All posts tagged: Christian nationalism

Christian Nationalism and Hate Violence: What Can We Do?

Christian Nationalism and Hate Violence: What Can We Do?

Published by skeptic

 This week, Zev Mishell, National Programs Associate at Interfaith Alliance, joins host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush to discuss the intersection of systemic violence, hate crimes, and religious and political ideologies in America. Zev is the author of Interfaith Alliance’s new report, Together Against Hate, which closely analyzes how interfaith movements can address hate-based violence by uniting across differences while also examining how White Christian Nationalism is driving the alarming rise of hate in America. The report comprises case studies of successful strategies, practical recommendations, and a guide to organizations working to combat hate and extremism in the U.S. It is based on extensive research and interviews with nearly two dozen advocacy organizations dedicated to faith-based organizing, upholding civil rights and confronting hate. The full report will be released on Monday, January 13th, on the Interfaith Alliance website. “Religion is contextual, and it can manifest itself in extremely damaging and violent ways. It can divide us from one another. It can create supremacist outlooks. It can create and be influenced by ethno-nationalist outlooks. And maybe …

Mike Johnson misattributed a prayer to Jefferson. The blowback could be heard at Monticello.

Mike Johnson misattributed a prayer to Jefferson. The blowback could be heard at Monticello.

Published by skeptic

WASHINGTON (RNS) — On officially accepting his post, newly reelected House Speaker Mike Johnson recited a prayer he attributed to Thomas Jefferson, saying the third president prayed it every day. Johnson had hardly finished his speech when the debunking began. Journalists and others quickly noted that the website of Monticello — Jefferson’s historic home in Virginia, currently operating underneath the Thomas Jefferson Foundation — had a dedicated page declaring that the “National Prayer of Peace” is not, according to researchers, something Jefferson is known to have ever recited publicly or privately. “We have no evidence that this prayer was written or delivered by Thomas Jefferson,” the website reads. “It appears in the 1928 United States Book of Common Prayer, and was first suggested for inclusion in a report published in 1919.” The site classifies the attribution among “spurious quotations” linked to Jefferson. How the prayer became associated with Jefferson, a deist who famously edited Gospel accounts of miracles out of his own Bible with a blade, turns out to be a yarn unto itself. Democratic …

Who is Charlie Kirk, the new faith-focused enforcer of Trumpism?

Who is Charlie Kirk, the new faith-focused enforcer of Trumpism?

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — On Nov. 5, a visibly anxious Charlie Kirk fidgeted with his red MAGA hat and T-shirt, which was emblazoned with the word “Pray.” Surrounded by fellow young conservatives, he was livestreaming an election-night edition of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” his program on the conservative media outlet Real America’s Voice. Finally, as the hour grew late and Fox News declared Donald Trump the victor, Kirk burst into tears, eventually stammering out, “I am just humbled by God’s grace” and “This is God’s mercy on our country.” But since the election, Kirk, a 31-year-old mainline-Presbyterian-turned-evangelical and founder of the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, has done his best to show he played no small part in what he insists was God’s plan to catapult Trump back into power. Technically, TPUSA and its more overtly political arms, Turning Point Action and Turning Point PAC, were among several organizations tapped by the Trump campaign to operate as an outsourced field operation. But Kirk’s efforts have drawn particular praise as an effective driver of infrequent voters to …

RNS picks for religion and spirituality books of 2024

RNS picks for religion and spirituality books of 2024

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — In an often-tense election year, a number of the books RNS featured in 2024 dealt with politically charged faith topics. Some, such as Amanda Tyler’s and Matthew D. Taylor’s explorations of Christian nationalism and Joshua Leifer’s breakdown of American Judaism’s embrace of Zionism, called out actors and institutions the authors perceived as bending religion toward political ends. Then there were the books that looked to the past to better understand the present, examining the evolution of the sanctuary movement, introducing little-known Christian anti-racists and exposing how earlier politicians fostered enmity between poor white folks and their poor Black peers. Eliza Griswold’s profile of an evangelical church riven by discord post-2020, and Greg Epstein’s observations about how artificial intelligence has become a religion unto itself, offer lessons about how to avoid worshipping the wrong thing.  The more reflective offerings, including J.S. Park’s book on grief and Cole Arthur Riley’s “Black Liturgies,” offer space for whatever readers might be feeling at the end of an exhausting year — rage, despair, joy, hope. So whether you’re …

In Idaho, locals meet to discuss Christian nationalist church’s growing influence

In Idaho, locals meet to discuss Christian nationalist church’s growing influence

Published by skeptic

MOSCOW, Idaho (FāVS News) — Nearly 200 residents of this northern Idaho town gathered Tuesday night (Dec. 17) to discuss combating Christian nationalism, joined by a podcaster who is investigating the growing influence of Christian nationalist leader Doug Wilson in the community. In the second season of his podcast “Extremely American,” Heath Druzin has been looking into the activities of Wilson’s Christ Church and its role in the extremist movement. Titled “Onward Christian Soldiers,” the season has already topped 1 million downloads. Druzin explained to the crowd that Wilson, 71, who runs the Community of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a Calvinist church group, and an education empire that includes 500 “classical” Christian schools, is more influential nationally than locally.  But Christ Church, whose relationship with Moscow dates back to the 1970s, has been growing slowly over the decades. Today the church has between 800-900 members in the 25,000-person town. Those members own about 20% of the city’s downtown buildings, according to the podcast. The church’s growth has caused a divide in the community, especially as Wilson …

