nationalism-in-the-us-legislates-evil-and-punishes-the-poor/

On August 26th, during the Republican National Convention, Vice President Mike Pence closed out his acceptance speech with a biblical sleight of hand. Speaking before a crowd at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, he exclaimed, "Let's fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents. Let's fix our eyes on this land of heroes and let their courage inspire." In doing so, he essentially rewrote a passage from the New Testament's Book of Hebrews: "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross."

This article originally appeared on TomDispatch.

There's nothing new, of course, about an American politician melding religion and politics on the campaign trail. Still, Pence's decision to replace Jesus with the Stars and Stripes raised eyebrows across a range of religious and political persuasions. Indeed, the melding of Old Glory and Christ provided the latest evidence of the rising influence of Christian nationalism in the age of Trump.

It's no longer hard to find evidence of just how deeply Christian nationalism influences our politics and policymaking. During the pandemic, the Bible has repeatedly been used (and distorted) to justify Covid-19 denialism and government inaction, not to speak of outright repression. In late March, as cities were locking down and public health officials were recommending strict quarantine measures, one of Donald Trump's first acts was to gather his followers at the White House for what was billed as a "National Day of Prayer" to give Americans the strength to press on through death and difficulty.

Later in the spring, protests against pandemic shutdowns, funded with dark money from the likes of the Koch Brothers, demanded that states reopen for business and social distancing guidelines be loosened. (Forget about masking of any sort.) At them, printed protest signs said things like: "Even Pharaoh Freed Slaves in a Plague" and "Texas will not take the Mark of the Beast." And even as faith communities struggled admirably to adjust to zoom worship services, as well as remote pastoral care and memorials, President Trump continued to fan the flames of religious division, declaring in-person worship "essential," no matter that legal experts questioned his authority to do so.

And speaking of his version of Christian nationalism, no one should forget the June spectacle in Lafayette Square near the White House, when Trump had racial-justice protestors tear-gassed so he could stroll to nearby St. John's Church and pose proudly on its steps displaying a borrowed bible. Though he flashed it to the photographers, who can doubt how little time he's spent within its pages. (Selling those same pages is another matter entirely. After all, a Bible he signed in the wake of that Lafayette Square event is now on sale for nearly $40,000.)

The Battle for the Bible in American History

To understand how power is wielded in America by wealthy politicians and their coteries of extremists in 2020, you have to consider the role of religion in our national life. An epic battle for the Bible is now underway in a country that has been largely ceded to white evangelical Christian nationalists. Through a well-funded network of churches and nonprofits, universities, and think tanks, and with direct lines to the nation's highest political officials, they've had carte-blanche to set the terms of what passes for religious debate in this country and dictate what morality even means in our society.

Under Trump, such religious nationalism has reached a fever pitch as a reactionary movement that includes technocratic billionaires, televangelists, and armed militias has taken root with a simple enough message: God loves white Christian America, favors small government and big business, and rewards individualism and entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, the poor, people of color, and immigrants are blamed for society's problems even as the rich get richer in what's still the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

The dangers posed by today's Christian nationalists are all too real, but the battle for the Bible itself is not new in America. In the 1700s and 1800s, slaveholders quoted the book of Philemon and lines from St. Paul's epistles to claim that slavery was ordained by God. They also ripped the pages of Exodus from bibles they gave to the enslaved. During the Gilded Age of the nineteenth century, churches and politicians alike preached a "prosperity gospel" that extolled the virtues of industrial capitalism.

Decades later, segregationists continued to use stray biblical verses to rubberstamp Jim Crow practices, while in the late 1970s the Moral Majority helped to mainstream a new generation of Christian extremists into national politics. In my own youth, I remember politicians quoting Thessalonians in the lead up to the passage of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act as proof that God believes in work-requirements for public assistance programs.

Students of religion and history know that, although such theological battles have often tipped disastrously toward the forces of violence, deprivation, and hate, Christian religious thinking has also been a key ingredient in positive social change in this country. Escaped slave Harriet "Moses" Tubman understood the Underground Railroad as a Christian project of liberation, while escaped slave Frederick Douglass fought for abolition through churches across the north in the pre-Civil War years. A century later, near the end of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. explained how, to achieve his universal dream of justice, a beloved community of God would be built through a "freedom church of the poor."

After all, in every chapter of American history, abolitionists, workers, labor organizers, civil rights leaders, and other representatives of the oppressed have struggled for a better nation not just in streets and workplaces, but in the pulpit, too. In the wreckage of the present Trumpian moment, with a fascistic, white nationalism increasingly ascendant, people of conscience would do well to follow suit.

The "Psychological Bird" of Bad Religion

In my book Always with Us? What Jesus Really Said About the Poor, I focus on a reality that has long preoccupied me: how, in this country, the Bible has so often been manipulated to obscure its potentially emancipatory power; in particular, the way in which what theologian Jim Wallis has called the most famous biblical passage on the poor (from the Gospel of Matthew) -- "the poor will be always with us" -- has been misused.

Since I was a young girl, scarcely a week has passed in which I haven't heard someone quoting Matthew as an explanation for why poverty is eternal and its mitigation reserved at best for charity or philanthropy (but certainly not for government). The logic of such thinking runs through so many of our religious institutions including what's now known as "evangelical Christianity," but also our legislatures, courts, military, schools, and more. It hasn't just shaped the minds of young Christians but has helped to spiritualize (and cement in place) poverty, while implicitly or even explicitly justifying ever greater inequality in this society.

Today, the idea that poverty is the result of bad behavior, laziness, or sin rather than decisions made by those with power is distinctly ascendant in Donald Trump's and Mitch McConnell's Washington. Biblical passages like that one in Matthew have become another ideological tool brandished by reactionaries and the wealthy to deflect attention from this country's systemic failures.

Consider, for example, the historic development of what's often known as the "Bible Belt" (or alternatively the "Poverty Belt"). It sweeps across the South, from North Carolina to Mississippi, Tennessee to Alabama, home to poor people of every race. It represents the deepest, most contiguous area of poverty in the United States made possible in part by heretical theology, biblical misinterpretation, and Christian nationalism.

The convergence of poverty and religion in the Bible Belt has a long history, stretching back to the earliest settler-colonists in the slave era. It echoed through the system of Jim Crow that had the region in its grip until the Civil Rights years and the modern political concept of "the solid South" (once Democratic, now Republican). Within its bounds lies a brutal legacy of divide and conquer that, to this day, politicizes the Bible by claiming that poverty results from sins against God and teaches poor white people in particular that, although they may themselves have little or nothing, they are at least "better" than people of color.

At the end of the bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, Martin Luther King explained the age-old politics of division in the region this way:

"If it may be said of the slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow... And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man... And his children, too, learned to feed upon Jim Crow, their last outpost of psychological oblivion."

That "psychological bird" was seasoned and cooked in a volatile mix of racist pseudo-science, economic orthodoxy, and bad religion. In fact, it retained its enormous power in large part by using the Bible and a version of Christianity to validate plunder and human suffering on a staggering scale. De jure Jim Crow may no longer exist, but its history haunts America to this day, and the Bible continues to be weaponized to validate anti-poor, white racist political power.

As jobs and opportunity continue to vanish in twenty-first-century America and churches stand among the last truly functional institutions in many communities, the Bible, however interpreted, still influences daily life for millions. How it's understood and preached affects the political and moral direction of the country. Consider that those Bible Belt states -- where Christian nationalism (which regularly displays its own upside-down version of the Bible) now reigns supreme -- account for more than 193 electoral college votes and so will play a key role in determining the fate of Donald Trump and Mike Pence in November.

I had my own experience with that version of biblical and theological interpretation and its growing role in our national politics in June 2019 during a hearing of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives. Its subject was poverty in America and the economic realities of struggling families. A racially and geographically diverse group of leaders of the Poor People's Campaign (of which I'm the co-chair) were invited to testify on those realities. Alongside us that day were two Black pastors invited by Republican congressmen to stand as examples of how faith and hard work is the only recipe for a good and stable life for the impoverished.

We had come to present what we've called the Poor People's Moral Budget, a study showing that the United States does have the money to end poverty, hunger, homelessness, and more, just not the political will to do so. In response, members of the committee turned to the same tired stereotypes about why so many of us in such a wealthy country are poor. Some cited the supposed failure of the 1960s War on Poverty as evidence that programs of social uplift just don't work, while ignoring the dramatic way politicians had undercut those initiatives in the years that followed. Like those pastors, others replied with tales of their own success rising out of economic hardship via bootstrap individualism and they plugged Christian charity as the way to alleviate poverty. I listened to them all as they essentially promoted a heretical theology that claimed people suffer from poverty largely because they're estranged from God and lack a deep enough faith in Jesus.

That day, the walls of that House committee room rang with empty words twisting what the Bible actually says about the poor. One Republican representative typically remarked that, although he was familiar with the Bible, he had never found anyplace in it "where Jesus tells Caesar to care for the poor." Another all-too-typically suggested that Christian charity, not government-sponsored programs, is the key to alleviating poverty.

Someone less familiar with the arguments of such politicians might have been surprised to hear so many of them seeking theological cover. As a biblical scholar and a student of the history of social movements, I know well how religious texts actually instruct us to care for the poor and dispossessed. As a long-time organizer, I've learned that those in power now regularly, even desperately, seek to abuse and distort the liberating potential of our religious traditions.

Indeed, in response to that representative, Reverand William Barber, my Poor People's Campaign co-chair, and I pointed out how interesting it was that he identified himself with Caesar (not necessarily the most flattering comparison imaginable, especially as biblical Christianity polemicizes against Caesar and the Roman empire). Then I detailed for him many of the passages and commandments in the Bible that urge us to organize society around the needs of the poor, forgive debts, pay workers a living wage, rather than favoring either the rich or "Caesar." That, of course, is indeed the formula of the Trump era (where, in the last six pandemic months, the 643 wealthiest Americans raked in an extra $845 billion, raising their combined wealth by 29%). I also pointed out that the most effective poverty-reduction programs like Head Start are federally funded, neither philanthropic nor a matter of Christian charity.

Good News from the Poor

In the Poor People's Campaign, we often start our organizing meetings by showing a series of color-coded maps of the country. The first has the states that have passed voter suppression laws since 2013; the next, those with the highest poverty rates; then, those that have not expanded Medicaid but have passed anti-LGBTQ laws. And so it goes. Our final map displays the states densest with self-identified evangelical Protestants.

I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that those maps overlap almost perfectly, chiefly in the Bible Belt, but also in the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic states, and even in parts of the Northeast and West. The point is to show how inextricably connected the battle for voting rights, healthcare, and other critical resources is to the battle for the Bible. The stakes are measured in the health of the entire nation, because the same politicians who manipulate the Bible and the right to vote to win elections then pass immoral budgets and policies.

When Vice President Pence altered that line from the Book of Hebrews, he was charging headfirst onto that very blood-soaked battlefield with a desecrated Bible in hand. The question is: why should he and other Christian nationalists have the power to define Christianity? If they are so intent on "fixing their eyes on Old Glory," shouldn't they also fix their eyes on what Jesus actually said?

