“I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic party’s candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me” Those were the kinds of words John F. Kennedy had to use when running for the president in 1960. Words that feel almost quaint in 2023. Painfully quaint, as we’re going to see in this post.
Because as we’ve seen, Christian Nationalism isn’t simply on the rise in the United States. It’s already at the top, thanks in no small part to the decades long efforts of the Council for National Policy (CNP) and the myriad of groups operating under its theocratic umbrella. The Supreme Court is dominated by a hard right majority likely to be in place for decades to come at the same time Christian Nationalism is wholly mainstream inside the contemporary Republican Party. We even have the CNP’s planned mass purges — starting with the government but not ending there — under the ‘Schedule F’/Project 2025 label that is being openly reported and discussed in the news. The mask dropped a while ago.
That’s all part of the grim context surrounding a series of reports around the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. The kind of reports that should raise serious questions about just how much influence the leading Christian Nationalist hold over new Speaker of the House.
For starters, the whole intra-party kerfuffle that resulted in Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as speaker appears to have the CNP’s fingerprints all over it. Recall how it was the CNP-backed Freedom Caucus that orchestrated the giant intra-party showdown over Kevin McCarthy’s speakership nomination back in January with extensive CNP support. Flash forward to the new showdown over the Speakership, and it was again the Freedom Caucus leading ‘anti-establishment’ opposition, with CNP affiliates like Amy Kremer and Russ Vought again playing a supporting role. And at the end of it all, backbencher Mike Johnson emerges as the party’s consensus candidate with unanimous party support. Someone who happened to call CNP Vice President Kelly Shackelford his mentor during an October 2019 speach at a CNP conference. Johnson isn’t really hiding his theocratic sentiments.
But he hasn’t exactly advertised the full scope of his commitment to Christian Nationalism either. But as we’re going to see, he’s committed and he’s far from alone. Christian Nationalism is the mainstream ideology governing the Republican Party in 2023. Mike Johnson’s Speakership is merely one of its many manifestations. So when we got reports about the genuinely creepy “Covenant Eyes” spyware that Johnson proudly installed on his phone, we should probably start asking questions about who exactly Mike Johnson is answering to in his role as House Speaker. Spyware that tracks all of the websites he visits, searches he makes, and even takes screenshots and tends them back to ‘Covenant Eyes’, where any signs of wayward activity (like searching for LGBTQ content) will be reported to Johnson’s “Accountability Partner”, who happens to be his adopted son.
Yes, the new Speaker of the House put some sort of super-spyware on his phone that enforces ‘Christian’ behavior. And that’s why, while it was absurd to think JFK was taking order from the Pope, these kinds of questions aren’t so absurd when it comes to politicians like Mike Johnson. Christian Nationalism is, after all, about the formal ending of the Separation of Church and State and the transfer of real political power into the churches. Not all churches, mind you. Specific churches deemed to be the vessels of the theocratic ideals that underpin the founding of the United States are to receive the support of the state. And, lo and behold, those specific churches tend to be the conservative Christian churches under the sway of the CNP network of leaders.
And as we should expect at this point, the particular individual who determines this ‘authentic theology’ for churches in the United States is the same figure who has long been the go-to pseudo-historian for this movement: David Barton. As we saw, Barton has long been the defining figure for the CNP-backed historical revisionism designed to undermine the Separation of Church and State. And as we’re going to see below, Barton’s vision for ending that separation of church and state is on the cusp of becoming a reality in his home state of Texas, thanks, in part to recent Supreme Court rulings that hint at a much greater willingness of the conservative Supreme Court majority to go much further in making this vision a reality. Worse, the plan is make Texas a template for the rest of the nation. With the Texas GOP firmly behind Barton, it’s just a matter of time. Things are in motion.
So it should come as no surprise to learn about another David Barton super-fan: Mike Johnson. Yes, it was just one day after Johnson won the Speakership that Barton said on a podcast that he was already discussion staffing with Johnson, a longtime ally of Barton. Johnson even recently spoke at an event for Barton’s Wallbuilders group where he praised Barton’s “profound influence on me, and my work, and my life and everything I do.”
Chilling words to hear from the new Speaker, but not surprising. Johnson worked as the attorney and spokesperson for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Recall how the ADF received large donations from the Betsy DeVos and Erik Prince and funneled that money into supporting Christian nationalist movements in Europe and backed a 2016 Belize law that punished homosexual sex with 10 years in prison. Also recall how the ADF has been playing a major behind the scenes role in shaping the current manufactured anti-trans panic. At the same time, the ADF shows up on the list of organizations involved with the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme. CNP member Michael Farris, who co-founded the “Convention of States” project designed to overhaul the Constitution — has served as the President and CEO of the ADF. Johnson and Barton have been operating in the same CNP-run circles for years. Of course Barton has had a profound influence on Johnson’s life. They’re basically Christian Nationalist co-workers.
All in all, it’s highly disturbing context for the new Speaker. But it gets worse. As usual. Because as we’re going to also see, the particular theological institution most closely associated with Barton’s work — the Southern Baptist Convention — has an ongoing mega-scandal of the kind of nature that is going to be increasing important to understand as this movement accrues more and more very real political power over the lives of the US population. To put it bluntly, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) — a denomination consisting of roughly 47,000 churches — has a massive sexual abuse problem. A largely unchecked problem that has been rampant for decades thanks, in part, to the near complete lack of action of the part of the SBC leadership. When actions have been taken by the SBC leadership, they’ve typically been to cover up or deny the allegations. It’s the kind of systematic abuse of power that should serve as a major warning for what’s in store for the rest of US society as the strain of Christian Nationalism championed by the SBC continues its political ascent.
Oh, and it turns out we’re learning a lot about this historic of abuse and cover up thanks to an ongoing lawsuit filed against a number of SBC leaders and institutions. The lawsuit centers around decades of abuse by Paul Pressler, a prominent member of the CNP and CNP president from 1988–1990. Pressler has been instrumental in pushing the SBC’s 16 million members and 47,000 churches to adopt literal interpretations of the Bible and align more closely with the Republican Party.
This isn’t to say that the ascent of Christian Nationalism will necessarily bring widespread unchecked sexual assaults on the rest of society. But it’s hard to ignore the deep tolerance for systemic abuses by the same leaders who personify the strains of Christianity Barton, Johnson, and the rest of their Christian Nationalist allies are aggressively carrying out this theocratic power grab. Leaders like Ed Young of the Southern Baptist Church of Houston. The United States is in the midst of a theocratic power grab decades in the making thanks to the extensive full-spectrum work of the CNP’s powerful membership. And as we’re going to see, the people involved with the systemic cover up of these abuses in the SBC community includes one CNP member after another.
And bringing it all full circle: there’s a rather amusing yet disturbing chapter of Mike Johnson’s career as a Christian legal activist that is only going to more and more amusing and/or disturbing as the case against Pressler plays out. It turns out Mike Johnson was recruited to be the dean of a newly forming Christian law school back in 2010. Part of Johnson’s role was to raise the funds needed to start the school. The problem is someone was embezzling those fund. The school was ultimately never started and Johnson returned to his Christian Nationalist legal activism in 2012. The name of that school that never was? The Judge Paul Pressler School of Law.
Here’s a quick review of the article excerpts we’re going to be reviewing in this post:
* November 5, 2023: Mike Johnson Admits He and His Son Monitor Each Other’s Porn Intake in Resurfaced Video
It’s shocking. Except not really. The new Speaker of the House actually bragged about how he had the “Covenant Eyes” software installed on his phone, along with his son’s phone. That way, they could keep each other ‘accountable’ by getting updates house should the other browser any unacceptable websites or pornography. In other words, the new Speaker of the House installed theocratic spyware on his phone.
* September 22, 2022: The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps
You can call it ‘spyware’. But as this WIRED article warns, perhaps ‘discipleship shameware’ is a more apt description of the kind of app Mike Johnson has running on his phone. An app that doesn’t just send warnings about the viewing of pornography. It monitors almost everything you do on your phone and sends that data back to the company. And while users are allowed to select their own personal “accountability buddy” who will receive notifications of any ‘impure’ actions, the reality is that church leaders are frequently the ones tapped to play that ‘buddy’ role, which has resulted in stories like teens getting questioned by church elders over activities like reading an article about atheism. It’s app-powered ‘discipleship’, and therefore particularly popular with SBC churches like Gracepoint, where ‘discipleship’ is heavily practiced.
* November 3, 2023: Texas activist David Barton wants to end separation of church and state. He has the ear of the new U.S. House speaker.
For all the uproar over Mike Johnson’s anti-porn ‘shameware’, there was a far more disturbing story about the new Speaker’s theocratic orientation. It turns out Mike Johnson is a huge fan of David Barton. He even recently declared Barton’s “profound influence on me, and my work, and my life and everything I do” as an event put on by Barton’s WallBuilders organization. And with Texas Republicans already on board with Barton’s agenda too, it’s easy to see why Texas is poised to become the Christian Nationalism template for the rest of the nation. Barton is a superstar among Texas Republicans, where his brand of Christian Nationalism is already the mainstream.
* May 4, 2023: Conservative Christians want more religion in public life. Texas lawmakers are listening.
With the Texas Republicans already fully embrace David Barton’s brand of Christian Nationalism, what’s standing their in way? Well, a lot less than before thanks to a series of recent Supreme Court rulings. In 2020, the court ruled 5–4 in favor of a Montana woman who argued that her state’s Department of Revenue improperly barred her from using a tax-credit scholarship at a Christian school. And in 2022, the court similarly ruled that Maine could not bar religious institutions from public funding. It’s reminder that tearing down the separation of church and state is unlikely to come in a single blow. It will be a death by a thousand cuts. And with Texas Republicans actively working on legal challenges to the laws currently blocking tax exempt entities like churches from engaging in partisan activity, it appears to be just a matter of time before the Supreme Court delivers another one of those cuts.
* November 1, 2023: Mike Johnson is not the only David Barton fan to be Speaker of the House of Representatives
And while Mike Johnson’s improbable Speakership might seem like the improbable rise of a close Barton ally, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s not actually that improbable to find out a Republican Speaker of the House is a big Barton fan. Former Speaker Paul Ryan once said of Barton, “I listen to him all the time, even in my car while driving.” Ryan went on to elaborate that, because of Barton’s teachings, Ryan is very knowledgeable of the 1954 Johnson Amendment that put restrictions on the political activities of pastors from their pulpits, which has done so much damage to American culture. So what appears to be a final push taking place now to the end the restrictions on churches engaging in direct political action is the culmination of long ongoing efforts.
* May 23, 2016: Southern Baptist, other evangelical leaders to meet with Donald Trump: Reports
And as a reminder that we can’t really separate the current remarkable power held by the movement from the impact of the Trump administration and the profound role it played in reshaping the Supreme Court, it’s worth taking a little at a fascinating May 2016 article describing plans for a delegation of leaders — including many SBC leaders — who were planning on meeting then-candidate Trump. The delegated included:
* CNP Founding Member James Dobson
* CNP member Ralph Reed
* CNP member Penny Nance
* CNP Executive Directo Bob McEwen
* CNP member Tim Wildmon
* CNP member (and CNP VP starting in 2020) Kelly Shackelford, who also happens to be Mike Johnson’s mentor.
* CNP member (and CNP President in 2018) Tony Perkins
* CNP member Bill Dallas
Ed Young, longstanding past of South Baptist Church Houston and a major leader in the SBC, also attended. In other words, he’s obviously very closely tied to the CNP.
* March 27, 2023: Houston GOP official knew for years of child sex abuse claims against Southern Baptist leader, law partner
And now we get to the other chapter in this story. The ongoing sexual abuse mega-scandal that continues to rock the SBC community. A mega-scandal that involves hundreds of figures — pastors. Ministers. Youth pastors. Sunday school teachers. Deacons. Church volunteers — inside the SBC community and which includes some extremely prominent figures. In particular, Paul Pressler. Considered one of the key figures in the push to get to SBC to adopt Biblical literalism in the 80s and 90s, Pressler has become one of those people whose endorsement aspiring Republicans seek out. Long an important figure in the CNP’s leadership, Pressler was the CNP president from 1988–1990. And a serial sexual abuser of young men and teenage boys going back to at least 1978. And with the SBC leadership seemingly running cover for Pressler the whole time. But, Pressler’s sexual abuse didn’t just take place within his role as an SBC youth pastor. A former judge, Pressler was a partner in the law firm Woodfill & Pressler, LLP, with fellow Texas conservative activist Jared Woodfill. It turns out Pressler wasn’t paid a salary for his work at the law firm. Instead, he was paid in the form of young male personal assistants who would ‘assist the family’ at his home. And, yes, multiple former assistants have come forward alleging abuses. It’s far from the only story involving systemic sexual abuse and coverup inside the SBC community. But it’s a big one, and with a lawsuit still playing out it’s the kind of story that promises to deliver more and more sordid details.
* February 10, 2019: Abuse of Faith
Next, we’re going to look at Part 1 of an explosive 6 Part investigative series published earlier this year by the Houston Chronicle. In an investigation that examined court records, criminal records, and hundreds of interviews describing how hundreds of known abusers — some convicted sex offenders — were routinely allowed into positions of power and authority inside the SBC community. And this was happening with the full awareness of SBC leadership — including figures like Ed Young and CNP member Paige Patterson — who consistently fell back on a doctrine of ‘local church autonomy’ as an excuse for doing nothing. And if something was done, it was typically some sort of cover up.
* April 20, 2023: SBC seminary and prominent former leader settle in high-profile abuse lawsuit, SBC still defending
While Rollins’s lawsuit against Pressler and the SBC leadership is still ongoing, there was a settlement announced: Paige Patterson settled with Rollins back in April. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed. But this would mark at least the second instance we know of where Rollins brought a lawsuit involving Pressler that result in an undisclosed settlement.
* October 31, 2023: House Speaker Mike Johnson was once the dean of a Christian law school. It never opened its doors
Finally, a look back at a interesting chapter in Mike Johnson’s Christian activism legal career that is all the more interesting in light of the ongoing lawsuits against Pressler and his SBC enablers. It turns out Johnson was hired to be the dean of newly formed Christian law school back in 2010. Except it never actually opened due to financial issues (including possible embezzlement) and Johnson left that role in 2012 to return to his Christian Nationalist legal career. The school was to be called the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law.
Mike Johnson Has Nothing to Hide...At Least Not from the Owners of Covenant Eyes
Ok, starting off, let’s take a look at a recent Rolling Stone article that asks the question: so what are the implications of the Speaker of the House installing an app on his phone that sends almost everything he does to the ‘Covenant Eyes” company? It’s the kind of disturbing question we shouldn’t really have to ask. But we have to ask it. And while the concerns obviously include all sorts of government-related concerns about the leaking of important government information to this company (and anyone else they decide to share the info with), there’s also the other obvious concern here: the fact that the new Speaker of the House is an active member of a hyper-controlling religious sect that seeks to wield cult-like control over the lives of its followers:
The Rolling Stones
Mike Johnson Admits He and His Son Monitor Each Other’s Porn Intake in Resurfaced Video
“I’m proud to tell ya, my son has got a clean slate,” Speaker of the House says of his “accountability partner”
By Daniel Kreps
November 5, 2023Speaker of the House Mike Johnson admitted that he and his son monitored each other’s porn intake in a resurfaced clip from 2022.
During a conversation on the “War on Technology” at Benton, Louisiana’s Cypress Baptist Church — unearthed by X user Receipt Maven last week — the Louisiana representative talked about how he installed “accountability software” called Covenant Eyes on his devices in order to abstain from internet porn and other unsavory websites.
“It scans all the activity on your phone, or your devices, your laptop, what have you; we do all of it,” Johnson told the panel about the app.
“It sends a report to your accountability partner. My accountability partner right now is Jack, my son. He’s 17. So he and I get a report about all the things that are on our phones, all of our devices, once a week. If anything objectionable comes up, your accountability partner gets an immediate notice. I’m proud to tell ya, my son has got a clean slate.”
COMPROMISE ALERT: Speaker Mike Johnson uses software Covenant Eyes (learned about at a Promise Keepers retreat) that scans all his electronic devices & gives a weekly report an “accountability partner” his 17 yr old son (so basically don’t watch porn or your son/dad will know??) pic.twitter.com/SSWpB9IIDB
— Receipt Maven (@receiptmaven) October 31, 2023
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“A US Congressman is allowing a 3rd Party tech company to scan ALL of his electronic devices daily and then uploading reports to his son about what he’s watching or not watching….,” Receipt Maven wrote. “I mean, who else is accessing that data?”
Since he was elected Speaker of the House in October, Johnson’s history as a faith-obsessed, election-denying, far-right Christian nationalist has come under the microscope, from his time with the anti-LBGTQ organization Alliance Defending Freedom to his claim that school shootings could be blamed on abortion and teaching evolution.
In an interview Sunday morning on Fox News, Johnson was asked about his history on abortion, including claims that he was opposed to contraception and IVF treatment. “I’m pro-life. I’ve said very clearly, I’m a Bible-believing Christian, I believe in the sanctity of every single human life,” Johnson said, but added, “I’ve not brought forward any measure to address any of those issues.” However, he didn’t deny whether he would vote against contraception when the time comes.
Wow. Mike Johnson on Fox News Sunday doesn’t rule out voting against access to contraception but then says “I really don’t remember any of those measures” when asked about his past votes against reproductive health care pic.twitter.com/4pDl3BGGD3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 5, 2023
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“During a conversation on the “War on Technology” at Benton, Louisiana’s Cypress Baptist Church — unearthed by X user Receipt Maven last week — the Louisiana representative talked about how he installed “accountability software” called Covenant Eyes on his devices in order to abstain from internet porn and other unsavory websites.”
Yes, during a “War on Technology” talk at Louisiana’s Cypress Baptist Church, the new Speaker of the House openly bragged about using the “Covenant Eyes” app so he and his son can be “accountability partners”. Except Mike Johnson isn’t just sharing all of this sensitive data with his son (and vice versa). He’s sharing it with the Covenant Eyes company too. Basically all of the data generated by his phone is potentially sent to this creepy company:
...
“It scans all the activity on your phone, or your devices, your laptop, what have you; we do all of it,” Johnson told the panel about the app.“It sends a report to your accountability partner. My accountability partner right now is Jack, my son. He’s 17. So he and I get a report about all the things that are on our phones, all of our devices, once a week. If anything objectionable comes up, your accountability partner gets an immediate notice. I’m proud to tell ya, my son has got a clean slate.”
...
“A US Congressman is allowing a 3rd Party tech company to scan ALL of his electronic devices daily and then uploading reports to his son about what he’s watching or not watching….,” Receipt Maven wrote. “I mean, who else is accessing that data?”
...
Now why did the topic of the Convenant Eyes app come up during a “War on Technology” talk at a Baptist Church? Well, as we’re going to see in the following September 2022 WIRED article, the Covenant Eyes app was actually pulled from both the Google app store after WIRED reported on the incredible amount of information being passed along to these third-party companies via these apps. Covenant Eyes has subsequently been restored to Google’s app store back in March. So that was presumably part of why it came up during a “War on Technology” talk.
