trinity crouch TBN

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</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="font-size: medium;"></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trinity-broadcasting-network/american-theocracy-trinity-broadcasting-networks-nightly-news-program">https://www.mediamatters.org/trinity-broadcasting-network/american-theocracy-trinity-broadcasting-networks-nightly-news-program</a></div><div style="font-size: medium;">
</div><div style="font-size: medium;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Trinity Broadcasting Network’s nightly news program Centerpoint repeatedly promoted Christian nationalism. Anchors and guests argue that the U.S. is a fundamentally Christian nation and encourage viewers to <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006341" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">support Donald Trump</a> in order to fulfill God’s wishes.TBN is an explicitly Christian broadcaster known globally for its televangelism and Christian lifestyle content. The network <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/03/08/trinity-broadcasting-network-centerpoint-fox-news" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reaches</a> around 95 million households via satellite, broadcasts 14 languages across 175 countries, and contains an extensive streaming portfolio. In 2022, TBN set its sights on a new type of programming ahead of the 2024 election: news. On March 23, 2022, TBN launched <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/24/evangelical-tv-network-tbn-launch-nightly-newsanal/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Centerpoint</a>, a 30-minute nightly news program produced by former Newsmax CEO Michael Clemente and initially anchored by ex-Fox correspondent Doug McKelway. According to Axios, the network <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/03/08/trinity-broadcasting-network-centerpoint-fox-news" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">claimed</a> the “programming isn't meant to be politically biased, but will lean into Christian values.” The anchor lineup has shifted multiple times featuring various Christian voices such as Pastor Allen Jackson and former politician Rob Astorino, but recently TBN successfully poached yet another Newsmax expat, <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/05/18/2023/christian-rival-to-fox-poaches-newsmax-host" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Lyndsay Keith</a>. Keith <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006359" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">joined</a> former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on the May 20 edition of his TBN program, Huckabee, where she said, “You know, a lot of times news comes to you through a lens, a liberal lens or a conservative lens, and we have opportunities to show through a biblical lens.” This line between a “biblical lens” and outright Christian nationalism — the belief that America is a fundamentally Christian nation that should be governed by right-wing Christian beliefs — is often muddy on Centerpoint. The growing trend of Christian nationalism poses a real threat to a multicultural democracy. From the think tank, the <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/christian-nationalism-is-single-biggest-threat-to-americas-religious-freedom/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Center for American Progress</a>:</div></div><blockquote class="block-quote block-quote--collapsable" style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247); box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="block-quotequote" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 1.5rem;">At its core, this idea threatens the principle of the separation of church and state and undermines the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It also leads to discrimination, and at times violence, against religious minorities and the nonreligious. Christian nationalism is also a contributing ideology in the religious right’s misuse of religious liberty as a rationale for circumventing laws and regulations aimed at protecting a pluralistic democracy, such as nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQI+ people, women, and religious minorities.</div></blockquote><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Different forms of Christian nationalist rhetoric are regularly spread on TBN's supposedly apolitical evening news show by both guests and network personalities.<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;">Christian nationalism is apparent in TBN’s nightly news show</h2><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; clear: both; list-style: none; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 3rem; position: relative;">Anchor Doug McKelway questioned if God would “allow for revolution” to get the United States “back in order.” McKelway asked his guest, “If we are unable to get our house back in order according to God's tenets, Jesus’ tenets, … is he willing to allow for revolution?” [TBN, Centerpoint, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006293" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">4/10/23</a>]</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 3rem; position: relative;">TBN host and former actor Kirk Cameron pushed the Christian nationalist claim that America was built on “biblical principles” and advocated for Christians to assume postions of power. He further claimed that Christianity “is in our DNA as Americans. This is a nation that was built with the idea of biblical principles and a free constitutional republic as our framework.” Cameron concluded, “If we don’t assume positions of leadership in the country, it will be given to those with lesser values.” [TBN, Centerpoint, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4003588" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">3/30/23</a>]</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 3rem; position: relative;">Pastor Jentezen Franklin warned of a godless society and promoted the pro-Trump America First Policy Institutes' new Biblical Foundations project that aims to instill God “back into every aspect” of daily life, calling for the “merging of faith and politics.” “America was founded by our founders that had