The Greek word evangelia, out of which "evangelical" comes, means bringing good news to those made poor by systems of exploitation. The Bible's good news, also defined as gospel, talks again and again about captives being freed, slaves released, and all who are oppressed being taken care of. It's said that were you to cut out every one of its pages that mentions poverty, the Bible would fall apart. And when you actually read the words on those pages, you see that the gospel doesn't talk about the inevitability of poverty or the need for charity, but the responsibilities of the ruling authorities to all people and the possibility of abundance for all.

At a time when 43.5% of Americans are poor or one fire, storm, health-care crisis, pandemic, eviction, or job loss from poverty, it couldn't be more important for Americans to begin to reckon with this reality and our moral obligation to end it. Instead, politicians pass voter suppression laws, kick kids off food programs, and allow the poisoning of our water, air, and land, while Christian nationalist religious leaders bless such policies and cherry-pick biblical verses to justify them as all-American. Consider such a reality not simply a matter of a religious but a political, economic, and moral crisis that, in the midst of a pandemic, is pushing this country ever closer to the brink of spiritual death.

If America is still worth saving, this is no longer a battle anyone should sit out.

---

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/christian-nationalists-are-willing-to-toss-the-constitution-aside-because-trump-gave-them-exactly-what-they-want/

no lnx twt

Christian nationalists are willing to toss the Constitution aside because Trump gave them exactly what they want

Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly August 11, 2020

On Sunday, Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro attempted to justify the president’s memorandum on coronavirus relief by suggesting that God had something to do with creating executive orders.[twt]

The narrative is that congress is simply a “swamp” and so Trump took action via something that was created by God and our founding fathers to bypass the legislative body. Of course, that is the opposite of what was written into the Constitution when it describes three separate, but equal branches of government. In a sense, Navarro is claiming that our founding fathers created a mechanism for the president to act as king. He backs that up with the idea that God was involved with doing so.

None of that is going to be a concern for Trump’s base among Christian nationalists. Over the weekend, Elizabeth Dias published a piece in which she reminded us of that one time when Trump actually told the truth by saying that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and his supporters wouldn’t abandon him. She noted that it was during that same speech at a Christian college in Iowa that Trump said this:

“I will tell you, Christianity is under tremendous siege, whether we want to talk about it or we don’t want to talk about it,” Mr. Trump said.

Christians make up the overwhelming majority of the country, he said. And then he slowed slightly to stress each next word: “And yet we don’t exert the power that we should have.”

If he were elected president, he promised, that would change. He raised a finger.

“Christianity will have power,” he said. “If I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power, you don’t need anybody else.”

Over the last four years, we’ve heard endless attempts to explain why Christian nationalists have been so loyal to a man who has lived the opposite of everything they have claimed to value. But there you have your answer: he promised to give them power. That is precisely why Katherine Stewart titled her book about Christian nationalists, The Power Worshippers. She explains that we miss the mark if we assume that this movement is all about the so-called “culture wars.”

This is a political movement that wants power. I do think it is helpful, in understanding this movement, to distinguish between the leaders and the followers. The foot soldiers may believe that they’re fighting for things like traditional marriage and a ban on abortion. But over time, the movement’s leaders and strategists have consciously reframed these culture war issues in order to capture and control the votes of a large subsection of the American public. They understand if you can get people to vote on just one or two issues, you can control their vote. So they use these issues to solidify and maintain political power for themselves and their allies, to increase the flow of public and private money in their direction, and to enact economic policies that are favorable to their most well-resourced funders.

In commenting on the Christian right’s comparison of Trump to King Cyrus, Stewart wrote this:

Today’s Christian nationalists talk a good game about respecting the Constitution and America’s founders, but at bottom they sound as if they prefer autocrats to democrats…The great thing about kings like Cyrus, as far as today’s Christian nationalists are concerned, is that they don’t have to follow rules. They are the law. This makes them ideal leaders in paranoid times…

This isn’t the religious right we thought we knew. The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. They aren’t fighting a culture war. They’re making a direct attack on democracy itself.

They want it all. And in Mr. Trump, they have found a man who does not merely serve their cause, but also satisfies their craving for a certain kind of political leadership.

This is why you’ll find no objections from Christian nationalists to the prospect of Trump upending Constitutional norms like the separation of powers among the three branches of government. They want the tyrannical power associated with an autocrat in order to enact their agenda.

---

https://theconversation.com/trumps-use-of-religion-follows-playbook-of-authoritarian-leaning-leaders-the-world-over-140050

It  was a striking moment: Donald Trump, Bible in hand, posing for photos in an apparent moment of political theater made possible by the dispersal of protesters through the use of tear gas.

The president’s visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church, known as “the Church of the Presidents,” came immediately after giving a Rose Garden speech framing himself as “your president of law and order” and threatening to send federal troops to “restore security and safety in America.” The next day, Trump made another high-profile visit to a place of worship, this time Washington’s St. John Paul II National Shrine.

Coming at a time of social turbulence, critics accused Trump of following authoritarian-leaning world leaders by sidling up to religion to reinforce an image as a strongman defending a particular brand of tradition. Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington Mariann Budde said as much, commenting that Trump used the Bible at St. John’s “as if it were a prop or an extension of his military and authoritarian position.”

As a scholar who has researched the interaction of politics and faith for decades, I know how potent religion can be as a political tool.

A powerful tool

Religion creates meaning in our lives by articulating values about how we relate to one another. But just as it can unite us, religion can also be a source of division – used to “other” people who are not of the faith and don’t share the same traditions and rituals.

When enough people perceive – or can be convinced – that traditional elements of the social fabric are at risk, religious signaling through the use of symbols and images can help would-be authoritarians cement their power. They present themselves as protectors of the faith and foes of any outsider who threatens tradition.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sunbathes with a cross on display over his bare chest. Alexey Nikolsky/AFP via Getty Images]

In Russia, this phenomenon is seen in President Vladimir Putin’s forging of a strategic alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church. For his part, Putin presents himself not just as a commanding leader, but also as a devoutly religious Russian. When he appears shirtless, for example, the large cross he wears around his neck is always visible. Meanwhile, the Church promotes traditional moral values and maintains a distance from the rest of the worldwide Orthodox Christian community, thereby separating the “truly Russian” from the outsider. In their most recent collaboration, Putin and the Church proposed amendments to the Russian constitution that would enshrine Russians’ faith in God, define marriage as the union of a man and a woman and, tellingly, proclaim “the great achievement of the [Russian] people in defense of the Fatherland.” These changes, all of which are intended to reinforce Putin’s base of support, would be jarringly nationalistic additions to the constitution.

Putin benefits from this insider-outsider dynamic in advancing his goal of restoring Russia to his vision of its past territorial glory. In justifying the Russian incursion into Crimea, Putin argued that the region had “sacral importance for Russia, like the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for the followers of Islam and Judaism.” Defending and expanding Russian territory is a much easier sell if it is framed as the defense of the holy.

Religious imagery

We see a similar dynamic in India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s grip on power relies in large part on his embrace of a version of Hindu nationalism that elevates Hindus as “truly Indian” insiders and singles out Muslims as outsiders.

Like Putin, Modi wraps himself in religious imagery. He makes high-profile visits to remote Hindu temples while electioneering and never wears green because of its association with Islam.

Then-prime minister candidate Narendra Modi visits a shrine on horseback while electioneering in 2014. Strdel/AFP via Getty Images

Modi’s Hindu nationalism cements his popularity among devout Hindus and builds public support for anti-Muslim policies, such as stripping the only majority-Muslim state in India of its autonomy and enacting a controversial new law preventing Muslim migrants from attaining Indian citizenship.

Trump as savior

Trump has stumbled in attempts to portray himself as personally devout, declining to name a favorite passage from the Bible and stating that he has never sought forgiveness from God for his sins.

Nevertheless, public opinion polls have consistently shown that white Christians comprise the core of Trump’s base, although there are recent signs of a dip even among this key group.

And while it is important to note that many white Christians do not support Trump, 29% of evangelicals go so far as to say they believe he is anointed by God.

Where Trump succeeds is in presenting himself as a Christian nationalist, much as Putin and Modi style themselves as the stout defenders of their countries’ dominant religions.

One way Trump achieves this end is by making statements such as this one on the campaign trail earlier this year: “We’re going to win another monumental victory for faith and family, God and country, flag and freedom.”

In their new book “Taking America Back for God,” sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry contend that many of Trump’s white Christian supporters see him as their long-awaited savior – not just the protector of traditional religion, but also the defender of a bygone way of life.

In that imagined past, white men ruled the roost, families went to church every Sunday and outsiders knew their place. A deep-rooted desire for a return to that past may have been why Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan has proved so potent. As Yale scholar Philip Gorski has argued, that phrase can be interpreted to mean “making white Christianity culturally dominant again.”

As such, we should not be surprised that in the current moment of crisis Trump is attempting to use religion to reinforce differences between his supporters and his opponents. Like Putin, he is posing as the defender of a particular version of a glorious past. And echoing Modi, he is doing this by building support through the denigration of the outsider.

---

---

aha: abortion turned xian anti-gubmint; in 80's RR televangelists had TV programs/stations; Rove courted (organized) for Bush 43; now drollinger cabinet and GOTV network (AI/digital tracking?); scary overlap with militias?! patriot prayer

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/why-religious-freedom-stokes-coronavirus-protests-in-the-u-s/

Pamela E. Klassen, University of Toronto

Religious freedom, cherished as an American ideal, has been frequently invoked in the United States during protests against COVID-19 public health measures.

In Canada, forms of protests — including by churches — are more likely to focus on the systemic underfunding of long-term care and homeless shelters or the lack of sufficient medical and water infrastructure in Indigenous communities.

Why the difference?

Across the U.S., conservative Christians flouted state and municipal social distancing orders as late as March 31, sometimes by overtly breaking the law, claiming thatGod, not the state, will protect the people.

During the Christian Holy Week, evangelical and Pentecostal church leaders, often backed by Republican politicians, brought lawsuits against state and municipal governments, arguing that curtailing religious gatherings for the sake of limiting the spread of COVID-19 was a breach of religious freedom.

With lightning speed, federal and state lawyers weighed in on the balance between public health measures and religious liberty.

By contrast, the story in Canada is largely one of religious organizations of all varieties co-operating with public health measures. To date, there is no equivalent in Canada of these high-profile COVID-19 legal battles in which churches reject both public health directives and state legislation.

Suspicion of science, government

Religiously based suspicion of scientific and government authority is not unique to conservative Christians; Hasidic Jewish communities share these suspicions and constitute a significant number of those infected with COVID-19 in New York state.

Even in the case of Hasidic Jews, however, the border might make a difference: Hasidic communities in Québec have been praised for their diligence in adhering to social distancing, in contrast to those in New York, where some rabbis have mocked public health recommendations.

The contrasting responses to COVID-19 in Canada and the United States are rooted in very different national attitudes about individual and collective responsibility for public health.

In the United States, Democratic front-runner Joe Biden may come to embrace Bernie Sander’s plan for “Medicare for All,” but even the devastating reality of being the country hardest hit so far by COVID-19 has not seemed to turn the tide of public opinion on the need for universal medicare.

