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The inspiration for the documentary God & CountryFor 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.
Sometimes you see things happening but just don’t quite understand what is really going on. Well, in this book, the author certainly cleared up a lot of misunderstandings concerning the polices of the religious right. For example, the drive to end public education always baffled me. But I have learned this is part of a much broader effort to “transform the defining institutions of democracy in America.” In the case of education, one can make way for a system of religious education more to one’s liking. This is not a social of cultural movement, but a political movement, in fact. Its ultimate goal is power. The goal is not to add to America’s pluralistic democracy, “but to replace the foundational democratic principles and institutions with a state grounded on a particular version of Christianity.” Interestingly, this also happens to serve the interests of the plutocratic funders and their allied political leaders. So then, this is a political war of the future of democracy. It consists of an ecosystem of a whole host of various entities, religious and nonreligious, and a leadership cadre of interconnected activists, politicians, and funders – some of which belong to hyper-wealthy families. So this Christian nationalism turns out not to be a religious creed, but, in the author’s view, a political ideology. The author has been following this movement for over a decade as an investigative reporter and journalist. The root source of the movement’s political strength is the foot soldiers – the millions of church-goers who will dutifully cast their vote for the favored politicians and flood the coffers with small-dollar donations. But it is important to note that they are not the source of its ideas.Some other unusual things caught my attention. Public assistance for the poor is opposed as a matter of principle – that is the responsibility of the believers. I also learned that the Bible votes against environmentalism, which a Cultural Impact Manual stated is “one of the greatest threats to society and the church today.” Don’t worry the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation has asserted that there is no convincing scientific evidence for global warming. Gun regulation is opposed and same-sex relationships are an abomination according to the CIT manual. This is just incredible. Aggressive gerrymandering was called by the Faith & Freedom Coalition president “the Republican reapportionment advantage.” We also learn that “free market and minimal government best supports prosperity.” Well, this all sounds more like politics than religion. And then there are the dominionist groups who think Christians should occupy all positions of power in the government. We can see this happening in the current administration. Activists who would have been identified as extremist in nature now lead “Bible Study” sessions with officials at the highest levels of executive and legislative branches. We now see how one political party endorses ultraconservative varieties of religion in order to lock in power. As the author states, “This is how the Christian nationalist movement works.” Did you know that God believes in deregulation? A Bible study aid published by a prominent member in this movement spoke of incentivizing individuals and industries by unencumbering them from the unnecessary burdens of government regulation. Citing the story of the Tower of Babel, it is maintained that nations must be kept separate through borders and boundaries as God frowns on illegal immigrants.I also learned that there was more to this obsession with the abortion issue we see today. As noted in the book, from the beginning, it was never about abortion, but about dividing and uniting to mobilize votes for the purpose of amassing political power – interesting. In fact, some believe that God, through the pro-life movement, put Trump in the White House. The transformation of the Republican Party into the party of life took some time – over a decade – finally becoming such in the mid 90’s. An important point made is that the modern pro-life religion that dominates America’s conservative churches is actually a political creation.When it comes to elections, there is a strong concerted effort to influence how the church members vote. One person said, “we have to step into the culture mountain of influence of politics,” and continued clarifying by saying, “We have got to get folks in the congregations to step into this political mountain of influence.” But it doesn’t stop there. There is something referred to as Christian Reconstructionism. This is a theocratic movement that inspires to infuse society at all levels with a biblical worldview. Of course, it is their version of a biblical worldview. One place to infuse this view is in the schools. Some, such as the late Rushdoony, have stated that public education is a threat to civilization. He said it represents “primitivism,” “chaos,” and “a vast ‘integration into the void.’” As the author notes, “it is difficult to understand the ideological origins and structure of Christian nationalism in America today without taking into account Rushdoony’s ideas.” For another example, some quote the bible in support of the idea that biblical law permits voluntary slavery “because it recognizes that some people are not able to maintain a position of independence.” One individual, Barton, has even called the modern liberal government a form of slavery. How? By providing assistance to many who are unable to protect themselves, the government exerts more and more control. The cure to this secular, democratic government would, of course, be a religious or theocratic government. That’s what they want. In fact, America was a pluralistic land from the beginning, and the United States was founded as a secular republic.By 2015, we see the emergence of something called Project Blitz, which has the strategy to flood the zone with coordinated, simultaneous bills in the hope that some will actually become law. There is no single institution behind this project just as there is no single Christian nationalist headquarters. But we should not think this in any way diminishes the movement’s ability to act effectively. Unfortunately the movement will push a “religious freedom,” which actually is code for privilege for those with the right religion. There is another entity called United in Purpose (UiP), which has amassed files on virtually the entire voting population of the United States, and yet this is just one of several entities on the right with access to such comprehensive voter data.The author then presents some interesting information on school vouchers and charter school systems. The purpose in the religious element pushing for these things seems to be to eliminate what they refer to as nonsectarian education where humanism is taught. So the desire is to drain funding from public schools, deregulate education, and promote ideological or religious curricula. What is concerning is that eight of the twenty largest charter operations are under control of groups for whom education is part of a “clear partisan, religious, or ideological agenda.” And this is not to mention how charter schools have been turned into cash cows through multi-billion dollar business deals between charter schools and their founders. What is scary here is that we could foresee a future in which “a small number of extremely wealthy individuals control large parts of America’s system of public education.”The author also discusses the “packing of the courts” in order to obtain ideological gains, and a chapter is devoted to religiously controlled hospitals. An interesting factoid is that an estimated one in six hospital beds in the United States is in a Catholic-run medical facility. In these places, patient care is governed by a set of Ethical and Religious Directives (ERD). This can have serious implications for patients who need palliative care and especially for female patients with pregnancy issues. Some of the stories the author presents border on horror.Another interesting story relates to Russia. Leaders there see America’s Christian right as a “tremendously useful vehicle for influencing America politics and government in a manner favorable to Russian interests. We saw this in the last (2016) election period. Christians seem to love Russia because they hate America and its secular constitutional democracy. In the Epilogue, the author warns that the rise of the religious right should be a concern for all who care about the future of democracy in America.
