Tom Ultican loved Katherine Stewart’s new book, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, and he thinks you will too. I have the book but, due to my travels, have not had a chance to read it yet. So I’m grateful for his review.
He begins:
Katherine Stewart’s The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism is a brilliant piece of investigative journalism. It shines a light on significant threats to American pluralism and representative democracy. The religious rights amazing successes now influence every aspect of American life, from the White House to local governments, from schools to hospitals. Stewart documents the origins of “the Russia thing” and the evangelical embrace of Donald Trump. She clarifies that the Christian right is not fighting a culture war; it is a political war waged against the institutions of American democracy and freedom of conscience.
Trump is a Gift from God
Ralph Drollinger: “I started sending him my Bible studies when he was running his campaign and Trump has been writing notes back to me ever since, in a positive sense. He likes loyalty.”
Paula White about Trump: “It is God that raises up a king.”
Franklin Graham on Trump’s election: “God’s had intervened.”
David Barton called Trump: “God’s guy.”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed God: “wanted Trump to become president.”
Ralph Reed stated: “There has never been anyone who has defended us and fought for us who we have loved more than Donald J. Trump.”
Rick Ridings said when he asked God how the nation will learn to change: “The Lord said, ‘It must play, the Trump card.’”
Ed Martin stated: “The Donald Trump administration has been a blessing on America like we’ve never seen.”
These sentiments are expressed by leaders of Christian Nationalism throughout this book. If you don’t recognize some of the names, it is important to understand that they are having a large influence on education, social justice and foreign policy in America and beyond. Stewart brings them out of the shadows and illuminates their roles.
Public Education, Environmentalism and Social Welfare are Evil
Pastor D. James Kennedy asserted that children in Public Schools were being “brainwashed in Godless secularism.” In 2003, the DeVos family’s Christian Reformed Church warned that “not only does there exist a climate of hostility to the Christian Faith, the legitimate and laudable educational goal of multi-culturalism is often used as a cover to introduce pagan and New Age spiritualities such as deification of mother earth (Gaia) and to promote social causes such as environmentalism.” The report also claimed that “government schools” had “become aggressively and increasingly secular in the last forty years.”
In his sermon called “A Godly Education,” Kennedy exclaimed, “The infusion of an atheistic, amoral, evolutionary, socialistic, one-world, anti-American system of education in our public schools, has indeed become such that if it had been done by and enemy, it would be considered an act of war.” After denouncing Horace Mann as “a Unitarian,” Kennedy declared, “The modern, public education system was begun in an effort to deliver children from the Christian religion.”
Environmentalism is termed a “false religion.” Stewart quotes the young pastor who took her to a Christian political event in North Carolina, “It’s ten degrees hotter than normal, and these people don’t believe in climate science.” The conservative Christian Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation declares, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human contribution to greenhouse gases is causing dangerous global warming.” The Christian Nationalist political organization Culture Impact Center has claimed that environmentalism is a “litany of the Green Dragon” and “one of the greatest threats to society and the church today.”
Many of the roots of Christian Nationalism can be traced to the antebellum period and theological theories supporting slavery. Calvinist philosopher R. J. Rushdoony was an admirer of these preachers and claimed that “some people are by nature slaves and will always be so.” Although some of his writing was uncomfortable for leaders in the nationalist movement, his ideas form a significant amount of the ideology embraced by today’s right wing Christian thinking. He was the first to claim the First Amendment aimed to establish freedom “not from religion, but for religion.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Calvanist … their doctrine has it all “sewed up.” Calvinists actually believe the poor deserve to be poor and they are being punished. How convenient.
Calvin was a critical figure in the Protestant revolution in the 16th century. I suppose there may be some people who are stuck there in their religious beliefs, but your comment really displays a lack of real knowledge on what it means to have Calvinist roots. Calvinists generally DO NOT believe that the poor deserve to be poor and that they are being punished. The doctrine of predestination has evolved well beyond that simplistic explanation.
best description for much of religious indifference: convenient
Amen. Thank you.
Not to mention …downright frightening.
Calvin believed that things are PRECISELY as God wishes them to be and that nothing can be that is contrary to His design. According to Calvin, God has Absolute Sovereignty. While people act voluntarily, from their perspective, God sits outside of time and knows (for it is all His design) precisely what they are going to do and in what manner and under what conditions they are going to live. So, if there are poor, this is, indeed, God’s intention. Whether it’s a matter of just deserts is not even an issue. Things were, are, and will be as God ordained. We neither have the right nor are capable of second guessing His will.