In Canada, by contrast, leaders across the political spectrum are throwing their support behind public health care, with even some conservative politicians calling for more funding, especially for long-term care. While Donald Trump tweeted a call to anti-public health protesters to “liberate” their states, in Ontario, Conservative Premier Doug Ford dismissed a scattering of such protesters in Toronto as selfish “yahoos.”

Invoking religious freedom in an attempt to opt out of health-care legislation is much more common in the U.S. than Canada. Both countries protect religious freedom, dating back to 1791 in the United States with the First Amendment of the constitution guaranteeing the “free exercise” of religion, while in Canada, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has protected the “freedom of conscience and religion” since 1982.

Religious freedom as a rallying cry

These parallel guarantees, however, stem from very different histories of using religious freedom as a rallying cry, including to resist public health care. I’ve discussed this in my research, especially in relation to women’s reproductive health.

In the wake of former U.S. president Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, for example, Catholics and evangelical groups used a religious freedom argument to contest the new mandate that their health insurance plans provide access to contraception for women employees.

In Canada, the less frequent citing of religious freedom rights in the courts to curtail health-care access may be related to a wider acceptance of health care as a public good and a basic human right.

In both Canada and the U.S., the struggle for publicly funded health care in the mid-20th century depended on coalitions of politicians, medical professionals and religious leaders. In Canada, a Baptist minister-turned-politician, Tommy Douglas, galvanized the country with a vision that public health care for all was a human right and, for some, also a religious obligation.

Similarly, in the U.S., when Dr. Montague Cobb, leader of the National Medical Association, successfully argued for Medicare before Congress in 1965, he concluded his testimony with a Christian hymn.

The Canadian version of public health care, however, now serves a much wider range of the population than Medicare does in the U.S., and has become a cornerstone of Canada’s national identity, with minimal overt connections to religion.

But in the United States, public health care remains a source of profound national and religious division. The current Republican administration regularly uses religious freedom legislation, including conscientious objection rules for health-care providers, to chip away at Medicare, limiting access to health care for women, LGBTQ, poor and rural people.

A time of reckoning is coming when public health measures and public and private health-care delivery will be assessed for their effectiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of religious communities and the ideals of religious freedom in supporting or impeding public health must be included in this reckoning, especially in the United States.

Pamela E. Klassen, Professor of the Study of Religion, University of Toronto

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

---

---

quite good, guy on nihilism --> attractor/bubble?

https://www.c-span.org/video/?471142-1/the-power-worshippers

APRIL 14, 2020

The Power Worshippers

Journalist Katherine Stewart argued that religious nationalists are waging political war on American democracy and institutions. This was a virtual author program.

no soc safe net b/c job of fr --> family --> church, not biz or gov't; worker shd submit to boss as slave to master.  drollinger? the most __ in USA

==

---

420 alex h covid stoopid protests

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/how-the-coronavirus-pandemic-shows-that-christian-white-nationalism-is-a-much-greater-threat-to-the-us-than-radical-islam/

==

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/the-strange-truth-about-the-pro-slavery-origins-of-christian-nationalism-in-the-united-states/

no lnx

The strange truth about the pro-slavery origins of Christian nationalism in the United States

Written by History News Network March 14, 2020

Right around the time the House began its impeachment inquiry, the homepage of the U.S. Department of State featured a talk by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo titled “Being a Christian Leader.” Only a few weeks had passed since Attorney General William Barr told students at Notre Dame Law School that “secularists” are to blame for “moral chaos” and “immense suffering, wreckage, and misery,” and that “Judeo-Christian moral standards are the ultimate utilitarian rules for human conduct.” Then, at a January campaign rally at a Miami megachurch, President Donald Trump told the largely evangelical crowd that God is “on our side.”

Most of us have a sense that this kind of religious-nationalist rhetoric and behavior got its start with the revolution that Reagan brought to power. A decisive moment was in August 1980, at the Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas, when Reagan addressed 15,000 thousand pastors and religious activists. “I know that you can’t endorse me,” but “I want you to know that I endorse you and what you are doing,” he said, to wild applause.

Reagan’s speech at the Reunion Arena marked a sea change in the role of conservative religion in American politics. But some of those who had helped organize the event were concerned that the one individual who deserved the most credit for the transformation of the interface of politics and religion was not on the podium. “We agreed that it was unfortunate that Rousas Rushdoony was not speaking,” radical theologian Gary North later observed, recalling an exchange with Robert Billings, a Reagan campaign staffer who had previously served as executive director of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority organization. Billings responded, “If it weren’t for his books none of us would be here.”  “Nobody in the audience understands that,” North countered. “True, but we do,” Billings reportedly replied.

Howard Phillips, a former Nixon administration aide who was also present at the Reunion Arena, called Rushdoony the “most influential man of the 21st century.” As he confided to author and religious studies professor Julie Ingersoll in 2007, “The whole Christian conservative political movement had its genesis in Rush.”

Rousas John Rushdoony was born in 1916 to Armenian immigrants who had narrowly escaped the genocide, in which as many as 1.5 million Armenians were murdered by Turks of the Ottoman Empire. Rushdoony’s father, who founded the Armenian Martyrs Presbyterian Church in Kingsburg, California, ministered to a community of fellow Armenian refugees, who agonized and grieved as letters from relatives back home came to a standstill. “In Armenia, there was no neutral ground between Islam and Christianity,” Rushdoony wrote in 1997. “And I came to realize there is no neutral ground anywhere.”

Rushdoony left his family home and made his way to college at the University of California, Berkeley. He did not fit in. Advised to read the classics, Rushdoony later called this “the ugliest experience of my life.”  He pronounced the works of Shakespeare, Homer and the rest of the canon “classics of degenerate cultures. What they offer at their best is evil.”

Rushdoony emerged from Berkeley with all the distinctive features of his intellectual persona in place: a resolutely binary form of thought that classified all things into one of two absolutes; a craving for order; and a loathing of the secular world.

Rushdoony began to advocate for a return to “biblical law” in America. The Bible, Rushdoony said, commands Christians to exercise dominion over the earth and all its inhabitants. Women are destined by God to be subordinate to men; men are destined to be ruled by a spiritual aristocracy of right-thinking Christian leaders, and public education is a threat to civilization for it promotes a “secular world-view.” In over thirty books and publications, including The Messianic Character of American Education and The Institutes of Biblical Law – often hailed as his magnum opus and recommended as one of the Choice Evangelical Books of 1973 by evangelical flagship journal Christianity Today — Rushdoony laid it all out in a program he called Christian Reconstruction.

There is little mystery about the historical sources from which Rushdoony drew his own inspiration. He laid out all the details in his works. Setting aside the hardline Dutch Reformed theologians who supplied the backbone of his thought, Rushdoony drew on two traditions that would prove essential in understanding the genesis of today’s Christian nationalist movement. The first was the proslavery theology of America’s antebellum preachers. The second was the economic libertarianism that took root in reaction to the New Deal.

Among apologists for Christian nationalism today, the favored myth is that the movement represents an extension of the abolitionism of the nineteenth century and perhaps of the civil rights movement of the twentieth century, too. Many antiabortion activists self-consciously refer to themselves as the new abolitionists. Mainstream conservatives who lament that the evangelicals who form Trump’s most fervent supporters have “lost their way” suggest that they have betrayed their roots in the movements that fought for the abolition of slavery and the end of discrimination. But the truth is that today’s Christian nationalism did not emerge out of the movement that opposed such rigid hierarchies. It came from the one that endorsed them.

Rushdoony understood this well. Not long after escaping the horror of Berkeley, he took an interest in the work of Robert Lewis Dabney, a defender of slavery before the Civil War and who also supported patriarchy and the American form of apartheid after the war.

Rushdoony reprinted and disseminated some of Dabney’s works through his Vallecito, California-based Chalcedon Foundation, as well as through his publishing company, Ross House Books. He found himself agreeing with Dabney that the Union victory was a defeat for Christian orthodoxy. In Rushdoony’s mind, Dabney’s great adversaries, the abolitionists, were the archetypes of the anti-Christian rebels – liberals, communists, secularists, and advocates of women’s rights – who continued to wreak havoc on the modern world. As Rushdoony’s fellow Reconstructionist C. Gregg Singer put it, proslavery theologians including Dabney, Thornwell and their contemporaries “properly read abolitionism as a revolt against the biblical conception of society and a revolt against divine sovereignty in human affairs.” Rushdoony himself concluded, “Abolitionist leaders showed more hate than love on the whole.” The defeat of the orthodox side in the Civil War, Rushdoony asserted, paved the way for the rise of an unorthodox Social Gospel.

Rushdoony’s admiration for southern religious orthodoxy was such that he adopted a forgiving attitude toward certain forms of slavery. In books such as Politics of Guilt and Pity and The Institutes of Biblical Law, which is essentially an 890-page disquisition on “the heresy of democracy” and the first of a three-volume series under the same title, he makes the case that “the move from Africa to America was a vast increase of freedom for the Negro, materially and spiritually as well as personally.”

“Some people are by nature slaves and will always be so,” Rushdoony muses, and the law requires that a slave “recognize his position and accept it with grace.”

One of Dabney’s pet peeves was the provision of public education to Black children, whom he referred to as “the brats of black paupers,” which required unjust (in his view) taxation of “oppressed” “white bretheren.” Rushdoony sympathized with Dabney’s point of view on public education, and here began to fuse his views with a small-government ideology. “State supported and controlled education is theft,” he wrote, and called the claim of ownership to the lives of citizens by a “humanist state” slavery, too.

Rushdoony did not agitate for the literal enslavement of Black Americans in his time. But his fascination with proslavery theology was no passing fancy. The idea that the United States is a Redeemer Nation, chosen by God; that it is tasked with becoming an orthodox Christian republic in which women are subordinate to men, education is in the hands of conservative Christians, and no one pays taxes to support Black people; that at some point in the past the nation deviated horribly from its mission and fell under the control of atheist, communist, and/or liberal elites—the stuff of proslavery theology was the life of Rushdoony’s political thought.

Rushdoony soon found an even greater source of inspiration in the libertarian economic thinkers who emerged to beat back the New Deal. He was very much taken with figures like James W. Fifield as well as members of the Austrian school of economics, and began to churn out works arguing that the modern welfare state was “organized larceny” and “capitalism is supremely a product of Christianity.”

In this Christian-libertarian vision, Rushdoony saw the foundation for a thoroughly religious – or better, theocratic – understanding of the American republic. In Rushdoony’s telling, it was not the intention of America’s founders to establish a nonsectarian representative democracy. The First Amendment, he argues, aimed to establish freedom “not from religion but for religion.” “The Constitution was designed to perpetuate a Christian order,” he wrote.

The idea that the United States is a “Christian nation” – not just in the sense that its population was originally mostly Christian but that it was intended to serve as part of a Christian world order – was Rushdoony’s central contribution to the religious right.