White Christians made Donald Trump president — again

White Christians made Donald Trump president — again

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — While the United States has become more religiously diverse in recent decades, white Christians remain the largest religious segment of the country, making up about 42% of the population, according to data from the Public Religion Research Institute. And for Donald Trump, their support has once again proved key to his victory. Exit poll data from CNN and other news outlets reported that 72% of white Protestants and 61% of white Catholics said they voted for Trump. Among white voters, 81% of those identified as born-again or evangelical supported Trump, up from 76% in 2020 and similar to the 80% of support Trump received in 2016. Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said that kind of support is hard to overcome, especially in the Rust Belt swing states that helped seal Trump’s victory. “It’s hard to overcome the white God gap in a place like Pennsylvania, or Michigan and Wisconsin,” he said. But Trump also won the Christian vote overall: 58% of all Catholics voted for him and …

Once a beneficent King Cyrus, Trump has lately been cast as a biblical avenger

Once a beneficent King Cyrus, Trump has lately been cast as a biblical avenger

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — He’s a type of a Cyrus, the ancient Persian emperor. Or a modern Job, defiantly enduring devilish persecutions. He’s Esther, positioned by providence “for such a time as this.” Now he’s a David, a flawed but anointed man of God … Meet Donald Trump, biblical paragon. In the past decade, Trump’s Christian theologizers, whom I write about in my new book, have made a hobby of connecting the famously profane, philandering, greedy real estate mogul to biblical heroes and quotable Bible verses. The medley of Bible characters, all mirrors of Trump and his cosmic destiny to lead America, are a pillar of his appeal to evangelical Christians. More recently, however, these biblical allusions and correlations have taken a menacing turn. The latest iteration of this trope is Trump as the obscure Hebrew Bible character King Jehu, an equivalence that may signal tacit acceptance that Trump is bringing in a tide of violence. Almost as soon as Trump entered the political scene in earnest, charismatic prophets, whose evangelical followers believe they literally speak the …

What’s a ‘Jezebel spirit’? Some Christians use the term to paint Kamala Harris with a demonic brush

What’s a ‘Jezebel spirit’? Some Christians use the term to paint Kamala Harris with a demonic brush

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(AP) — Christian nationalist leaders are telling followers that Vice President Kamala Harris is under the influence of a “Jezebel spirit,” using a term with deeply racist and misogynistic roots that is setting off alarm bells for religious and political scholars. The concept is inspired by the biblical story of the evil Queen Jezebel, who persecuted prophets and was punished with a horrible death. The word “Jezebel” was used during slavery and throughout U.S. history to describe Black women, casting them as overtly sexual and untrustworthy. In the context of “Jezebel spirit,” the term has sinister connotations, suggesting the person is under the influence of demons in a spiritual battle between good and evil. People who have studied the Jan. 6 insurrection warn that similar rhetoric on spiritual warfare drove many to the U.S. Capitol that day. “People … are hearing this woman is possessed by a demonic spirit that is hardcore, terrible, hates men, hates authority, is going to do whatever she wants to do,” said Anthea Butler, professor at the University of Pennsylvania …

Should Christian men run America? Hell no, say abuse survivors in new documentary

Should Christian men run America? Hell no, say abuse survivors in new documentary

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Christa Brown speaks about experiencing abuse, at a rally outside the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, June 11, 2019, in Birmingham, Ala. (RNS photo/Butch Dill) (RNS) — Christa Brown has heard former President Donald Trump and his supporters boast of returning Christians to power in the United States — and returning the nation to what they say are its Christian roots. She wants none of it. Brown, a sexual abuse survivor and longtime advocate for abuse reform in the Southern Baptist Convention, has seen what happens when Christian men have power over women in the church. The thought of them having the same power over the country makes her quake. “I have seen what it means for the largest evangelical Protestant faith group in the country, and it is bloody awful,” Brown says in a new short film about the connections between abuse and Christian nationalism called “For Our Daughters.”  “That is not the country I want,” Brown says. “For Our Daughters” film poster. (Courtesy image) Brown is …

New survey points to correlation between Christian nationalism and authoritarian views

New survey points to correlation between Christian nationalism and authoritarian views

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(RNS) — Americans who hold Christian nationalist views are also likely to express support for forms of authoritarianism, according to a new report, pointing to a possible link between those who advocate for a Christian nation and people who agree with statements such as the need to “smash the perversions eating away at our moral fiber and traditional beliefs.” The Public Religion Research Institute unveiled the new survey last week during Religion News Service’s 90th anniversary celebration in New York City, presenting the data to a room of faith leaders, advocates and reporters. A statement sent to RNS on Monday (Sept 16), Melissa Deckman, CEO of PRRI, framed the study as an effort to connect recent research on Christian nationalism with longstanding efforts to assess authoritarianism. “While most Americans do not espouse authoritarian views, our study demonstrates that such views are disproportionately held by Christian nationalists, who we know in our past research have been more prone to accept political violence and more likely to hold antidemocratic attitudes than other Americans,” Deckman said. In addition …