There may be individual Calvinists who doubt some of that, but Calvin didn’t.
Here, my brief introduction by me to the Protestant constellation of ideas:
My introduction by me
me me me me me lol. My apologies.
I really need to edit these posts before hitting the Send button.
“My introduction by me”
It’s OK, Bob, we forgive you, hence you should too. Your lack of self-forgiveness for the your sins in English is charming. 🙂
The religious right eschews any form of collectivism. Instead, they seek to change laws that favor the interests of the wealthy and powerful. In Walton County, Florida, Rick Scott signed a law the allows privatizing the public beaches. The figure behind this unfair law was Mike Huckabee, the “holy man of God” that owns a million dollar estate on the Gulf of Mexico. He objected to peons stepping on the sand in front of his property so he manipulated the legislators and governor to extend the property lines of Gulf front property to the water line. There have been vigorous protests against this law, but this law remains on the books. although some communities are not enforcing it. https://weartv.com/news/local/beach-law-protests-law-privatizing-beaches-starts-july-1
I suppose I have to read this book to get the answer, but doesn’t it seem like a stretch that Scott (or Huckabee’s) religion has anything to do with that? Just looks like the rich throwing their weight around – the poorer the state the easier they can get away with it.
I agree, bethree. Zuckerberg tried the same thing in Hawaii. Not that it is exactly the same thing, but gentrification in cities smacks of the same kind of abuse of power.
“seem like a stretch that Scott (or Huckabee’s) religion has anything to do with that”
Well, I think many of the rich are not simple cynics who follow the money. No, they seriously believe that they are put to Earth to execute his plan. Even those who are considered progressive here, like Soros, have God-complexes to varying degrees.
Most of us driven to get rid of feeling guilty, and if you have a billion dollars, you must stick to some ideology why you actually deserve that wealth.
“Well, I think many of the rich are not simple cynics who follow the money. No, they seriously believe that they are put to Earth to execute his plan… Most of us driven to get rid of feeling guilty, and if you have a billion dollars, you must stick to some ideology why you actually deserve that wealth.”
Rich waterfront landowners looking to clear he beach of hoi polloi need a very special kind of “ideology”– not just one that assuages their guilt for being rich, but justifies their desire to deny ordinary small pleasures like beach-walking to everyone else.
Jim Bakker, 12-18-17, via RightWingWatch: “I want everybody to write him [Trump] a note and thank him for what he did,” Bakker said, reporting that the White House has told him how much Trump loves to get encouraging letters from Christians.
Bakker said that it is the prayers of Christians which are sustaining Trump.
“It’s the power behind him, the prayers behind him,” Bakker said. “He’s wanting the prayers of the people. You know, people say, ‘Well, I don’t think he’s a godly man.’ Well, I’ll tell you what, he loves prayer, he loves God, he doesn’t want to murder any more babies in our country. Come on. Let’s give God a chance and God had him elected and the Bible says He puts up—God—and puts down the leaders. So we better obey our leaders and live under them in peace.”
Shouldn’t this amoral charlatan be in jail? A crypto-fascist snake oil salesman without conscience or scruples.
Unlike unpredictable young people, these “good Christians” are avid voters that show up regardless of the weather forecast to do “God’s work” by crushing secularist policies at the polls.
Have to say this … “Frightening.”
Vote like your life depended on it, because it does.
Did Tom exclude the examples from the Catholic church in his review or, did Stewart fail to include them? Whichever, the practice has reached the level of absurdity. The Massachusetts Catholic Conference spells out its objection to public schools at its site which lines up with the Manhattan Declaration signed by 15 bishops from major cities.
Presumably, the Minnesota Catholic Conference is just one sidling up next to businesses and writing coalition letters with organizations funded by the National Alliance of Charter Schools. Presumably other state conferences are in alliance with groups that are anti-common goods and anti-government.
WTH? – Barr, Weyrich, Bannon and Leonard Leo – Catholic. The political activities of the state Catholic Conferences are well documented and posted on-line. A recent article in media reported about an unnamed Trump campaign aide who described Knights of Columbus associates as expected to do heavy lifting for Trump in the next election
Bill Gates and Walton heirs gave money to a Catholic school chain.