Rushdoony had many prominent admirers, among them evangelical leader D. James Kennedy, whose ministry received millions of dollars in donations from the DeVos family. Kennedy popularized Rushdoony’s ideas through multiple sermons and publications, exhorting attendees at a 2005 conference organized by his ministry to “exercise godly dominion” over “every aspect and institution of human society.” The ultraconservative Catholic leader Richard John Neuhaus, who worked to broker a conservative evangelical and conservative Catholic alliance, pointed out that Rushdoony’s “theonomy,” or the idea of a social and political order rooted in “biblical law,” has “insinuated itself in circles where people would be not at all comfortable to think of themselves as theonomists.” He also attested, in 1990, to “increasing encounters with ideas clearly derived from Christian Reconstructionistm even among conservatives in the mainline/oldline churches.”

Today, the ideas of Rushdoony and his fellow Reconstructionists have penetrated into evangelical and conservative Catholic circles that are, quite often, unaware of their original sources. “Though we hide their books under the bed, we read them just the same,” as one observer put it to Michael J. McVicar, author of Christian Reconstruction: R.J. Rushdoony and the American Religious Conservatism.To be clear, the Christian right is large and diverse in its specific theologies.

Many of its representatives know very little about R.J. Rushdoony and others take pains to distance themselves from him. Some of his extreme positions, such as the idea that homosexuals, blasphemers and adulterers are all worthy of the death penalty, have been loudly repudiated by conservative leaders. Yet it is difficult to understand the ideological origins and structure of Christian nationalism in America today without taking into account Rushdoony’s ideas.

Rushdoony’s work is touted today by some of the leading personalities and policy groups on the Christian right. Perhaps the most telling example comes from David Barton, whose efforts to reframe our constitutional republic as a Christian nationalist enterprise are at the center of so many of the movement’s cultural and legislative initiatives. Though perhaps not in a formal sense a Reconstructionist, Barton dances around many of Rushdoony’s defining ideas, even on the question of slavery.

In a paper titled “The Bible, Slavery, and America’s Founders,” posted on the WallBuilders website, Barton cites Rushdoony extensively, and argues that “in light of the Scriptures, we cannot say that slavery, in a broad and general sense, is sin. But this brief look at the Biblical slave laws does reveal how fallen man’s example of slavery has violated God’s laws.”

Where Barton strikes out on his own, it is to take a swipe at modern, liberal government as a form of slavery, a gesture that Rushdoony surely would have endorsed. “Since sinful man tends to live in bondage, different forms of slavery have replaced the more obvious system of past centuries,” Barton explains. “The state has assumed the role of master for many, providing aid and assistance, and with it more and more control, to those unable to protect themselves.” In a 2018 blog post, Watchmen on the Wall, the Family Research Council’s alliance of an estimated 25,000 pastors, praised Rushdoony as a “powerful advocate for the Christian and homeschool movements across America” who “challenged Christian leaders of his day to stand on biblical truth in the public square.” Rushdoony is a foundational thinker whose ideas continue to speak, long after he has been silenced.

For a long time now, critics have viewed America’s religious right as a social or cultural movement. They assume that it represents a reaction to modern, secular culture, and that it speaks for a large mass of disaffected conservative evangelicals and others who are preoccupied with issues of concern to the family. But that simplistic interpretation is plausible only for those who do not actually listen to what its leaders have to say or trace its ideas to their primary sources. Christian nationalism today is a political movement, and its primary goal is power. Its ultimate aim is not just to win elections but to replace our modern constitutional Republic with a “biblical” order that derives its legitimacy not from the people but from God and the Bible – or, at least, the God and the Bible that men like Rushdoony claimed to know.

Katherine Stewart is an author and journalist. Her newly published book is The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism (Bloomsbury, March 3, 2020).

Follow Katherine Stewart on Twitter: @kathsstewart.

This article was originally published at History News Network

---

omg

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/rise-of-a-shadow-political-party-how-christian-nationalists-worship-power-and-why-they-love-trump/

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/rise-of-a-shadow-political-party-how-christian-nationalists-worship-power-and-why-they-love-trump/

no lnx

Rise of a ‘shadow political party’: How Christian nationalists worship power — and why they love Trump

Written by Amanda Marcotte / Salon March 4, 2020

It’s one of the most enduring conundrums of the Donald Trump era: How is it that the Christian right, the self-appointed monitors of American morality, have come to so enthusiastically back a thrice-married chronic adulterer who lies as easily as he breathes?

Author Katherine Stewart has the answer: Because the true god these folks worship is power. In her book, “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism,” Stewart details how she traveled around the country, getting to know the various Christian conservative figures that are whipping support for Trump and his agenda. She deems the “Christian nationalists” and demonstrates how their supposedly Christian values always come second to their endless quest for power.

Stewart spoke with Salon about her new book. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

In the intro of the book you write that most Americans view the Christian right as a  “cultural movement centered on a set of social issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage.” But in fact, it’s a political movement and its ultimate goal is power. What do you mean by that?

I think when we think of the religious right, we’re often thinking of a cultural movement or social movement that works from the bottom up, expressing the anxieties and reactions of a particular group in American society to change social realities, focused on issues like reproductive rights or same-sex marriage. But Christian nationalism really works from the top down. It actively shapes and manipulates its target population, and it often shifts its target.

When movement leaders are talking to the congregants or to pastors who speak to congregants, it’s all abortion all the time. The foot soldiers may even believe that they’re fighting for things like a ban on abortion or same-sex marriage, but the leaders have actually consciously reframed these issues in such a way that they can control the vote of a large subsection of the American public. They use that to solidify and maintain political power for themselves and their allies, to increase the flow of public and private money in their direction, and to enact economic policies that are favorable to their funders.

When you dig a little deeper into what the movement leaders talk about when they talk with one another, they actually advocate for a very wide range of policy issues that don’t just have to do with abortion or same-sex marriage. A lot of it has to do with economic policy. A lot of it has to do with foreign policy, social policy. It’s important to look at the movement in this broader fashion as a political movement that wants power.

Tell me more about that. How does someone argue that there’s something Christian about, say, low tax and low regulation?

They say that the Bible favors minimal government or no government. The Bible is against regulation, against the social safety net. Unless the social safety net is managed by the church.

Someone like Ralph Drollinger — who targets political leaders at the top levels of government — he’s got this Bible study group in the Capitol that’s been attended by at least 11 members of Trump’s cabinet, including Mike Pence. He also has Bible study groups targeting the Senate and House of Representatives, and they’re very well-attended. So he’s arguably one of the most politically influential pastors in America.

He argues that social welfare programs have no basis in Scripture. He says that the government should not directly fund needs for the poor. He says the responsibility to meet the needs of the poor lies first with a husband and a marriage, second with a family if the husband is absent, and third with the church. He says nowhere does God command the institutions of government or commerce to fully support those with genuine needs.

These policies are incredibly favorable to the plutocratic fortunes that are funding the movement. The movement wouldn’t be what it is without some subsection of very wealthy individuals and extended families that are supporting the movement financially. I’m thinking of like the DeVos, Prince families, the Green family, and so many others that I described in my book.

These families, in turn, benefit from a deregulation of lack of environmental control regulation, low taxation, and minimal workers’ rights. Drollinger himself derived a lot of his early funding from agribusiness kings, people who own large agribusiness conglomerates in Central Valley, California, and the San Joaquin Valley. So it’s a kind of economic policy that actually is favorable to many of the big-picture funders of the movement.

We also have to recognize that the role of public money is absolutely huge. A lot of the calls for “religious freedom” that characterize much of the activism of the movement today are often seen, rightly so, as a demand that conservative Christians should be able to discriminate against LGBT Americans, nonreligious women and members of the religious minority groups.  But even more than that, activists have their eye on a vast potential flow of public funds in the future. This is one of the reasons why the calls for religious freedom are just like this ever-louder drum beat that we’re hearing in so many places.

This agenda has been made really explicit in the field of public education where activists are determined to expand access to public funds in the form of vouchers. They’ve actually placed a key voucher case before the Supreme Court, which they hope will allow a greater funnel of funds in their direction.

The United States spends something like $700 billion a year on K-12. So Christian nationalists realize that, if they can get their hands on a small portion of that in the name of religious liberty, the money will flow without end. So when you look at the larger demands of the movement, it’s not just about these culture war issues, it’s about public policy, foreign policy, and it’s about money.

You call it a Christian nationalist movement, not a white nationalist movement, not the Christian right even. Why do you call it a Christian nationalist movement?

Christian nationalism is a political ideology. It says that what makes the United States distinctive is not our democratic system of government, or our Constitution, or our history of assimilating diverse people in a pluralist society. Instead, it insists that the foundation of legitimate government is bound up inextricably with the reactionary understanding of a particular religion. It basically says that the U.S. was founded on the Bible, and can only succeed if it stays true to that foundation.

It’s also not just an ideology, but a device for mobilizing and often manipulating large segments of the population and for concentrating power in the hands of this new elite. Vladimir Putin in Russia, or Viktor Orban in Hungary, or Erdogan in Turkey tie themselves closely to religious conservatives in their countries, to consolidate an authoritarian form of power. We’re seeing this today with Trump’s alliances, with our own religious conservatives.

You write that America’s conservative churches have been converted into “loyal cells of a shadow political party.” What do you mean by that?

Leaders of the movement have figured out that pastors drive votes, and so they organize pastors into these networks, to get them on the same page politically. They give them tools through networks of conservative churches in order to do that, to help them turn out votes for hyper-conservative candidates.

Recently, I found myself at a small church in rural North Carolina, with dozens of evangelical pastors from the area. I was at an event sponsored by an organization called Watchmen on the Wall, which is an initiative of the Family Research Council, which is one of the largest and most powerful policy groups of the Christian right.

Watchmen on the Wall claims to have over 25,000 pastor members. They get all these pastors networked together, and they have these presentations where they tell them what issues matter and how to turn out the vote on these “biblical issues.” There wasn’t a slightest doubt about which way these pastors were expected to tell their congregations to vote.

They were instructed to form what they call culture impact teams within their churches. They have to figure out which members of their congregation are politically active, well-connected with other members, and motivated to get them to vote according to “biblical values.” They gave these pastors these booklets, 200 pages of material that help them form these culture impact teams.

They actually give them tools to get them out to vote. They give them tens of thousands of voter guides, and pastors were encouraged to take as many as they could use and hand out.

Your chapter on the anti-abortion movement in the book is titled “Inventing Abortion.” You write that it’s a myth that the movement was a reaction to a sincere belief in protecting fetal life. Tell me more. What is this Christian right obsession with abortion? Where does it come from? What is it actually about?

When Roe v. Wade was passed, the liberalization of abortion laws was something that many, if not most, Republican partisans supported. The early battles over abortion tended to be between Catholics and Protestants, with Protestants largely on the side of liberalization of abortion laws. Even though Catholic hierarchy is opposed to abortion, many Catholic individuals supported some form of liberalization based on sort of lived experience.

At that time that Roe v. Wade passed, the abortion law reform really conformed with the Republican party’s support for Protestant values, birth control. Billy Graham in 1968 said, “In general, I would disagree with the Catholic stance. I believe in Planned Parenthood.”

