The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism

by Katherine Stewart

Overview

For 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635573435
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	03/03/2020
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	171,249
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Katherine Stewart is the author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. She writes about politics, policy, and religion for The New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, and The New Republic. Her previous book, The Good News Club, was an examination of the religious right and public education.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Church and Party in Unionville 12

2 Ministering to Power 33

3 Inventing Abortion 54

4 The Mind of a Warrior 78

5 Up from Slavery: The Ideological Origins of Christian Nationalism 102

6 The Uses and Abuses of History 126

7 The Blitz: Turning the States into Laboratories of Theocracy 153

8 Converting the Flock to Data 169

9 Proselytizers and Privatizers 185

10 Theocracy from the Bench, or How to Establish Religion in the Name of "Religious Liberty" 209

11 Controlling Bodies: What "Religious Liberty" Looks Like from the Stretcher 235

12 The Global Holy War Comes of Age 248

Epilogue 274

Acknowledgments 279

Notes 283

Index 327

Editorial Reviews

11/25/2019

Journalist Stewart (The Good News Club) provides a comprehensive, chilling look at America’s Christian nationalist movement, which she convincingly portrays as a highly organized political coalition that has “already transformed the political landscape and shaken the foundations upon which lay our democratic norms and institutions.” Arguing that Christian nationalism has been misunderstood as focusing on social issues (mainly abortion and gay marriage), Stewart shows, through painstaking reporting over the past decade, that the movement aims “to replace our foundational democratic principles and institutions with a state grounded on a particular version of Christianity... that also happens to serve the interests of its plutocratic funders and allied political leaders.” For example, she writes, Christian nationalists have embarked on an extensive, coordinated campaign to radically reform public education, particularly within the charter school sector, where “egregious examples of church-school fusion are far from anomalous,” an effort spearheaded by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Stewart also explores how Catholic ultraconservative Leonard Leo used the Federalist Society to target judgeships and “establish religion in the name of ‘religious liberty’ ” and how multinational Christian organizations, such as the World Congress of Families, are organizing to fight a grassroots “global holy war” against secularism. Her insightful investigation places the power of Christian nationalism into full context. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 12/01/2019

Journalist Stewart (The Good News Club) paints a disturbing picture in this thorough accounting of the rise of religious nationalism, which promotes that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that the government should pass laws informed by a particular reading of the Bible. The movement consists of an ever-changing group of activists, leaders, and organizations and relies on donations from some of the wealthiest families in America, such as that of late publisher Richard Mellon Scaife as well the as the family of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Stewart explains how, under the Trump administration, religious nationalists have regular access to senior government officials through Bible studies attended by legislators and cabinet officials. Religious nationalists have had great success in getting jurists appointed to federal courts and have seen courts rule in their favor on the funding of private religious schools with public money, along with the erosion of the separation of church and state. VERDICT A must-read for those interested in the influence of religion on politics and the effects on our political institutions.—Chad E. Statler, Westlake Porter P.L., Westlake, OH

Library Journal

2019-10-29
An exposé of the righteous hypocrisy driving Christian nationalism.

In the late 1970s, a self-appointed group of radical right-wing Christians decided to take on an impossible-sounding task that would, in their view, restore America's moral foundation. They would form a political organization with the goal of taking over every element of government in the U.S.—first Congress, followed by the presidency, the federal courts, state legislatures, and local governments—and imbue them with their religious ideas. However, according to Stewart (The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children, 2012, etc.), the initial purpose of the Christian nationalists, as she calls them, had little to do with religion or morality. In the beginning, their efforts were focused on overcoming the Internal Revenue Service's attempt to rescind the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University. To succeed, they knew they needed a hot-button issue they could ride to success; they settled on abortion even though Judaism teaches that life begins at birth, and Jesus never challenged that. Nevertheless, the plan worked so well that today, four decades later, Christian nationalism has become a frighteningly powerful voice in the Republican Party. It was instrumental in getting Donald Trump elected president, and now it has a committee that suggests candidates for the federal bench that Trump rubber-stamps and blindly sends out for confirmation. Currently, the Christian nationalists are moving rapidly in their plan to take over state legislatures, which they're accomplishing through "Project Blitz." Though its stated aim is to advance religious freedom, Stewart argues convincingly that the true goal is to inundate as many states as possible with so many right-wing bills that it will jam the state legislative processes. Many readers will consider the book advocacy journalism because the author didn't seek out her targets' comments, but the thoroughly researched facts as she lays them out are hard to argue with.

A one-sided but undeniably powerful examination of the Christian right's political motives.

Kirkus Reviews

“Ambitious . . . required reading for anyone who wants to map the continuing erosion of our already fragile wall between church and state.” —The Washington Post

“Both an examination of a new social and cultural phenomenon-and a call for action.” —The Boston Globe

“Chilling . . . Much of what Stewart recounts would seem incredible were it not presented through extensive quotations from speeches by, documents of, and conversations with movement leaders.” —Foreign Affairs

“With more than a decade of experience covering conservative Christianity, Stewart is adept at conveying the gravity of its aims. She goes deeper than any facile culture-wars discourse, digging into the evangelical right's fervor to gain political power and privilege in the name of religious liberty.” —Texas Observer

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