But as we’re also going to see, it appears that Covenant Eyes is particularly popular with the Southern Baptist churches. That includes Gracepoint, a California-based ministry that focuses on college campuses and claims to “serve students” on more than 70 campuses across the US. Importantly, Gracepoint hails practices the kind of ‘discipleship’ or ‘shepherding’ practices many former members describe as cultish. This is a good time to recall how the “People of Praise” Catholic community that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney-Barrett hails from has also been accused of engaging in similar cult-like ‘discipleship’ practices.
Gracepoint’s ‘services’ include helping students secure affordable apartments, and that’s where the creepiness of this story gets extra interesting. Because, based on this report, installing Covenant Eyes on their phones is something Gracepoint asks of the students in its ministry. Students potentially receiving assistance, like Grant Hao-Wei Lin who recounts the disturbing experiences he had with the Covenant Eyes software and his church leadership. Within a month of installing the app, Hao-Wei Lin started started receiving emails from his church leader about the things he had viewed online. As Hao-Wei Lin describes, he didn’t really think he was in a position to refuse the Covenant Eyes app given all the student assistance he was getting from Gracepoint. And Hao-Wei Lin’s story is just one example of a rapidly growing ‘shameware’ app industry that is growing in popularity in religious communities. A trend that includes church leaders typically ending up as the ‘accountability partner’ for church members.
And while the Covenant Eyes and similar apps claim to be exclusively focused on fighting pornography, it’s capable of collecting a lot more information, including what websites you visit or social media pages visited. As one former Gracepoint member put it, “It’s really not about pornography...It’s about making you conform to what your pastor wants.” This same person recounts, “I remember I had to sit down and have a conversation with him [her pastor] after I Wikipedia’d an article about atheism.” Yes, church leaders are able to get notified any time one of their ‘flock’ reads something unapproved. That’s the top-down level of control being technologically enabled here.
It’s that much broader, and deeper, power grab over the personal lives of the members of these communities that’s a big part of the story here. Because as we’re also going to see in the following articles, when we’re talking about the leadership of the Southern Baptist Church community, we are talking about a major element of the Christian nationalist leadership of the United States, with one CNP member after another after another, including major figures like David Barton. Which, of course, is the same community of leaders behind the efforts to overturn the 2020 and upcoming Schedule F/Project 2025 mass political purges. So as we are learning about the eyebrow-raising decision by the new Speaker of the House to install ‘discipleship shameware’ on his, it’s important to keep in mind that this is just one piece of a much larger story about the ongoing plans for a full-spectrum capture of society:
Wired
The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps
Churches are using invasive phone-monitoring tech to discourage “sinful” behavior. Some software is seeing more than congregants realize.
Dhruv Mehrotra
Security
Sep 22, 2022 1:00 PMGracepoint is the kind of evangelical Southern Baptist church that’s compelled to publicly enumerate all of the ways it’s not a cult. “We’ll admit that we’re a bit crazy about the Great Commission and sharing the Gospel,” reads an FAQ page titled, “Is Gracepoint a Cult?” So when Grant Hao-Wei Lin came out to a Gracepoint church leader during their weekly one-on-one session, he was surprised to learn that he wasn’t going to be kicked out. According to his church leader, Hao-Wei Lin says, God still loved him in spite of his “struggle with same-sex attraction.”
But Gracepoint did not leave the matter in God’s hands alone. At their next one-on-one the following week, Hao-Wei Lin says the church leader asked him to install an app called Covenant Eyes on his phone. The app is explicitly marketed as anti-pornography software, but according to Hao-Wei Lin, his church leader told him it would help “control all of his urges.”
Covenant Eyes is part of a multimillion-dollar ecosystem of so-called accountability apps. These apps are marketed to both churches and parents as tools to police online activity, and they charge a monthly fee to do so. Some of these apps monitor everything their users see and do on their devices, even taking screenshots (at least one per minute, in the case of Covenant Eyes) and eavesdropping on web traffic, WIRED found. The apps then report a feed of all of the users’ online activity directly to a chaperone—an “accountability partner,” in the apps’ parlance. When WIRED presented its findings to Google, however, the company determined that two of the top accountability apps—Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You—violate its policies.
The omniscience of Covenant Eyes soon weighed heavily on Hao-Wei Lin, who has since left Gracepoint. Within a month of installing the app, he started receiving accusatory emails from his church leader referencing things he had viewed online. “Anything you need to tell me?” reads one email Hao-Wei Lin shared with WIRED. Attached was a report from Covenant Eyes that detailed every single piece of digital content Hao-Wei Lin had consumed the prior week. It was a trail of digital minutiae accumulated from nights spent aimlessly browsing the internet, things Hao-Wei Lin could barely remember having seen—and would have forgotten about had a member of his Church not confronted him. The church leader zeroed in on a single piece of content that Covenant Eyes had flagged as “Mature”: Hao-Wei Lin had searched “#Gay” on a website called Statigr.am, and the app had flagged it.
Gracepoint, which focuses on colleges, claims to “serve students” on more than 70 campuses across the United States. According to emails between a Covenant Eyes representative and a former Gracepoint church leader that WIRED reviewed, the company said that in 2012 as many as 450 Gracepoint Church members were signed up to be monitored through Covenant Eyes.
“I wouldn’t quite call it spyware,” says a former member of Gracepoint who was asked to use Covenant Eyes and spoke on the condition of anonymity, due to privacy concerns. “It’s more like ‘shameware,’ and it’s just another way the church controls you.”
Similar to surveillance software like Bark or NetNanny, which is used to monitor children at home and school, “shameware” apps are lesser-known tools that are used to keep track of behaviors parents or religious organizations deem unhealthy or immoral. Fortify, for instance, was developed by the founder of an anti-pornography nonprofit called Fight the New Drug and tracks how often an individual masturbates in order to help them overcome “sexual compulsivity.” The app has been downloaded over 100,000 times and has thousands of reviews on the Google Play store.
The current iteration of the Covenant Eyes app was developed by Michael Holm, a former NSA mathematician who now serves as a data scientist for the company. The system is allegedly capable of distinguishing between pornographic and non-pornographic images. The software captures everything visible on a device’s screen, analyzing the images locally before slightly blurring them and sending them to a server to be saved. “Image-based pornography detection was a huge conceptual change for Covenant Eyes,” Holm told The Christian Post, an evangelical Christian news outlet, in 2019. “While I didn’t yet know it, God had put me in that place at that time for a purpose higher than myself, just as I and others had desired and prayed for.”
Covenant Eyes spokesperson Dan Armstrong says the company is “concerned” about “people being monitored without proper consent.” He adds that “accountability relationships are better off between people who already know each other and want the best for one another, such as close personal friends and family members,” and that the company discourages using its app in relationships with a power imbalance.
Among the top accountability apps—including Accountable2You and EverAccountable—Covenant Eyes appears to be the largest player. The company organizes conferences that are attended by thousands of people and dedicated to educating attendees about the dangers of pornography while pitching the company’s product as an urgent solution to what it characterizes as a growing moral crisis. According to the app analytics firm AppFigures, in the past year more than 50,000 people have downloaded Covenant Eyes. Rocketreach estimates that the company has an annual revenue of $26 million.
Ed Kang, pastor of Gracepoint Church in Berkeley, California, and a major figure in the organization, says in an email that volunteer staff members are required to install Covenant Eyes or Accountable2You “as part of their staff agreement.” But he disputes that church leaders were instructed to monitor congregants’ phone activity. “Usually it’s whoever they [congregants] designate, and we actually discourage leaders from being the accountability partners as that seems a bit too heavy,” he writes. (All five former Gracepoint congregants who spoke to WIRED said a church leader was their accountability partner.) Kang adds that the number of Gracepoint congregants who use Covenant Eyes or Accountable2You “may be significantly higher than 450 nowadays” and that Accountable2You “has better pricing.”
What’s common across Covenant Eyes, Accountable2You, and EverAccountable is their zero-tolerance approach to pornography. All three suggest in their marketing materials that not only is watching porn a moral failure, but any amount of porn consumption is bad for your health. Their solution: Promote purity through what they call “radical accountability,” a concept wherein a community comes together to confront a person who is living in sin. At its most basic level, the idea is pretty straightforward: Why would anyone watch porn if they are going to have to talk to their parents or pastor about it?
While these apps claim to have helped many people overcome pornography addictions, experts who study sexual health are skeptical that the apps have a lasting positive effect. “I’ve never seen anyone who’s been on one of these apps feel better about themselves in the long term,” says Nicole Praus, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies the effects of pornography on the brain and the spread of disinformation on sexual health. “These people just end up feeling like there’s something wrong with them when the reality is that there likely isn’t.”
But Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You do much more than just police pornography. When WIRED downloaded, decompiled, and tested Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You, we found that both apps are built to collect, monitor, and report all sorts of innocent behavior. The applications exploited Android’s accessibility permissions to monitor almost everything someone does on their phone. While the accessibility functionalities are meant to help developers build out features that assist people with disabilities, these apps take advantage of such permissions to either capture screenshots of everything actively being viewed on the device or detect the name of apps as they’re being used and record every website visited in the device’s browser.
In Hao-Wei Lin’s case, that included his Amazon purchases, articles he read, and even which friends’ accounts he looked at on Instagram. The trouble is, according to Hao-Wei Lin, providing his church leader with a ledger of everything he did online meant he could always find something to ask him about, and the way Covenant Eyes flagged content didn’t help. For example, in Covenant Eyes reports that Hao-Wei Lin shared with WIRED, his online psychiatry textbook was rated “Highly Mature,” the most severe category of content reserved for “anonymizers, nudity, erotica, and pornography.” The same was true of anything Hao-Wei Lin felt was “remotely gay,” like his Statigr.am searches.
After WIRED contacted Google about Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You, both apps were suspended from the Google Play store. “Google Play permits the use of the Accessibility API for a wide range of applications,” spokesperson Danielle Cohen says in an email. “However, only services that are designed to help people with disabilities access their device or otherwise overcome challenges stemming from their disabilities are eligible to declare that they are accessibility tools.”
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In our tests of Accountable2You prior to its suspension, we found that the software similarly flagged content with keywords like “gay” or “lesbian” in the URL. For instance, when we set up a test account and navigated to the US Centers for Disease Control’s website for LGBTQ youth resources, the phone we designated as our accountability partner was immediately texted and emailed a “questionable activity report” indicating that our test phone had visited a “Highly Questionable” website.
“It’s really not about pornography,” says Brit, a former user of Accountable2You who asked to only be identified by her first name, due to privacy concerns. “It’s about making you conform to what your pastor wants.” Brit says she was asked to install the app by her parents after she was caught looking at pornography and that her mother and her pastor were both her designated accountability partners. “I remember I had to sit down and have a conversation with him [her pastor] after I Wikipedia’d an article about atheism,” she says. “I was a kid, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have some kind of right to read what I want to read.”
While accountability apps are largely marketed to parents and families, some also advertise their services to churches. Accountable2You, for example, advertises group rates for churches or small groups and has set up several landing pages for specific churches where members can sign up. Covenant Eyes, meanwhile, employs a director of Church and Ministry Outreach to help onboard religious organizations.
Accountable2You did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment.
Eva Galperin is director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit, and cofounder of the Coalition Against Stalkerware. Galperin says consent to such surveillance is a major concern. “One of the key elements of consent is that a person can feel comfortable saying no,” she says. “You could argue that any app installed in a church setting is done in a coercive manner.” While WIRED did not speak to anyone who was unaware that the app was on their phone, which is often the case with spyware, Hao-Wei Lin says he didn’t feel like he was in a position where he could say no to his church leader when he was asked to install Covenant Eyes. Gracepoint had secured him a $400-a-month apartment in Berkeley, where he was attending college. Without the church’s support, he might have had nowhere to live.
But this is not the experience of everyone we spoke to. James Nagy is a former Gracepoint member who says he was on both sides of Covenant Eyes reports. Nagy, who is gay, was taught from a young age that homosexuality was a sin. So when Gracepoint offered him a software solution that claimed to be able to help what he then considered to be a moral dilemma, he jumped at the opportunity. He says that while he believed many people at Gracepoint were pressured to install the app, in his case, the pressure came from himself. “Gracepoint didn’t try to change me,” Nagy says. “I tried to change me.” Nagy is now an elder at the Presbyterian Church (USA) and until 2021 was a facilitator with the Reformation Project, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance LGBTQ inclusion in the church.
In the quest to curb behavior churches deem immoral, these accountability apps will collect and store extremely sensitive personal information from their users, including from those under the age of 18. Fortify, which describes itself as an addiction recovery app, asks its users to log information about when they last masturbated, where they were when it happened, and what device they used. While Fortify’s privacy policy states that the company doesn’t sell or otherwise share this data with third parties, its policy does allow it to share data with trusted third parties to perform statistical analysis, though it does not mention who these trusted third parties are. In a phone call, Clay Olsen, the CEO of Fortify parent company Impact Suite, clarified that these trusted third parties include companies like Mixpanel, an analytics service company that tracks user interactions with web and mobile applications.
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When WIRED tested the Fortify software, we found that the app also utilizes other technology to track users. For instance, because it includes Facebook’s Pixel, data related to Fortify’s masturbation-tracking form is sent to Facebook. While the data does not appear to include the contents of the tracking form, it does have metadata about the form itself, including when it was filled out. Facebook appears to store that data and, when possible, associates it with a user’s account. After setting up a test account with Facebook, logging in, and then interacting with Fortify, we were able to see interactions with Fortify in a copy of the test account’s data obtained through Facebook’s privacy center.
Fortify’s inclusion of Facebook’s Pixel isn’t just a privacy issue, it’s a security problem. While testing the app, we also noticed that the password to our account was sent in plaintext to Facebook in the URL of the tracking requests. Facebook claims to have filtering mechanisms to prevent its systems from storing this type of personal information, but Fortify’s apparent oversight is still concerning to experts like Galperin. “That’s a huge vulnerability,” she says. “It’s the sort of behavior that makes me feel like they don’t have security experts reviewing the app or its policies.”
Facebook spokesperson Emil Vazquez says companies that share sensitive user data with the Meta-owned social media platform are violating its policies. “Advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools. Doing so is against our policies,” Vazquez says. “Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it is able to detect.” Facebook did not say whether its filters detected the plaintext passwords sent by Fortify.
After being notified of the password issue, Olsen said Fortify would stop transmitting users’ unencrypted passwords to Facebook. As we went to press, the issue had not yet been addressed.
Hao-Wei Lin has since moved on from Gracepoint but is still processing the trauma he feels the church has caused him. I met him earlier this month at his thesis exhibition at Parsons School of Design in New York City, where he is about to get his Master of Fine Arts in photography. He tells me that it was only after he went back to school that he felt he was in a safe enough space to start processing what he went through at Gracepoint.
Hao-Wei Lin’s photography was somber, but not without humor. One was of a 3D rendering of a room where he says he and other members of Gracepoint would meet after their Sunday service. A solitary figure is hunched over praying, his head resting in the seat of his plastic chair. As I look at the photo, Hao-Wei Lin tells me he wants the viewer to feel like they are a surveillance camera perched in the top corner of the room. The name of his work: “Covenant Eyes.”
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“The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps” by Dhruv Mehrotra; Wired; 09/22/2022
““I wouldn’t quite call it spyware,” says a former member of Gracepoint who was asked to use Covenant Eyes and spoke on the condition of anonymity, due to privacy concerns. “It’s more like ‘shameware,’ and it’s just another way the church controls you.””
It’s not spyware. It’s much worse. It’s ‘shameware’ designed to be so overtly invasive that you’ll be too scared to view any ‘sinful’ content in the first place. Or to use the terminology of this movement, purity through “radical accountability”. And that “radical accountability” comes through apps watching virtually everything you do on your phone, including which articles you read and the social media accounts you visit. It’s like giving your church leader a ‘Gods eye’ view of your digital life:
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The current iteration of the Covenant Eyes app was developed by Michael Holm, a former NSA mathematician who now serves as a data scientist for the company. The system is allegedly capable of distinguishing between pornographic and non-pornographic images. The software captures everything visible on a device’s screen, analyzing the images locally before slightly blurring them and sending them to a server to be saved. “Image-based pornography detection was a huge conceptual change for Covenant Eyes,” Holm told The Christian Post, an evangelical Christian news outlet, in 2019. “While I didn’t yet know it, God had put me in that place at that time for a purpose higher than myself, just as I and others had desired and prayed for.”...
What’s common across Covenant Eyes, Accountable2You, and EverAccountable is their zero-tolerance approach to pornography. All three suggest in their marketing materials that not only is watching porn a moral failure, but any amount of porn consumption is bad for your health. Their solution: Promote purity through what they call “radical accountability,” a concept wherein a community comes together to confront a person who is living in sin. At its most basic level, the idea is pretty straightforward: Why would anyone watch porn if they are going to have to talk to their parents or pastor about it?
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But Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You do much more than just police pornography. When WIRED downloaded, decompiled, and tested Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You, we found that both apps are built to collect, monitor, and report all sorts of innocent behavior. The applications exploited Android’s accessibility permissions to monitor almost everything someone does on their phone. While the accessibility functionalities are meant to help developers build out features that assist people with disabilities, these apps take advantage of such permissions to either capture screenshots of everything actively being viewed on the device or detect the name of apps as they’re being used and record every website visited in the device’s browser.
In Hao-Wei Lin’s case, that included his Amazon purchases, articles he read, and even which friends’ accounts he looked at on Instagram. The trouble is, according to Hao-Wei Lin, providing his church leader with a ledger of everything he did online meant he could always find something to ask him about, and the way Covenant Eyes flagged content didn’t help. For example, in Covenant Eyes reports that Hao-Wei Lin shared with WIRED, his online psychiatry textbook was rated “Highly Mature,” the most severe category of content reserved for “anonymizers, nudity, erotica, and pornography.” The same was true of anything Hao-Wei Lin felt was “remotely gay,” like his Statigr.am searches.
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“It’s really not about pornography,” says Brit, a former user of Accountable2You who asked to only be identified by her first name, due to privacy concerns. “It’s about making you conform to what your pastor wants.” Brit says she was asked to install the app by her parents after she was caught looking at pornography and that her mother and her pastor were both her designated accountability partners. “I remember I had to sit down and have a conversation with him [her pastor] after I Wikipedia’d an article about atheism,” she says. “I was a kid, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have some kind of right to read what I want to read.”
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Now, if this was a purely voluntary arrangement, that would be one thing. Disturbing and cultlike, but at least not coercive. But when we read about how Gracepoint basically asks all of their student members — many of whom are receiving Gracepoint’s assistance to attend college — to install this software this software, it’s clear that this isn’t a purely voluntary trend. Instead, we’re looking at the leadership of a ‘discipleship’-based movement gaining an even deeper direct stranglehold over the lives of their ‘flock’. Hence the constant ‘We’re not a cult!’ declarations:
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Gracepoint is the kind of evangelical Southern Baptist church that’s compelled to publicly enumerate all of the ways it’s not a cult. “We’ll admit that we’re a bit crazy about the Great Commission and sharing the Gospel,” reads an FAQ page titled, “Is Gracepoint a Cult?” So when Grant Hao-Wei Lin came out to a Gracepoint church leader during their weekly one-on-one session, he was surprised to learn that he wasn’t going to be kicked out. According to his church leader, Hao-Wei Lin says, God still loved him in spite of his “struggle with same-sex attraction.”...