The most liberal abortion law in the country was signed in 1967 by California’s Republican governor, Ronald Reagan. Barry Goldwater, who is this great conservative hero, supported abortion law liberalization early in his career. His wife, Peggy, was a co-founder of Planned Parenthood in Arizona.

When Roe v. Wade passed, in fact, there was a wire service run by the Southern Baptist Convention. The bureau chief of the Baptist Press wrote a piece saying that religious liberty, human equality, and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court decision.

This was not an issue that united the Republican party at all, until activists from the new right got involved and were really searching for an issue that could unite the party.

At the time, they’d come together out of concern that institutions like Bob Jones University would be deprived of their lucrative tax advantage. But they knew that preserving tax advantages for racially segregated academies is not going to be an issue that could really unite the party. So they kind of looked around for an issue that could unite conservative Catholics and conservative Protestants.

Bit by bit, they settled on abortion and sort of purged the Republican party of its pro-choice representatives. They needed a single issue that they could get people to vote on, and abortion became that issue.

Let’s talk about Donald Trump. He’s obviously not a religious man. He knows little of Christian theology. He can’t even get the terminology right. He can’t really even be bothered to pretend otherwise. So how is a man like that such a hero to the Christian nationalists?

First, the movement realizes that much of their agenda is advanced through the courts and he’s delivering them everything that he promised.

I was at a Road To Majority conference, that’s Ralph Reed’s conference, right before the election. Trump held up a list of justices and he said, “I’m going to choose Supreme Court justices from this list,” and every single one of them was pro-life. Of course, the issue wasn’t just abortion, but abortion becomes code for the entire agenda.

There’s that transactional side of it. But I think that there’s another side too. Trump’s anti-democratic attributes are a vital part of his attraction for this movement.

This movement doesn’t really believe in modern representative democracy. At bottom, they sound as though they prefer autocrats. In fact, what they really want is a king. Paula White is always calling Trump a king. Ralph Drollinger is always talking about kinging and kings. Trump has been referred to as King Cyrus.

The thing about kings like Cyrus is that they don’t have to follow the rules. They are the law. Trump understands this longing for the hard hand of the despot. That is what has made him such an attractive leader to this movement.

==

---

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/william-barr-promotes-christian-tyranny-in-latest-speech/

no lnx

William Barr promotes Christian tyranny in latest speech

Written by Chrissy Stroop / Religion Dispatches February 29, 2020

I’ve said it before, and if you’re reading this, you’ve very likely heard the same thing darkly muttered among liberals and progressives if you haven’t said it yourself: I never thought anything could possibly make me miss Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. And yet, with his willingness to throw away our norms, checks, and balances, to politicize the Justice Department, to sacrifice the rule of law itself on the altar of Trump—current Attorney General William Barr has done it. As authoritarian as he was, invoking Romans 13 to defend the Trump administration’s indefensibly inhumane policy of caging children separated from their asylum-seeking parents, Sessions had at least enough genuine concern for the rule of law to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation, against the tweeter-in-chief’s explicit wishes.

In other ways, however, Sessions and Barr are clearly cut from the same cloth. Sessions, a Methodist, has asserted that without belief in God it is impossible to believe in truth, suggesting that non-believers are unfit to serve in government. In recent months, Barr, a Catholic, has expounded the same views much more forcefully and at much greater length, including in a speech he delivered Wednesday at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville. NRB is an international evangelical organization whose board members include John Fuller of far-right powerhouse Focus on the Family and Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association, a Southern Poverty Law Center designated anti-LGBT hate group.

Featuring predictable dog whistles about “federalism” (i.e., “states’ rights”) and “the corporate—or ‘mainstream’—press,” Barr’s speech to NRB was divided into sections focusing on “religion, the decentralization of government power, and the free press,” all of which, Barr claims, have “have eroded in recent decades.” But today I’ll focus largely on Barr’s view of religion and its ideal place in society and the public sphere.

Barr’s exposition weaves together a variety of reactionary tropes, many of which have roots in the nineteenth century. (While it would be impossible to tease them apart and trace their relationships and genealogies in a short commentary, for those interested in an academic unpacking of Barr’s rhetoric, “The Russian Origins of the So-Called Post-Secular Moment: Some Preliminary Observations,” which I wrote for State, Religion and Church, will provide a helpful overview.)

The attorney general’s speech was likewise full of so many tensions, contradictions, and weak arguments that it resembles the “Gish gallop” style of debate, making it difficult to believe that they were all offered in good faith. In typical Christian nationalist form, Barr quoted American Founding Father John Adams: “We have no government armed with the power which is capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”

Asked to comment, Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Andrew Seidel, author of The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American, maintained, “Barr is misreading Adams.” To substantiate the point, he observed, “Adams, like the other founders, thought religion and morality were two separate entities; Barr thinks they are one and the same. The founders thought religion could be a substitute for morality. We now know that they were wrong on this point.”

What Seidel means here, as he details in his book, is that as Enlightenment elites, the Founding Fathers believed that they were educated and cultivated enough to be moral without religion, but that the masses were too uncultivated to do the same. The masses would therefore require religion. Seidel maintains that the founders were wrong on this point, and we can admit as much while still admiring their positive achievements.

Seidel adds, “If the founders believed that religion was important to ensure moral behavior for the masses but not for themselves, that means that the founders were moral without religion. It also means they founded the American government on their own morality, not religion,” concluding that “Barr is inadvertently refuting his entire argument by trying to co-opt Adams.”

Seidel’s work can also help us see that Barr is twisting Tocqueville in his attempt to marshal the nineteenth-century French observer of American democracy in support of his view that moral behavior is impossible without religion. A claim, by the way, that is entirely fact-free.

And Seidel is certainly correct that Sessions and Barr go much further than the Founding Fathers in claiming, as Barr did in his NRB speech, that moral values “must flow from a transcendent Supreme Being.” Despite Barr’s whiggish praise of “the Anglo-American political system” and his espoused disdain for Enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his views on the necessity of an external, transcendent source of morals in order for humans to achieve virtue is much more prominent in Continental European thought than in the English-speaking world.

But Barr is a smooth gaslighter, and he represents his argument for theocratic authoritarianism as a defense of “liberal democracy.” Barr’s European (and sometimes American) antecedents were often more honest, admitting that they viewed liberal democracy, due to its supposed godlessness and concomitant lack of truth, as a failure that would have to be replaced with either “totalitarianism” (the “ersatz religions” of fascism or Communism) or “a religious society.”

Indeed, Barr’s claim that “the right way to transform the world is for each of us to focus on morally transforming ourselves” is almost a direct quote from the early twentieth-century anti-Communist Nikolai (Nicholas) Berdyaev, who might well have influenced the attorney general, if not directly, then through Berdyaev’s profound influence on late Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whom he cites. While Solzhenitsyn’s bravery in exposing the brutal Soviet GULAG system of prison camps should never be forgotten, Solzhenitsyn was no fan of the West.

In 1978, he gave a famous speech lambasting the West’s supposed decline in terms that would surely be congenial to Sessions and Barr. And later Solzhenitsyn, who had been expelled from the USSR, voted with his feet, accepting Russian citizenship from Vladimir Putin’s government and returning to his homeland, pleased with the way that Christian nationalist authoritarianism had replaced Communism as the Russian state’s guiding ideology. The closeness of Putinist Russians and American right-wingers that has come to light in recent years should not surprise us. But we should be very clear that what both parties want is neither democracy nor pluralism, however much Barr may claim to support both.

Barr claims he supports separation of church and state, but the claim is clearly disingenuous: “While most everyone agrees that we must have separation of Church and State, this does not require that we drive religion from the public square and affirmatively use government power to promote a culture of disbelief.” The tell here is that the attorney general conflates the idea of a religiously neutral public square with “using government power to promote a culture of disbelief.” The notion that there’s no religious neutrality, and that therefore, if public institutions are not promoting religion, they are promoting secular humanist ideology by default, is a hallmark of dominionist Christian thinking. His NRB audience would have no trouble getting the message.

Like authoritarians, narcissists, and abusers of all kinds, Christian extremists seek to paint themselves as victims, and Barr’s speech is a prime example of this powerful rhetorical tactic. In it, the attorney general blames supposedly nefarious secularists for the contentious state of American politics when, in fact, data shows us that precisely the opposite is true—America’s polarization has been driven by our radicalized, mostly Christian, Right.

Trump’s toady of an attorney general may wax poetic about his fear of the potential tyranny of a secular majority, but he is transparently trying to promote Christian tyranny, only in the guise of “liberal democracy.” It doesn’t take much digging beneath the surface to see that Barr’s authoritarian approach to religion derives from a very dark view of human nature. Authentic supporters of democracy, by contrast, understand that despite our human limitations—which are quite real but not nearly so severe as those posited by the toxic doctrine of “original sin”—it’s possible to build a society around a shared social contract grounded in the simple recognition of our shared human condition, and on that basis to foster functional institutions and a healthy respect for pluralism.

==

ref

https://www.academia.edu/5949640/The_Russian_Origins_of_the_So-Called_Post-Secular_Moment_Some_Preliminary_Observations

The Russian Origins of the So-CalledPost-Secular Moment: Some PreliminaryObservations

Christopher Stroop

—

Senior Lecturer at the Russian Presidential

Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Moscow,

Russia). cstroop@gmail.com

This piece argues that there are a number of paths through which we might investigate Russian connections to the emergence of post-secularism, with the collapse of the

USSR

and the post-Soviet revival

of Russian Orthodoxy representing only the most obvious. A thus far less developed but important approach involves unravelingan intellectual-historical trajectory by focusing on the influenceof anti-Bolshevik Russian religious philosophers in the West. The

article shows that after the founding of the Soviet Union, the anti-Bolshevik Russian emigration emerged as a signi?cant vehicle forthe transmission of Russian ideas in the West, contributing to thedevelopment of an anti-secular discourse with roots in the  20?th

century that was able to achieve some prominence thanks to theCold War. This discourse associated religiosity with freedom andatheism with unfreedom. Stroop argues that this discourse, in thedevelopment of which Russian intellectuals played an important role, emerged in reaction against the perceived cultural threat of

nihilism, and he suggests that it is a similar concern over the possible

consequences of nihilism that has led to the emergence of the post-secular moment.

Keywords:

religious, secular, post-secularism, nihilism, atheism,

Communism, Russian Orthodoxy, Russian religious philosophy, Russia

and the West, Sergei Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Lev Shestov, Russian emigration, Cold War, anti-secular discourse...

==

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/ag-barr-and-betsy-devos-rail-against-secularism-and-a-culture-of-disbelief-at-religious-broadcasters-convention/

no lnx

AG Barr and Betsy DeVos rail against secularism and a ‘culture of disbelief’ at religious broadcasters convention

Written by Alex Henderson February 27, 2020

---

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/authoritarian-paranoid-and-patriarchal-the-dark-roots-of-christian-nationalism-gave-us-trump/

no lnx

‘Authoritarian, paranoid, and patriarchal’: The dark roots of Christian nationalism gave us Trump

President Donald J. Trump joins members of his Cabinet in a prayer led by Secretary of Energy Rick Perry during a Cabinet Meeting Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019, in the Cabinet Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly February 17, 2020

Katherine Stewart is the writer who first introduced me to the term “Christian nationalists” almost a year ago. I had previously referred to the group that has shown unwavering support for Trump as “white evangelicals.” But that is a bit of a misnomer, primarily because, as we saw with the article in Christianity Today calling for the president’s removal from office, there are pockets of white evangelicals who aren’t part of the movement. There are also members of other religious groups that espouse the same beliefs. For example, Catholic leaders like Attorney General William Barr and Federalist Society President Leonard Leo are major players in the Christian nationalist movement.

