This could just as easily fit under the Religion and Secularism topic since separation of church and state has been violated in the U.S.
After reading some threads about certain individuals (Mike Johnson, trump…), it seems worthwhile discussing those influencing them. The puppeteers controlling the figureheads.
I have read The Power Worshippers (Stewart), Justice on the Brink (Greenhouse), and Preparing for War (Onishi) and other books on Christian Nationalism. It’s all quite scary.
I’ve only read articles about Christian Nationalism and don’t think my constitution could handle slogging through an entire book, let alone a bunch of them, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested. And since I like sharing my interests, I’m going to take the liberty of sharing my closer look.
Thanks!
By Katherine Stewar For readers of Democracy in Chains and Dark Money, a revelatory investigation of the Religious Right’s rise to political power.
For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America’s religious nationalists aren’t just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy.
Stewart pulls back the curtain on the inner workings and leading personalities of a movement that has turned religion into a tool for domination. She exposes a dense network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations embedded in a rapidly expanding community of international alliances and united not by any central command but by a shared, anti-democratic vision and a common will to power. She follows the money that fuels this movement, tracing much of it to a cadre of super-wealthy, ultraconservative donors and family foundations. She shows that today’s Christian nationalism is the fruit of a longstanding antidemocratic, reactionary strain of American thought that draws on some of the most troubling episodes in America’s past. It forms common cause with a globe-spanning movement that seeks to destroy liberal democracy and replace it with nationalist, theocratic and autocratic forms of government around the world. Religious nationalism is far more organized and better funded than most people realize. It seeks to control all aspects of government and society. Its successes have been stunning, and its influence now extends to every aspect of American life, from the White House to state capitols, from our schools to our hospitals.
The Power Worshippers is a brilliantly reported book of warning and a wake-up call. Stewart’s probing examination demands that Christian nationalism be taken seriously as a significant threat to the American republic and our democratic freedoms.
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Justice on the Brink: The Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months That Transformed the Supreme Court
The gripping story of the Supreme Court’s transformation from a measured institution of law and justice into a highly politicized body dominated by a right-wing supermajority, told through the dramatic lens of its most transformative year, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning law columnist for The New York Times
“A dazzling feat . . . meaty, often scintillating and sometimes scary . . . Greenhouse is a virtuoso of SCOTUS analysis.”— The Washington Post
In Justice on the Brink, legendary journalist Linda Greenhouse gives us unique insight into a court under stress, providing the context and brilliant analysis readers of her work in The New York Times have come to expect. In a page-turning narrative, she recounts the twelve months when the court turned its back on its legacy and traditions, abandoning any effort to stay above and separate from politics. With remarkable clarity and deep institutional knowledge, Greenhouse shows the seeds being planted for the court’s eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade, expansion of access to guns, and unprecedented elevation of religious rights in American society. Both a chronicle and a requiem, Justice on the Brink depicts the struggle for the soul of the Supreme Court, and points to the future that awaits all of us.
The events of January 6, 2021, shocked the nation and the world. But to those who lived through White Christian nationalism, consumed its media, and practiced its teachings, the Insurrection was the logical outcome of a seventy-five-year war on American democracy.
Despite a growing body of literature that analyzes White Christian nationalism in the United States, there are no works that bring together firsthand accounts of the decades-long culture wars that set the stage for the violent White Christian nationalism plaguing the country with historical analyses of the events, leaders, and communities that prepared the troops and led the charge. PREPARING FOR WAR uses Onishi’s lived experience as an Evangelical insider as a prism for understanding the violence and extremism of the White Christian nationalists at the center of our current political moment. It asks: How did the rise of the Religious Right, from 1964-2015, eventually give birth to violent White Christian nationalism during the Trump presidency and beyond? What are the foundational components of the “alternative” worldview that propelled some of the most conservative religious communities in the country to ignite a cold civil war? How can the history of the Religious Right provide a basis for anticipating how White Christian nationalism will bear on our public square in the years to come?
Of all the problems to be facing in the 2020s who’da thought, we’d have to be doing battle with religious brainwashing and the attempted legal/mental reversion to America’s Antebellum era.
Cc writes: Of all the problems to be facing in the 2020s who’da thought, we’d have to be doing battle with religious brainwashing and the attempted legal/mental reversion to America’s Antebellum era.
This battle has been brewing from at least Reagan’s presidency. On a personal note, my son is a christian nationalist trump supporter. Yes, let that sink in. He keeps my grandkids away because he doesn’t want them to be influenced by an admitted atheist. I have seen religion as the biggest threat to democracy for many years now.