faith,” Franklin said. “What we believe is that Christianity will survive without America. But America will not survive without Christianity and without the foundations of the word of God.” Franklin went on to claim that foundations of Christianity are vital to American life, further tying the country to a single religion. [TBN, Centerpoint, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006295" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">3/27/23</a>]</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 3rem; position: relative;">Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) said during an appearance on Centerpoint “God wants us to make America great again” and encouraged viewers to “vote for candidates that represent biblical values.” According to Allen, God is personally invested in the U.S and Trump’s success, saying, “God wants us to make America great again, for crying out loud. Who would be against that?” [TBN, Centerpoint, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006341" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">3/22/23</a>]</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 3rem; position: relative;">Anchor Lyndsay Keith used the Uvalde shooting mourning to call for displaying the Christian Ten Commandments in public schools. Over footage of grieving families on the one-year anniversary of the school shooting, Keith said, “It was quite clear that they were honoring their loved ones in prayer. So we raise the question, why would anyone think that a dose of faith, religion, or a poster of the Ten Commandments be such a bad thing in our classrooms?” [TBN, Centerpoint, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006312" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">5/24/23</a>] </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 3rem; position: relative;">Centerpoint guest and Former NFL player Jack Brewer advocated for the Ten Commandments to be taught in public schools, and blamed teen violence on the lack of prayer in these institutions. According to Brewer, “It goes back to morality and not having that fear of God, you know, being in the school system that doesn't teach God, that removes prayer, that doesn't even teach the basic Ten Commandments to set some type of morality in these children.” He concluded, “We’re not going to be able to play the secular route like we have in the past because there really is a line in the sand, and which side are you going to be on? ” [TBN, Centerpoint, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006313" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">4/14/23</a>]</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 3rem; position: relative;">TBN host Shawn Bolz praised Trump and said he also advocated for Jesus and prayer to be taught in public schools. Despite <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/constitutional-amendment-school-prayer#:_{:text=No%20person%20shall%20be%20required,be%20said%20in%20public%20schools.%22}" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">constitutional issues</a>, Bolz claimed Trump said, “We need religion like we never needed it before. We need Jesus back in schools and prayer back in schools, and he really stood with the faith community and said part of the reason why this is happening is because we have gone so far from religious core values in America and for morality.” [TBN, Centerpoint, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006315" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">4/5/23</a>]</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 3rem; position: relative;">Centerpoint guest and Former Trump Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson argued for more federally sanctioned prayer and claimed that Christianity is a key component of America's identity because of the message “in God we trust” on U.S. currency. According to Carson, “When you think about the fact that our pledge of allegiance says we're one nation under God. All of our coins, all of our bills say, “In God we trust,” so it should be an essential part of our identity and who we are and how we act.” [TBN, Centerpoint, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006339" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">1/30/23</a>]</li></ul><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;">Christian nationalism on TBN goes beyond Centerpoint</h2>TBN has a large range of shows that blend Christian lifestyle and talk show-style programming with politics, news, and religion. Takeaways with Kirk Cameron is one such show that sometimes crosses the threshold of Christian media into Christian nationalist propaganda. In one episode, Cameron incorrectly <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006332" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">claimed</a> U.S. culture was rooted in the Bible: “We’ve got an incredible legacy and an incredible culture here, and it's rooted in the Bible. And if we turn back to thinking biblically, I think that we can again see the fruit of liberty and justice and the fruit of the spirit characterizing the country."In another, Cameron <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4006337" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">gushed</a> over the National Monument to the Forefathers, a relatively unknown monument in Plymouth, Massachusetts, celebrating the Mayflower Pilgrims. Cameron praised the monument for supposedly representing that “man's laws must always line up under God's laws or they're not good laws.” (Cameron appears to have fixated on this monument, creating a full <a href="http://www.monumentalmovie.com/" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">movie</a> about it and <a href="https://store.americancampfirerevival.com/products/small-forefathers-monument" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">selling replicas</a> from his online store. March 13, 2023, edition of Trinity Broadcasting Network's Takeaways with Kirk Cameron</div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Cameron has a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trinity-broadcasting-network/far-right-christian-media-figure-kirk-cameron-trying-sow-conflict" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">history</a> of promoting Christian nationalism both on and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4003297" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">off</a> TBN. He is currently pushing a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230324154045/https://bravebooks.us/pages/bb-story-hour" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">campaign against local libraries</a> that involves reading conservative children’s books to “win back Story Hour and stand up for truth and Biblical values.” The <a href="https://bravebooks.us/collections/coming-soon?al_pg_id=a065a45a-68a0-4291-b75a-8e89d9aa8262" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">books</a> are intended to instill “pro-God, Pro-America” values, and Cameron has threatened to <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4003310" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">sue</a> “woke libraries” if he is unable to read them.