Bringing some clarity to the make-up of the Christian nationalist movement is just one of the myths Stewart busts in her upcoming book titled: The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, set to be released on March 3rd. Equally important for us to understand is that this movement isn’t simply about culture wars.

It is not a social or cultural movement. It is a political movement, and its ultimate goal is power. It does not seek to add another voice to America’s pluralistic democracy but to replace our foundational democratic principles and institutions with a state grounded on a particular version of Christianity answering to what some adherents call a “biblical worldview” that also happens to serve the interests of its plutocratic funders and allied political leaders…This is not a “culture war.” It is a political war over the future of democracy.

When it comes to that “biblical worldview,” we often hear about the fact that Christian nationalists oppose abortion and LGBT rights. But as Stewart explains, the movement is actually based on the idea that “the Bible is very clear about the right answers to the political issues American voters face in the twenty-first century.” For example, they also believe that the Bible:

opposes public assistance to the poor as a matter of principle—unless the money passes through church coffers;

opposes environmentalism and, as a matter of theology, denies the science that human contributions to greenhouse gases causes global warning;

opposes gun regulation;

supports strong national borders;

favors the privatization of schools;

favors a gender hierarchy in both the home and church, with women being submissive to men;

favors the use of corporal punishment when discipling children;

favors government deregulation of business and minimal workers rights; and

favors capitalism and property rights.

To illustrate the Christian nationalist commitment to that biblical worldview, Stewart examined the writings and teachings of Ralph Drollinger, the founder of Capitol Ministries, who leads a weekly Bible study in the White House for cabinet secretaries and other officials. However, those views are also incorporated into churches by groups like the Family Research Council, which promotes “Cultural Impact Teams” and arms them with manuals that outline a biblical worldview.

Perhaps that helps explain why a host of uber-wealthy elites have signed on to the Christian nationalist movement and provide funding for the vast network of everything from non-profits to legal advocacy groups that promote their cause.

For me personally, the major myth about Christian nationalists that Stewart busted was to provide some history of where this movement came from. In this case, I have to disagree with my colleague Martin Longman. Trump hasn’t corrupted his Christian supporters, he is the apex of decades of work that led up to his election. Here are just a few of the men who laid the groundwork for where we are today.

Robert Lewis Dabney

Dabney was a Presbyterian minister and theologian who was born in 1820. He was an anti-abolitionist, who argued that opposing slavery was “tantamount to rejecting Christianity.” After the Civil War, Dabney, who referred to democracy as “mobocracy,” took up the cause of his “oppressed white brethren of Virginia and neighboring states to the south.”

Their oppression consisted in, among other things, having to pay taxes to support a “pretended education to the brats of black paupers.” These unjustly persecuted white people, as Dabney saw it, were also forced to contend with “the atheistic and infidel theories of physical science.”

As Stewart notes, “Christian nationalism came of age in the American slave republic” due to the proslavery theology of men like Dabney, who fused religion with a racialized form of nationalism.

Rousas Rushdoony

The importance of Dabeny can be seen from the fact that Rushdoony, whose writings provided the core of today’s Christian nationalism, considered him a role model.

The views of the theologian who lies at the center of so much influence are not hard to state simply and clearly: Rushdoony advocated a return to “biblical” law in America. The Bible, says Rushdoony, commands Christians to exercise absolute dominion over the earth and all of its inhabitants. Women are destined by God to be subordinate to men; men are destined to be ruled by a spiritual aristocracy of right-thinking, orthodox Christian clerics; and the federal government is an agent of evil. Public education, in Rushdoony’s reading of the Bible, is a threat to civilization, for it “basically trains women to be men,” and represents “primitivism,” “chaos,” and “a vast integration into the void.”

Two of the themes that are critical for today’s Christian nationalists emerged from Dabney and Rushdoony: (1) the fight against government (ie, public) schools, and (2) the disdain for democracy in favor of a hierarchy of authoritarianism. As Stewart wrote: “the new generation of leaders promoted a theological vision that emphasized the divine origins of the existing order, which invariably involved domination and subordination.”

Paul Weyrich

Weyrich wasn’t a particularly religious man. Instead, he was a Goldwater Republican who was passionate about “anticommunism, economic libertarianism, and a distrust of the civil rights movement.” It was Weyrich’s genius to meld those commitments with Christian nationalists in order to form a new radical right.

Initially, Weyrich joined with leaders like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Bob Jones to rally around the cause of fighting against federal attempts to desegregate their schools. In that effort, we can see the groundwork that was laid by Dabney and Rushdoony.

But they had a problem. As Weyrich understood, building a new movement around the burning issue of defending the tax advantages of racist schools wasn’t going to be a viable strategy on the national stage. “Stop the tax on segregation” just wasn’t going to inspire the kind of broad-based conservative counterrevolution that Weyrich envisions. They needed an issue with a more acceptable appeal.

That is when, several years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v Wade was actually embraced by most conservative Christians, they decided to focus on the issue of abortion. The rest, as they say, is history.

One of the most important moments of the so-called “Reagan revolution” was the fact that he launched his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi with a dog-whistle shout-out to states rights. But equally important was the speech the not-so-religious presidential candidate gave at the Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas  to a crowd of 15,000 pastors and religious activists.

I know that you can’t endorse me,” he declared, but “I want you to know that I endorse you and what you are doing.” The pastors went wild. Reagan went on to air his personal doubts about the theory of evolution. Then he offered a homespun hypothetical: if he were to be trapped on an island with only one book, he said, he would take the Bible. “All of the complex questions facing us at home and abroad,” he said, “have their answer in that single book.”

With his speech in Mississippi, Reagan secured the support of southern white racists. But it was his speech in Dallas that married Christian nationalists to his candidacy and forged the bond with the Republican Party that lasts to this day. Weyrich’s vision came to fruition.

David Barton

In today’s political arena, the number of Christian nationalist influencers is too great to capture. But Stewart suggests that Barton is the “where’s Waldo” of the movement—showing up everywhere.

Barton got a bachelor’s degree in Christian education from Oral Roberts University and, until his early 30s, was a math teacher and principal at a Christian high school. Then he became convinced that the whole idea of the founder’s commitment to a wall of separation between church and state was a myth. Here is how Stewart describes Barton’s historiography.

American was once a single nation with a single God. It goes on to describe a fall and a cause for grievance as the righteous lose their hold, thanks to the actions of secular liberals. The story of the past thus leads inexorably to a political prescription for the future, which for the most part involves retaking the court system and the rest of government and turning it over to Bible believers.

Those are some of the historical highlights that led Stewart to this conclusion.

America’s conservative movement, having morphed into a religious nationalist movement, is on a collision course with the American constitutional system. Though conservatives have long claimed to be the true champions of the Constitution — remember all that chatter during previous Republican administrations about “originalism” and “judicial restraint” — the movement that now controls the Republican Party is committed to a suite of ideas that are fundamentally incompatible with the Constitution and the Republic that the founders created under its auspices.

Mr. Trump’s presidency was not the cause of this anti-democratic movement in American politics. It was the consequence. He is the chosen instrument, not of God, but of today’s Christian nationalists, their political allies and funders, and the movement’s legal apparatus.

To outsiders, the question often arises about why this religious movement would remain loyal to such an amoral president. But that fails to take into account the fact that Christian nationalism is “authoritarian, paranoid, and patriarchal to its core…In Mr. Trump, they have found a man who does not merely serve their cause, but also satisfies their craving for a certain kind of political leadership.”

Reading Stewart’s book is certainly enlightening, but it can also be depressing. She ends, however, on a note that harkens back to Barack Obama’s most important speech: the one he gave at the 50th anniversary of the Selma march where he talked about what it means to be an American. Stewart emphasized the same theme.

If we want to guard against demagogues and theocrats who wish to “redeem” America, we don’t need a new theory of American democracy. We just need to recover and restore the vision of a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal.

---

==

https://www.alternet.org/project-blitz-heres-new-plan-christian-nationalists-have-seize-even-more-power

In  the 2016 election, Trump got 81 percent support from white evangelical Christians, and a study by Clemson sociologist Andrew Whitehead and two colleagues (Salon story here) found that “the ‘religious vote’ for Trump was primarily the result of Christian nationalism,” an Old Testament-based worldview fusing Christian and American identities that “can be unmoored from traditional moral import emphasizing only its notions of exclusion and apocalyptic war and conquest.”

This article first appeared in Salon. The targeting of good Samaritans for deportation, or blaming a refugee family for their seven-year-old daughter’s death in Border Patrol custody are features, not bugs, of the Christian nationalist worldview. Never mind what Matthew 25:35 says: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”

This week, new exit-poll data from this year’s midterm elections re-emphasized how much the Trump-led GOP depends on evangelical voters, as opposed to the much more discussed “white working class.” Among white non-evangelicals, non-college-educated men voted for Republicans, 53 to 44 percent, while women voted Democratic by 57 to 41 percent. But among white evangelicals there was virtually no difference between college and non-college voters in their GOP support: 78 percent among men for both groups, and 73 and 71 percent, respectively, for women.

All this amounts to a flashing red light warning that Christian nationalism is the most important and most overlooked factor behind Donald Trump’s presidency and the political power of the GOP generally. But it’s not just a passive or latent force, as Trump’s border cruelty suggests.

Last April, I followed up Frederick Clarkson’s report at Religion Dispatches about a major Christian nationalist initiative called “Project Blitz,” intended to pass a wide range of discriminatory laws through state legislatures, from the seemingly innocuous to the blatantly discriminatory. It was based on his discovery of a 116-page evangelical playbook for the 2017-8 legislative cycle. Now Clarkson’s has uncovered their playbook for the 2019-20 cycle, and will be publishing another report at Religion Dispatches shortly.

In the meantime, Clarkson took part in an online webinar called “Stopping the Blitz: A Coordinated Response to State Campaigns,” hosted by the PFLAG Academy Online. (A recording is available here.)  It’s an invaluable activist resource, covering both detailed specifics and broad frameworks for understanding what’s at stake and how to fight back. Anyone getting involved with Indivisible States, for example, should find it an hour well-spent.

Along with Clarkson, who is a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, presenters included Alison Gill, legal and policy director at American Atheists and Elizabeth Reiner Platt, Director of the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project at Columbia Law School. It was hosted by Jamie Henkel, PFLAG’s learning and inclusion manager. Clarkson presented an overview of Project Blitz, along with its background, Gill delved into the components of Project Blitz — legislative “prayer caucuses” formed to pass legislation and the state policy guide Clarkson discovered to guide them — and Platt spoke about the meaning of religious freedom, how the religious right has distorted it, and how even those who oppose the religious right tacitly may accept key aspects of its dishonest framing.

