Katherine Stewart

This is a kind of catalog of the Christian nationalist movement. going back to Rushdoony and somewhat back to the Civil War era. Lots of people and organizations and meetings. It doesn't go into any real depth, into what kind of thinking is behind all this. It is not a sympathetic treatment. Certainly I agree with the author that these people are crazy and dangerous. But still, it is a large number of people all around the world. Some of them will be sincere and thoughtful. This book doesn't really invite the reader into understanding any of that thoughtfulness. Ach, and I don't really have any doorways into it, either! I am just supposing that it is out there someplace. It's not going to work to write all these people off as deplorable! Ah, well, maybe some of the Russian theologians like Berdyaev, maybe that could be a doorway.

Anyway, this does a pretty good job of surveying the landscape. It just doesn't dig into the soil to really figure it out.… (mais)

A powerful expose of the under reported machinations of the religious right to force their particular view of Christianity on the American public, and to take over the reins of power to enforce their vision of how society should run. She traces the threads that lead from the alt-right and the religious right to the White House, the courts, and the legislature...not to mention the schools. It was amusing, however, when she thanked her brilliant editor in the acknowledgments. The editing was sloppy, and there were a couple of huge howlers that lost the book a star - for instance, Donald Trump was not elected president in September 2016. A truly brilliant editor would have caught that one, along with numerous punctuation problems and words where they didn't belong. Overall, worthwhile and important, but if you are grammar obsessed, you might prepare for some major cringing.… (mais)

In the 1980s, Howard Phillips, the conservative caucus chair, declared that ““We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them and eventually destroy them.” Paul Weyrich declared, “I don’t want everybody to vote.,,,Our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
Judging by today’s political situation, they have succeeded.
Their drive to promote a Christian nationalist movement attracted supporters who feared the changes (e.g., minorities, immigrants, non-Christians, women’s liberation) in America. While they were a minority, many were in the DC area and had the power to use their view of their religion (picking and choosing the points with which they agreed) to change America. For example, today they believe a woman has no right to control her body when it comes to whether or not to give birth (Billy Graham supported Planned Parenthood and Ronald Reagan signed the most liberal abortion bill in 1967) but the government has no right to order people to wear masks to stop the spread of a deadly disease.
Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos donated millions of dollars to religious rights groups. She was confirmed by the Senate, twenty two members of which, including four on the education committee, received $900,000 from her family and their affiliated PACs. She said, “We expect a return on our investment.” Under her administration, charter schools, in which she had financial interests, increased, with decreased safeguards, and in Detroit, the education system collapsed, partly because of patronage. Almost 90% of the children affected were Black.
THE POWER WORSHIPPERS covers church, abortion, slavery, abuse, health care, and the judiciary.
Things have gotten much worse since this book was published in 2019. For those who want to regain our democracy, there is not much time to make the necessary changes. The Epilogue provides a guide to do so.… (mais)