The omniscience of Covenant Eyes soon weighed heavily on Hao-Wei Lin, who has since left Gracepoint. Within a month of installing the app, he started receiving accusatory emails from his church leader referencing things he had viewed online. “Anything you need to tell me?” reads one email Hao-Wei Lin shared with WIRED. Attached was a report from Covenant Eyes that detailed every single piece of digital content Hao-Wei Lin had consumed the prior week. It was a trail of digital minutiae accumulated from nights spent aimlessly browsing the internet, things Hao-Wei Lin could barely remember having seen—and would have forgotten about had a member of his Church not confronted him. The church leader zeroed in on a single piece of content that Covenant Eyes had flagged as “Mature”: Hao-Wei Lin had searched “#Gay” on a website called Statigr.am, and the app had flagged it.
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Gracepoint, which focuses on colleges, claims to “serve students” on more than 70 campuses across the United States. According to emails between a Covenant Eyes representative and a former Gracepoint church leader that WIRED reviewed, the company said that in 2012 as many as 450 Gracepoint Church members were signed up to be monitored through Covenant Eyes.
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Ed Kang, pastor of Gracepoint Church in Berkeley, California, and a major figure in the organization, says in an email that volunteer staff members are required to install Covenant Eyes or Accountable2You “as part of their staff agreement.” But he disputes that church leaders were instructed to monitor congregants’ phone activity. “Usually it’s whoever they [congregants] designate, and we actually discourage leaders from being the accountability partners as that seems a bit too heavy,” he writes. (All five former Gracepoint congregants who spoke to WIRED said a church leader was their accountability partner.) Kang adds that the number of Gracepoint congregants who use Covenant Eyes or Accountable2You “may be significantly higher than 450 nowadays” and that Accountable2You “has better pricing.”
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Eva Galperin is director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit, and cofounder of the Coalition Against Stalkerware. Galperin says consent to such surveillance is a major concern. “One of the key elements of consent is that a person can feel comfortable saying no,” she says. “You could argue that any app installed in a church setting is done in a coercive manner.” While WIRED did not speak to anyone who was unaware that the app was on their phone, which is often the case with spyware, Hao-Wei Lin says he didn’t feel like he was in a position where he could say no to his church leader when he was asked to install Covenant Eyes. Gracepoint had secured him a $400-a-month apartment in Berkeley, where he was attending college. Without the church’s support, he might have had nowhere to live.
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How much spyware will people allow in their lives for an affordable apartment? These might seem like questions specific to these ‘discipleship’ based communities of faith. But we aren’t just talking about insular religious movements pushing these kinds of ‘apps’ on their ‘flock’. We are talking about a network of religious leaders with deep ties to the CNP and the growing political strength of Christian Nationalism in America.
Mike Johnson’s “Profound Influence”: David Bartons’s Christian Nationalist Texas Template
It’s that crucial context of the growing political power of Christian Nationalists affiliated with the CNP that we’re going to look at next. In particular, the remarkable political influence of someone we’ve looked at before: David Barton, leading pseudo-historian of the Christian Right. As we’ve seen, “Covenant Eyes” is far from only Christian Nationalist influence in Mike Johnson’s life. He’s surrounded himself with CNP figures, including CNP Vice President Kelly Shackelford, who Johnson once described as a personal mentor. So it should come as no surprise to learn that Johnson has described key CNP-member David Barton as another source of “profound influence” influence in his life. A profound influence who is currently working on turning the state of Texas into a kind of Christian Nationalist ‘template’ for the rest of the US. But as we’re going to see, this isn’t just David Barton’s agenda. It’s the Texas GOP’s agenda too:
The Texas Tribune
Texas activist David Barton wants to end separation of church and state. He has the ear of the new U.S. House speaker.
Barton has been a staple of Texas’ Christian conservative movement, offering crucial support to politicians and frequently being cited or called on to testify in favor of bills that critics say would erode church-state separations.
by Robert Downen
Nov. 3, 2023
5 AM CentralFor nearly four decades, Texas activist David Barton has barnstormed statehouses and pulpits across the nation, arguing that the separation between church and state is a myth and that America should be run as a Christian nation.
Now, he’s closer to power than perhaps ever before.
One day after little-known Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected as the new House speaker last week, Barton said on a podcast that he was already discussing staffing with Johnson, his longtime ally in deeply conservative, Christian causes.
“We have some tools at our disposal now (that) we haven’t had in a long time,” Barton added.
Johnson recently spoke at an event hosted by Barton’s nonprofit, WallBuilders; he’s praised Barton and his “profound influence on me, and my work, and my life and everything I do”; and, before his career as a lawmaker, Johnson worked for Alliance Defending Freedom — a legal advocacy group that has helped infuse more Christianity into public schools and government, a key goal of Barton’s movement.
Barton, who lives in Aledo, has been a staple of Texas’ own Christian conservative movement, offering crucial public support to politicians and frequently being cited or called on to testify in favor of bills that critics say would erode church-state separations — including in front of the Texas Legislature this year.
Johnson’s election — and his proximity to Barton — is a massive victory for a growing Christian nationalist movement that claims the United States’ foundation was ordained by God, and therefore its laws and institutions should favor their brand of Christianity.
“Johnson’s rise means that Barton and his fellow Christian nationalists now have unprecedented access to the levers of power on the national stage, paralleling the access they already have here in Texas and some other states,” said David Brockman, a non-resident scholar in religion and public policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
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In 1988, Barton founded his group, WallBuilders, to “exert a direct and positive influence in government, education, and the family by educating the nation concerning the Godly foundation of our country” and “providing information to federal, state, and local officials as they develop public policies which reflect Biblical values,” according to the group’s website.
Since then, Barton has been arguably the most influential figure in a growing movement to undermine the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
Barton claims the clause has been misunderstood. He argues that most of the Founding Fathers were “orthodox, evangelical” Christians, and that it would thus be more accurate to read the establishment clause’s use of the word “religion” as a stand-in for “Christian denomination.”
“We would best understand the actual context of the First Amendment by saying, ‘Congress shall make no law establishing one Christian denomination as the national denomination,’” he has said.
Barton also argues that the country’s founders “never intended the First Amendment to become a vehicle to promote a pluralism of other religions.”
In his mind, the wall separating church and state was only meant to extend one way, protecting religion — specifically, Christianity — from the government, but not vice versa.
“‘Separation of church and state’ currently means almost exactly the opposite of what it originally meant,” his group’s website claims.
And he argues that most of what he considers society’s ills — from school shootings, low standardized test scores and drug use to divorce, crime and LGBTQ+ people — are the natural consequences of abandoning the Judeo-Christian virtues, as articulated in his form of Christianity, that he says are the bedrock of the nation’s founding. Sometimes, he’s drawn fire for those views — such as when he said the lack of cure for AIDS was God’s vengeance for homosexuality or when he compared the Third Reich’s “evils” to the “homosexual lifestyle” in 2017.
Barton, a self-styled “amateur historian,” has for years been debunked and ridiculed by actual historians and scholars, who note that he has no formal training and that his work is filled with selective quotes, mischaracterizations and inaccuracies — critiques that Barton has claimed are mere attacks on his faith. He has been accused of whitewashing the Founding Fathers — particularly, their slave owning — to fit his narrative of a God-ordained nation. He has acknowledged using unconfirmed quotes from historical figures. And Barton’s 2012 book, “The Jefferson Lies,” was so widely panned by Christian academics that it prompted a separate book, “Getting Jefferson Right,” to debunk all of his inaccuracies, and was later pulled by its Christian publisher because “the basic truths just were not there.”
Despite that, Barton has remained a fixture in conservative Christian circles and Republican Party politics. He served as vice chair of the Republican Party of Texas from 1997 to 2006 and, in 2004, was tapped for clergy outreach by President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign. In 2010, his fellow Texan and prominent conservative personality Glenn Beck praised him as “the most important man in America right now.” Barton was an early and important endorser of Sen. Ted Cruz’s unexpected first win in 2012. And in 2016, Barton ran one of multiple super PACs that were crucial to Cruz’s reelection.
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In Texas, Barton has become increasingly instrumental among GOP politicians. He and WallBuilders currently work closely with Rick Green, a former state representative and current leader of Patriot Academy, a Dripping Springs-based group that trains young adults, churches and others how to “influence government policy with a Biblical worldview” and borrows heavily from Barton’s teachings.
Barton has also railed against the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt groups, including churches, from direct political advocacy. And he is frequently called on to support laws that would infuse more Christianity into public life — including in public schools. In May, he and his son, Timothy Barton, testified in favor of a bill — which later failed — that would have required all Texas public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.
During the hearing, Barton’s work was praised as “great” by Sen. Donna Campbell, R‑New Braunfels. His theories were echoed by Sen. Mayes Middleton, R‑Galveston, who said that church-state separation is “not a real doctrine.” And the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Phil King, R‑Weatherford, extolled Barton and his son as “esteemed witnesses.”
Other prominent Texas Republicans have similarly echoed Barton’s views, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has called the United States “a Christian nation” and said “there is no separation of church and state. It was not in the Constitution.”
“We were a nation founded upon not the words of our founders, but the words of God because he wrote the Constitution,” Patrick said last year.
The mainstreaming of Barton’s views has corresponded with a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have allowed for a greater infusion of Christianity into the public sphere, and a burgeoning Christian nationalist movement on the right that was turbocharged by former President Donald Trump and his promise to white evangelicals that “Christianity will have power” should they support him.
February polling from the Public Religion Research Institute found that more than half of Republicans adhere to or sympathize with foundational aspects of Christian nationalism, including beliefs that the U.S. should be a strictly Christian nation. Of those respondents, PRRI found, roughly half supported having an authoritarian leader who maintains Christian dominance in society. Experts have also found strong correlations between Christian nationalist beliefs and opposition to immigration, racial justice and religious diversity.
Johnson’s election to House Speaker shows how normalized such beliefs have become, said Amanda Tyler, the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for a strong wall between government and religion. She noted that some Republicans — including U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R‑Georgia, have embraced the title of Christian nationalist in recent years.
Tyler said that Johnson’s views are particularly concerning because of his background as both a Southern Baptist and as a constitutional lawyer. Baptists, she noted, have a long history of advocacy for strong church-state separations because of the persecution they faced during the country’s founding — a stance that she said Johnson has betrayed throughout his legal and political career.
“He has worked actively for these principles that further Christian nationalism,” Tyler said. “I am also a Baptist, and to see someone who is a Baptist really reject foundational concepts of religious freedom for all — concepts which are really core to what it means to be a Baptist — is also very disheartening.”
Johnson played a central role in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election by crafting a legal brief that was signed by more than 100 U.S. House Republicans in support of a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that sought to have election results thrown out in four swing states by President Joe Biden.
At the same time that he was aiding the legal charge to overturn the 2020 election, Johnson was also cultivating closer ties to figures in the New Apolostolic Reformation, a fast-growing movement of ultraconservative preachers, televangelists, self-described prophets and faith healers who abide by the “Seven Mountains Mandate” — a Christian nationalist-adjacent theology that says Christians must fulfill a divine mandate to rule over all seven aspects of society (family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government) in order to usher in the “end times.”
Driven by that theology, New Apolostic Reformation figures played major roles in the lead up to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, combining Trump’s lies about a stolen election with claims that they were engaged in “spiritual warfare” with their political enemies and, thus, extreme and anti-democratic measures were not only necessary, but God-ordained.
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“Johnson’s election — and his proximity to Barton — is a massive victory for a growing Christian nationalist movement that claims the United States’ foundation was ordained by God, and therefore its laws and institutions should favor their brand of Christianity.”
The Christian Nationalist movement just keeps accruing more and more power and influence. It took the elevation of Mike Johnson — a relatively unknown member of the House until now who previously worked for the CNP-dominated Alliance Defending Freedom — to end the party squabble. Why Jonson, of all people? That’s part of the significance of Johnson’s unlikely ability to garner the unanimous support of the GOP caucus to end this bizarre intra-party speakership fight.
And a day later, we have Barton openly bragging on a podcast about how his longtime ally just become the speaker and how Barton was already involved with staffing discussions with Johnson. So Johnson chose to put ‘discipleship’-style apps on his phone and has now been consulting Barton about staffing decisions. What kind of ‘discipleship’ role is Barton playing for the new Speaker of the House?
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One day after little-known Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected as the new House speaker last week, Barton said on a podcast that he was already discussing staffing with Johnson, his longtime ally in deeply conservative, Christian causes.“We have some tools at our disposal now (that) we haven’t had in a long time,” Barton added.
Johnson recently spoke at an event hosted by Barton’s nonprofit, WallBuilders; he’s praised Barton and his “profound influence on me, and my work, and my life and everything I do”; and, before his career as a lawmaker, Johnson worked for Alliance Defending Freedom — a legal advocacy group that has helped infuse more Christianity into public schools and government, a key goal of Barton’s movement.
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And, of course, when we see David Barton cited as a profound influence on Mike Johnson’s life, that influence isn’t limited to Johnson. Barton is a central character in contemporary Christian Nationalism, and in particular in Texas’s powerful Christian Nationalist community, and has been for years. He was vice chair of the Republican Party of Texas from 1997 to 2006 and declared “the most important man in America right now” in 2010 by Glenn Beck:
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Barton, who lives in Aledo, has been a staple of Texas’ own Christian conservative movement, offering crucial public support to politicians and frequently being cited or called on to testify in favor of bills that critics say would erode church-state separations — including in front of the Texas Legislature this year....
“Johnson’s rise means that Barton and his fellow Christian nationalists now have unprecedented access to the levers of power on the national stage, paralleling the access they already have here in Texas and some other states,” said David Brockman, a non-resident scholar in religion and public policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
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Barton, a self-styled “amateur historian,” has for years been debunked and ridiculed by actual historians and scholars, who note that he has no formal training and that his work is filled with selective quotes, mischaracterizations and inaccuracies — critiques that Barton has claimed are mere attacks on his faith. He has been accused of whitewashing the Founding Fathers — particularly, their slave owning — to fit his narrative of a God-ordained nation. He has acknowledged using unconfirmed quotes from historical figures. And Barton’s 2012 book, “The Jefferson Lies,” was so widely panned by Christian academics that it prompted a separate book, “Getting Jefferson Right,” to debunk all of his inaccuracies, and was later pulled by its Christian publisher because “the basic truths just were not there.”
Despite that, Barton has remained a fixture in conservative Christian circles and Republican Party politics. He served as vice chair of the Republican Party of Texas from 1997 to 2006 and, in 2004, was tapped for clergy outreach by President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign. In 2010, his fellow Texan and prominent conservative personality Glenn Beck praised him as “the most important man in America right now.” Barton was an early and important endorser of Sen. Ted Cruz’s unexpected first win in 2012. And in 2016, Barton ran one of multiple super PACs that were crucial to Cruz’s reelection.
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And what was “the most important man in America right now” working on at the time that made him so important? The same thing he’s been working on since he founded WallBuilders in 1988: overturning the separation of Church and State, allowing for the state backing of specific Christian denominations:
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In 1988, Barton founded his group, WallBuilders, to “exert a direct and positive influence in government, education, and the family by educating the nation concerning the Godly foundation of our country” and “providing information to federal, state, and local officials as they develop public policies which reflect Biblical values,” according to the group’s website.Since then, Barton has been arguably the most influential figure in a growing movement to undermine the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
Barton claims the clause has been misunderstood. He argues that most of the Founding Fathers were “orthodox, evangelical” Christians, and that it would thus be more accurate to read the establishment clause’s use of the word “religion” as a stand-in for “Christian denomination.”
“We would best understand the actual context of the First Amendment by saying, ‘Congress shall make no law establishing one Christian denomination as the national denomination,’” he has said.
Barton also argues that the country’s founders “never intended the First Amendment to become a vehicle to promote a pluralism of other religions.”
In his mind, the wall separating church and state was only meant to extend one way, protecting religion — specifically, Christianity — from the government, but not vice versa.
“‘Separation of church and state’ currently means almost exactly the opposite of what it originally meant,” his group’s website claims.
...
In Texas, Barton has become increasingly instrumental among GOP politicians. He and WallBuilders currently work closely with Rick Green, a former state representative and current leader of Patriot Academy, a Dripping Springs-based group that trains young adults, churches and others how to “influence government policy with a Biblical worldview” and borrows heavily from Barton’s teachings.
...
And then there’s Barton’s crusade against the laws banning tax-exempt groups, like churches, from direct political advocacy. Or his push to get the Ten Commandments posted in all public school classrooms, a move that earned him praise from Texas Lawmakers like CNP-member Mayes Middleton, who declared that church-state separation is “not a real doctrine”:
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Barton has also railed against the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt groups, including churches, from direct political advocacy. And he is frequently called on to support laws that would infuse more Christianity into public life — including in public schools. In May, he and his son, Timothy Barton, testified in favor of a bill — which later failed — that would have required all Texas public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.During the hearing, Barton’s work was praised as “great” by Sen. Donna Campbell, R‑New Braunfels. His theories were echoed by Sen. Mayes Middleton, R‑Galveston, who said that church-state separation is “not a real doctrine.” And the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Phil King, R‑Weatherford, extolled Barton and his son as “esteemed witnesses.”
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Even Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is comfortable being open about his Christian Nationalism. David Barton’s Christian Nationalist agenda really is the Texas GOP’s agenda. Barton is just the figurehead providing alleged historical justifications for that shared agenda:
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Other prominent Texas Republicans have similarly echoed Barton’s views, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has called the United States “a Christian nation” and said “there is no separation of church and state. It was not in the Constitution.”“We were a nation founded upon not the words of our founders, but the words of God because he wrote the Constitution,” Patrick said last year.
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But it’s not just the Texas GOP behind this agenda. Polls reveal a majority of Republican voters support the idea of an authoritarian leader who maintains Christian dominance in society. David Barton has A LOT of fans:
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The mainstreaming of Barton’s views has corresponded with a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have allowed for a greater infusion of Christianity into the public sphere, and a burgeoning Christian nationalist movement on the right that was turbocharged by former President Donald Trump and his promise to white evangelicals that “Christianity will have power” should they support him.February polling from the Public Religion Research Institute found that more than half of Republicans adhere to or sympathize with foundational aspects of Christian nationalism, including beliefs that the U.S. should be a strictly Christian nation. Of those respondents, PRRI found, roughly half supported having an authoritarian leader who maintains Christian dominance in society. Experts have also found strong correlations between Christian nationalist beliefs and opposition to immigration, racial justice and religious diversity.
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And when Mike Johnson crafted that legal brief in support of a lawsuit seeking to overturn the election results of four swing states, it was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who waged that lawsuit. The Texas GOP is a Christian Nationalist caucus:
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Johnson played a central role in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election by crafting a legal brief that was signed by more than 100 U.S. House Republicans in support of a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that sought to have election results thrown out in four swing states by President Joe Biden.At the same time that he was aiding the legal charge to overturn the 2020 election, Johnson was also cultivating closer ties to figures in the New Apolostolic Reformation, a fast-growing movement of ultraconservative preachers, televangelists, self-described prophets and faith healers who abide by the “Seven Mountains Mandate” — a Christian nationalist-adjacent theology that says Christians must fulfill a divine mandate to rule over all seven aspects of society (family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government) in order to usher in the “end times.”