Although she went last, Platt began with a point that belongs front and center, since everything in Project Blitz rests on its denial.“I wanted to step back and start out by reminding everyone that religious liberty is a progressive value,” she said. “It’s really important to … remind ourselves what religious liberty really is, which is the freedom of individuals and communities to practice their religious beliefs, or to practice no religion, in a pluralistic society, free from government persecution, discrimination or coercion. So this is a foundational constitutional value, and it’s a progressive value.”

It’s also reflected in our original national motto, coined by the founders:  E pluribus unum — out of many, one.

“We do not often surface a document that fundamentally changes the way we view a subject. In the case of the strategy paper of Project Blitz, we have just that,” Clarkson said in his introduction. “The Project Blitz playbook shows us that while the Christian right see the bills as distinct, they are also envisioning a political building process that leads to a comprehensive vision of a conservative Christian nation, and even the more totalitarian idea of conservative Christian Dominion.”

In short, it’s not progressives, whether secular or religious, who say that there’s a vast, multi-threaded, right-wing strategy involved. It’s what the religious right’s own game plan says.

While Christian nationalism revolves around “the idea that America was once, and must be again, a Christian nation,” it usually allows “some room for religious tolerance on the part of Christian nationalists,” Clarkson explained. But there is no such “tolerance from Dominionists, who have a long-term vision of organizing all of society and government according to their understanding of the Bible.” (If you think that includes death by stoning, the answer is yes, at least for some Dominionists, including Rousas John Rushdoony, known as the “father of Christian Reconstructionism.”)

Three categories of proposed laws

Project Blitz organizes its model bills into three categories, or “phases,” Clarkson explained:

The authors suggested trying the less controversial bills in phase one first. They call these bills  “Legislation Regarding Our Country’s Religious Heritage.” Category or Phase 2 Involves seeking “Resolutions and Proclamations Recognizing the Importance of Religious History and Freedom.” The first two categories of bills are intended to pave the way for far more serious legislation … but suffice to say are decisive moves towards a more theocratic state, beginning with seriously eroding the rights of LGBTQ people.

“They start with the early phases with what are generally considered harmless or easy to pass low-hanging fruit,” Gill said, “and basically build momentum to pass more destructive ‘religious-exceptions’ bills that limit equality and freedom.”

“For the most part, these are not directly attacking equality or LGBT people, but instead working build momentum, establish Christian nationalist narratives,” Gill explained. “For example, the display of the national motto in schools, or teaching the religious nature of the U.S. founding, establishing this Christian nationalist narrative. The book would classify this as low hanging fruit in order to basically gain early victories, and establish momentum.”

There are two fundamental kinds of sleight-of-hand here. First, the national motto “In God We Trust” dates from the height of the McCarthy Red Scare. But, as Clarkson told me afterward, “The original motto since 1782, E Pluribus Unum, which still appears on the Great Seal of the United States, much better reflected the founding aspirations of unity amidst diversity.” Christianizing America means erasing the founders’ vision, the exact opposite of what Project Blitz pretends.

Second, Project Blitz is deceptive about its true intentions. “It allows [Christian nationalists] to get lawmakers on the record on these issues, and achieve victories that they can then build on and work together as a caucus,” Gill noted. “This is meant to be easy things to achieve that don’t give away the entire project.”

These issues seem generally unrelated to specific policy decisions such as religious exemptions on foster care and adoption, or religious refusal of medical care, Gill continued. “But the Project Blitz guide shows that they really are related because conceptually this is how the opposition is thinking about these issues, and they’re working to build momentum from one issue to another.”

Furthermore, for progressives to “take these issues one by one” is a mistake, Gill said. “It makes it more difficult to actively oppose them. And as I mentioned, these bills are pushing through the legislature without enough opposition to really stop them, in many cases.”

Without a well-informed opposition, there’s no telling how much damage Project Blitz could do. “While the ‘In God We Trust’ bills are presented as the least controversial, there is an ugliness that lies just beneath the surface that revealed itself in the wake of debate on the measure in the Minnesota state senate,” Clarkson said.  “After Democratic Sen. John Marty spoke against the bill, he was smeared on Fox News … falsely described as part of an ‘anti-faith movement’ that seeks to ‘suppress’ religion and ‘wipe it out of government.’

“Project Blitz strategists thought they could gain political advantage by getting opponents on the record, so their votes and statements could be used against them,” Clarkson continued. At least in this case,  it backfired spectacularly.

In a subsequent appearance on Fox, Marty defended the integrity of his faith and his stance against the bill. He insisted that posting “In God We Trust” in the public schools is offensive to both religious believers and the non-religious. And, speaking as a Christian, he said that “the government sanctioned motto does not strengthen our religion, but it demeans, devalues and cheapens our religion.”

Marty explained that he is “the great-grandson of a Lutheran minister, the grandson of a minister, the son of one, the brother of a minister, and soon, the father of one.” Rather than continue to give Marty a platform, the right-wing smears stopped.

“The third category is ‘religious liberty’ protection legislation, and this is the real attack on equality, and the most impactful policy changes” Gill said. “For example, policy statements that are passed as resolutions that favor married heterosexual couples, or maintenance of birth gender, which is a very awkward phrase I’d never heard before seeing it in this document.” Bills in this category, “are basically religious exceptions to the law, either broader or more narrow … that would allow people to discriminate on the basis of their religion.”

Regaining clarity on religious freedom

This is where Platt’s analysis becomes essential. “The Christian right has been extremely effective over the past five or so years in branding progressives as anti-religious freedom, even while we know at the same time the far right and the Trump administration, is quite overtly attacking religious freedom through the promulgation of Islamophobic policies like the Muslim ban,” Platt noted. “They’ve managed to conflate that term with particular, narrow protections for conservative religious beliefs about sex, marriage and reproduction, while totally ignoring the enormous variety of views that we know people of faith – including Christians – have had on these matters. And, of course, ignoring completely the very existence of LGBTQ people of faith.”

Most importantly, Platt pointed out, “The primary way that they’ve been able to do this is by framing the issue of religious exemption as an absolute zero-sum conflict between the value of religious liberty on the one hand, and secular values like LGBTQ rights or abortion rights on the other.” The only way to resolve this conflict is via religious exemptions.

“On these terms, within this sort of zero-sum conflict, they manage to elicit quite a bit of sympathy from institutional actors, I can think, most notably, of someone like Justice [Anthony] Kennedy, who to some extent supports LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights … but just feels very deeply uncomfortable coming off in any way as seeming to be anti-religious liberty.” Both in Obergefell (which legalized same-sex marriage) and Masterpiece Cake Shop (which allowed religious discrimination), Platt said that it was evident in Kennedy’s opinions that he was “concerned about being perceived as being condemning anyone who holds conservative religious belief about sex and marriage.

“Even opponents of these Project Blitz exemption bills have sort of bought into this framework of accepting certain exemption bills as protective of religious liberty,” Platt continued. “For example, when we argue against a law that specifically exempts religious objectors to a civil rights law by saying, ‘Well, religious liberty isn’t an excuse to discriminate,’ or ‘Religious liberty is a shield, but not a sword,’ I think there’s a way in which we’re playing on their turf by assuming that this explicitly anti-LGBTQ law is actually in furtherance of religious liberty in the first instance.”

Her point might seem subtle, but it’s crucially important. “We’re sort of accepting this conflict between the value of religious liberty, and the value of LGBTQ people’s civil rights and we’re just saying that we think that the civil rights should win out,” Platt said. “But I think a very strong argument can be made that the exemption bills that carve about narrow exceptions for conservative religious views don’t protect religious liberty at all, and in fact do the opposite.”

It all comes back to basics, Platt explained: “If we know anything about the First Amendment, and about religious liberty law, it’s that the government should not single out certain theological views for special protection, especially at the expense of other peoples who don’t share those views. So at my project we have tried to be careful in reframing the way we talk about religious exemption to make sure we are clear that exemptions that advance conservative religious beliefs are not just bad for secular people and are not just bad for LGBT people or for women. They’re actually really harmful to religious liberty and religious plurality.”

In the Masterpiece Cake Shop opinion, “There’s a real focus … on the importance of religious neutrality,” she said. “But a law that singles out only conservative religious views on sex, marriage and reproduction for this kind of sweeping exemption from all sorts of different laws — that’s not treating religion neutrally. It’s placing the government in a position of taking a theological stance on a particular religious belief that deserves total exemption from the law.”

That’s exactly what government establishment of religion looks like. It’s the very negation of the First Amendment. But that’s not the only contradiction.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that the court quickly abandoned its commitment to religious neutrality last session,” Platt said. “Just about week after Masterpiece Cake Shop, it issued its opinion in Trump v. Hawaii, the Muslim ban case, where the court not only overlooked the commitment to neutrality, it refused to even look behind the Trump administration’s proffered non-discriminatory motive for enacting that travel ban, with a very clear evidence that it was being motivated by Islamophobic animus.”

Platt identified three ways the Project Blitz exemption bills “”limit rather than enhance religious liberties.” First, they favor certain views, rather than protecting everyone’s views. Second, “they require people to subsidize religious beliefs that they don’t themselves hold.” And third, “some of the proposed exemptions overtly allow discrimination against religious minorities,” such as a recently-passed Texas bill that “allows religious foster care agencies to refuse to place children in non-Christian families.”

Rather than seeing religious freedom in zero-sum conflict with civil rights law, Platt suggested the opposite is true. “Civil rights laws are what allows religious minorities to participate in the public economy without having to hide their faith. So carving holes in civil rights law really harms the cause of religious liberty.

“My take away from all of this would just be don’t play on their turf,” Platt said. “Don’t buy into their idea that all religious exemptions enhance religious liberty, and don’t buy into an inherent conflict between religious liberty and civil rights. These exemptions are … actually violating religious liberty.”

Project Blitz’s two components

With these insights in mind, let’s return to some more of Gill’s detailed account of Project Blitz’s two components. First, she explained, “These prayer caucuses are fairly misleading. Lawmakers who are members of the prayer caucuses may not be aware that the prayer caucuses are a part of Project Blitz, or even aware what Project Blitz is. A prayer caucus sort of signifies a caucus devoted to religion or faith or prayer, and doesn’t necessarily indicate that it’s a right-wing project to push for really conservative legislation.”

This deception is perfectly in keeping with the basic character of Project Blitz. By deceiving caucus members about its ultimate goals and purposes, it can then deceive others as well. “This has been used to … create legitimacy for the bills that the prayers caucuses move forward with,” Gill said. “And this happened in several states to bring both Democrats into the prayer caucus to introduce or support bills, even though they might oppose some of the other aims of Project Blitz.”

The second component is the state policy guide, including the three categories of bills I’ve already discussed. In addition to those categories and the model legislation in them, there are also talking points and resources. “Interestingly, they include common arguments that they think the opposition — that is us — will use, and they talk about how to defuse our talking points, and how you basically work around them,” Gill noted.

