It can't really be said too often. Good people tend to do good things and bad people bad things. But to get good people to do bad things usually requires religion.
Thank you Katherine Stewart for this eye-opening , hair-raising post!!!! This movement needs to have it's lid taken off and exposed to the light of day - horrible twisting of Christianity!!
A truly frightening article. I thought the animating principle of White Christian nationalism/facism was nativism, that they were 21st century Know-Nothings. What Ms. Stewart describes is far worse.
By their fruits ye shall know them. I seriously doubt that Jesus of Nazareth, or the early Church's Jesus Christ, would recognize these pretenders to Christianity as followers of what he actually taught in his lifetime. Welcome the stranger. Tend to the widow and the orphan. Love God, love your neighbor as yourself, and even love your enemies. What an ignorant, sad and sorry lot these pretenders are.
Yes, this is very frightening— Jeff Sharlet’s book “The Family” began exposing this in 2008 (there’s also a Netflix documentary by this name). The White Christian Nationalists have been slowly but surely working their way into government (the Family sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast). And now, Russell Vought who is at OMB, from the Heritage Foundation, one of the authors of Project 2025 is quietly dismantling the government and bringing in people who will do his bidding. The spotlight needs to be shining on him every day. BUT the bigger concern is—how do we stop this. As this article shows—they truly believe they are god’s chosen…and everyone else is not. Thus, they are hell bent and determined to remove those who are ‘not god’s chosen’ and they think they’re doing good work. It is a demolition derby mindset that seems impossible to interrupt.
The January 6th committee, I read somewhere, was going to include a section on these Christian nationalists, but it was dropped. Perhaps they were trying to avoid the criticism of being anti-religion, when they had so much other alarming evidence to put forward.
I had not seen that. But the spotlight needs to shine now. There is nothing religious or spiritual from these White Nationalists. They are after power and using Christianity as a cover to divert attention away from the power grab.
Yes, and... This is not "extreme fringe". Tune in to AM talk radio for one hour per week and you'll hear 24/7 hate and actual demonization (the left are all freedom-hating, baby killing demons). Once the other side is populated by evil demons, there's NOTHING that is prohibited in battling them.
Mythology such as religion that is believed, has hurt people for millenia. Let's move past it already.
The same people who say that Greek and Roman gods arise from the need to explain natural phenomena fully accept the Abrahamic and other, primarily monitheistic religions as truth; rather than as the myths that they in fact are.
I couldn’t have said it better. Religion was created by ignorant men who needed a tool for controlling the ignorant masses. Now that we are much less ignorant as a species, we no longer need ignorant men controlling us.
Ugh, mentioning Nat Turner and John Brown in the same breath as these current day terrorists is misleading and a sad example of both-sides-ism. Nat Turner led a revolt of people who were stolen from heir homelands, placed in chains for a trans-Atlantic journey that saw many die, then sold into life-long slavery where one's loved ones could be abused and sold off at the whim of a white master. John Brown, perhaps loosely analogous to the current anti-abortionists, was on a moral crusade. It should be noted the full weight of the federal government was brought down on him and he and his followers were hanged for an armed rebellion. These Christian Nationalists are little more than aggrieved losers who use the Bible to justify their paranoid delusions and justify their actions in the name of the Lord. They alone are the single most compelling reason to reopen mental institutions across the country where these people can get the help they need as they are a danger to others as well as themselves.
Mike Lee is a member of the world's greatest deliberative body. But he acts and speaks like a craven, mean spirited, hate-filled bigot. If you live in Utah, please write him a letter asking him to find a shred of compassion in his heart for the families of the Minnesotans who were unfortunate enough to be victims of a MAGA true believer. This link is a powerful way to come up to speed on the Despicable Mike:
The Kingdom The Power and The Glory by Tim Alberta is a good read. It’s about how some Evangelical Christians get it wrong by believing Trump was sent here by God to stop persecuting Christians. What Stewart has presented here is very similar. Christian Nationalism, Christian Fundamentalism or Religious Nationalism/Fundamentalism is the theme where political extremism often originates.
One bright spot in all this is the average age of these religious extremists is near 60 like Mr Boelter. That is one reason they are members of this white Christian nationalist movement of mainly Boomers that has chosen Trump as its unlikely leader.
In one sense they are desperate. They have to install a a fascist, white nationalist, semi-theocratic dictatorship now or it will be too late for them. Most people born after 1980 won't play that game.
Over the next few years we need to give maximum opposition to what these people are trying to do. Time is on our side if we can block the worst of what they want to do.