I’ve been browsing other book reviews to try to answer that question. Looks like Stewart definitely addresses Catholic rightwing power brokers, tho can’t determine whether she delves into their involvement in school privatization. Does seem like they’re still traveling under the radar in press coverage. We should be hearing about this even if only in the context of Barr’s manipulations. Press seems to be still looking at the shiny object– how did the Evangelical ‘fringe’ gain so much power, & OMG they vote 85% Rep. And perhaps ignoring Catholics because their voting pattern has long been similar to nation as a whole… more analysis should be done of the 7-pt jump [Cath Rep vote vs natl] in 2016 compared to 2012– & both results a departure from decades of previous election results.
Excellent points- media should be asking why the highly political USCCB and state Catholic Conferences are Teflon coated. From comments at this blog, we can see the eagerness to tar evangelicals and the resistance to criticism of the power structure of the Catholic church.
False prophets have ever and always propped up reprobate kings.
Worthless Betsy DeVos is having her brother do work to discredit the American Federation of Teachers. Erik Prince is a slime ball. It runs in that family.
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Erik Prince Recruits Ex-Spies to Help Infiltrate Liberal Groups
Mr. Prince, a contractor close to the Trump administration, contacted veteran spies for operations by Project Veritas, the conservative group known for conducting stings on news organizations and other groups.
WASHINGTON — Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents.
One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the nation. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the union’s local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show.
Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her.
Both operations were run by Project Veritas, a conservative group that has gained attention using hidden cameras and microphones for sting operations on news organizations, Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. Mr. Seddon’s role in the teachers’ union operation — detailed in internal Project Veritas emails that have emerged from the discovery process of a court battle between the group and the union — has not previously been reported, nor has Mr. Prince’s role in recruiting Mr. Seddon for the group’s activities…
Good lord.
Ah, well, if Sarah Huckster-bee Slanders, Miss Communications, says that Trump is a gift from God, this must be so.
I remember reading in the Bible that God promised, after the flood, never again to destroy the Earth with water. So, perhaps he has sent Trump instead.
If the Supremes clear the way for vouchers, there will be a proliferation of these fundamentalist Christian madrasas across the land, and these pernicious ideas will spread like a pandemic. A really, really frightening prospect, that. If this happens, I will do everything in my power to fight the indoctrination of the young in fundamentalist superstition. I will write and write and write for them. I’ve been conceiving of a book for just that purpose, one that will be universally banned in those schools, which will make it all the more enticing to the young people in them.
Sadly, that’s the goal.
I want to read The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.
I followed Tom’s commentary on the book and looked up ” Christian Impact Team.” These are church-based groups called by other names but all are activists, especially in voting.
The Christian Impact Team brochure directs you to the Family Research Council website where you learn that the Culture Impact Team is one hyper-evangelical project of the Family Research Council.
The positions of the Family Research Council on education may be of interest. No surprise that they opposed the Common Core and for some of the same reasons as many professionals in education. Same for social-emotional learning. Most conspicuously though, they object to any teaching bearing on sexuality. They have a: “Sample Universal Opt-Out Letter”that provides parents the legal right to withhold consent for their child’s participation in any class, assignment, activity, etc. that involves gender identity, sexual activity, sexual orientation, or abortion/contraception.” See more on the policy issues here. https://www.frc.org/issues/education
I also recommend Kevin M Krause’s book One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America. (2015, Basic Books). Krause tracesthe corporate contribution to relgiosity in public life to the 1930s New Deal of FD Roosevelt and efforts by the some members of the National Association of Manufacturers to engage in “business salvation” rehabilitating corporate power. Among others entering into this mission were General Motors and the Hilton Hotels.
The book is a political history. In the 1950s and with the help of President Dwight Eisenhower religion was commercialized (e.g., In God We Trust on currency, National Prayer Breakfast) and also pushed by the John Birch Society and anti-communist crusades. Eisenhower relied on Billy Graham for spiritual guidance. He was the first president to include a prayer at his inaugration. And then we had President Richard Nixon. Nixon also enlisted the Reverend Billy Graham and Bob Haldeman (Nixon’s chief of staff and former ad executive for J. Walter Thompson) for displays of religiosity in many public venues. Among these events were White House church services with invited CEOs from AT&T, Chrysler, General Electric, General Motors among others.
Laura- thanks for informing us about the studies.
