In Texas, people with strongly held conservative Christian beliefs wanted to send their dollars to a cellphone service that shared their values. Before long, such a company came into being, and it’s now selling mobile service to customers across the state. The money generated has been used to win control of four school boards.
NBC reported:
DALLAS — A little more than a year after former Trump adviser Steve Bannon declared that conservatives needed to win seats on local school boards to “save the nation,” he used his conspiracy theory-fueled TV program to spotlight Patriot Mobile, a Texas-based cellphone company that had answered his call to action.
“The school boards are the key that picks the lock,” Bannon said during an interview with Patriot Mobile’s president, Glenn Story, from the floor of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Dallas on Aug. 6. “Tell us about what you did.”
Story turned to the camera and said, “We went out and found 11 candidates last cycle and we supported them, and we won every seat. We took over four school boards.”
“Eleven seats on school boards, took over four!” Bannon shouted as a crowd of CPAC attendees erupted in applause.
It was a moment of celebration for an upstart company whose leaders say they are on a mission from God to restore conservative Christian values at all levels of government — especially in public schools. To carry out that calling, the Grapevine-based company this year created a political action committee, Patriot Mobile Action, and gave it more than $600,000 to spend on nonpartisan school board races in the Fort Worth suburbs.
This spring, the PAC blanketed the communities of Southlake, Keller, Grapevine and Mansfield with thousands of political mailers warning that sitting school board members were endangering students with critical race theory and other “woke” ideologies. Patriot Mobile presented its candidates as patriots who would “keep political agendas out of the classroom.”
Their candidates won every race, and nearly four months later, those Patriot Mobile-backed school boards have begun to deliver results.
The Keller Independent School District made national headlines this month after the school board passed a new policy that led the district to abruptly pull more than 40 previously challenged library books off shelves for further review, including a graphic adaptation of Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl,” as well as several LGBTQ-themed novels.
In the neighboring city of Southlake, Patriot Mobile donated framed posters that read “In God We Trust” to the Carroll Independent School District during a special presentation before the school board. Under a new Texas law, the district is now required to display the posters prominently in each of its school buildings. Afterward, Patriot Mobile celebrated the donation in a blog post titled “Putting God Back Into Our Schools.”
And this week at a tense, eight-hour school board meeting, the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District’s board of trustees voted 4-3 to implement a far-reaching set of policies that restrict how teachers can discuss race and gender. The new policies also limit the rights of transgender and nonbinary students to use bathrooms and pronouns that correspond with their genders. And the board made it easier for parents to ban library books dealing with sexuality.
To protest the changes, some parents came to the meeting wearing T-shirts with the school district’s name, GCISD, crossed out and replaced with the words “Patriot Mobile Action ISD.”
“They bought four school boards, and now they’re pulling the strings,” said Rachel Wall, the mother of a Grapevine-Colleyville student and vice president of the Texas Bipartisan Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting school board candidates who do not have partisan agendas. “I’m a Christian by faith, but if I wanted my son to be in a religious school, I would pay for him to go to a private school….”
Initially, Patriot Mobile’s founders said their goal was to support groups and politicians who promised to oppose abortion, defend religious freedom, protect gun rights and support the military.
After the 2016 presidential election, the company’s branding shifted further to the right and embraced Trump’s style of politics. One of Patriot Mobile’s most famous advertisements includes the slogan “Making Wireless Great Again,” alongside an image of Trump’s face photoshopped onto a tanned, muscled body holding a machine gun….
Patriot Mobile has also aligned itself in recent years with political and religious leaders who promote a once-fringe strand of Christian theology that experts say has grown more popular on the right in recent years. Dominionism, sometimes referred to as the Seven Mountains Mandate, is the belief that Christians are called on to dominate the seven key “mountains” of American life, including business, media, government and education.
John Fea, a professor of American history at the private, Christian Messiah University in Pennsylvania, has spent years studying Seven Mountains theology. Fea said the idea that Christians are called on to assert biblical values across all aspects of American society has been around for decades on the right, but “largely on the fringe.”
Trump’s election changed that.
“It fits very well with the ‘Make America Great Again’ mantra,” Fea said. “‘Make America Great Again’ to them means, ‘Make America Christian Again,’ restore America to its Christian roots.”