Driven by that theology, New Apolostic Reformation figures played major roles in the lead up to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, combining Trump’s lies about a stolen election with claims that they were engaged in “spiritual warfare” with their political enemies and, thus, extreme and anti-democratic measures were not only necessary, but God-ordained.
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As we can see, David Barton’s politically connected fan base is much larger than the new Speaker of the House. He’s got the Texas Republican delegation more or less totally on board. And as the following May 2023 Texas Tribune article excerpt describes, that vision of turning Texas into a Christian Nationalism template of the nation is closer to fruition than ever before thanks, in part, to the CNP-selected conservative Supreme Court majority that has made a number of recent ‘Christian Nationalist’-friendly rulings worth plenty more presumably on the way:
The Texas Tribune
Conservative Christians want more religion in public life. Texas lawmakers are listening.
Opponents of church-state separation have been emboldened by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the growing acceptance of Christian nationalism on the right.
by Robert Downen
May 4, 2023
5 AM CentralWaving a copy of the Ten Commandments and a 17th-century textbook, amateur historian David Barton recently argued that Christianity has always formed the basis of American morality and thus is essential to Texas classrooms.
“This is traditional, historical stuff,” he told a Texas Senate Education Committee last month. “It’s hard to say that anything is more traditional in American education than was the Ten Commandments.”
For nearly four decades, Barton has preached that message to politicians and pews across the country, arguing that church-state separation is a “myth” that is disproven by centuries-old texts, like the school book he showed senators, that reference the Ten Commandments and other religious texts.
Now, Barton’s once-fringe theories could be codified into Texas law.
Emboldened by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the growing acceptance of Christian nationalism on the right, Barton and other conservative Christians could see monumental victories in the Texas Legislature this year.
Already this legislative session, the Texas Senate has approved bills that would require the Ten Commandments to be posted in all public school classrooms and allow unlicensed religious chaplains to supplant the role of school counselors. Meanwhile, there are numerous efforts to eliminate or weaken two state constitutional amendments that prohibit direct state support of religious schools and organizations, a key plank of the broader school-choice movement.
In legislative hearings, lawmakers have called church-state separation a “false doctrine,” and bill supporters have blamed it for school shootings, crime and growing LGBTQ acceptance.
In Texas, they believe they can create a national model for infusing Christianity into the public sphere.
“We think there can be a restoration of faith in America, and we think getting Ten Commandments on these walls is a great way to do that,” former state Rep. Matt Krause testified last month. “We think we can really set a trend for the rest of the country.”
A new legal and political landscape
It’s the latest battle in what Barton and other Christian leaders have framed as a long-running and existential war with the secular world, rhetoric that has helped fuel Republican movements to crack down on LGBTQ rights, ban books, push back against gun control and limit the teaching of American history in classrooms, among other oft-framed “culture war” issues.
And it comes amid growing acceptance on the right of Christian nationalism, the belief that the United States’ founding was ordained by God and, thus, its laws and institutions should favor Christians.
Bolstered by former President Donald Trump — who shored up evangelical support through his vow that “Christianity will have power” under his leadership — and animated by a rapidly secularizing and diversifying society, Christian nationalist movements have become mainstream among large factions of the Republican Party.
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“The nation has started to become conscious of Christian nationalism within the last handful of years,” said David Brockman, a nonresident scholar at the Religion and Public Policy Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “But we’ve been pretty much under the thumb of Christian nationalism here in Texas for at least a decade.”
He notes that Texas is home to a litany of well-known purveyors of Christian nationalism or related ideologies, including BlazeTV founder Glenn Beck; U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz; and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has called the United States “a Christian nation” and said “there is no separation of church and state. It was not in the constitution.”
“We were a nation founded upon not the words of our founders, but the words of God because he wrote the Constitution,” Patrick said last year.
Such claims have been elevated by a cadre of far-right financiers who have shoveled small fortunes into political campaigns and institutions that seek to erode the wall between church and state, including through candidates for the State Board of Education and local school boards.
Those efforts have found an avid audience within the state’s massive evangelical — and mostly white — conservative voting bloc and have been routinely amplified by Texas megachurch pastors who’ve made no bones about politicking from the pulpit, even after others have said they’re running afoul of restrictions on political activity by tax-exempt nonprofits.
A 2022 Texas Tribune and ProPublica investigation found that at least 20 churches in Texas may have violated such rules. Among them was Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth, which has hosted Kelly Shackelford — whose First Liberty Institute has been instrumental in legal challenges to the separation of church and state. Krause, the former Texas representative who testified last month in support of the Ten Commandments bill, recently took a job at First Liberty Institute after a decade in the Texas Legislature.
On Sunday, Krause’s successor, state Rep. Nate Schatzline, also spoke at the church.
“The devil is not afraid of a church that stays within the four walls,” Schatzline said before touting a wave of successful conservative candidates in Tarrant County and anti-LGBTQ bills he’s supporting in the Legislature. “That’s what happens when the church wakes up. That’s what happens when men and women of God get behind other men and women of God.”
Founding fathers: A wall of separation
But few figures have been as instrumental in the push to erode church-state separation as Barton, a self-taught historian who founded his group, WallBuilders, in 1988 with a mission to “present America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious, and constitutional foundation on which America was built.”
Barton served as vice chair of the Texas GOP from 1997 to 2006 and has pushed back for decades against conventional interpretations of the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which prohibits the government from establishing a state religion. Barton argues the “wall of separation” that the Founding Fathers envisioned has been misconstrued. In his view, that separation was only meant to extend one way, protecting religion — ostensibly, Christianity — from the government, not vice versa.
“‘Separation of church and state’ currently means almost exactly the opposite of what it originally meant,” his group’s website claims.
Among Barton’s favorite tactics: citing centuries-old texts, such as the one he presented to the Texas Senate committee, that he says mention Christianity or the Ten Commandments. That, he says, suggests a longstanding Judeo-Christian influence on American education, law and morality. Abandoning those universal moral standards, he and other WallBuilders leaders claim, helps explain most of America’s ills — including the recent mass shooting at a Nashville, Tennessee, Christian school.
“Our young people are having a very hard time determining what’s right and wrong,” David Barton’s son, Timothy Barton, told the Senate committee last month. “We’re seeing people do what they think is right. But what they think is right is often things like what resulted in Nashville. … Instead we should be presenting those morals [in the Ten Commandments] in front of students so they know there is a basis of morality and killing is always wrong.”
Barton’s broader theories have been widely ridiculed and debunked by historians and other scholars who note that he has no formal historical training and that his 2012 book, “The Jefferson Lies,” was recalled by its Christian publisher because of factual errors.
Even so, he’s been courted by political hopefuls, including Cruz, and his theories have been routinely elevated by others in the Texas GOP.
In just one hearing last month, state Sen. Donna Campbell, R‑New Braunfels, praised one of Barton’s books as “great”; Sen. Mayes Middleton, R‑Galveston, called separation of church and state “not a real doctrine” ; and Weatherford Republican Sen. Phil King brought forth Barton — an “esteemed” witness — to support King’s bill to post the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
Such a proposal, King said, would not have been feasible a few years ago.
“However, the legal landscape has changed,” he added.
A “massive shift” in the law?
King has a point.
In 2022’s Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Washington state high school football coach who argued that his religious rights were violated because his employer, a public school, sought to limit his practice of silently praying in the middle of the football field immediately after games. The district had asked Kennedy to pray at a later time to avoid the appearance that the school was endorsing his beliefs, then declined to renew his contract after he refused to do so.
In a 6–3 ruling, the court’s conservative supermajority said Kennedy’s prayers were protected by the First Amendment, rejecting the district’s contention that allowing the prayers amounted to an official endorsement of religion.
The ruling dealt a substantial blow to the so-called Lemon test. Established by the court’s 1971 decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman, the Lemon test held that the government could interact with religion so long as it served a secular purpose, did not advance or inhibit religion, and did not create an excessive government entanglement with religion.
In the Kennedy decision, the Supreme Court also ruled that restrictions on religious expression must take into account historical context and practices — a directive that some have taken as a green light to put religion in the classroom, including Krause and First Liberty Institute, which represented Kennedy.
“The law has undergone a massive shift,” Krause said during his testimony in support of the Ten Commandments bill. “It’s not too much to say that the Kennedy case for religious liberty was much like the Dobbs case was for the pro-life movement. It was a fundamental shift.”
Experts aren’t yet sold on that claim.
“Anyone who tells you that the law in this area is clear, or has ever been clear, is probably trying to sell you something,” said professor Steven Collis, director of both the First Amendment Center and the Law and Religion Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin.
While Collis added that the Lemon test was often ignored or disputed by courts because of its vague language, he said the Kennedy ruling neutered much of it, as well as the government’s ability to limit religious expression based on claims that doing so amounts to a state-sanctioned endorsement of religion.
But Collis noted that part of the Kennedy ruling was predicated on the idea that the coach was not forcing players to pray with him, an important distinction to the court’s majority. He said there’s a case to be made that posting the Ten Commandments or other religious texts in a classroom — where children are required to remain — is far different. And he expects such legislation would face court challenges in which opponents say that it amounts to a “coercion of religion upon students.”
“There has been a long tradition in the United States of saying, whatever government is doing, it has to do neutrally between religions — it can’t treat one religion differently than another. And certainly, it can’t favor one religion over another,” he said. “One of the challenges with having something like the Ten Commandments up in a public school — or really any religious texts up on the wall in a public school — is you immediately have to ask the question, whose religion is it going to be?”
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Rulings embraced by school choice advocates
A potential legal challenge to the Ten Commandments or a similar bill would come amid a broader shift in how the U.S. Supreme Court and some state legislatures treat religious expression.
The series of moves has deeply concerned advocates for church-state separation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, Congress made the historic decision to let religious organizations — including some of the nation’s largest and most influential congregations — receive forgivable federal disaster loans.
In 2021, Texas lawmakers passed legislation that required donated “In God We Trust” signs to be placed in public classrooms. Not long after, a North Texas school district rejected signs in Arabic that were donated by a local parent while allowing English versions that were provided by Patriot Mobile, a Grapevine-based conservative cellphone company that has funded numerous Christian nationalist campaigns in the state, including anti-LGBTQ school board candidates.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, driven by its conservative majority, has handed down a series of consequential rulings that have raised questions about so-called Blaine amendments in 37 state constitutions, including Texas’, that prohibit or limit state funding of religious institutions, including schools:
* In 2020, the court ruled 5–4 in favor of a Montana woman, Kendra Espinoza, who argued that her state’s Department of Revenue improperly barred her from using a tax-credit scholarship at a Christian school.
* In 2022, justices similarly ruled that Maine could not bar religious institutions from public funding, a significant decision to ongoing debates over public education financing in Texas.
Those rulings have been embraced by the broader school choice movement.
The same week that state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R‑Conroe, filed Senate Bill 8 — a massive overhaul of the Texas educational system that would allow religious schools to receive state funding via educational savings accounts — he requested an expedited opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton about whether the state’s Blaine amendments were unconstitutional.
Days prior, state Sen. Angela Paxton — a McKinney Republican who is married to the attorney general — filed legislation that would repeal “the constitutional provision that prohibits the appropriation of state money or property for the benefit of any sect, religious society, or theological or religious seminary.”
The next week, the attorney general released an opinion that said Texas’ Blaine amendments violated the U.S. Constitution’s free-exercise clause.
There are also two bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, that similarly challenge the state’s Blaine amendments.
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“Bolstered by former President Donald Trump — who shored up evangelical support through his vow that “Christianity will have power” under his leadership — and animated by a rapidly secularizing and diversifying society, Christian nationalist movements have become mainstream among large factions of the Republican Party.”
It may be a cult. But it’s a mainstream cult. At least within the contemporary Republican Party. The kind of cult that was more than happy to make a deal with a figure like Donald Trump and his promises that “Christianity will have power” under his leadership. And Trump is far from the only major political force propelling Christian Nationalism at a national level. The hard right Supreme Court majority has Barton and his allies in Texas poised for much greater victories to come. They’re emboldened for a reason. Texas has been heading toward this moment for well over a decade. Or, as CNP member Matt Krause testified back in April during a legislative hearing on a bill to put the 10 Commandments in Texas public school classrooms ‚“We think there can be a restoration of faith in America, and we think getting Ten Commandments on these walls is a great way to do that...We think we can really set a trend for the rest of the country”:
...
For nearly four decades, Barton has preached that message to politicians and pews across the country, arguing that church-state separation is a “myth” that is disproven by centuries-old texts, like the school book he showed senators, that reference the Ten Commandments and other religious texts.Now, Barton’s once-fringe theories could be codified into Texas law.
Emboldened by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the growing acceptance of Christian nationalism on the right, Barton and other conservative Christians could see monumental victories in the Texas Legislature this year.
Already this legislative session, the Texas Senate has approved bills that would require the Ten Commandments to be posted in all public school classrooms and allow unlicensed religious chaplains to supplant the role of school counselors. Meanwhile, there are numerous efforts to eliminate or weaken two state constitutional amendments that prohibit direct state support of religious schools and organizations, a key plank of the broader school-choice movement.
In legislative hearings, lawmakers have called church-state separation a “false doctrine,” and bill supporters have blamed it for school shootings, crime and growing LGBTQ acceptance.
In Texas, they believe they can create a national model for infusing Christianity into the public sphere.
“We think there can be a restoration of faith in America, and we think getting Ten Commandments on these walls is a great way to do that,” former state Rep. Matt Krause testified last month. “We think we can really set a trend for the rest of the country.”
...
“The nation has started to become conscious of Christian nationalism within the last handful of years,” said David Brockman, a nonresident scholar at the Religion and Public Policy Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “But we’ve been pretty much under the thumb of Christian nationalism here in Texas for at least a decade.”
...
And it appears that allowing the blatant politicking from the pulpit is one of the ways Texas is pushing that Christian Nationalist envelope, with a 2022 investigation finding at least 20 churches in Texas violating those rules, including the Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth, which featured talks by CNP Vice President Kelly Shackelford who has long argued against the separation of Church and State. Again, recall how Mike Johnson referred to Shackelford has a mentor. That’s who was invited to give a talk at a megachurch that is in open defiance of laws prohibited politicking from the pulpit:
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Such claims have been elevated by a cadre of far-right financiers who have shoveled small fortunes into political campaigns and institutions that seek to erode the wall between church and state, including through candidates for the State Board of Education and local school boards.Those efforts have found an avid audience within the state’s massive evangelical — and mostly white — conservative voting bloc and have been routinely amplified by Texas megachurch pastors who’ve made no bones about politicking from the pulpit, even after others have said they’re running afoul of restrictions on political activity by tax-exempt nonprofits.
A 2022 Texas Tribune and ProPublica investigation found that at least 20 churches in Texas may have violated such rules. Among them was Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth, which has hosted Kelly Shackelford — whose First Liberty Institute has been instrumental in legal challenges to the separation of church and state. Krause, the former Texas representative who testified last month in support of the Ten Commandments bill, recently took a job at First Liberty Institute after a decade in the Texas Legislature.
On Sunday, Krause’s successor, state Rep. Nate Schatzline, also spoke at the church.
“The devil is not afraid of a church that stays within the four walls,” Schatzline said before touting a wave of successful conservative candidates in Tarrant County and anti-LGBTQ bills he’s supporting in the Legislature. “That’s what happens when the church wakes up. That’s what happens when men and women of God get behind other men and women of God.”
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And when we look at the recent Supreme Court rulings that have fueled this movement, look at who was behind those lawsuits: the plaintiffs in the 2022 Kennedy v. Bremerton School District ruling were represented by Kelly Shackelford’s Liberty institute, which at that point had Matt Krause working for them. This was a CNP-backed lawsuit:
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“However, the legal landscape has changed,” he added.A “massive shift” in the law?
King has a point.
In 2022’s Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Washington state high school football coach who argued that his religious rights were violated because his employer, a public school, sought to limit his practice of silently praying in the middle of the football field immediately after games. The district had asked Kennedy to pray at a later time to avoid the appearance that the school was endorsing his beliefs, then declined to renew his contract after he refused to do so.
In a 6–3 ruling, the court’s conservative supermajority said Kennedy’s prayers were protected by the First Amendment, rejecting the district’s contention that allowing the prayers amounted to an official endorsement of religion.
The ruling dealt a substantial blow to the so-called Lemon test. Established by the court’s 1971 decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman, the Lemon test held that the government could interact with religion so long as it served a secular purpose, did not advance or inhibit religion, and did not create an excessive government entanglement with religion.
In the Kennedy decision, the Supreme Court also ruled that restrictions on religious expression must take into account historical context and practices — a directive that some have taken as a green light to put religion in the classroom, including Krause and First Liberty Institute, which represented Kennedy.
“The law has undergone a massive shift,” Krause said during his testimony in support of the Ten Commandments bill. “It’s not too much to say that the Kennedy case for religious liberty was much like the Dobbs case was for the pro-life movement. It was a fundamental shift.”
...
Texas Republicans are clearly enthusiastic about turning their state into a model for the nation. David Barton’s model for the nation. A model that implicitly got a big endorsement with Mike Johnson’s new role as Speaker of the House.
But, for additional context, don’t overinterpret the symbolic significance of a Barton super-fan becoming speaker. Because as the following piece in Current reminds us, Barton has been quite popular among Republican speakers for years:
Current
Mike Johnson is not the only David Barton fan to be Speaker of the House of Representatives
John Fea | November 1, 2023
I was recently talking with a reporter who asked me if Mike Johnson was the first Speaker of the House to embrace the teachings of David Barton. I didn’t know the answer off the top of my head so after the call I decided to do some research. Here’s what I found:
Paul Ryan, who served as Speaker from 2015–2019, was also a fan of the conservative activist who invokes the past to advance his political agenda. Or at least this is what he told Dan Cummins of Charisma magazine in 2016:
Though we may never agree totally with everyone’s politics, let me tell you why I’m thankful that Paul Ryan is speaker of the House and that he won his primary race. Speaker Ryan, a Roman Catholic, is a passionate disciple and follower of Jesus Christ. He is surrounding himself with godly spiritual pastors.
He said, “The only hope for America is a spiritual awakening. … We must have spiritual solutions to our problems, or we’re in for troubled times as a nation” (spoken to JoAnn and me alone in a private, 30-minute conversation). He asked that I help him invite pastors to the Capitol for spiritual advice. So far, we have had more than 200 pastors visit the Capitol, and we plan for many more for this fall.
Ryan makes meeting pastors a top priority in his busy schedule. JoAnn and I have an open working relationship with his staff. They told us that in six weeks’ time, they had to turn down more than 500 invitations to various important events (I saw the print out sheets), “but he’s doing the pastors briefings because he’s passionate about it,” a top staffer told us.
Speaker Ryan is an avid fan of historian David Barton. “I listen to him all the time, even in my car while driving,” he said. Because of Barton’s teachings, Speaker Ryan is very knowledgeable of the 1954 Johnson Amendment (putting political speech restrictions on pastors from their pulpits) and its devastating effects on our culture.
