Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy
By Katherine Stewart
A Review by Dwight A. Moody
Katherine Stewart describes the religious culture surrounding me all my life, although people in that culture (or movement) would not describe it as she does. They don’t really think about democracy and its displacement as an end goal nor even as collateral damage to their energies. Democracy may be a means to an End, they assert, and that End is a Christian Nation. That is where they and she stand on the same ground.
The movement she names and describes is Christian Nationalism. In this her third book, all of them first rate and worthy of study, Stewart gives attention to three things: the role of money, angst, and demons (although she uses the word “Lies” for the second, and I don’t know why; and uses “Demons” to headline section three but opts for “God” in the book title, and I don’t know why about that, either). The first, a survey of the big money people (both Evangelical and Catholic) who finance the Religious Right, is shocking. The second, a description of the marginalization conservatives feel in most public networks of our nation (education, science, government, etc.), is perceptive. And the third, the emergence of Pentecostal style religion, is an important (and often overlooked) reality within Christianity in America today.
Concerning money: the chapters gave me pause, and I asked myself, “If the Religious Right has created concentric circles of organization (Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom, Moral Majority, etc.) and these constitute their American subculture, where do we find a corresponding network of institutions and agencies for the Religious Left, or the Progressive wing of American culture and/or religion. Shall I assume that this latter is the existing systems of higher education (with its hundreds of colleges and universities), the state and federal governments (with their agencies of public health, law enforcement, and such), and the diverse expanse of semi-autonomous agencies and organizations that pose an unintentional barrier on the road to Christian Nationalism (and here I might name things like Boys Scouts of America, Major League Baseball, and the Kennedy Honors)?Given this vision of the cultural landscape, it is understandable that the money and energy earmarked for this Christian National Crusade pales in comparison to that which is routinely invested in creating and sustaining the broader American society, including things like fashion, sport, education, entertainment and recreation. The right-wing money seems like a lot, but compared to the economy as a whole, it is not much.
The angst Stewart describes in part two arises from just this social location: those marching toward Christian Nationalism do not represent the mainstream of American life. Most people never think about it; we think about going to work, paying the bills, raising the children, and rooting for our team. We never dwell on purging the governmental bureaucracy, or the school library, or the Hollywood scripts. We are too much a part of what we might call normal day to day living to be organized and mobilized into attack squads for social transformation. But some do, because they have been persuaded that the status quo is corrupting our families and our faith and because they have been persuaded that if we don’t do this, all of America will blow up into wickedness, judgment, and (perhaps) even the end of the age.
I am glad Stewart decided to delve into the demon realm (part three). Most scholars and commentators avoid it because it is so strange, so isolated, so off-putting. We have seen some of it in public through the “shenanigans” of Paula White-Cain, recently appointed to the Office of Faith in the White House. Her version of Christianity has been on the margins of our faith and practice for the century and more of its existence. But Stewart recognizes that it is powerful around the world and also in the United States. Nobody knows what a state funeral would look and sound like in a Pentecostal sanctuary led by Pentecostal preachers, but it will not be long before we find out. This movement toward Christian Nationalism is taking us closer to something new and strange than the more familiar sounds and scapes of what we might find in England or even in our own National Cathedral.
Of all the surprising things described in this book, I draw attention to the absence of Jesus. Evidently, Stewart did not find much Jesus in the lingo and literature of the movement she describes, and this coheres precisely with my own observations and research. Jesus plays almost no role in the ideology and motivation of this cultural movement. There is even no entry for Jesus in the 19-page index of this book. Biblical and religious justification is found elsewhere, not in the life and teaching of Jesus; which is why a revival of red-letter religion is one option for a strong and sturdy alternative to this movement, this madness, yes, this meanness.
Stewart’s manuscript was written before the second inauguration of Donald J. Trump, the supposed messiah of Christian Nationalism. All that has happened since January 20 illustrates what happens when the values and vocabulary of Jesus are omitted from the religious vision of Christian people.
One final word. Some substantial and, apparently, ungodly university needs to grant Ms. Stewart a doctoral degree, solely on the basis of this one book; its scholarship, its attention to detail, its importance to the public and private conversation, and its value to other scholars exceeds, I confess, any dissertation I have read (including my own). She is a first-rate scholar and writer and advocate.
Stewart is to be honored also for suffering through all the speeches, sermons, songs, testimonies, and conversations that have attended her grassroots research in conferences all over this country and England. She is also quite adept at sarcasm, which I deeply appreciate! Thank you, Katherine Stewart. Keep writing!
2