What next? Will every religion set up its own cell service? Why?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
correction:
“they are on a mission from God to implement by force superstitious, 1,800-year-old, second-century CE Mideastern values at all levels of government”
Bring yore child or children as the case mite be down to the old K-Mart parking lot this Sundae n sign em up fer Bob n Darlene’s Real Good Flor-uh-duh Chrisiun School, whar we except Flor-uh-duh State Vouchers, not govurnmint handouts, an make sure they gits a real Christiun education and wont be taut to be transgenders. An while you are at it, go on over to are website and buy one of our Bob n Darlenes Real Good Christiun Toilet Brushes, all procedes of which goes to suport Darlene’s work righting our curriculums by herself with the hep of the Lord All Mighty. Jist remember, HEAVEN kin be yores in the sweet bye and bye!
Pleeze scuze my speling erors. Its awful hard typin with one fanger afor Ive had a drank in the mornin.
I spect that money’ll go a lot farther when Darlene finishes her correspondint’s coarse in Tax Strategies for Soverin Citizens
Those “sovereign citizens” are amazing. Like the libertarians in NH. They think they can declare themselves free of the government and therefore not subject to its laws. They should move out of the country.
Some who “declare themselves free of the government,” also run for election to BECOME and TAKEOVER the government. If I’m not checking my phone or watching something good on TV, I may get out and vote against them next election
Ft. Worth Weekly reported that Glenn Story has been charged with tax evasion 3 times since 2018. (“Mobile Patriot,” 2-9-2023)
Since Patriot Mobile got funds from the government Covid program, it seems possible that all of us helped pay for the politicking of Patriot Mobile.
The group took over 11 North Texas school boards last year.
Btw- Steve Bannon is right wing Catholic as is the head of CPAC, Matt Schlapp. Media has described Schlapp’s wife as Opus Dei.
I don’t care who my mobile provider is, as long as I get good reception cheap–that’s what’s REALLY important.
Why? Really, you have to ask why?
They want a Christian nation, and the Constitution be damned. So let’s give it to them, and Build a Wall, except this time on the northern border.
And we can leave Musk to his new paradise.
Rename it Muskatoon? Muskalooneytune? Muskow?
BUT, this IS democracy in action— public education policy as demanded by those who VOTE. Just like our future federal and state government policies depend on who VOTES next time.
(M = Mark)
I didn’t know that Patriot Mobile lost some local school board elections in Texas.
Patriot Mobile lost big-time in Fort Worth area districts of Eagle Mountain/Saginaw ISD, Northwest ISD, and Fort Worth ISD.
Take Northwest ISD, for example. Not only were their good school board trustees re-elected, but they also passed a $2 billion school bond program. They are adjacent to Southlake and Keller— and Trump conservative!
Diane FYI from the LA Times today: ALL COPIED BELOW
Will U.S. Catholics follow the pope or right-wing bishops?
The reactionary American prelates are at odds with Francis’ pastoral ministry
POPE FRANCIS welcomed President Biden at the Vatican in 2021, as U.S. bishops debated denying Biden Holy Communion. ( Vatican Pool)
BY MARY JO MCCONAHAY
It’s time to take a clear look at the far-right politics of U.S. Catholic bishops. They won a 50-year campaign to turn back legal abortion, but they will not rest, it seems, until the country becomes a Christian nationalist state, with their moral principles codified into law. The religious right has long been identified with white evangelical Christians, but the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, some 250 men, mostly white and past middle age, ranks among the nation’s most formidable reactionary forces. As a Catholic, I must protest.
There was a time when I was proud of the principled but often unpopular positions of my faith leaders. During the Cold War, they spoke out against nuclear proliferation. When neoconservatives rose to power in Washington, the bishops issued a powerful letter on the economy, reminding government of its responsibility for making a “preferential option for the poor.” They stood against Ronald Reagan’s support for autocrats in wartime Central America — I was covering the region as a reporter and met several bishops who traveled south to see for themselves before making the policy decision.
Since those days, the proportion of conservative U.S. prelates has increased with nominations by the two pontiffs who preceded Pope Francis, and the USCCB drifted far to the political right, narrowing its focus to the “preeminent threat” of abortion. Its members lead the country’s largest and hardly monolithic faith group — 73 million American Catholics — but it also attempts to sway the law with amicus curiae briefs on cases from gay rights to prayer in schools, and with a powerful lobbying arm, its Office of Government Relations, tasked with influencing Congress. The bishops are driving the U.S. church to the point of schism with opposition to Pope Francis, who emphasizes pastoral care more than doctrine, and who virtually slapped down their attempt to forbid Holy Communion to lifelong Catholic Joe Biden, who is pro-choice.
What shaped the conservatism of the America’s bishops?
The roots of today’s right-wing church hierarchy go back to the 1970s when Catholic activist (and Heritage Foundation co-founder) Paul Weyrich persuaded evangelical minister and broadcaster Jerry Falwell to join forces in a “moral majority” — Weyrich suggested the term. As a movement, ultraconservative Catholics and evangelicals would restore the values and morals of the founding fathers as Weyrich, Falwell and their followers saw them, a promise taken up by Reagan, their favored presidential candidate. Abortion became the Moral Majority’s flagship issue.