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But wait, there’s more:
In January 2009, John Boehner, who was speaker from 2011–2015, appeared on Barton’s radio show Wallbuilders Live when he was the House minority leader to talk about the census:
To be fair, Boehner did not say, as Mike Johnson did, that Barton and company had a “profound influence” on his life. The interview actually had nothing to do with Christian nationalism directly, but it is still worth noting that Wallbuilders Live was on Boehner’s radar screen.
Barton has had an influence on conservative politics for a long time. If you can find anything about his connections to Denny Hastert or Kevin McCarthy let me know.
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“Speaker Ryan is an avid fan of historian David Barton. “I listen to him all the time, even in my car while driving,” he said. Because of Barton’s teachings, Speaker Ryan is very knowledgeable of the 1954 Johnson Amendment (putting political speech restrictions on pastors from their pulpits) and its devastating effects on our culture.”
David Barton is quite the celebrity when it comes to Republican Speakers of the House. He almost sounds like a mentor to Paul Ryan. Was Barton involved in Ryans’s staffing decision too?
All in all, it’s quite a love fest between Christian Nationalist leaders and Republican politicians. Even more so after the presidency of Donald Trump and the profound impact his term in office had the composition of the Supreme Court. And as the following May 2016 article about plans for a June gathering of evangelical leaders to meet then-candidate Donald Trump reminds us, this same network of Christian Nationalist leaders was bear hugging Trump’s political ascent from the very beginning. It was ‘Who’s Who’ of Christian Nationalism:
* CNP Founding Member James Dobson
* CNP member Ralph Reed
* CNP member Penny Nance
* CNP Executive Director Bob McEwen
* CNP member Tim Wildmon
* CNP member (and CNP VP starting in 2020) Kelly Shackelford, who also happens to be Mike Johnson’s mentor.
* CNP member (and CNP President in 2018) Tony Perkins
* CNP member Bill Dallas
That was the delegation of Christian leaders who gathered to meet with Donald Trump back in May of 2016. It was a CNP delegation sent to assess Donald Trump. And the rest is history. Specifically, the history of the ongoing love story between Trump and his Christian Nationalism base that eventually resulted in the CNP-orchestrated attempts to overturn in 2020 election:
AL.com
Southern Baptist, other evangelical leaders to meet with Donald Trump: Reports
By Leada Gore
Published: May. 23, 2016, 11:41 a.m.Donald Trump will meet with some of the nation’s most prominent Evangelical leaders, including representatives from the Southern Baptist Convention and other conservative religious groups.
The meeting comes as several Evangelical leader have spoken out against Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
The gathering, first reported by Fox News, will include Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd; Focus on the Family founder James Dobson; Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed; Concerned Women for America CEO Penny Nance; Council for National Policy Executive Director Bob McEwen; American Family Association President Tim Wildmon; First Liberty President Kelly Shackleford; and pastors Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas and Ed Young in Grapevine, Texas.
Southern Baptist president Floyd told Fox News he wants to learn more about Trump’s policies and plans.
...
Set for June 21 in New York, the meeting is being organized by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. Former presidential candidate turned Trump supporter Dr. Ben Carson and Bill Dallas of United in Purpose assisted in planning the event, which is expected to include as many as 500 religious leaders. The meeting will not include an endorsement or straw poll but rather provide attendees time to ask questions about Trump, who has maintained his policies will align with those of Evangelical Christians.
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“Set for June 21 in New York, the meeting is being organized by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.> Former presidential candidate turned Trump supporter Dr. Ben Carson and Bill Dallas of United in Purpose assisted in planning the event, which is expected to include as many as 500 religious leaders. The meeting will not include an endorsement or straw poll but rather provide attendees time to ask questions about Trump, who has maintained his policies will align with those of Evangelical Christians.”
Organized by CNP members Perkins and Dallas, and attended by CNP members Dobson, Reed, Nance, McEwen, Wildmon, and Shackelford. This was the CNP’s opportunity to formally government Trump their blessing:
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“The gathering, first reported by Fox News, will include Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd; Focus on the Family founder James Dobson; Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed; Concerned Women for America CEO Penny Nance; Council for National Policy Executive Director Bob McEwen; American Family Association President Tim Wildmon; First Liberty President Kelly Shackleford; and pastors Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas and Ed Young in Grapevine, Texas.”
...
And note the two pastors who also attended: Jack Graham and Ed Young. While Ed Young’s name doesn’t show up on the available leaked CNP membership lists, there are indications that Young is indeed a CNP member including a 2015 document put out by the CNP summarizing a panel discussion on marriage equality. But whether or not Young is a formal CNP member, he’s clearly a player in this agenda. A rather significant one, as we’re going to see below. And someone with an atrocious track record of covering up systematic abuses inside the Southern Baptist Conference (SBC) network of churches. Systemic abuses, including abuses by a prominent Texas CNP member, the SBC leadership was very aware of very many years.
The SBC’s Megachurch Sexual Abuse Mega-scandal. It’s the CNP’s Mega-scandal Too
Paul Pressler isn’t a household name. Unless you have to come from the household of an aspiring Texas Republican politician, in which case you may have heard of the prominent conservative lawyer and SBC leader. Pressler, a former Texas Court of Appeals judge and one-time White House nominee under George H.W. Bush, is the kind of figure whose support GOP hopeful have long sought out out and brag about should they get it. That includes Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who has reportedly known Pressler since he was a teenager. In 2012, Pressler — who was CNP president from 1988–1990 — hosted a meeting at his ranch where conservative leaders agreed to support the CNP member Rick Santorum over Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential primary. Pressler is described as having been instrumental in pushing the SBC’s 16 million members and 47,000 churches to adopt literal interpretations of the Bible and align more closely with the Republican Party. And as we’re going to see in the following March 2023 Houston Public Radio article, Pressler has been using his power and influence inside the SBC community to sexually assault young men for decades, going back to at least the 1978 when he was forced out of Houston church for molesting a teenager in a sauna.
For years, Pressler’s law firm partners paid him in young men. That’s right, Paul Pressler wasn’t paid a salary for his work at Woodfill & Pressler LLP. He was instead paid in the form of a string of employees tasked to serve him as personal assistants. Most of these assistants are described as young men who typically worked out of his River Oaks mansion. Two of those assistants have now accused Pressler of sexual assaults. They are among at least six men who have now come forward to accuse Pressler of sexual assault or misconduct including two who say they were minors at the time. Notably, Pressler’s former personal assistant, John Fields, also shows up on the CNP membership list. You have to wonder what’s under that rock.
Jared Woodfill — Pressler’s partner of Woodfill & Pressler LLP — is no stranger to Pressler’s politics or sexual proclivities. Woodfill, who led the Harris County Republican Party from 2002 to 2014, is himself a prominent Houston conservative activist who led the campaign against a Houston 2015 ordinance on the ballot that would have protected the LGBTQ community. And based on what we’re learning from the documents released in a lawsuit against Pressler, Woodfill was no stranger to Pressler’s pattern of preying on young men. Worse, he apparently enabled it, often arranging for meetings between Pressler and young male conservatives in his circle.
Nor is the current lawsuit the first against Pressler. Woodfill represented him in a 2004 lawsuit stemming from a 2003 incident in a Dallas hotel room. As Woodfill admitted during a testimony back in February, Woodfill helped settle the 2004 suit for $450,000 in a one-day mediation that also included a confidentiality agreement. It was a notable disclosure given that Woodfill has been asserting since 2016 that he knew nothing about Pressler’s grooming behavior.
2016 is also the year Pressler reportedly invited a young male attorney who had just joined Woodfill’s lawfirm back to his Dripping Springs ranch where they have a 10-person hot tub for a naked boys-only hot tubbing experience. When the young man brought up the incident with a longtime Woodfill law firm employee, he learned this was not the first time they heard such allegations. “I discovered that this was not unusual behavior for Pressler, and that he had a long history of lecherous behavior towards young men. Even going as far as bringing scantily clad men and parading them through the office,” according to the man’s affidavit.
The invite to this young attorney took place at the home of CNP member Steven Hotze, another conservative activist who co-led the 2015 anti-LBGTQ campaign with Woodfill. Woodfill is also representing Hotze in a separate criminal investigation over an October 2020 incident in which a private investigator Mark Aguirre held at gunpoint an A/C repairman who he believed was transporting fake ballots. Aguiree was paid $266,400 by the group Liberty Center for God and Country, whose CEO is Hotze.
But it’s just incidents that happens to these young attorneys that triggered the current ongoing lawsuit playing out. Decades of rape and molestation started, according to Duane Rollins, when he was 14 and a member of Pressler’s church youth group. Rollins accuses Pressler of decades of molestation beginning when Rollins was 14. Notably, Rollins is the same person who sued Pressler back in 2004, which ended in the $450,000 settlement/confidentiality agreement. Also notable is that Rollins did actually end up going to work at Woodfill & Pressler in 2002, so Rollins’s case against against Pressler potentially involves abuses that took place in both church and law office settings.
And that brings us to another other major facet of this story: Pressler’s abuse inside the SBC network of churches almost surely could have gone unchecked for decades because that’s the giant scandal that’s been unfolding for the SBC community for years now. Unchecked sexual abuse, often at the hands of known abusers and convicted sex offended repeatedly allowed back into positions of power and influence inside the SBC’s 47k churches. And all of this is widely tolerated by the SBC leadership, including prominent SBC leaders like Ed Young. Pressler’s decades of unchecked abuse didn’t just happen because Paul Pressler is a powerful and influential man. He’s instead a powerful and influential example of something that is apparently rampant inside the SBC community with almost no effort by the SBC leadership to do anything other than cover it up.
And that brings us to another SBC leader implicated in Rollins’s latest lawsuit: Paige Patterson, a former SBC President. Patterson and Pressler are described as two of figures who pushed the SBC to adopt literal interpretations of the Bible back in the 1980s and 90s. Patterson, and his wife Dorothy Kelly Patterson, are both members of the CNP. Patterson has been ignoring and covering up sexual abuse claims in the SBC for decades, according to the lawsuit, included accusations made by multiple women against his ex-protégé, Darrell Gilyard. In May of 2018, Patterson was ousted as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, after it was revealed he said he wanted to meet alone with a female student who said she was raped so he could “break her down.”
It’s the ‘Catholic Church’ crisis for Baptists. But it’s also awful context for this broader story we’ve been looking at of the profound ascendency of the CNP’s power and influence as exemplified by the ascension of a backbencher David Barton-fan with creepy theocratic spyware on his phone to the House Speakership. But also exemplified by the CNP’s ability to orchestrate the January 6 Capitol insurrection and get away with almost no scrutiny and then proceed to openly plan a Schedule F/Project 2025 mass purge. And then there’s the CNP’s solid grip on the Supreme Court for decades to come. It’s a meta crisis of systemic abuses of power under the guise of piety:
Houston Public Radio
Houston GOP official knew for years of child sex abuse claims against Southern Baptist leader, law partner
Under oath, outspoken anti-gay activist Jared Woodfill said he was told in 2004 that Paul Pressler had sexually abused a minor. But Woodfill did not cut ties with the Southern Baptist leader — and said he had no knowledge of Pressler’s alleged behavior when another young man came forward about alleged sexual misconduct in 2016.
Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune
Posted on March 27, 2023, 11:46 AM (Last Updated: March 27, 2023, 12:50 PM)In 2016, former Harris County GOP chair Jared Woodfill received an urgent warning about Paul Pressler, his longtime law partner and a Southern Baptist leader. In an email, a 25-year-old attorney from Woodfill’s Houston firm said he’d recently gone to lunch with Pressler, who told him “lewd stories about being naked on beaches with young men” and then invited him to skinny-dip at his ranch.
Woodfill — an outspoken anti-gay politician and prominent conservative activist who’d just played a key role defeating an equal rights ordinance for LGBTQ Houstonians — responded to the young man’s request for help with shock and indignation. “This 85-year-old man has never made any inappropriate comments or actions toward me or any one I know of,” he wrote of Pressler at the time.
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In recent sworn testimony, Woodfill said he’d known since 2004 of an allegation that Pressler had sexually abused a child. Woodfill learned of those claims, he said, during mediation of an assault lawsuit filed against Pressler that he helped quietly settle for nearly a half-million dollars at the time. Despite his knowledge of the accusation, Woodfill continued to work with Pressler for nearly a decade — leaning on Pressler’s name and reputation to bolster their firm, Woodfill & Pressler LLP.
Rather than pay him a salary, Woodfill testified, the firm provided Pressler a string of employees to serve as personal assistants, most of them young men who typically worked out of his River Oaks mansion. Two have accused Pressler of sexual assault or misconduct.
Reference
Woodfill led the Harris County Republican Party from 2002 to 2014 and has for years been at the helm of anti-LGBTQ and other hardline conservative movements in Houston and Texas. In 2015, amid tense debate over a Houston equal rights ordinance that would have made LGBTQ workplace discrimination illegal, he and well-known GOP power broker Steven Hotze co-led a campaign that, among other things, said the measure would allow children to be sexually groomed and abused in bathrooms, paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars in opposition advertisements and compared the gay rights movement to Nazis.
Since then, Woodfill has remained a fixture in Texas GOP politics: During the height of the pandemic, he and Hotze filed numerous lawsuits challenging COVID-19 mandates, and he’s currently representing conservative political candidates challenging the 2022 election results in Harris County. Woodfill is also representing Hotze in a criminal investigation stemming from a 2020 incident in which a private investigator, allegedly acting at Hotze’s behest, held at gunpoint an A/C repairman who he believed was transporting fake ballots.
Woodfill’s deposition came as part of an ongoing, six-year-old lawsuit in which a former member of Pressler’s church youth group accuses him of decades of rape beginning when he was 14. The suit also accuses Woodfill and others, including leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, of concealing and enabling Pressler’s behavior — claims that prompted a 2019 Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News investigation into widespread sexual abuse in the SBC, the nation’s second-largest faith group.
Released over the last few weeks, the thousands of pages of new court records show how Woodfill leaned on his Pressler connections to bolster his political and legal career — despite warnings about his law partner’s behavior. And they shed new light on how Pressler, a former Texas Court of Appeals judge and one-time White House nominee under George H.W. Bush, allegedly used his prestige and influence to evade responsibility amid repeated accusations of sexual misconduct and assault dating back to at least 1978, when he was forced out of a Houston church for allegedly molesting a teenager in a sauna.
Pressler is best known for his work in the Southern Baptist Convention, where he was instrumental in pushing its 16 million members and 47,000 churches to adopt literal interpretations of the Bible, strongly denounce homosexuality and align more closely with the Republican Party. And for decades, he was a high-ranking member of the Council for National Policy, an uber-secretive network of conservative judges, mega donors, media figures and religious elites led by Tony Perkins, head of the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council.
The new records show that in 2004, leaders of First Baptist Church of Houston, a massive Southern Baptist congregation, investigated claims that Pressler, then a deacon, had groped and undressed a college student at his Houston mansion. The church leaders deemed the behavior “morally and spiritually” inappropriate and warned Pressler but took no further action, citing differing accounts of the incident and Pressler’s stature in their church and the Southern Baptist Convention. In recent depositions, plaintiffs attorneys also briefly mention new complaints from two others about Pressler, though those documents remain sealed ahead of the looming civil trial in the case.
At least six men have now accused Pressler of sexual assault or misconduct, including two who say they were molested while minors and two who say they were solicited for sex in incidents after 2004, when Woodfill and First Baptist leaders were separately made aware of complaints about Pressler.
Pressler has not been criminally charged in any of the incidents. Neither Woodfill nor his attorney responded to a list of questions about Woodfill’s handling of the allegations against Pressler. In a Wednesday email, Woodfill’s lawyer David Oubre said they are “confident Mr. Woodfill will be successful in defeating these claims.”
“A big name”
The new allegations came as part of an ongoing lawsuit in which Duane Rollins accuses Pressler of decades of rape and molestation beginning when Rollins was 14 and a member of the church youth group led by Pressler, who was then in his late 40s. Those alleged attacks, Rollins says in court documents, pushed him into years of drug and alcohol addictions that kept him in prison for much of his adult life. While in prison therapy sessions in 2015, Rollins says he uncovered repressed memories of sexual abuse by Pressler. He was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress as a “direct result of the childhood sexual trauma he suffered,” according to medical records filed in court.
In 2017, Rollins sued Pressler, Woodfill and Southern Baptist figures and institutions that he says enabled and concealed Pressler’s behavior, arguing that, because of trauma and manipulation by Pressler, it took him decades to reconcile that he was sexually abused. Last year, after the defendants fought to have the suit tossed by arguing the assault claims were outside the statute of limitations, the Texas Supreme Court agreed with Rollins‘ arguments and allowed the lawsuit to go forward.
The new filings give insight into Woodfill’s long relationship with Pressler beginning in the mid-1990s. At the time, Pressler, then 65, was phasing out of years of work in the Southern Baptist Convention and focusing more on politics. Woodfill was still in his 20s and said Pressler’s conservative bona fides were a valuable asset.
Pressler’s support has long been sought and touted by Republican political hopefuls, including Sen. Ted Cruz, who has known Pressler since he was a teenager. In 2012, Pressler hosted a retreat at his Texas ranch, where a group of prominent conservative leaders agreed to support Rick Santorum over Mitt Romney in the upcoming presidential election.
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Over the course of their law partnership, Woodfill testified, Pressler did almost no work for the firm, but was provided numerous young, male assistants who tended to his and his family’s needs — including his son who has a physical disability.
“I can think of one or two cases that he brought in,” Woodfill testified. “He may have gone to one hearing in his entire time with us, two at the most. Really, it was his name. ... He got an employee that worked for him. So he didn’t get a salary. He didn’t get a draw. He didn’t get a bonus. We paid for someone to come and assist him. That’s how he got compensated.”
The latest lawsuit marks the second time Rollins has sued Pressler over allegations of assault.
In 2004, Woodfill represented Pressler in a lawsuit in which Rollins accused him of assault stemming from a 2003 incident in a Dallas hotel room, during which Rollins says Pressler injured him during a physical altercation and, citing his stature as a former Texas judge, threatened him if he came forward. In order to avoid publicity, Woodfill helped settle the suit for $450,000 in a one-day mediation that also included a confidentiality agreement, he said in testimony last month.
Copies of the lawsuit did not refer to the incident as sexual assault. But as the case was being mediated, Woodfill said under oath last month, he was told by Rollins’ then-attorney that Pressler had “been sexually inappropriate” with Rollins, had “done some things to him when he was a child” and “sexually abused (Rollins) … when he was a child or in a youth group or something.”
During his deposition, Woodfill declined to discuss most other details of the 2004 lawsuit, citing the confidentiality agreement. Even so, Woodfill’s testimony directly contradicts his previous assertions that he had no knowledge of Pressler’s alleged grooming and sexual misconduct toward young men — claims that he has repeated since at least 2016, when he denied any knowledge of such behavior after the young attorney detailed Pressler’s alleged invitation to hot tub naked, as well as in subsequent media interviews and court filings.
Rollins’ attorneys say Woodfill “had an incentive to turn a blind eye to Mr. Pressler’s abuse.”
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Records show that Pressler remained a limited partner at the firm until around 2012, when Woodfill said Pressler retired. The firm was renamed Woodfill Law Firm and has been involved in numerous lawsuits involving conservative causes over the years. The firm has also faced accusations of impropriety, including money laundering allegations that sparked a 2018 raid and investigation by the Harris County District Attorney’s office, though no charges were ever filed in the matter.