Yes, many in this extremist movement are boomers, but so are many of us who stand in opposition to them. Sadly, I remain to be convinced that those born after 1980 won't "play that game". I felt that way too when I graduated from college in 1970 about my generation, we weren't going to play the domination game we saw all around us. Something happens to folks as they age and feel left out of the economic boom others are enjoying, so they turn to fringe conspiracy theories to explain why they don't feel better off. Others who are younger look at what's going on around them and conclude they have no chance of a better life, and also turn to fringe conspiracy theories. I do agree with giving maximum opposition to the Donald's Democracy Demolition Derby, in the hope that time will allow us to block their worst, but we also need to articulate a stronger, more compelling and attractive of what the future we envision for all our citizens looks like. People change their minds and their behavior when a) they can no longer cling to what they thought they had, and b) they can see a more attractive option available to them. So, yes, fight back peaceably, and focus on a better vision of what can be if we join together to work for it.
Those born since 1980 are not as white and not as religious as earlier generations. They have also been screwed over by earlier generations, mainly Boomers, so they don't trust our institutions. They have been badly mistreated by inequality triggered by trickle-down and shareholder capitalism installed around 1980 and they know it. So no, I do not think they are going to go MAGA.
I agree we must strive for a more forward looking, optimistic future than the last forty+ years. Contrasted with the mess the right is pushing we might just do it.
One way to do that is retire the passive gerontocracy that is much of Democratic leadership.
We need nuance not sweeping generalization. A look at history shows that the Baby Boom generation also faced challenges with political assassinations, the push of Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and recession in the 1980s. Every generation faces challenges with which it must deal and blaming it on the previous generation does not deal with the challenges. Judge people by what they do, not by their age.
It can't really be said too often. Good people tend to do good things and bad people bad things. But to get good people to do bad things usually requires religion.
Very frightening analysis. Jerry Falwell's "silent majority" has graduated into the very loud, hateful and deadly minority.
Just a quibble. "Silent Majority" was Nixon. Falwell's was the " Moral Majority. " They were, of course, neither.
Thanks for this correction. This "presidency" is making me 3 days older every day.
Agreed!
Dominionists want to bring Armageddon because they believe God is going to deliver a whole shiny new earth to them.
All I can say is, Jesus wept.
Thank you Katherine Stewart for this eye-opening , hair-raising post!!!! This movement needs to have it's lid taken off and exposed to the light of day - horrible twisting of Christianity!!
I expect Jesus would be appalled. Divisiveness, racism, violence and hatred was not his main message.
A truly frightening article. I thought the animating principle of White Christian nationalism/facism was nativism, that they were 21st century Know-Nothings. What Ms. Stewart describes is far worse.
By their fruits ye shall know them. I seriously doubt that Jesus of Nazareth, or the early Church's Jesus Christ, would recognize these pretenders to Christianity as followers of what he actually taught in his lifetime. Welcome the stranger. Tend to the widow and the orphan. Love God, love your neighbor as yourself, and even love your enemies. What an ignorant, sad and sorry lot these pretenders are.
Yes, this is very frightening— Jeff Sharlet’s book “The Family” began exposing this in 2008 (there’s also a Netflix documentary by this name). The White Christian Nationalists have been slowly but surely working their way into government (the Family sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast). And now, Russell Vought who is at OMB, from the Heritage Foundation, one of the authors of Project 2025 is quietly dismantling the government and bringing in people who will do his bidding. The spotlight needs to be shining on him every day. BUT the bigger concern is—how do we stop this. As this article shows—they truly believe they are god’s chosen…and everyone else is not. Thus, they are hell bent and determined to remove those who are ‘not god’s chosen’ and they think they’re doing good work. It is a demolition derby mindset that seems impossible to interrupt.
The January 6th committee, I read somewhere, was going to include a section on these Christian nationalists, but it was dropped. Perhaps they were trying to avoid the criticism of being anti-religion, when they had so much other alarming evidence to put forward.
I had not seen that. But the spotlight needs to shine now. There is nothing religious or spiritual from these White Nationalists. They are after power and using Christianity as a cover to divert attention away from the power grab.
Yes, and... This is not "extreme fringe". Tune in to AM talk radio for one hour per week and you'll hear 24/7 hate and actual demonization (the left are all freedom-hating, baby killing demons). Once the other side is populated by evil demons, there's NOTHING that is prohibited in battling them.
More hate from Dutch Sheets:
https://religiondispatches.org/praying-for-god-to-snuff-out-judges-in-the-name-of-revival/
Americans United for the Separation of Chuch and State is the vanguard in the fight against these Christo-Facists.
https://www.au.org/
This article has helped me to understand the mindset of several of my cousins. A real eye opener.