What’s next from Project Blitz

Gill moved on to discuss what to expect from Project Blitz this coming year. First is bills they’ve had some success with last year — “In God We Trust” bills and religious exceptions in foster care and adoption. Second, in the wake of the Masterpiece Cake Shop decision, more “First Amendment Defense Acts,” aimed at expanding religious exceptions. Third, the Project Blitz policy guide highlights three areas they intend to focus on.

“The first is establishing ‘In God We trust’ license plates,” which can be used to donate money to different organizations or causes, “in some states to even fund organizations that are opposed to LGBT equality. … It’s not only about starting to spread this Christian nationalist narrative, it also can be used to fund negative causes,” Gill said.

“It’s of a piece with the wider effort to promote the display of the national motto everywhere they can. In this case via what they call ‘moving billboards,’” Clarkson added in a followup email.  “Project Blitz claims … that the phrase has no specific religious meaning. But this is belied by the mission statement of the main sponsoring organization. They say they are promoting ‘the Judeo-Christian heritage’ of the country as they see it. There is, of course, little that can be construed as ‘Judeo’ about their vision.”

He went to note, “It’s true that many backers of the slogan saw it as broadly inclusive enough when it was first adopted by Congress as the national motto in the ’50s.  But of course it does not include polytheistic and non-theistic minority religions or those who hold to no religious beliefs. By today’s standards it is rightly seen as exclusivist and offensive.” He again referred to John Marty, the Minnesota state senator, who “objectsin part because he sees it as so generic and watered-down that it offends his own deep Christian beliefs.”

More broadly, Clarkson noted, “The backers of Project Blitz, notably David Barton, are at least Christian nationalists, and in some cases, overt Dominionists. This agenda is clear in the wider context of the Project Blitz legislative package. They see the ‘In God We Trust’ campaign as a step in the direction of their more oppressive legislation, as well as helping to build the political movement required to get it done.”

The second area highlighted would be “resolutions to establish public policy favoring heterosexual married sexual relations,” Gill said, resolutions that contain a lot of “medical garbage … statistics and other sorts of language talking about how heterosexual married sexual relations are the only healthy kind, and that LGBT people are unhealthy or destructive.”

I found this puzzling, since Project Blitz can’t outlaw gay marriage, no matter how much its supporters may want to. I asked Clarkson what the purpose of such resolutions might be.

“Their apparent purpose,” he said, “is to help persuade legislators and executive branch program administrators that not only religious but public health exemptions from the law need to be created and perhaps litigated, to chip away at marriage equality, in the sense that not all marriages need be treated equally under the law. But also to erode the rights of LGBTQ people generally.”

Clarkson elaborated on the “medical garbage” behind such resolutions. “There are pages and pages of material of questionable scientific value about LGBTQ people, but there is nothing about public health and medical data regarding heterosexuals,” he said. “For example, the costs of heart disease so prevalent among men or obesity in the population at large. Focusing a telescopic lens on certain data, without qualification, to the exclusion of all else is obvious, bigoted fear-mongering.”

The third area Gill cited was “religious speech in public schools, so teachers and students [may] engage in prayer in public schools.”  Clarkson offered more information.

“There is a guidance issued by the Department of Education in 2003 that established guidelines regarding private religious expression in public schools, aimed primarily at certifying that schools are accommodating prayer during both instructional and non-instructional time,” Clarkson responded. ‘Christian right groups feel that it has been inadequately enforced over the years.”

Frankly, that guidance doesn’t seem especially helpful to the Christian right’s cause. It reads in part:

The Supreme Court’s decisions over the past forty years set forth principles that distinguish impermissible governmental religious speech from the constitutionally protected private religious speech of students. For example, teachers and other public school officials may not lead their classes in prayer, devotional readings from the Bible, or other religious activities. Nor may school officials attempt to persuade or compel students to participate in prayer or other religious activities. Such conduct is “attributable to the State” and thus violates the Establishment Clause.

So what are they trying to accomplish here? “I think it has to do with getting states on board with enforcement and compliance,” Clarkson replied. “Getting all the states to focus on enforcement and getting that administrative piece in place may allow them to push the boundaries of the meaning of religious expression in the public schools. It may also set the stage for litigation against state, local and regional school boards.”

What all this shows is an increasingly complex battlefield unfolding. The more special exemptions are allowed under law, the more they will be used to open new battlefronts. And there’s likely no end in sight.

In his closing remarks during the webinar, Clarkson said he wanted to “underscore that Project Blitz is a serious effort” and that “whatever the ups and downs” of Christian nationalists’ political fortunes might be, they’re in this for the long haul. Progressives need a similar mindset. “What we learn about all this now,” he concluded, “especially about what they have learned, will serve us well going forward.”

==

2x?

==

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/why-christian-nationalism-is-an-existential-threat-to-democracy/

no lnx

Why Christian nationalism is an existential threat to democracy

Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly November 26, 2019

It probably shouldn’t surprise us that, after hearing from witnesses who testified consistently that the president attempted to bribe a foreign head of state in order to get dirt on a political opponent, the needle hasn’t moved on those who oppose impeachment. We’ve been here before. On several occasions, hopes have been raised that this is the moment Trump’s enablers will finally abandon him. But it has never happened.

Given that the president’s base of support comes primarily from white evangelicals, it is important to understand Christian nationalism in order to explain their loyalty. One of the court evangelicals, Franklin Graham, recently gave us a window into that world.

During his November 21 interview with Graham, Metaxas, a Salem Radio Network talk-show host, asked the son of the late evangelist Billy Graham, “What do you think of what is happening now? I mean, it’s a very bizarre situation to be living in a country where some people seem to exist to undermine the president of the United States. It’s just a bizarre time for most Americans.”

Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, responded, “Well, I believe it’s almost a demonic power that is trying—”

At which point Metaxas interjected, “I would disagree. It’s not almost demonic. You know and I know, at the heart, it’s a spiritual battle.”

Graham agreed…

As Peter Wehner summarized, the message is that, in this “spiritual battle,” we all have to chose sides.

For Graham and Metaxas, it appears that agreeing with them equates to agreeing with God—and disagreeing with them, at least when it comes to Donald Trump, means doing the work of the evil one.

For these Christian nationalists, it’s not enough to say, “God is on our side.” If you don’t agree with them, you are engaged with a demonic power. There is no authoritarian tool more controlling than the one that wields the power to define the playing field like that. It is a pronouncement that leaves no room for debate or nuance. You’re either all in or all out. Anyone who buys into what they’re saying has no choice but to defend Trump. To do otherwise is a pathway to eternal doom with the devil.

To further the argument that God is on Trump’s side, Rick Perry recently opined about how the president is the “chosen one.”

Courtney Hagle

@CourtneyHagle

Fox & Friends preview an interview with Rick Perry, where he says that Trump is "the chosen one" and "sent by God to do great things"

Pete Hegseth: "God has used imperfect people forever," but what Trump "has withstood is unlike what really any other mortal could understand"

Embedded video

Apparently, Perry also said that Obama was chosen by God. It’s funny how we never heard that when Obama was actually president. But what Perry was articulating is a theological argument for the omnipotence of God, who has unlimited power to control everything. Leaving that one aside for the moment, it is worth examining the rhetoric Perry used.

“I actually gave the president a little one-pager on those Old Testament kings about a month ago, and I shared it with him,” he continued. “I said, ‘Mr. President, I know there are people that say you said you were the chosen one, and I said, ‘You were.’”

“I said, ‘If you’re a believing Christian, you understand God’s plan for the people who rule and judge over us on this planet in our government,’” he added.

He was comparing Trump to kings in the Old Testament and referred to God’s plan for those who rule over us. That goes to the heart of something Katherine Stewart wrote about Christian nationalists.

The great thing about kings like Cyrus, as far as today’s Christian nationalists are concerned, is that they don’t have to follow rules. They are the law. This makes them ideal leaders in paranoid times…

I have attended dozens of Christian nationalist conferences and events over the past two years. And while I have heard plenty of comments casting doubt on the more questionable aspects of Mr. Trump’s character, the gist of the proceedings almost always comes down to the belief that he is a miracle sent straight from heaven to bring the nation back to the Lord. I have also learned that resistance to Mr. Trump is tantamount to resistance to God.

This isn’t the religious right we thought we knew. The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. They aren’t fighting a culture war. They’re making a direct attack on democracy itself.

As you can see, Graham wasn’t the first one to claim that “resistance to Trump is tantamount to resistance to God.” Stewart has been hearing that one for a few years.

We have to grapple with the fact that Christian nationalists are launching a “direct attack on democracy itself.” That is because real democracy poses a threat to the kind of authoritarianism they embrace. The roots of that were explained by William Barr during his speech to the law school at Notre Dame. He began by articulating his own view of human nature.

Men are subject to powerful passions and appetites, and, if unrestrained, are capable of ruthlessly riding roughshod over their neighbors and the community at large.

No society can exist without some means for restraining individual rapacity.

Barr goes on to suggest that, when the founders talked about self government, they didn’t mean what we think they did.

In the words of Madison, “We have staked our future on the ability of each of us to govern ourselves…”

This is really what was meant by “self-government.” It did not mean primarily the mechanics by which we select a representative legislative body. It referred to the capacity of each individual to restrain and govern themselves.

But if individual rapacity is the problem, what is the source of those restraints?

[T]o control willful human beings, with an infinite capacity to rationalize, those moral values must rest on authority independent of men’s will – they must flow from a transcendent Supreme Being.

In short, in the Framers’ view, free government was only suitable and sustainable for a religious people – a people who recognized that there was a transcendent moral order antecedent to both the state and man-made law and who had the discipline to control themselves according to those enduring principles.

When you combine that with the belief among Christian nationalists that the only true religion is Christianity, you have the antithesis of democratic pluralism. Instead, you have authoritarian theocracy. That loops us back to Franklin Graham and the rest of the court evangelicals, who take it upon themselves to define who is on God’s side and who is doing the work of the devil.

Years ago, Sara Robinson captured what it takes to leave that kind of authoritarian mindset.

We must never, ever underestimate what it costs these people to let go of the beliefs that have sustained them…Externally, it always means the loss of your community; and often the loss of jobs, homes, marriages, and blood relatives as well. Internally, it requires sifting through every assumption you’ve ever made about how the world works, and your place within it; and demands that you finally take the very emotional and intellectual risks that the entire edifice was designed to protect you from. You have to learn, maybe for the first time, to face down fear and live with ambiguity.

While the loss of community can be traumatic, the prospect of “sifting through every assumption you’ve ever made about how the world works” is overwhelming. As she points out, the entire edifice is designed to protect you from fear and the threat of ambiguity. For most people, scaling that one is too much to ask.

I’m not going to suggest that it is impossible for Trump’s supporters to change their minds. But when we watch them reject one rational case after another, it is important to understand the depths of what binds them, as well as the threat that poses to our democracy.

==

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/far-right-white-evangelicals-despite-impeachment-and-the-ukraine-scandal-still-see-trump-as-the-chosen-one/

no lnx

Far-right white evangelicals — despite impeachment and the Ukraine scandal — still see Trump as ‘the Chosen One’

Written by Alex Henderson November 27, 2019

==

endit1