</div></div></div><div style="font-size: medium;">=</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/donald-trump-chrisian-fascists" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/donald-trump-chrisian-fascists</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump’s ideological vacuum, the more he is isolated and attacked, is being filled by the Christian right. This Christianized fascism, with its network of megachurches, schools, universities and law schools and its vast radio and television empire, is a potent ally for a beleaguered White House. The Christian right has been organizing and preparing to take power for decades. If the nation suffers another economic collapse, which is probably inevitable, another catastrophic domestic terrorist attack or a new war, President Trump’s ability to force the Christian right’s agenda on the public and shut down dissent will be dramatically enhanced. In the presidential election, Trump had <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/eighty-one-percent-of-white-evangelicals-voted-for-donald-trump-why/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">81 percent</a> of white evangelicals behind him.Trump’s moves to restrict abortion, defund Planned Parenthood, permit discrimination against LGBT people in the name of “religious liberty” and allow churches to become active in politics by gutting the <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/johnson-amendment-trump-religious-liberty-594630" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Johnson Amendment</a>, along with his nominations of judges championed by the <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/01/how_the_federalist_society_became_the_de_facto_selector_of_republican_supreme.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Federalist Society</a> and his call for a ban on Muslim immigrants, have endeared him to the Christian right. He has rolled back civil rights legislation and business and environmental regulations. He has elevated several stalwarts of the Christian right into power—Mike Pence to the vice presidency, Jeff Sessions to the Justice Department, Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, Betsy DeVos to the Department of Education, Tom Price to Health and Human Services and Ben Carson to Housing and Urban Development. He embraces the white supremacy, bigotry, American chauvinism, greed, religious intolerance, anger and racism that define the Christian right.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeZadaJuzoY" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Click here</a> for a 2007 video of Chris Hedges speaking about his book “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.”More important, Trump’s disdain for facts and his penchant for <a href="http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/magical-thinking" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">magical thinking</a> and conspiracy theories mesh well with the worldview of the Christian right, which sees itself as under attack by the satanic forces of <a href="http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/2001/06/what-secular-humanists-believe.aspx" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">secular humanism</a> embodied in the media, academia, the liberal establishment, Hollywood and the Democratic Party. In this worldview, climate change is not real, Barack Obama is a Muslim and millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election.The followers of the Christian right, like Trump and his brain trust, including Stephen Bannon, are <a href="https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Manichean" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Manicheans</a>. They see the world in black and white, good and evil, them and us. Trump’s call in his speech in Poland for a crusade against the godless hoards of Muslims fleeing from the wars and chaos we created replicates the view of the Christian right. Christian right leaders in a sign of support went to the White House on July 10 to pray over Trump. Two days later Pat Robertson showed up there to interview the president for his Christian Broadcasting Network.If the alliance between these zealots and the government succeeds, it will snuff out the last vestiges of American democracy.On the surface it appears to be incongruous that the Christian right would rally behind a slick New York real estate developer who is a very public serial philanderer and adulterer, has no regard for the truth, is consumed by greed, does not appear to read or know the Bible, routinely defrauds and cheats his investors and contractors, expresses a crude misogyny and an even cruder narcissism and appears to yearn for despotism. In fact, these are the very characteristics that define most of the leaders of the Christian right. Trump has preyed on desperate people through the thousands of slot machines in his casinos, his sham university and his real estate deals. Megachurch pastors prey on their followers by extracting “seed offerings,” “love gifts,” tithes and donations and by selling miracle healings along with “prayer clothes,” self-help books, audio and video recordings and even protein shakes. Pastors have established within their megachurches, as Trump did in his businesses, despotic fiefdoms. They cannot be challenged or questioned any more than an omnipotent Trump could be challenged on the reality television show “The Apprentice.” And they seek to replicate their little tyrannies on a national scale, with white men in charge.The personal piety of most of the ministers who lead the Christian right is a facade. Their private lives are usually marked by hedonistic squalor that includes mansions, private jets, limousines, retinues of bodyguards, personal assistants and servants, shopping sprees, lavish vacations and sexual escapades that rival those carried out by Trump. And because they run “churches,” in many cases church funds pay for their tax-free empires, including their extravagant lifestyles. They also engage in the nepotism found in the Trump organization, elevating family members to prominent or highly paid positions and passing on the businesses to their children.The Christian right’s scandals, which give a glimpse into the sordid lives of these multimillionaire pastors, are legion. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Praise the Lord Club, for example, raked in as much as $1 million a week before Jim Bakker went to prison for nearly five years. He was convicted of fraud and other charges in 1989 because of a $158 million scheme in which followers paid for vacations that never materialized. As the Bakker empire came apart, there also were accusations of drug use and rape. Tammy Faye died in 2007, and now Jim Bakker is back, peddling survival food for the end days and telling his significantly reduced television audience that anyone who opposes Trump is the Antichrist.Paul and Jan Crouch, who gave the Bakkers their start, founded Trinity Broadcasting, the world’s largest televangelist network, now run by their son Matt and his wife, Laurie. Viewers were encouraged to call prayer counselors at the toll-free number shown at the bottom of the TV screen. It was a short step from talking with a prayer counselor to making a “love gift” and becoming a “partner” in Trinity Broadcasting and then sending in more money during one of the frequent Praise-a-Thons.The Crouches reveled in tasteless kitsch, as does Trump. They sat during their popular nightly program in front of stained glass windows that overlooked Louis XVI-inspired sets awash in gold rococo and red velvet, glittering chandeliers and a gold-painted piano. The network emblem, which Paul Crouch wore on the pocket of his blue double-breasted blazer, featured a crown, a lion, a horse, a white dove, a cross and Latin phrases among other elements. The Crouches would have been at home in Trump Tower, where the president has a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-mar-a-lago-crest-a-scam-new-york-times-finds_us_592c6f40e4b053f2d2ad7e75" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">faux “Trump crest”—allegedly plagiarized</a>—and has decorated his penthouse as if it was part of Versailles.The Crouches were masters of manipulation. They exhorted viewers to send in checks for $1,000, even if they could not afford it. Write the check anyway, Paul Crouch, who died in 2013, told them, as a “step of faith” and the Lord would repay them many times over. “Do you think God would have any trouble getting $1,000 extra to you somehow?” he asked during one Praise-a-Thon broadcast. Viewers, many of whom struggled with deep despair and believed that miracles and magic alone held them back from the abyss, often found it impossible to resist this emotional pressure.Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is home to many of the worst charlatans in the Christian right, including the popular healer Benny Hinn, who says that Adam was a superhero who could fly to the moon and claims that one day the dead will be raised by watching TBN from inside their coffins. Hinn claims his “anointings” have cured cancer, AIDS, deafness, blindness and numerous other ailments and physical injuries. Those who have not been cured, he says, did not send in enough money. These religious hucksters are some of the most accomplished con artists in the country, a trait they share with the current occupant of the Oval Office. I wrote a book on the Christian right in 2007 called “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.” I did not use the word “fascist” lightly. I spent several hours, at the end of two years of reporting, with two of the country’s foremost scholars on fascism—<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/books/fritz-stern-a-leading-historian-on-modern-germany-dies-at-90.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Fritz Stern</a> and <a href="http://history.columbia.edu/faculty/Paxton.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Robert O. Paxton</a>. Did this ideology fit the parameters of classical fascism? Was it virulent enough and organized enough to seize power? Would it go to the ruthless extremes of previous fascist movements to persecute and silence dissent? Has our <a href="https://www.google.com/#q=define+deindustrialization" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">deindustrialized society</a> replicated the crippling despair, alienation and rage that always feed fascist movements?The evangelicalism promoted by the Christian right is very different from the evangelicalism and fundamentalism of a century ago. The emphasis on personal piety that defined the old movement, the call to avoid the contamination of politics, has been replaced by <a href="https://carm.org/christian-reconstructionism-theonomy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Christian Reconstructionism</a>, called Dominionism by some. This new ideology is about taking control of all institutions, including the government, to build a “Christian” nation. Rousas John Rushdoony in his 1973 book, “The Institutes of Biblical Law,” first articulated it. Rushdoony argued that God gives the elect, just as he gave Adam and Noah, dominion over the earth to build a Christian society. Their state will come about with the physical eradication of the forces of Satan. It is the duty of the church and the elect to “rescue” the world so Christ can return.This is an ideology of death. It promises that the secular, humanist society will be physically destroyed. The Ten Commandments will form the basis of our legal system. <a href="https://www.google.com/#q=Creationism" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Creationism</a> or “<a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ehrBzk9DQHAJ:www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2005/05/creationism_vs_intelligent_design.