“If brought to light”
Rollins’ latest lawsuit also brought to light other sexual misconduct allegations against Pressler, including an affidavit that was submitted as part of the 2004 lawsuit. Woodfill declined to comment on the affidavit while under oath, citing confidentiality rules.
In the affidavit, which was made public this year, another college student says Pressler pressured him to get naked and then groped him at his Houston mansion. According to court records, the young man met Pressler through First Baptist Church of Houston and then was hired by Woodfill’s law firm as Pressler’s assistant. The Texas Tribune does not identify victims of alleged sexual assault without their consent.
In the newly-surfaced affidavit, the young man said he was invited to live with the Presslers. “Moving into the Pressler home was in the fashion of being invited to be a member of the family which, by that time and owing to the church relationship, I had become,” he wrote in his affidavit.
One night in May 2004, he was asked by Pressler to give him a neck massage on his bed, he said in the affidavit. Pressler then removed his pants and began to give the young man a massage, the man said. Pressler later invited him on a trip to Europe, and the college student said he was “non-committal.” When he went outside after, Pressler followed him and suggested they undress to get him “adjusted to traveling in Europe,” where he said nudity among men was common, according to the affidavit.
The young man said he declined multiple times but eventually gave in to Pressler’s requests and briefly undressed. Pressler later suggested they pray together naked, he said in the affidavit, after which the college student got dressed and hurried into the home. Pressler followed him inside, he said, and “reached to hug me goodnight.”
He said Pressler then “quickly and without warning or invitation, grabbed my swim trunks and pulled them down far enough to expose my genitals and buttocks.”
“I was horrified and froze,” he said. “Apparently, in response to my reaction, he backed away and went upstairs.”
Court records show that, after the college student mentioned the incident to a church leader, a small group of top First Baptist leaders briefly looked into the matter but determined it was a “he said, she said” type of ordeal that would be damaging to Pressler if made public. Pressler was beloved by many at the church and had just served on a search committee that brought the church’s new pastor on around the same time.
“Given your stature and various leadership roles in our church, the Southern Baptist Convention and other Christian organizations, it is our considered opinion that this kind of behavior, if brought to light, might distort your testimony or cause others to stumble,” First Baptist leaders wrote in a 2004 letter to Pressler that was recently made public as part of Rollins’ lawsuit. “We desire neither, but, rather, pray that God continues to use your gifts and talents to accomplish His will and purpose.”
In an interview, a lawyer for First Baptist defended the church’s actions, saying leaders immediately looked into the allegations and, after interviewing both Pressler and the college student, found nothing that was conclusive or criminal.
“The church acted promptly when we heard this alleged behavior,” Houston attorney Barry Flynn said. “Remember: We didn’t know if this was true or untrue.”
Flynn said the church has strict rules on background checks for anyone who works with children — but noted that Pressler primarily taught adult Bible study classes. And, he added, even if the church had checked his background, they would not have found anything criminal.
In a deposition, a top church leader reiterated that stance and compared Pressler’s behavior to boys who playfully “depants” one another. He said Pressler’s defense — that he was readying the young man for a trip to Europe — was believable.
Pressler remained a deacon at the church, First Baptist leaders testified, but significantly curtailed his involvement there until around 2007, when he transferred to Second Baptist Church of Houston, a massive network of Houston-area churches that’s led by former SBC President Ed Young, and has been previously accused of concealing other sexual abuses. Flynn, the First Baptist attorney, said there was “no communication” between the two churches about the allegations against Pressler.
A pattern of behavior
In the years after leaving First Baptist, Pressler was accused of sexual misconduct by at least two other young men — including a young Houston Baptist University student who testified that, as a result of Pressler’s sexual advances, he stopped pursuing a career in ministry, frequently had panic attacks and attempted suicide.
That man’s allegations are similar in detail to those described by the 25-year-old attorney who wrote to Woodfill in 2016. The attorney, whom the Tribune is not naming, was a recent law school graduate who said in an affidavit that he moved to Texas in 2016 for a job at Woodfill’s law firm. During that time, he said, Woodfill introduced him to Pressler, calling him his “mentor for over 25 years,” a “hero of the faith” and a “great man.”
Two months later, the young attorney said he ran into Pressler at a political fundraiser at the home of Hotze, and was encouraged by Woodfill to go to lunch with Pressler. The following week, he said, he arrived at Pressler’s home to pick him up. Pressler answered the door without pants on and invited him inside, after which he showed him pictures of “important people” he knew and talked about swimming naked in Europe numerous times, the attorney wrote in his 2018 sworn affidavit.
At lunch, Pressler told the attorney about a 10-person hot tub at his Dripping Springs ranch and invited him there, saying “when the ladies are not around, us boys all go in the hot tub completely naked,” he said.
Horrified, the attorney addressed the incident with a longtime employee of Woodfill’s law firm, who made it clear that this was not the first time he’d heard such allegations, the attorney said in the affidavit.
“I discovered that this was not unusual behavior for Pressler, and that he had a long history of lecherous behavior towards young men. Even going as far as bringing scantily clad men and parading them through the office,” he wrote in his affidavit.
Emails show that the attorney reached out to Woodfill, who claimed it was the first time he’d heard of such alleged behavior by Pressler. Woodfill later offered the attorney a $10,000 raise, court records show, and said he’d talk to Pressler and keep him away.
“However,” the attorney wrote, “within two weeks Pressler was at a political luncheon that Woodfill required me to attend.”
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“Pressler is best known for his work in the Southern Baptist Convention, where he was instrumental in pushing its 16 million members and 47,000 churches to adopt literal interpretations of the Bible, strongly denounce homosexuality and align more closely with the Republican Party. And for decades, he was a high-ranking member of the Council for National Policy, an uber-secretive network of conservative judges, mega donors, media figures and religious elites led by Tony Perkins, head of the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council.”
Judge Pressler, a longstanding leader in the SBC community, isn’t just a high-ranking member of the CNP. He was the CNP’s president from 1988–1990 and a major figure in Texas Republican politics. He even helped orchestrate an obviously failed attempt to shore up support for CNP member Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential run:
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Pressler’s support has long been sought and touted by Republican political hopefuls, including Sen. Ted Cruz, who has known Pressler since he was a teenager. In 2012, Pressler hosted a retreat at his Texas ranch, where a group of prominent conservative leaders agreed to support Rick Santorum over Mitt Romney in the upcoming presidential election.
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So it’s a pretty big deal for the SBC and Texas Republican politics that Paul Pressler is now the subject of an ongoing lawsuit that is bringing out one damning testimony after another and paints of picture of unchecked abuses of power going back decades. Blatant abuses of power that were effectively hidden in plain sight. Like the fact that Pressler was apparently never paid a salary by his law firm, Woodfill & Pressler LLP, but instead was paid in the form of young male assistants who would serve at his mansion, ostensibly to help with the family’s needs. That’s just one of the details Pressler’s law partner Jared Woodfill had to reveal in sworn testimony this year as part of an ongoing lawsuit that has been bringing to light evidence of abuse by Pressler going back to at least 1978:
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In recent sworn testimony, Woodfill said he’d known since 2004 of an allegation that Pressler had sexually abused a child. Woodfill learned of those claims, he said, during mediation of an assault lawsuit filed against Pressler that he helped quietly settle for nearly a half-million dollars at the time. Despite his knowledge of the accusation, Woodfill continued to work with Pressler for nearly a decade — leaning on Pressler’s name and reputation to bolster their firm, Woodfill & Pressler LLP.Rather than pay him a salary, Woodfill testified, the firm provided Pressler a string of employees to serve as personal assistants, most of them young men who typically worked out of his River Oaks mansion. Two have accused Pressler of sexual assault or misconduct.
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Woodfill’s deposition came as part of an ongoing, six-year-old lawsuit in which a former member of Pressler’s church youth group accuses him of decades of rape beginning when he was 14. The suit also accuses Woodfill and others, including leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, of concealing and enabling Pressler’s behavior — claims that prompted a 2019 Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News investigation into widespread sexual abuse in the SBC, the nation’s second-largest faith group.
Released over the last few weeks, the thousands of pages of new court records show how Woodfill leaned on his Pressler connections to bolster his political and legal career — despite warnings about his law partner’s behavior. And they shed new light on how Pressler, a former Texas Court of Appeals judge and one-time White House nominee under George H.W. Bush, allegedly used his prestige and influence to evade responsibility amid repeated accusations of sexual misconduct and assault dating back to at least 1978, when he was forced out of a Houston church for allegedly molesting a teenager in a sauna.
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Over the course of their law partnership, Woodfill testified, Pressler did almost no work for the firm, but was provided numerous young, male assistants who tended to his and his family’s needs — including his son who has a physical disability.
“I can think of one or two cases that he brought in,” Woodfill testified. “He may have gone to one hearing in his entire time with us, two at the most. Really, it was his name. ... He got an employee that worked for him. So he didn’t get a salary. He didn’t get a draw. He didn’t get a bonus. We paid for someone to come and assist him. That’s how he got compensated.”
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Records show that Pressler remained a limited partner at the firm until around 2012, when Woodfill said Pressler retired. The firm was renamed Woodfill Law Firm and has been involved in numerous lawsuits involving conservative causes over the years. The firm has also faced accusations of impropriety, including money laundering allegations that sparked a 2018 raid and investigation by the Harris County District Attorney’s office, though no charges were ever filed in the matter.
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It’s an ongoing lawsuit stemming from abuse allegations around Pressler’s church youth group. Duane Rollins accuses Pressler of decades of abuse starting when he was 14. It’s not the first time Rollins sued Pressler over these allegations. Rollins first sued in 2004. But Rollins isn’t just suing Pressler in the ongoing lawsuit. He’s suing Woodfill, and other SBC figures and institutions that enabled and concealed Pressler’s behavior. It’s the kind of giant scandal that huge, in part, because it could obviously get a lot bigger:
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The new records show that in 2004, leaders of First Baptist Church of Houston, a massive Southern Baptist congregation, investigated claims that Pressler, then a deacon, had groped and undressed a college student at his Houston mansion. The church leaders deemed the behavior “morally and spiritually” inappropriate and warned Pressler but took no further action, citing differing accounts of the incident and Pressler’s stature in their church and the Southern Baptist Convention. In recent depositions, plaintiffs attorneys also briefly mention new complaints from two others about Pressler, though those documents remain sealed ahead of the looming civil trial in the case.At least six men have now accused Pressler of sexual assault or misconduct, including two who say they were molested while minors and two who say they were solicited for sex in incidents after 2004, when Woodfill and First Baptist leaders were separately made aware of complaints about Pressler.
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The new allegations came as part of an ongoing lawsuit in which Duane Rollins accuses Pressler of decades of rape and molestation beginning when Rollins was 14 and a member of the church youth group led by Pressler, who was then in his late 40s. Those alleged attacks, Rollins says in court documents, pushed him into years of drug and alcohol addictions that kept him in prison for much of his adult life. While in prison therapy sessions in 2015, Rollins says he uncovered repressed memories of sexual abuse by Pressler. He was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress as a “direct result of the childhood sexual trauma he suffered,” according to medical records filed in court.
In 2017, Rollins sued Pressler, Woodfill and Southern Baptist figures and institutions that he says enabled and concealed Pressler’s behavior, arguing that, because of trauma and manipulation by Pressler, it took him decades to reconcile that he was sexually abused. Last year, after the defendants fought to have the suit tossed by arguing the assault claims were outside the statute of limitations, the Texas Supreme Court agreed with Rollins‘ arguments and allowed the lawsuit to go forward.
The new filings give insight into Woodfill’s long relationship with Pressler beginning in the mid-1990s. At the time, Pressler, then 65, was phasing out of years of work in the Southern Baptist Convention and focusing more on politics. Woodfill was still in his 20s and said Pressler’s conservative bona fides were a valuable asset.
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Woodfill was even forced to reveal during testimony that he helped to arrange the 2004 $450,000 settlement/confidentiality agreement in the face of Rollins’s first suit, which directly contradicts the claims Woodfill has been making since 2016 that he had no knowledge of Pressler’s history of abuse:
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The latest lawsuit marks the second time Rollins has sued Pressler over allegations of assault.In 2004, Woodfill represented Pressler in a lawsuit in which Rollins accused him of assault stemming from a 2003 incident in a Dallas hotel room, during which Rollins says Pressler injured him during a physical altercation and, citing his stature as a former Texas judge, threatened him if he came forward. In order to avoid publicity, Woodfill helped settle the suit for $450,000 in a one-day mediation that also included a confidentiality agreement, he said in testimony last month.
Copies of the lawsuit did not refer to the incident as sexual assault. But as the case was being mediated, Woodfill said under oath last month, he was told by Rollins’ then-attorney that Pressler had “been sexually inappropriate” with Rollins, had “done some things to him when he was a child” and “sexually abused (Rollins) … when he was a child or in a youth group or something.”
During his deposition, Woodfill declined to discuss most other details of the 2004 lawsuit, citing the confidentiality agreement. Even so, Woodfill’s testimony directly contradicts his previous assertions that he had no knowledge of Pressler’s alleged grooming and sexual misconduct toward young men — claims that he has repeated since at least 2016, when he denied any knowledge of such behavior after the young attorney detailed Pressler’s alleged invitation to hot tub naked, as well as in subsequent media interviews and court filings.
Rollins’ attorneys say Woodfill “had an incentive to turn a blind eye to Mr. Pressler’s abuse.”
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And as we can see with the range of additional accusation that have come to light in the affidavits provided to the court, Pressler’s abuse wasn’t just covered up. He was allowed to continue his role as a deacon at First Baptist until around 2007, when he was transferred to Second Baptist Church of Houston led by former SBC President Ed Young. No communication was made to SBC about the allegations against Pressler. That’s despite the fact that another college student who met Pressler through First Baptist Church and ended up serving as one of Pressler’s “personal assistants” at Woodfill’s lawfirm told church leaders about a groping incident. The leaders dismissed it as a “he said, she said” incident that should be kept private:
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Rollins’ latest lawsuit also brought to light other sexual misconduct allegations against Pressler, including an affidavit that was submitted as part of the 2004 lawsuit. Woodfill declined to comment on the affidavit while under oath, citing confidentiality rules.In the affidavit, which was made public this year, another college student says Pressler pressured him to get naked and then groped him at his Houston mansion. According to court records, the young man met Pressler through First Baptist Church of Houston and then was hired by Woodfill’s law firm as Pressler’s assistant. The Texas Tribune does not identify victims of alleged sexual assault without their consent.
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Court records show that, after the college student mentioned the incident to a church leader, a small group of top First Baptist leaders briefly looked into the matter but determined it was a “he said, she said” type of ordeal that would be damaging to Pressler if made public. Pressler was beloved by many at the church and had just served on a search committee that brought the church’s new pastor on around the same time.
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Pressler remained a deacon at the church, First Baptist leaders testified, but significantly curtailed his involvement there until around 2007, when he transferred to Second Baptist Church of Houston, a massive network of Houston-area churches that’s led by former SBC President Ed Young, and has been previously accused of concealing other sexual abuses. Flynn, the First Baptist attorney, said there was “no communication” between the two churches about the allegations against Pressler.
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And based on the accusations against him, Pressler continued to prey on young men until at least 2016. That’s what we can conclude based on incident involving a young attorney who had just joined Woodfill’s lawfirm (Pressler was retired by then). Woodfill introduced the young lawyer to Pressler. Two months later, the young lawyer met Pressler at a political fundraiser at the home of CNP member Steven Hotze, where the lawyer was encouraged by Woodfill to go to lunch with Pressler. The following week, the lawyer arrived at Pressler’s home to pick him up for lunch. It was during that encounter when Pressler invited to lawyer to his ranch for some naked boys-only hot tubbing. Again, this was 2016, 12 years after the 2004 settlement. It’s a the kind of anecdote that raises serious questions about just pervasive Pressler’s abuses truly were. We’re presumably not hearing from all of his victims:
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In the years after leaving First Baptist, Pressler was accused of sexual misconduct by at least two other young men — including a young Houston Baptist University student who testified that, as a result of Pressler’s sexual advances, he stopped pursuing a career in ministry, frequently had panic attacks and attempted suicide.
That man’s allegations are similar in detail to those described by the 25-year-old attorney who wrote to Woodfill in 2016. The attorney, whom the Tribune is not naming, was a recent law school graduate who said in an affidavit that he moved to Texas in 2016 for a job at Woodfill’s law firm. During that time, he said, Woodfill introduced him to Pressler, calling him his “mentor for over 25 years,” a “hero of the faith” and a “great man.”
Two months later, the young attorney said he ran into Pressler at a political fundraiser at the home of Hotze, and was encouraged by Woodfill to go to lunch with Pressler. The following week, he said, he arrived at Pressler’s home to pick him up. Pressler answered the door without pants on and invited him inside, after which he showed him pictures of “important people” he knew and talked about swimming naked in Europe numerous times, the attorney wrote in his 2018 sworn affidavit.
At lunch, Pressler told the attorney about a 10-person hot tub at his Dripping Springs ranch and invited him there, saying “when the ladies are not around, us boys all go in the hot tub completely naked,” he said.
Horrified, the attorney addressed the incident with a longtime employee of Woodfill’s law firm, who made it clear that this was not the first time he’d heard such allegations, the attorney said in the affidavit.
“I discovered that this was not unusual behavior for Pressler, and that he had a long history of lecherous behavior towards young men. Even going as far as bringing scantily clad men and parading them through the office,” he wrote in his affidavit.
Emails show that the attorney reached out to Woodfill, who claimed it was the first time he’d heard of such alleged behavior by Pressler. Woodfill later offered the attorney a $10,000 raise, court records show, and said he’d talk to Pressler and keep him away.
“However,” the attorney wrote, “within two weeks Pressler was at a political luncheon that Woodfill required me to attend.”
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And we can’t help noting the gross hypocrisy involved with this whole situation: Jared Woodfill and Steven Hotze were co-leaders of 2015 campaign opposing a Houston referendum that would have protected bathroom access rights for the LGBTQ community:
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Woodfill led the Harris County Republican Party from 2002 to 2014 and has for years been at the helm of anti-LGBTQ and other hardline conservative movements in Houston and Texas. In 2015, amid tense debate over a Houston equal rights ordinance that would have made LGBTQ workplace discrimination illegal, he and well-known GOP power broker Steven Hotze co-led a campaign that, among other things, said the measure would allow children to be sexually groomed and abused in bathrooms, paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars in opposition advertisements and compared the gay rights movement to Nazis.Since then, Woodfill has remained a fixture in Texas GOP politics: During the height of the pandemic, he and Hotze filed numerous lawsuits challenging COVID-19 mandates, and he’s currently representing conservative political candidates challenging the 2022 election results in Harris County. Woodfill is also representing Hotze in a criminal investigation stemming from a 2020 incident in which a private investigator, allegedly acting at Hotze’s behest, held at gunpoint an A/C repairman who he believed was transporting fake ballots.