Mythology such as religion that is believed, has hurt people for millenia. Let's move past it already.
The same people who say that Greek and Roman gods arise from the need to explain natural phenomena fully accept the Abrahamic and other, primarily monitheistic religions as truth; rather than as the myths that they in fact are.
I couldn’t have said it better. Religion was created by ignorant men who needed a tool for controlling the ignorant masses. Now that we are much less ignorant as a species, we no longer need ignorant men controlling us.
Ugh, mentioning Nat Turner and John Brown in the same breath as these current day terrorists is misleading and a sad example of both-sides-ism. Nat Turner led a revolt of people who were stolen from heir homelands, placed in chains for a trans-Atlantic journey that saw many die, then sold into life-long slavery where one's loved ones could be abused and sold off at the whim of a white master. John Brown, perhaps loosely analogous to the current anti-abortionists, was on a moral crusade. It should be noted the full weight of the federal government was brought down on him and he and his followers were hanged for an armed rebellion. These Christian Nationalists are little more than aggrieved losers who use the Bible to justify their paranoid delusions and justify their actions in the name of the Lord. They alone are the single most compelling reason to reopen mental institutions across the country where these people can get the help they need as they are a danger to others as well as themselves.
Mike Lee is a member of the world's greatest deliberative body. But he acts and speaks like a craven, mean spirited, hate-filled bigot. If you live in Utah, please write him a letter asking him to find a shred of compassion in his heart for the families of the Minnesotans who were unfortunate enough to be victims of a MAGA true believer. This link is a powerful way to come up to speed on the Despicable Mike:
https://open.substack.com/pub/charliesykes/p/have-you-absolutely-no-conscience?r=f38fk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
So LDS believes that?
The Kingdom The Power and The Glory by Tim Alberta is a good read. It’s about how some Evangelical Christians get it wrong by believing Trump was sent here by God to stop persecuting Christians. What Stewart has presented here is very similar. Christian Nationalism, Christian Fundamentalism or Religious Nationalism/Fundamentalism is the theme where political extremism often originates.
One bright spot in all this is the average age of these religious extremists is near 60 like Mr Boelter. That is one reason they are members of this white Christian nationalist movement of mainly Boomers that has chosen Trump as its unlikely leader.
In one sense they are desperate. They have to install a a fascist, white nationalist, semi-theocratic dictatorship now or it will be too late for them. Most people born after 1980 won't play that game.
Over the next few years we need to give maximum opposition to what these people are trying to do. Time is on our side if we can block the worst of what they want to do.
Yes, many in this extremist movement are boomers, but so are many of us who stand in opposition to them. Sadly, I remain to be convinced that those born after 1980 won't "play that game". I felt that way too when I graduated from college in 1970 about my generation, we weren't going to play the domination game we saw all around us. Something happens to folks as they age and feel left out of the economic boom others are enjoying, so they turn to fringe conspiracy theories to explain why they don't feel better off. Others who are younger look at what's going on around them and conclude they have no chance of a better life, and also turn to fringe conspiracy theories. I do agree with giving maximum opposition to the Donald's Democracy Demolition Derby, in the hope that time will allow us to block their worst, but we also need to articulate a stronger, more compelling and attractive of what the future we envision for all our citizens looks like. People change their minds and their behavior when a) they can no longer cling to what they thought they had, and b) they can see a more attractive option available to them. So, yes, fight back peaceably, and focus on a better vision of what can be if we join together to work for it.
Those born since 1980 are not as white and not as religious as earlier generations. They have also been screwed over by earlier generations, mainly Boomers, so they don't trust our institutions. They have been badly mistreated by inequality triggered by trickle-down and shareholder capitalism installed around 1980 and they know it. So no, I do not think they are going to go MAGA.
I agree we must strive for a more forward looking, optimistic future than the last forty+ years. Contrasted with the mess the right is pushing we might just do it.
One way to do that is retire the passive gerontocracy that is much of Democratic leadership.
I have bad news for you. The vice-president was born after 1980.
As were the Doge boys, Charlie Kirk, etc.
We need nuance not sweeping generalization. A look at history shows that the Baby Boom generation also faced challenges with political assassinations, the push of Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and recession in the 1980s. Every generation faces challenges with which it must deal and blaming it on the previous generation does not deal with the challenges. Judge people by what they do, not by their age.
As a Boomer myself, I absolutely agree with retiring our gerontocracy - Democratic and Republican.
Hope this really, in fact, happens - that those born after 1980 can change the direction.