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Intelligent Design</a>” will be taught in public schools. People who are considered social deviants, including homosexuals, immigrants, secular humanists, feminists, Jews, Muslims, criminals and those dismissed as “nominal Christians”—meaning Christians who do not embrace the Christian right’s perverted and heretical interpretation of the Bible—will be silenced, imprisoned or killed. The role of the federal government will be reduced to protecting property rights, “homeland” security and waging war. Church organizations will be funded and empowered by the government to run social-welfare agencies. The poor, condemned for sloth, indolence and sinfulness, will be denied government assistance. The death penalty will be expanded to include “moral crimes,” including apostasy, blasphemy, sodomy and witchcraft, as well as abortion, which will be treated as murder. Women will be subordinate to men. Those who practice other faiths will become, at best, second-class citizens and eventually outcasts. The wars in the Middle East will be defined as religious crusades against Muslims. There will be no separation of church and state. The only legitimate voices will be “Christian.” America will become an agent of God. Those who defy the “Christian” authorities will be branded as agents of Satan.Tens of millions of Americans are already hermetically sealed within this bizarre worldview. They are given a steady diet of conspiracy theories and lies on the internet, in their churches, in Christian schools and colleges and on Christian television and radio. <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/she-was-the-steve-bannon-of-the-great-depression" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Elizabeth Dilling</a>, who wrote “The Red Network” and was a Nazi sympathizer, is required reading. Thomas Jefferson, who favored separation of church and state, is ignored. This Christian propaganda hails the “significant contributions” of the Confederacy. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who led the anti-communist witch hunts in the 1950s, is rehabilitated as an American hero. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along with the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, is defined as part of the worldwide battle against satanic Islamic terror. Presently, nearly 40 percent of the U.S. public believes in Creationism or “Intelligent Design.” And nearly a third of the population, 94 million people, consider themselves evangelical.Those who remain in a reality-based universe often dismiss these malcontents as buffoons. They do not take seriously the huge segment of the public, mostly white and working class, who because of economic distress have primal yearnings for vengeance, new glory and moral renewal and are easily seduced by magical thinking. These are the yearnings and emotions Trump has exploited politically.Those who embrace this movement need to feel, even if they are not, that they are victims surrounded by dark and sinister groups bent on their destruction. They need to elevate themselves to the role of holy warriors, infused with a noble calling and purpose. They need to sanctify the rage and hypermasculinity that are the core of fascism. The rigidity and simplicity of their belief, which includes being anointed for a special purpose in life by God, are potent weapons in the fight against their own demons and desire for meaning.“Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty,” <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Simone-Weil" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Simone Weil</a> wrote.These believers, like all fascists, detest the reality-based world. They condemn it as contaminated, decayed and immoral. This world took their jobs. It destroyed their future. It ruined their communities. It doomed their children. It flooded their lives with alcohol, opioids, pornography, sexual abuse, jail sentences, domestic violence, deprivation and despair. And then, from the depths of suicidal despair, they suddenly discovered that God has a plan for them. God will save them. God will intervene in their lives to promote and protect them. God has called them to carry out his holy mission in the world and to be rich, powerful and happy.The rational, secular forces, those that speak in the language of fact and evidence, are hated and feared, for they seek to pull believers back into “the culture of death” that nearly destroyed them. The magical belief system, as it was for impoverished German workers who flocked to the Nazi Party, is an emotional life raft. It is all that supports them. The only way to blunt this movement is to reintegrate these people into the economy, to give them economic stability through good wages and benefits, to restore their self-esteem. They need to live in a society that is not predatory but instead provides well-funded public schools, free university education and universal health care, a society in which they and their families can prosper.Let us not stand at the open gates of the city waiting passively for the barbarians. They are coming. They are slouching towards Bethlehem. Let us shake off our complacency and cynicism. Let us openly defy the liberal establishment, which will not save us, to demand and fight for economic reparations for the poor and the working class. Let us give all Americans a reality-based hope for the future. Time is running out. If we do not act, American fascists, clutching Christian crosses, waving American flags and orchestrating mass recitations of the pledge of allegiance, united behind the ludicrous figure of Donald Trump, will ride this rage to power. <div wibbitz="embed-main-player"><div class="bio-new body_story" style="width: 630px; line-height: 22px; height: auto; border-top: 3px solid rgb(223, 223, 218); clear: both;"><div class="author-bio">Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, writes a regular column for <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Truthdig</a> every Monday. Hedges' <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/bazaar/wages_of_rebellion" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">most recent book</a> is "Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt."</div></div></div><div>==</div></div>