The Family Research Council signed the Manhattan Declaration along with 15 bishops of major cities.
The USCCB identified maintaining civil order as a value of Catholic schools. Catholic Vote posted an article praising Hungary’s Orban and Catholic League posted an article against Elizabeth Warren.
Oligarchy (corporate control) benefits from the backing of religions like the Catholic church (60% for Trump), mainstream protestant religions (60% for Trump) and evangelical Christians (80% for Trump).
Mainstream protestant religions aren’t as politically organized which explains media’s focus on evangelicals but, fails to explain the free pass that the Catholic church gets.
You should specify “white” Roman Catholic when you cite that 60% Trump vote. Whites represent 60% of RCs. Non-whites (incl Hispanics, largest sub-group at 1/3) voted only 26% for Trump.
Other than lack of Trump support, how much do Hispanics differ from the church hierarchy relative to advocacy for democracy?
Forget the “Trump is a Gift from God’ trash. Here is something inspiring. Thought we needed a break from the ignorance of Trump. There still is beauty in the world. We just have to turn off the nonsense to find it.
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A Grateful Day with Brother David Steindl-Rast
– Gratefulness.org
If you are watching this you have been given the gift of another day and I hope you choose to use it well.This inspirational message from Brother David Steindl-Rast will hopefully help you realize that Today is the one day that is given to you and you should make the most of it. I was able to watch a beautiful sunrise this morning and I was grateful for being given another day to live, love, and laugh.
Trump is an ignorant, vile, hate-filled, shallow, uncaring person. He ONLY wants the media to praise him and continuously tell stories about much he has accomplished in such a short time. Sounds like a dictator to me. The first thing dictators do is close down a free press. This has tremendous rippling effects on smaller newspapers that are struggling and don’t have the resources to fight. King Trump’s way is to sue. He HAS to be stopped.
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Trump escalates fight against press with libel lawsuits
The Trump campaign’s libel lawsuits against The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN mark a dramatic escalation in the president’s long fight with the media.
Legal experts have said the suits are dead on arrival, failing to meet the high bar to prove defamation of a public figure, but they fear an environment in which powerful elected officials like Trump try to use the courts to intimidate the press.
“The concern here is not that one of these suits would win on the merits — it’s the chilling effect that it has on public discussion of political affairs,” Jonathan Peters, the Columbia Journalism Review’s press freedom correspondent and a University of Georgia media law professor, told The Hill.
Trump has regularly attacked the press, often referring to reporters as the “enemy of the people,” but the latest lawsuits, targeting an op-ed from The Times, one from CNN, and two separate opinion columns in The Post, mark the first time he has sued news organizations as president. After filing the complaint against The Times, Trump warned that more were “coming.”
The lawsuits, filed in consecutive weeks, allege that the outlets knowingly published false information about the president in opinion pieces that touched on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election…
First Amendment experts, though, are more worried about the broader implications, noting that smaller news organizations may not have the resources to fight such complaints and that they may suppress opinion pieces out of fear of retaliation.
“The Times and The Post have the resources to hire excellent legal counsel who will demonstrate why these lawsuits are completely meritless,” Brian Hauss, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) speech, technology and privacy project, told The Hill. “But news publications or even individuals who don’t have access to these resources are very naturally going to think twice before saying something criticizing the president if they’re worried that the president’s campaign team is going to be filing even a meritless defamation lawsuit against them.”…
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/486273-trump-escalates-fight-against-press-with-libel-lawsuits
Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed God: “wanted Trump to become president.”
No he doesn’t. God believes in caring about ALL people. It is the destruction of the whole planet that also disturbs him. Trump is anti-science and is determined to destroy the environment. Nope, God doesn’t want his planet to be destroyed by lame-brained idiots who say that windmills cause cancer and that fracking poses, “ZERO health risks’. Dumb is now ruling the whole United States.
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“Wind turbines cause cancer” isn’t the first piece of medical advice Dr. Trump has dispensed to his followers. In April 2012, he tweeted a story claiming that “people who live up to 2 miles away from the turbines develop such things as sleep, stress and mood disorders once wind farms go up.” (More likely, experts say, the symptoms are psychosomatic.) That same year, he warned that L.E.D. light bulbs cause cancer, and that one must “be careful,” because “the idiots who came up with this stuff don’t care.” Meanwhile, he believes fracking poses “ZERO health risks” and is, in fact, good for you.