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How many more revelations are we going to get thanks to this lawsuit? Time will tell. But as the following February 2019 Houston Chronicle investigative piece lays out, this was already a mega-scandal that goes far beyond Paul Pressler. The SBC leadership — including Ed Young and CNP member Paige Patterson — has been systematically protecting and covering up hundreds abusers within its ranks going back decades. In fact, there’s a specific doctrine they cite to excuse the lack of action: local church autonomy. As far as the SBC is concerned, each of its roughly 47,000 member church have exclusive authority over their internal operations and, as such, the SBC leadership has never had the authority to do anything about reports of abuse. Either the local leaders handle it or no one will. And, typically, no one did. Hence the ongoing unfolding mega-scandal:
The Houston Chronicle
Abuse of Faith
20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms
By Robert Downen, Lise Olsen, and John Tedesco
Published Feb. 10, 2019First of six parts
Thirty-five years later, Debbie Vasquez’s voice trembled as she described her trauma to a group of Southern Baptist leaders.
She was 14, she said, when she was first molested by her pastor in Sanger, a tiny prairie town an hour north of Dallas. It was the first of many assaults that Vasquez said destroyed her teenage years and, at 18, left her pregnant by the Southern Baptist pastor, a married man more than a dozen years older.
In June 2008, she paid her way to Indianapolis, where she and others asked leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and its 47,000 churches to track sexual predators and take action against congregations that harbored or concealed abusers. Vasquez, by then in her 40s, implored them to consider prevention policies like those adopted by faiths that include the Catholic Church.
“Listen to what God has to say,” she said, according to audio of the meeting, which she recorded. “... All that evil needs is for good to do nothing. ... Please help me and others that will be hurt.”
Days later, Southern Baptist leaders rejected nearly every proposed reform.
The abusers haven’t stopped. They’ve hurt hundreds more.
In the decade since Vasquez’s appeal for help, more than 250 people who worked or volunteered in Southern Baptist churches have been charged with sex crimes, an investigation by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News reveals.
It’s not just a recent problem: In all, since 1998, roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct, the newspapers found. That includes those who were convicted, credibly accused and successfully sued, and those who confessed or resigned. More of them worked in Texas than in any other state.
They left behind more than 700 victims, many of them shunned by their churches, left to themselves to rebuild their lives. Some were urged to forgive their abusers or to get abortions.
About 220 offenders have been convicted or took plea deals, and dozens of cases are pending. They were pastors. Ministers. Youth pastors. Sunday school teachers. Deacons. Church volunteers.
How we did this story:
Current as of June 2019
In 2007, victims of sexual abuse by Southern Baptist pastors requested creation of a registry containing the names of current and former leaders of Southern Baptist churches who had been convicted of sex crimes or who had been credibly accused. That didn’t happen; the last time any such list was made public was by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. It contained the names of eight sex criminals.
In 2018, as advocates again pressed SBC officials for such a registry, Houston Chronicle reporters began to search news archives, websites and databases nationwide to compile an archive of allegations of sexual abuse, sexual assault and other serious misconduct involving Southern Baptist pastors and other church officials. We found complaints made against hundreds of pastors, church officials and volunteers at Southern Baptist churches nationwide.
We focused our search on the 10 years preceding the victims’ first call for a registry and on the 10-plus years since. And we concentrated on individuals who had a documented connection to a church listed in an SBC directory published by a state or national association.
We verified details in hundreds of accounts of abuse by examining federal and state court databases, prison records and official documents from more than 20 states and by searching sex offender registries nationwide. In Texas, we visited more than a dozen county courthouses. We interviewed district attorneys and police in more than 40 Texas counties. We filed dozens of public records requests in Texas and nationwide.
Ultimately, we compiled information on roughly 400 credibly accused officials in Southern Baptist churches, including pastors, deacons, Sunday school teachers and volunteers.
We verified that about 260 had been convicted of sex crimes or received deferred prosecutions in plea deals and sent letters to all of them soliciting their responses to summaries we compiled. We received written responses from more than 30 and interviewed three in Texas prisons.
Find our records that relate to those convicted or forced to register as sex offenders at HoustonChronicle.com/AbuseofFaith
Nearly 100 are still held in prisons stretching from Sacramento County, Calif., to Hillsborough County, Fla., state and federal records show. Scores of others cut deals and served no time. More than 100 are registered sex offenders. Some still work in Southern Baptist churches today.
Journalists in the two newsrooms spent more than six months reviewing thousands of pages of court, prison and police records and conducting hundreds of interviews. They built a database of former leaders in Southern Baptist churches who have been convicted of sex crimes.
The investigation reveals that:
• At least 35 church pastors, employees and volunteers who exhibited predatory behavior were still able to find jobs at churches during the past two decades. In some cases, church leaders apparently failed to alert law enforcement about complaints or to warn other congregations about allegations of misconduct.
• Several past presidents and prominent leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention are among those criticized by victims for concealing or mishandling abuse complaints within their own churches or seminaries.
• Some registered sex offenders returned to the pulpit. Others remain there, including a Houston preacher who sexually assaulted a teenager and now is the principal officer of a Houston nonprofit that works with student organizations, federal records show. Its name: Touching the Future Today Inc.
• Many of the victims were adolescents who were molested, sent explicit photos or texts, exposed to pornography, photographed nude, or repeatedly raped by youth pastors. Some victims as young as 3 were molested or raped inside pastors’ studies and Sunday school classrooms. A few were adults — women and men who sought pastoral guidance and instead say they were seduced or sexually assaulted.
Heather Schneider was 14 when she was molested in a choir room at Houston’s Second Baptist Church, according to criminal and civil court records. Her mother, Gwen Casados, said church leaders waited months to fire the attacker, who later pleaded no contest. In response to her lawsuit, church leaders also denied responsibility.
Schneider slit her wrists the day after that attack in 1994, Casados said. She survived, but she died 14 years later from a drug overdose that her mother blames on the trauma.
“I never got her back,” Casados said.
Others took decades to come forward, and only after their lives had unraveled. David Pittman was 12, he says, when a youth minister from his Georgia church first molested him in 1981. Two other former members of the man’s churches said in interviews that they also were abused by him. But by the time Pittman spoke out in 2006, it was too late to press criminal charges.
The minister still works at an SBC church.
Pittman won’t soon forgive those who have offered prayers but taken no action. He only recently stopped hating God.
“That is the greatest tragedy of all,” he said. “So many people’s faith is murdered. I mean, their faith is slaughtered by these predators.”
August “Augie” Boto, interim president of the SBC’s Executive Committee, helped draft the rejection of reform proposals in 2008. In an interview, he expressed “sorrow” about some of the newspapers’ findings but said the convention’s leadership can do only so much to stop sexual abuses.
“It would be sorrow if it were 200 or 600” cases, Boto said. “Sorrow. What we’re talking about is criminal. The fact that criminal activity occurs in a church context is always the basis of grief. But it’s going to happen. And that statement does not mean that we must be resigned to it.”
‘A porous sieve’
At the core of Southern Baptist doctrine is local church autonomy, the idea that each church is independent and self-governing. It’s one of the main reasons that Boto said most of the proposals a decade ago were viewed as flawed by the executive committee because the committee doesn’t have the authority to force churches to report sexual abuse to a central registry.
Because of that, Boto said, the committee “realized that lifting up a model that could not be enforced was an exercise in futility,” and so instead drafted a report that “accepted the existence of the problem rather than attempting to define its magnitude.”
SBC churches and organizations share resources and materials, and together they fund missionary trips and seminaries. Most pastors are ordained locally after they’ve convinced a small group of church elders that they’ve been called to service by God. There is no central database that tracks ordinations, or sexual abuse convictions or allegations.
All of that makes Southern Baptist churches highly susceptible to predators, says Christa Brown, an activist who wrote a book about being molested as a child by a pastor at her SBC church in Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb.
“It’s a perfect profession for a con artist, because all he has to do is talk a good talk and convince people that he’s been called by God, and bingo, he gets to be a Southern Baptist minister,” said Brown, who lives in Colorado. “Then he can infiltrate the entirety of the SBC, move from church to church, from state to state, go to bigger churches and more prominent churches where he has more influence and power, and it all starts in some small church.
“It’s a porous sieve of a denomination.”
To try to measure the problem, the newspapers collected and cross-checked news reports, prison records, court records, sex offender registries and other documents. Reporters also conducted hundreds of interviews with victims, church leaders, investigators and offenders.
Several factors make it likely that the abuse is even more widespread than can be documented: Victims of sexual assault come forward at a low rate; many cases in churches are handled internally; and many Southern Baptist churches are in rural communities where media coverage is sparse.
It’s clear, however, that SBC leaders have long been aware of the problem. Bowing to pressure from activists, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, one of the largest SBC state organizations, in 2007 published a list of eight sex offenders who had served in Southern Baptist churches in Texas.
Around the same time, the Rev. Thomas Doyle wrote to SBC leaders, imploring them to act. A priest and former high-ranking lawyer for the Catholic Church, Doyle in the 1980s was one of the earliest to blow the whistle on child sexual abuse in the church. But Catholic leaders “lied about it ... covered it up and ignored the victims,” said Doyle, now retired and living in northern Virginia.
Doyle turned to activism because of his experiences, work that brought him closer to those abused in Southern Baptist churches. Their stories — and how the SBC handled them — felt hauntingly familiar, he said.
“I saw the same type of behavior going on with the Southern Baptists,” he said.
The responses were predictable, Doyle said. In one, Frank Page, then the SBC president, wrote that they were “taking this issue seriously” but that local church autonomy presented “serious limitations.” In March, Page resigned as president and CEO of the SBC’s Executive Committee for “a morally inappropriate relationship in the recent past,” according to the executive committee.
Details have not been disclosed, but SBC officials said they had “no reason to suspect any legal impropriety.” Page declined to be interviewed.
Other leaders have acknowledged that Baptist churches are troubled by predators but that they could not interfere in local church affairs. Even so, the SBC has ended its affiliation with at least four churches in the past 10 years for affirming or endorsing homosexual behavior. The SBC governing documents ban gay or female pastors, but they do not outlaw convicted sex offenders from working in churches.
In one email to Debbie Vasquez, Augie Boto assured her that “no Baptist I know of is pretending that ‘the problem does not exist.’ ”
“There is no question that some Southern Baptist ministers have done criminal things, including sexual abuse of children,” he wrote in a May 2007 email. “It is a sad and tragic truth. Hopefully, the harm emanating from such occurrences will cause the local churches to be more aggressively vigilant.”
Offenders return to preach
The SBC Executive Committee also wrote in 2008 that it “would certainly be justified” to end affiliations with churches that “intentionally employed a known sexual offender or knowingly placed one in a position of leadership over children or other vulnerable participants in its ministries.”
Current SBC President J.D. Greear reaffirmed that stance in an email to the Chronicle, writing that any church that “proves a pattern of sinful neglect — regarding abuse or any other matter — should absolutely be removed from fellowship from the broader denomination.”
“The Bible calls for pastors to be people of integrity, known for their self-control and kindness,” Greear wrote. “A convicted sex offender would certainly not meet those qualifications. Churches that ignore that are out of line with both Scripture and Baptist principles of cooperation.”
But the newspapers found at least 10 SBC churches that welcomed pastors, ministers and volunteers since 1998 who had previously faced charges of sexual misconduct. In some cases, they were registered sex offenders.
In Illinois, Leslie Mason returned to the pulpit a few years after he was convicted in 2003 on two counts of criminal sexual assault. Mason had been a rising star in local Southern Baptist circles until the charges were publicized by Michael Leathers, who was then editor of the state’s Baptist newspaper.
Letters from angry readers poured in. Among those upset by Leathers’ decision to publish the story was Glenn Akins, the interim executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association.
“To have singled Les out in such a sensationalistic manner ignores many others who have done the same thing,” Akins wrote in a memo, a copy of which Leathers provided. “You could have asked nearly any staff member and gotten the names of several other prominent churches where the same sort of sexual misconduct has occurred recently in our state.”
Akins, now the assistant executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, declined an interview request.
Leathers resigned after state Baptist convention leaders told him he might be fired and lose his severance pay, he said. Mason, meanwhile, admitted to investigators that he had relationships with four different girls, records show.
Mason received a seven-year prison sentence under a plea deal in which investigators dropped all but two of his charges. After his release, he returned to the pulpit of a different SBC church a few miles away.
“That just appalled me,” Leathers said. “They had to have known they put a convicted sex offender behind the pulpit. ... If a church calls a woman to pastor their church, there are a lot of Southern Baptist organizations that, sadly, would disassociate with them immediately. Why wouldn’t they do the same for convicted sex offenders?”
Mason has since preached at multiple SBC churches in central Illinois. He said in an interview that those churches “absolutely know about my past,” and said churches and other institutions need “to be better at handling” sexual abuse.
Mason said that “nobody is above reproach in all things” and that church leaders — particularly those who work with children — “desperately need accountability.”
In Houston, Michael Lee Jones started a Southern Baptist church, Cathedral of Faith, after his 1998 conviction for having sex with a teenage female congregant at a different SBC church nearby. Jones, also leader of a nonprofit called Touching the Future Today, was included on the list of convicted ministers released by the Baptist General Convention of Texas a decade ago.
In December, Cathedral of Faith celebrated its 20th anniversary at a downtown Houston hotel, according to the church’s website. A flyer for the event touted sermons from Jones, another pastor and Joseph S. Ratliff, the longtime pastor of Houston’s Brentwood Baptist Church.
Ratliff was sued in 2003 for sexual misconduct with a man he was counseling. The lawsuit was settled and dismissed by agreement of the parties, according to Harris County court records and interviews. The settlement is subject to a confidentiality agreement. Ratliff has been sued two other times, one involving another person who had come in for counseling; the other involved his handling of allegations against another church official, Harris County records show. The disposition of those two cases was not available.
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‘A known problem’
Wade Burleson, a former president of Oklahoma’s Southern Baptist convention, says it has long been clear that Southern Baptist churches face a crisis. In 2007 and 2018, he asked SBC leaders to study sexual abuse in churches and bring prevention measures to a vote at the SBC’s annual meeting.
Leaders pushed back both times, he said. Some cited local church autonomy; others feared lawsuits if the reforms didn’t prevent abuse.
Burleson couldn’t help but wonder if there have been “ulterior motives” at play.
“There’s a known problem, but it’s too messy to deal with,” he said in a recent interview. “It’s not that we can’t do it as much as we don’t want to do it. ... To me, that’s a problem. You must want to do it, to do it.”
Doyle, the Catholic whistleblower, was similarly suspicious, if more blunt: “I understand the fear, because it’s going to make the leadership look bad,” he said. “Well, they are bad, and they should look bad. Because they have ignored this issue. They have demonized the victims.”
Several Southern Baptist leaders and their churches have been criticized for ignoring the abused or covering for alleged predators, including at Houston’s Second Baptist, where former SBC President Ed Young has been pastor since 1978. Young built the church into one of the largest and most important in the SBC; today, it counts more than 60,000 members who attend at multiple campuses.
Before she was molested in the choir room at Second Baptist in 1994, Heather Schneider filled a black notebook with poems. The seventh-grader, with long white-blond hair and sparkling green eyes, had begun to work as a model. She soon attracted attention from John Forse, who coordinated church pageants and programs at Second Baptist.
He also used his position to recruit girls for private acting lessons, according to Harris County court documents.
A day after she was attacked, Schneider told her mother, Casados, that Forse had touched her inappropriately and tried to force her to do “horrendous things.” Casados called police.
Casados, who was raised a Baptist, said she received a call from Young, who initially offered to do whatever he could to help her daughter. But after she told Young she already had called police, he hung up and “we never heard from him again,” she said in an interview.
It took months — and the threat of criminal charges — before Forse left his position at the church, according to statements made by Forse’s attorney at the time and Schneider’s responses to questions in a related civil lawsuit.
In August 1994, Forse received deferred adjudication and 10 years’ probation after pleading no contest to two counts of indecency with a child by contact. He remains a registered sex offender and was later convicted of a pornography charge. He is listed in the sex offender registry as transient; he could not be reached for comment.
Church officials declined interview requests. In a statement to the Chronicle, Second Baptist stated that it takes “allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse very seriously and constantly strives to provide and maintain a safe, Christian environment for all employees, church members and guests.”
IN THEIR WORDS: Victims, families and law enforcement explain the devastation that occurs when a child is abused by a religious leader
The church declined to release its employment policies but described Forse as a “short-term contract worker” when he was accused of sex abuse. “After Second Baptist became aware of the allegations made against Forse his contract was terminated,” the statement says. “Upon notification, Second Baptist Church cooperated fully with law enforcement in this matter.”
Schneider’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against the church, Forse and a modeling agency. The case against the church was dismissed; its lawyers argued that Forse was not acting as a church employee. Second Baptist was not part of an eventual settlement.
In 1992, before Schneider was molested, a lawyer for the Southern Baptist Convention wrote in a court filing that the SBC did not distribute instructions to its member churches on handling sexual abuse claims. He said Second Baptist had no written procedures on the topic.
The lawyer, Neil Martin, was writing in response to a lawsuit that accused First Baptist Church of Conroe of continuing to employ Riley Edward Cox Jr. as a youth pastor after a family said that he had molested their child. In a court filing, Cox admitted to molesting three boys in the late 1980s.
Young, SBC president at the time of the lawsuit, was asked to outline the organization’s policies on child sexual abuse as part of the lawsuit. He declined to testify, citing “local church autonomy” and saying in an affidavit that he had “no educational training in the area of sexual abuse or the investigation of sexual abuse claims.”
Young also said he feared testifying could jeopardize his blossoming TV ministry.
Leaders of Second Baptist have been similarly reluctant to release or discuss their policies on sexual abuse in response to two other civil lawsuits related to sexual assault claims filed in the last five years, court records show. Those suits accuse the church of ignoring or concealing abuses committed by youth pastor Chad Foster, who was later convicted.
Another civil lawsuit asserted that Second Baptist helped conceal alleged rapes by Paul Pressler, a former Texas state judge and former SBC vice president. In that suit, brought by a member of Pressler’s youth group, three other men have said in affidavits that Pressler groped them or tried to pressure them into sex. Second Baptist, however, has been dismissed from the suit, and the plaintiff’s sexual abuse claims against Pressler have been dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.
Pressler has been a prominent member of Second Baptist for much of his adult life.
In its statement to the Chronicle, Second Baptist said “our policy and practice have been and will continue to be that any complaint of sexual misconduct will be heard, investigated and handled in a lawful and appropriate way. Reports of sexual abuse are immediately reported to law enforcement officials as required by law.”
‘Break her down’
Another defendant in the lawsuit against Pressler: Paige Patterson, a former SBC president who, with Pressler, pushed the convention in the 1980s and 1990s to adopt literal interpretations of the Bible.
In May of last year, Patterson was ousted as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth after he said he wanted to meet alone with a female student who said she was raped so he could “break her down,” according to a statement from seminary trustees.
But his handling of sexual abuse dates back decades. Several women have said that Patterson ignored their claims that his ex-protégé, Darrell Gilyard, assaulted them at Texas churches in the 1980s; some of those allegations were detailed in a 1991 Dallas Morning News article.
The Gilyard case bothered Debbie Vasquez. She feared other victims had been ignored or left to handle their trauma alone.
When Vasquez became pregnant, she said, leaders of her church forced her to stand in front of the congregation and ask for forgiveness without saying who had fathered the child.