Whether they are Christians, Jews, or Muslims, fundamentalists are literalists.
For them, sacred writings participate in the divine nature and are therefore perfect. They must therefore be followed to the letter. If there is a contradiction between science and the written word, the writing is right.
In fact, they just forget one thing. Assuming that the writers of the writings were inspired by a divinity, they are humans, and the translation of the divine word by humans cannot be perfect. Or, humans can achieve perfect works and God does not have a monopoly on perfection. In fact, literalists are heretics.
In addition, we know the historical conditions of production of the Bible and the Koran. The texts were indeed written by men, who made human choices, for various reasons, including political ones.
If fundamentalists admitted this evidence and accepted the idea that there is room for discussion, 50% of the problem would be solved, at least.
They prefer to cling to translations, imperfect by definition, and draw absolute political conclusions from them.
Thats shocking Gary. Religion really is poison however the reality is christian nationalism is alive and healthy in the United States when every American president declares god is on their side.
I don’t think you really understand the problem. The most “Christian” president the U.S. ever had was probably president Carter. He cared very much about democracy and serving all Americans. He cared about the environment. He was in favor of the civil rights act.
In 1980, fundamentalist christians did not back him. Instead, they went with Reagan. They chose the lesser christian. They chose someone who was not in favor of the civil rights act. Someone who cared more for corporate profits than for the environment. Someone who did not want social programs. And most importantly, someone who would begin to let the wall between church and state crumble.
I have no problem with my very good Christian friends. I have no respect for their religion, but I respect them. It didn’t bother me if Carter thought a god was on his side. He kept the wall strong. Reagan did not. Neither did George W. Neither did trump. And now the supreme court appears poised to tear it down. Then, democracy fails.
You are right on point about Johnson. He is a stereotypical wacky evangelical straight from central casting. Trump though, has nothing to do with religion at all. His motivation is totally secular.
The only way I would say that, is with extreme qualifications. Trump openly said and showed that he didn’t care about religion before he became a Republican. For that matter, he showed he didn’t care much for Republicans either. Then he found out how popular it is to say you hate immigrants and want abortion to be illegal and to SAY you love God. So, his personal desires for why he wants power are completely secular, but what he has “to do with religion” is that he knows how to appeal to that demographic.
Leaders of the USA are supposed to be aware of all beliefs and enact policies that recognize them, but don’t favor one over the other. Bush W discovered the evangelical vote, Trump took that idea and ran with it.
I see what you’re getting at but you’re wrong. OP said this:
I said Trump has nothing to do with religion because he is not religious. The fact that some of his base are evangelicals and he panders to them (that’s how elections work) doesn’t mean they are somehow controlling him.
Whether mr. trump is libertine or not, is beside the point. He uses religion to manipulate people - and the true religious fanatics (people who think God is talking to them and that they are God’s specially appointed warriors) are using him as a shield and bludgeon.
Christian extremists poised to overtake Trump agenda
Christian nationalists appear to see an opportunity in a potential second Donald Trump administration to take advantage of Trump’s fixation on personal grievances by imposing their own agenda of rolling back women’s social progress to before the sexual revolution.
Michelle Goldberg, columnist for The New York Times, and Tim Miller, writer-at-large for The Bulwark, talk with Alex Wagner about how Donald Trump’s new friends on the religious right are setting him up for an election disaster.
This is the key to the confusion. The sentence has a false causation.
Trump has nothing to do with religion because he is not religious.
While true trump is not religious, it is far from true that he has nothing to do with religion. That has been show time and again (e.g., holding up the bible).
Trump will continue to destroy any wall between church and state so long as it gains him power. His SCOTUS picks are just one example. His pick of pence for VP, his pride in the claim that roe v wade reversal could not have happened without him, his pandering to evangelicals shown in the video - this is all trump having a great deal to do with religion.
No, he isn’t religious, but he is fully aware that the republican party is home to the white christian nationalists and he will milk that for every vote he can get.
This is for real, be scared, be very scared, get informed
and get engaged as if your future depends on it, because it does!
You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.
Time for a little pragmatism and survival instinct to kick in.
‘GOP’s Radical Right’s roadmap for ending democracy
" HERE’S WHAT MAGA PIZZA GATE INFLUENCER SAID AT ONE OF THE BREAKOUT SESSIONS TODAY."
"WELCOME TO THE END OF DEMOCRACY. WE’RE HERE TO OVERTHROW IT COMPLETELY."
"WE DIDN’T GET ALL THE WAY THERE ON JANUARY 6th, BUT WE’LL ENDEAVOR TO REPLACE IT WITH THIS RIGHT HERE. (cross and Bible)
