The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism

by Katherine Stewart

Overview

The inspiration for the documentary God & Country

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:	9781635577877
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	04/26/2022
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	56,573
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(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

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

“This is not a 'culture war.' It is a political war over the future of democracy. This is a bold claim, but one that Stewart backs up with deep reporting on the religious right's infrastructure.” —Linda Greenhouse, New York Review of Books

“Invaluable ... The Power Worshippers should be read by all Americans who believe in democracy and the separation of church and state.” —New York Journal of Books

“A truly informative and smooth read about a sprawling movement and the many ways it exercises power over the lives of all Americans.” —Democracy Journal

“Powerful and persuasive argument ... [illuminated] with an array of history and political reporting, effectively weaving a portrait of our current grim situation with the threads from the past.” —Daily Kos

“Bringing some clarity to the make-up of the Christian nationalist movement is just one of the myths Stewart busts in her upcoming book ... Equally important for us to understand is that this movement isn't simply about culture wars.” —Washington Monthly

“[Stewart is] a seasoned investigative journalist, weaving together historical analysis and on-the-ground reporting to create engaging narratives . . . offer[ing] a behind-the-scenes view of how an interconnected network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations joined forces with global anti-democratic religious nationalists long before entities like Russia became players in the 2016 presidential election.” —The Humanist

“A must-read for those interested in the influence of religion on politics and the effects on our political institutions.” —Library Journal, starred review

“A timely and useful introduction to the single most organized force in American politics today ... demonstrates how the Christian nationalist movement has successfully redirected public resources to fund their own private religious initiatives, like the public financing of religious charter schools through tax breaks and grant programs.” —Baffler

“A comprehensive, chilling look at America's Christian nationalist movement.” —Publishers Weekly

“[The] thoroughly researched facts as she lays them out are hard to argue with . . . [an] undeniably powerful examination of the Christian right's political motives.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A more comprehensive, if still compact, journey through the labyrinth of interlocking organizations and personalities that form the ecosystem of a movement that embraces 'identity-based authoritarian rule over pluralistic, democratic processes,' and seeks to transform the U.S. to serve that vision.” —Shelf Awareness

“Eye-opening . . . We learn, here, from a committed deep researcher-years of devoted travel, interviews, reading-that this movement is a good deal more dedicated and scarily more ambitious than the rest of us have so far noticed.” —Sullivan County Democrat

“A fascinating x-ray into the political eco-system of religious conservatives who threaten the health of our democratic institutions.” —Julian E. Zelizer, author of THE FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW

“Read The Power Worshippers and you will understand why nothing is more important to the health of our common life than challenging the false moral narrative of religious nationalism.” —William J. Barber, II, President of Repairers of the Breach & Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

“Katherine Stewart presents chilling evidence that millions of American churchgoers are being inflamed and exploited by a cynical, well-funded alliance of power seekers. Read The Power Worshippers to understand what the relentless political agitation against abortion and homosexuality has really achieved-and for whom.” —Nancy MacLean, author of DEMOCRACY IN CHAINS

“Employing a sharp investigative eye, Stewart connects the dots between radical theocratic groups that want to create an officially 'Christian nation' and extreme free-market libertarians who despise social programs for the poor, taxes and public institutions. After reading this book, you should be prepared to fight back like nothing less than our democracy is at stake – because it is.” —Rob Boston, Americans United for Separation of Church and State

“Katherine Stewart takes on the enormous task of revealing who exactly is pulling the levers of power in our communities, statehouses, and federal government. A must-read.” —Andrew Whitehead, author of TAKING AMERICA BACK FOR GOD

“We are faced with a religious movement that is fundamentally opposed to pluralism and has long-term plans to transform America into a Christian nation. An adept, highly readable and important work.” —Julie Ingersoll, author of BUILDING GOD'S KINGDOM

“The Power Worshippers provides a detailed explanation of how the Religious Right has used its power to advance religion-based government in harmful ways.” —Justia

“Both [The Power Worshippers and Shadow Network] have done impressive archival and on-the-ground research. These books are two of the fullest accounts of Christian nationalism to date. . . . Together, they paint a multidimensional portrait of the politicization of Christian faith that has neither a single source nor a majority of support among American Christians, despite its disproportionate impact.” —Christian Century

From the Publisher

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