The evangelical Christian and Catholic power structures align with the Koch network against democracy.
I have NEVER understood how ANY Christian could believe in
Trump. Following is something I posted on facebook a short time ago.\
At my stage of life I hope people will forgive me but I MUST keep posting that in which I so strongly believe.
A friend recently asked if there was anything that I liked about Trump. I said no. This is why. No one should care what I believe but because so many will say they believe in what I post below but vote and/or support the Trump doctrine I feel compelled to keep speaking out.
I ask only that you look at my “whys”, see if they concur with your most basic beliefs, the axioms and postulates upon which one builds their whole philosophy of life and THEN compare that with the president’s words and actions. Can you find even one of the following which Trump follows. I cannot. Forgive me but for me he represents completely the dark side, the Darth Vader mentality. The search for money and power – for their own sake.
You have every right and should question my beliefs but one builds upon sand if your primary foundation, the axioms and postulates are in error. One does not build a skyscraper on sand.
1. He is the very ANTITHESIS of EVERYTHING in which I have been taught to believe. The most basic Christian teachings, not Catholic, Protestant, nor Orthodox but for me absolutely the rocks, the axioms and postulates upon which to build. I DO believe that these are not just religious beliefs but are basic fundamentals in our secular world as well which create a more just, peaceful world. We can debate everything else but the very foundations of our belief determine or should our actions. Following are MY basic premises upon which I build my ideas worthy to follow.
a. Love one another as I have loved you [I believe for all]
b. Do unto others as you would have others…
c. The despised “Samaritan” can be our neighbor to be honored.
d. That we will be judged by how we treat others: Matthew 25:31 – 46.
e. Lay not treasures up where moth and rust corrupt but in “heaven”, [our spiritual well being.]
f. Return good for evil
g.. Chase out the money changers: [I would enlarge this to the secular world where people seek power and money to the detriment of all others, poor, etc., despoil the God given necessities of life for their own personal benefit.]
h. As you sew, so shall you reap: [This one really frightens me.]
The very ANTITHESIS of all that I have come to believe in as the best which has made America truly great:
a. ALL men are created equal, endowed by their Creator …, that for which our Revolution was all about.
b. I lift my lamp for ALL who come fleeing poverty, oppression, whatever who wish to build a better life for their families and our nation. [How many possible Einsteins and other great beneficiaries to us have been turned away? Is this not how our country was formed?]
c. Government is for the benefit of all its citizens, not for an oligarchy nor a single person.
d. Conditions allowing for the pursuit of happiness
e. The idea that, in order to sustain liberty, individuals must be knowledgeable and must conduct themselves according to principles of moral and ethical excellence, consistent with their rights and obligations.
I believe in the eternal search for truth.
a. Science which looks for facts of the physical world, made from astute observations.
b. Spiritual development as found by the great moral and spiritual people, in history and at present. “Emotion without intellect is blind but intellect without emotion is dead”.
Spiritual well being is not nor should be just emotion although emotions are often but not necessarily raised while seeking spiritual development – my belief. [the aphorism is congruent to my point.]
The above are MY VIEWS, not based on present political considerations but from my own education, observations and belief system.
Again, compare with what you believe with my postings above, then compare that with what Trump believes and projects.
Others can, will have their own basic beliefs to which they post. These are mine and I personally greatly fear have been devastated by Trump.
Each of you may of course point out any point of mine with which you believe is in error.
Gordon Wilder: Good, well thought out comment, Gordon. Much has been destroyed by Trump. Imagine how absurd he will become if he is re-elected.
“I have NEVER understood how ANY Christian could believe in
Trump. ”
I do. Just think about the Old Testament. The God in there is a nasty one, still, people worship him. In general, gods in many religions are just not the kind of people I’d have dinner with: they are jealous, rigid, short tempered, and they love to show off their powers. Still, people are conditioned to build temples for them.
I guess, nice people are just not exciting.
One possible solution to the problem of religion is to give a clear distinction between religion and demagoguery, and then outlaw the latter. This may also solve several problems associated with free speech.
I think the problems with both religion and free speech increase with the size of the audience. Without trying to suggest technical details, I think a first effective step in the right direction would be to declare: no preaching on TV or mass media. If you have a theory of thought, write a paper about it or preach it to your family, but don’t surprise my family with that stuff as we turn on the TV.