General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Demolishing democracy': how much danger does Christian nationalism pose?
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/27/bad-faith-documentary-christian-nationalismNo paywall link
https://archive.li/GRA7K
Bad Faith, a new documentary on the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States, opens with an obvious, ominous scene the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021 though trained on details drowned out by the deluge of horror and easily recognizable images of chaos. That Paula White, Donald Trumps faith adviser, led the Save America rally in a prayer to overturn the results for a free and fair election. That mixed among Trump flags, American flags and militia symbols were numerous banners with Christian crosses; on the steps of the Capitol, a JESUS SAVES sign blares mere feet from Lock Them UP!
The movement to overturn the 2020 election for Donald Trump was, as the documentary underscores, inextricable from a certain strain of belief in America as a fundamentally Christian nation, separation of church and state be damned. In fact, as Bad Faith argues, Christian nationalism a political movement to shape the United States according a certain interpretation of evangelical Christianity, by vote or, more recently, by coercion was the galvanizing force behind the attempted hijacking of the democratic process three years ago.
Bad Faith traces the origins of the movement as a savvy, disproportionately powerful political force, from churches to Republican political operatives to donors, either from conviction or convenience. I think a lot of Americans have a very difficult time accepting and understanding the fact that such treason, such anti-democratic activity, could be carried out by people who basically look like Sunday school teachers, Stephen Ujlaki, the films director, told the Guardian. By looking back on the half-century of Christian nationalist belief, organizing and action, the events of January 6 no longer seemed shocking, but the logical endpoint of anti-democratic ideals. It was unmistakable, once you looked in the right place and you listened to what people were saying, and you understood how to decode what they were saying, said Ujlaki. Little would you know that when they talk about recreating the kingdom of God on earth, they werent talking about something spiritual. They were talking about demolishing democracy so that God, ie themselves, could rule. And for that reason, I call it a conspiracy carried out in broad daylight.
Though Christian nationalists are quick to invoke the founding fathers, whom they claim were directed by a Christian God, the conspiracy has its modern origins in the 1970s, when the Republican political organizer Paul Weyrich began uniting evangelical parishioners and televangelist preachers like Jerry Falwell with Republican party politics opposing desegregation, via a political action group called the Moral Majority. Its not that evangelical Christians werent political as the film, narrated by Peter Coyote, points out, the idea of America as a white Christian nation undergirded the Ku Klux Klan, which at its peak in 1924 claimed 8 million members, the vast majority of whom were white evangelicals, including 40,000 ministers.
*snip*
sprinkleeninow
(20,270 posts)Deep State Witch
(10,478 posts)When the Reagan Revolution happened. Also, when I became a Wiccan. Back then, we had people denying non-profit status to Wiccan and other alternative religious groups because they were "Satanic". But, a lot of us knew that this was coming, sooner or later. And, even if we defeat it in November, it will continue to metastasize.
Bundbuster
(3,206 posts)Christian Nationalism's power comes mainly from The Council For National Policy - CNP, founded in 1981 by the worst of the worst. Another article on this I posted yesterday:
https://www.alternet.org/christian-nationalists-big-donors/
In her review of the documentary Bad Faith: Christian nationalism's unholy war on democracy, Guardian writer Adrian Horton remarked on how filmmakers have shown that far-right Christian evangelicals and their financial backers have a shared common goal: replacing representative democracy with an autocratic regime. The film kicks off by juxtaposing footage of participants in the deadly January 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol with former President Donald Trump's spiritual advisor, Paula White, praying to overturn the 2020 election.
Bad Faith director Stephen Ujlaki told Horton. "[W]hen they talk about recreating the kingdom of God on earth, they werent talking about something spiritual. They were talking about demolishing democracy so that God, i.e. themselves, could rule. And for that reason, I call it a conspiracy carried out in broad daylight."
The ideology of Christian nationalism is centered around the erroneous belief that the United States was founded as a Christian nation (many of the framers were actually Deists). Its proponents want to elect explicitly Christian conservative leaders to firmly establish a government that establishes a hierarchy in which white, Christian men are at the top, with women, minorities, the LGBTQ+ community and practitioners of other faiths forced to live under their rule.
In the film, author Anne Nelson a longtime scholar of the religious right explored the financial connection between Christian nationalists and major donors like the far-right Koch network. She argued that even though the movement's financial backers may not share their religious fanaticism, they nonetheless see Christian nationalists as useful tools in their goal of dismantling democracy in order to further enrich themselves. "Theyre in bed together, based on economic principles, not theology," Nelson said.
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From the documentary "Bad Faith" available on Amazon Prime:
"The current day assault on democracy did not begin with Trumpism. It did not begin with the Tea Party. It did not begin with the Moral Majority. It did not even begin in this century. The current day assault on democracy began with the White Supremacy Movement in the 1960's as part of a shrewd, calculated, and well executed plan that became cloaked as a religious movement."
Watch this movie!