That highly politicized obsession has put U.S. Catholic bishops sharply at odds with the global church (and public opinion) in their animus to Pope Francis, who calls capital punishment, euthanasia and care for the poor equally important “pro-life” issues. For moderate Catholics like me, the deviation hits close to home, pushing the U.S. church too far from too much of Christ’s most elemental teachings while engaging in modern culture wars.
About sexual orientation, Francis, who recently celebrated 10 years as pope, famously said, “Who am I to judge?” but U.S. bishops rail against the “intrinsic disorder” of homosexuality. They ignore his urgent call for action on climate change and its existential threats. They drag their feet on his unprecedented process to prepare for a global Synod this year in Rome, which asks people, and in particular women, at every level of the church’s life — not just bishops — to contribute assessments and aspirations meant to define the mission of today’s church.
During the COVID-19 pandemic some U.S. prelates tried to undermine the authority of both church and state. Francis encouraged vaccination, but San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone distributed Commu- nion unmasked and unvaccinated and played the aggrieved victim (a Christian nationalist trope), claiming that “cultural elites” treated Catholics with “willful discrimination” by limiting pub- lic gatherings. Timothy Broglio, archbishop for the Military Services USA, contravened the pope by saying Catholic service members could request a religious exemption to the shot despite Pentagon orders they get it. Broglio is the newly elected president of the USCCB.
The U.S. church has a history of discrimination against Black Catholics in parishes and seminaries, and now the bishops go wrong, with notable exceptions, by failing to adequately condemn white supremacy. After Black Lives Matter protests, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez — president of the U.S. bishops for three years until late 2022, and vice president of the group before that — called out social solidarity movements as “pseudo-religions” that are part of “a deliberate effort … to erase the Christian roots of society and to suppress any remaining Christian influences.”
Wealthy laity support the vision of far-right prelates. Southern California billionaire Timothy Busch, for example, is the founder of the Napa Institute and its influential summer conference where well-to-do conservative Catholics hobnob with bishops, archbishops and right-wing politicians. Archbishops Gomez and Cordileone are advisors; last year, Trump administration Atty. Gen. Bill Barr was a keynote speaker. Busch, who sees unregulated free markets as congruent with Catholic teachings, has little to say about Francis’ attack on the “sacrilized workings” of the global economy.
Perhaps of greatest concern, the USCCB has been increasingly willing to render the wall between church and state a mere gossamer curtain. Invoking novel theories of “religious liberty,” the bishops have fought legislation and court decisions most Americans support, notably laws protecting same-sex marriage and access to contraceptives.
At 86, Pope Francis is close to the end of his pontificate. Among American Catholics, a stunning 82% view him favorably. But he may not live to appoint enough like-minded cardinals to elect a similar successor.
Moderate U.S. prelates do not go along with the USCCB right-wing hard-liners, but they are a minority. I can only hope their numbers grow in time, providing the church with the leadership devoid of political considerations that American Catholics deserve.
Mary Jo McConahay is the author of “Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and the Far Right.” END COPIED MATERIAL CBK
. . . ALSO Diane: 60 Minutes aired a scathing report on the Mormon Church last night, Sunday, May 14, 2023. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea just HOW bad. CBK
I missed the 60 Minutes program. Soon there will be state-funded Mormon schools, madrassas, yeshivas, etc.
Diane That 60 Minutes is a “must see” for ANYONE even remotely connected with the financing or refinancing of the Mormon Church, or any Church, for that matter. Again, for the Mormons, I suspected it was bad, but not THAT bad. CBK
Thank you very much for the post, Catherine.
Disagreements you and I have had are rendered unimportant in the context of the content of your posting.
I’m sorry when you have been personally offended by my comments.
I wrote to one of the authors of a recent Ravitch post. He replied stating that he thought the meaning of media’s term, “Christian” was “southern Baptists and Hell and brimstone.” He expressed surprise at the American Catholic church as right wing.
I’ve tried to communicate that singling out the Catholic Church is important because people are unaware that the votes of conservative Catholics are electing Republicans and influencing legislation. And, the enabling of their agenda by Charles Koch is significant. In contrast, the public is well aware that evangelical protestants and LDS support the right wing.
While it is not intentional on the part of the Pope nor Democratic politicians like Biden, their positions on the left as high visibility influencers, have led Americans to a misperception about American Catholic Church politicking which is for the GOP.
Again, thanks for posting McConahay’s research.