She said church members were generally supportive but were never told the child was their pastor’s. Church leadership shunned her, asked her to get an abortion and, when she said no, threatened her and her child, she said. She moved abroad soon after.
Vasquez sued her former pastor and his church in 2006. In a deposition, the pastor, Dale “Dickie” Amyx, admitted to having sex with her when she was a teenager, though he maintained that it was consensual. He acknowledged paternity of her child but was never charged with any crime. Amyx was listed as the church’s pastor as late as 2016, state Baptist records show. He could not be reached for comment.
Amyx denies that he threatened or physically assaulted Vasquez. He and his employer at the time of the lawsuit — an SBC church Vasquez never attended — argued that Vasquez exaggerated her story in an attempt to get publicity for her fight for reforms, court records show.
Amyx wrote an apology letter that Vasquez provided to the newspapers; her lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but she continued pressing SBC leaders, including Patterson, to act. In one series of emails, she asked Patterson why leaders didn’t intervene in cases such as Gilyard’s.
Patterson responded forcefully, writing in 2008 that he “forced Gilyard to resign his church” and “called pastors all over the USA and since that day (Gilyard) has never preached for any Southern Baptist organization.”
In fact, Gilyard preached after his Texas ouster at various churches, including Jacksonville’s First Baptist Church, which was led by former SBC President Jerry Vines. It was there that Tiffany Thigpen said she met Gilyard, who she said later “viciously” attacked her.
Thigpen, who was 18 at the time, said that Vines tried to shame her into silence after she disclosed the abuse to him. “How embarrassing this will be for you,” she recalled Vines telling her. As far as Thigpen knows, police were never notified.
Gilyard was convicted in 2009 of lewd and lascivious molestation of two other teenage girls, both under 16, while pastoring a Florida church. He found work at an SBC church after his three-year prison sentence, prompting the local Southern Baptist association to end its affiliation.
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Vasquez: “They made excuses and did nothing.”
Thigpen said of Vines in a recent interview: “You left this little sheep to get hurt and then you protected yourself. And I hope when you lay your head on your pillow you think of every girl (Gilyard) hurt and life he ruined. And I hope you can’t sleep.”
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‘Lethal’ abuse
Defensive responses from church leaders rank among the worst things the abused can endure, says Harvey Rosenstock, a Houston psychiatrist who has worked for decades with victims and perpetrators of clergy sexual abuse. They can rewire a developing brain to forever associate faith or authority with trauma or betrayal, he says.
“If someone is identified as a man of God, then there are no holds barred,” he said. “Your defense system is completely paralyzed. This man is speaking with the voice of God. ... So a person who is not only an authority figure, but God’s servant, is telling you this is between us, this is a special relationship, this has been sanctioned by the Lord. That allows a young victim to have almost zero defenses. Totally vulnerable.”
Rosenstock is among a growing number of expert clinicians who advocate for changes in statute of limitations laws in sexual abuse cases. They cite decades of neuroscience to show that those abused as children — particularly by clergy — can develop a sort of Stockholm syndrome that prevents them for decades from recognizing themselves as victims.
Such was the case for most of David Pittman’s life.
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An athletic child with an incarcerated father, Pittman said he had dreamed about joining the youth group at his church near Atlanta since he was baptized there at age 8.
There, he could play any sport he wanted, and at 12 he found in the youth pastor a much-sought father figure. The grooming started almost immediately, he said: front-seat rides in the youth pastor’s Camaro; trips to see the Doobie Brothers and Kansas in concert; and, eventually, sleepovers during which Pittman said he was first molested. Pittman said the assaults continued until he turned 15 and the youth pastor quietly moved to a new church nearby.
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Three decades later, in 2006, Pittman learned that his alleged abuser was working as a youth minister in Georgia. Though Georgia’s statute of limitations had by then elapsed, Pittman and others came forward with allegations.
Like Pittman, Ray Harrell grew up without a male figure in his life. His father left early, he said, and his mother later “threw herself” into the church. Eventually the youth minister started babysitting Harrell, then a pre-teen. Harrell still remembers the minister’s stuffed monkey, which was used to “break the ice,” he said.
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Pittman reached out to the church’s lead pastor and chairman of the church’s deacons.
The deacon said in an interview that he confronted the youth minister and “asked him if there had ever been anything in his past and he acknowledged that there had been.” The minister also told the deacon that he had gotten “discreet” counseling, the deacon said.
The youth minister resigned, after which the deacon and others began looking through a Myspace account that he had while employed at the church. On it, the deacon found messages “that the police should have,” he said.
The deacon said he provided the Georgia State Baptist Convention with evidence that the youth minister should be barred from working in churches.
The youth minister who Pittman and Harrell say abused them still works at an SBC church in Georgia. The church’s lead pastor declined to say if he was ever made aware of the allegations, though Pittman provided emails that show he reached out to the pastor repeatedly.
The youth minister did not return phone calls. Reached by email, he declined to be interviewed. The newspapers are not identifying him because he has not been charged.
Anne Marie Miller says she, too, has been denied justice. In July, Mark Aderholt, a former employee of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and a former missionary, was charged in Tarrant County with sexually assaulting Miller in the late 1990s, when she was a teenager. Texas eliminated its statute of limitations for most sex crimes against children in 2007.
In 2007, Miller told the SBC’s International Mission Board about Aderholt after he was hired there, prompting an internal investigation that officials said supported her story. Aderholt resigned and worked at SBC churches in Arkansas before moving to South Carolina, where he worked for the state’s Baptist convention.
Miller, meanwhile, was told to “let it go” when she asked mission board officials about the investigation.
“Forgiveness is up to you alone,” general counsel Derek Gaubatz wrote in one 2007 email. “It involves a decision by you to forgive the other person of the wrongs done to you, just as Christ has forgiven you.”
After Aderholt’s arrest, a mission board spokeswoman said it did not notify his future SBC employers about the allegations in 2007 because of local church autonomy. The board also said that Miller at the time did not want to talk with police. She says that was because she was still traumatized.
The charges against Aderholt are pending.
Miller, 38, lives in the Fort Worth area. She says she has received support from Greear, the new SBC president. But she’s skeptical that the SBC will act decisively.
“I was really, really hopeful that it was a turning point, but I’ve been disappointed that there hasn’t been any meaningful action other than forming committees and assigning budgets, which is just good old Baptist red tape,” Miller said. “That’s just what you do — you form a committee, and you put some money towards it and no change actually happens.”
The election last year of Greear, the 45-year-old pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, N.C., was seen as a signal that the SBC was moving away from more rigid conservative leaders such as Patterson. Greear has launched a group that is studying sexual abuse at the request of Burleson and others.
Unlike in 2008, Burleson last year directed his request for a sex offender registry to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which does moral advocacy on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention. For the first time, the study of his proposal has been funded.
But Greear said in an email that he is limited by local church autonomy.
“Change has to begin at the ground level with churches and organizations,” he wrote. “Our churches must start standing together with a commitment to take this issue much more seriously than ever before.”
Part 2: Southern Baptist churches hired ministers accused of past sex offenses
Part 3: All too often, Southern Baptist youth pastors take advantage of children
Part 4: Missionaries left trail of abuse, but leaders stayed quiet
Part 5: Southern Baptist churches harbored sex offenders
Part 6: Survivors of Baptist sexual abuse come forward to help others
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“It’s not just a recent problem: In all, since 1998, roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct, the newspapers found. That includes those who were convicted, credibly accused and successfully sued, and those who confessed or resigned. More of them worked in Texas than in any other state.”
This is not a new scandal. Paul Pressler power and influence may have helped him evade justice over the decades, but he had a lot of help. The same help kind of systematic help that was likely provided to the roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers who have faced allegations of sexual misconduct since 1998 alone. Don’t forget that Pressler’s abuse allegations go back to 1978. Those were the findings of a six month long journalistic investigation first published back in February of 2019 that examined thousands of pages of court, prison and police records and conducting hundreds of interviews. Decades of systemic coverup and denials going all the way to the top of the SBC leadership:
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They left behind more than 700 victims, many of them shunned by their churches, left to themselves to rebuild their lives. Some were urged to forgive their abusers or to get abortions.About 220 offenders have been convicted or took plea deals, and dozens of cases are pending. They were pastors. Ministers. Youth pastors. Sunday school teachers. Deacons. Church volunteers.
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Nearly 100 are still held in prisons stretching from Sacramento County, Calif., to Hillsborough County, Fla., state and federal records show. Scores of others cut deals and served no time. More than 100 are registered sex offenders. Some still work in Southern Baptist churches today.
Journalists in the two newsrooms spent more than six months reviewing thousands of pages of court, prison and police records and conducting hundreds of interviews. They built a database of former leaders in Southern Baptist churches who have been convicted of sex crimes.
The investigation reveals that:
• At least 35 church pastors, employees and volunteers who exhibited predatory behavior were still able to find jobs at churches during the past two decades. In some cases, church leaders apparently failed to alert law enforcement about complaints or to warn other congregations about allegations of misconduct.
• Several past presidents and prominent leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention are among those criticized by victims for concealing or mishandling abuse complaints within their own churches or seminaries.
• Some registered sex offenders returned to the pulpit. Others remain there, including a Houston preacher who sexually assaulted a teenager and now is the principal officer of a Houston nonprofit that works with student organizations, federal records show. Its name: Touching the Future Today Inc.
• Many of the victims were adolescents who were molested, sent explicit photos or texts, exposed to pornography, photographed nude, or repeatedly raped by youth pastors. Some victims as young as 3 were molested or raped inside pastors’ studies and Sunday school classrooms. A few were adults — women and men who sought pastoral guidance and instead say they were seduced or sexually assaulted.
...
“Local church autonomy” appears to be the slogan SBC leadership is falling back on to justify its decades of inaction. Despite all the claims of abuses, SBC leaders concluded they never had any authority to do anything. And it’s not actually clear that stance has even changed to this day:
...
At the core of Southern Baptist doctrine is local church autonomy, the idea that each church is independent and self-governing. It’s one of the main reasons that Boto said most of the proposals a decade ago were viewed as flawed by the executive committee because the committee doesn’t have the authority to force churches to report sexual abuse to a central registry.Because of that, Boto said, the committee “realized that lifting up a model that could not be enforced was an exercise in futility,” and so instead drafted a report that “accepted the existence of the problem rather than attempting to define its magnitude.”
SBC churches and organizations share resources and materials, and together they fund missionary trips and seminaries. Most pastors are ordained locally after they’ve convinced a small group of church elders that they’ve been called to service by God. There is no central database that tracks ordinations, or sexual abuse convictions or allegations.
All of that makes Southern Baptist churches highly susceptible to predators, says Christa Brown, an activist who wrote a book about being molested as a child by a pastor at her SBC church in Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb.
“It’s a perfect profession for a con artist, because all he has to do is talk a good talk and convince people that he’s been called by God, and bingo, he gets to be a Southern Baptist minister,” said Brown, who lives in Colorado. “Then he can infiltrate the entirety of the SBC, move from church to church, from state to state, go to bigger churches and more prominent churches where he has more influence and power, and it all starts in some small church.
“It’s a porous sieve of a denomination.”
...
Note how Rev. Thomas Doyle — a priest and former high-ranking lawyer for the Catholic Church who was one of the earliest to blow the whistle on the rampant child sexual abuse in the Catholic church — even wrote to SBC leaders back in 2007 following the publication of a list of eight sex offenders who served in SBC churches in Texas. Doyle recounts how hauntingly familiar the lack of action was from the SBC leadership. This really is the ‘Catholic crisis’ for the SBC community:
...
Several factors make it likely that the abuse is even more widespread than can be documented: Victims of sexual assault come forward at a low rate; many cases in churches are handled internally; and many Southern Baptist churches are in rural communities where media coverage is sparse.It’s clear, however, that SBC leaders have long been aware of the problem. Bowing to pressure from activists, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, one of the largest SBC state organizations, in 2007 published a list of eight sex offenders who had served in Southern Baptist churches in Texas.
Around the same time, the Rev. Thomas Doyle wrote to SBC leaders, imploring them to act. A priest and former high-ranking lawyer for the Catholic Church, Doyle in the 1980s was one of the earliest to blow the whistle on child sexual abuse in the church. But Catholic leaders “lied about it ... covered it up and ignored the victims,” said Doyle, now retired and living in northern Virginia.
Doyle turned to activism because of his experiences, work that brought him closer to those abused in Southern Baptist churches. Their stories — and how the SBC handled them — felt hauntingly familiar, he said.
“I saw the same type of behavior going on with the Southern Baptists,” he said.
The responses were predictable, Doyle said. In one, Frank Page, then the SBC president, wrote that they were “taking this issue seriously” but that local church autonomy presented “serious limitations.” In March, Page resigned as president and CEO of the SBC’s Executive Committee for “a morally inappropriate relationship in the recent past,” according to the executive committee.
Details have not been disclosed, but SBC officials said they had “no reason to suspect any legal impropriety.” Page declined to be interviewed.
...
Also keep in mind that 2007 is the year Paul Pressler was transferred from First Baptist to Second Baptist Church of Houston, which is led by former SBC President Ed Young. So we shouldn’t be surprised to find Ed Young singled out by a victim for being particularly unhelpful when she came forward with an abuse allegation. As a long-time SBC leader going back to 1978, it’s hard to think of someone more implicated in this than Young:
...
Several Southern Baptist leaders and their churches have been criticized for ignoring the abused or covering for alleged predators, including at Houston’s Second Baptist, where former SBC President Ed Young has been pastor since 1978. Young built the church into one of the largest and most important in the SBC; today, it counts more than 60,000 members who attend at multiple campuses.Before she was molested in the choir room at Second Baptist in 1994, Heather Schneider filled a black notebook with poems. The seventh-grader, with long white-blond hair and sparkling green eyes, had begun to work as a model. She soon attracted attention from John Forse, who coordinated church pageants and programs at Second Baptist.
He also used his position to recruit girls for private acting lessons, according to Harris County court documents.
A day after she was attacked, Schneider told her mother, Casados, that Forse had touched her inappropriately and tried to force her to do “horrendous things.” Casados called police.
Casados, who was raised a Baptist, said she received a call from Young, who initially offered to do whatever he could to help her daughter. But after she told Young she already had called police, he hung up and “we never heard from him again,” she said in an interview.
It took months — and the threat of criminal charges — before Forse left his position at the church, according to statements made by Forse’s attorney at the time and Schneider’s responses to questions in a related civil lawsuit.
...
Schneider’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against the church, Forse and a modeling agency. The case against the church was dismissed; its lawyers argued that Forse was not acting as a church employee. Second Baptist was not part of an eventual settlement.
In 1992, before Schneider was molested, a lawyer for the Southern Baptist Convention wrote in a court filing that the SBC did not distribute instructions to its member churches on handling sexual abuse claims. He said Second Baptist had no written procedures on the topic.
The lawyer, Neil Martin, was writing in response to a lawsuit that accused First Baptist Church of Conroe of continuing to employ Riley Edward Cox Jr. as a youth pastor after a family said that he had molested their child. In a court filing, Cox admitted to molesting three boys in the late 1980s.
Young, SBC president at the time of the lawsuit, was asked to outline the organization’s policies on child sexual abuse as part of the lawsuit. He declined to testify, citing “local church autonomy” and saying in an affidavit that he had “no educational training in the area of sexual abuse or the investigation of sexual abuse claims.”
Young also said he feared testifying could jeopardize his blossoming TV ministry.
...
But Young obviously isn’t the only SBC leader implicated in this. And that brings us to former SBC president Paige Patterson, one of the other defendants in Rollins’s lawsuit against Paul Pressler and the SBC leadership. Patterson, and his wife Dorothy Kelly Patterson, are both members of the CNP. In May of 2018, Patterson was ousted as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, after it was revealed he said he wanted to meet alone with a female student who said she was raped so he could “break her down”:
...
Another civil lawsuit asserted that Second Baptist helped conceal alleged rapes by Paul Pressler, a former Texas state judge and former SBC vice president. In that suit, brought by a member of Pressler’s youth group, three other men have said in affidavits that Pressler groped them or tried to pressure them into sex. Second Baptist, however, has been dismissed from the suit, and the plaintiff’s sexual abuse claims against Pressler have been dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.Pressler has been a prominent member of Second Baptist for much of his adult life.
In its statement to the Chronicle, Second Baptist said “our policy and practice have been and will continue to be that any complaint of sexual misconduct will be heard, investigated and handled in a lawful and appropriate way. Reports of sexual abuse are immediately reported to law enforcement officials as required by law.”
‘Break her down’
Another defendant in the lawsuit against Pressler: Paige Patterson, a former SBC president who, with Pressler, pushed the convention in the 1980s and 1990s to adopt literal interpretations of the Bible.
In May of last year, Patterson was ousted as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth after he said he wanted to meet alone with a female student who said she was raped so he could “break her down,” according to a statement from seminary trustees.
But his handling of sexual abuse dates back decades. Several women have said that Patterson ignored their claims that his ex-protégé, Darrell Gilyard, assaulted them at Texas churches in the 1980s; some of those allegations were detailed in a 1991 Dallas Morning News article.
...
Finally, again, note the gross hypocrisy here: the SBC leadership is unwilling to take actions against systemic sexual abuse taking place within its member churches thanks to the “local church autonomy” doctrine. But it’s fine with kicking out churches for affirming the LGBTQ community. It’s weird how that local autonomy works:
...
[see document]Other leaders have acknowledged that Baptist churches are troubled by predators but that they could not interfere in local church affairs. Even so, the SBC has ended its affiliation with at least four churches in the past 10 years for affirming or endorsing homosexual behavior. The SBC governing documents ban gay or female pastors, but they do not outlaw convicted sex offenders from working in churches.
...
And don’t forget, that was just Part 1 in the Houston Chronicle’s amazing 6 Part series. There’s a lot more on this story.
Although we did get an update back in April. It’s a somewhat mysterious update: Rollins agreed to settle in his suit against Paige Patterson in an undisclosed settlement. The lawsuits against Pressler, the SBC Executive Committee, and others involved in suit is still ongoing. So in 2004, Rollins managed to get Pressler to settle in an undisclosed settlement. And almost 20 years later, history sort of repeats itself:
The Tennessean
SBC seminary and prominent former leader settle in high-profile abuse lawsuit, SBC still defending
Liam Adams
Nashville Tennessean
Published 5:00 a.m. CT April 20, 2023Key Points
* Gerald D. Rollins, Jr. is suing Paul Pressler, a prominent former SBC leader and former Texas Court of Appeals judge, over abuse allegations, and the SBC and others for failure to prevent abuse.
* Rollins settled with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Paige Patterson, former Southwestern president and who led the Conservative Resurgence movement in the SBC with Pressler.
* Rollins is still suing Pressler, SBC and SBC Executive Committee, and others in case that’s scheduled for trial in May.A prominent former leader in the Southern Baptist Convention and an SBC seminary settled a lawsuit with an alleged sexual abuse victim. But the high-stakes case remains pending against two others — another prominent Southern Baptist leader and the denomination itself.
Gerald D. Rollins, Jr. agreed to an undisclosed settlement with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas and former Southwestern president Paige Patterson, a major development in a six-year-long case against Paul Pressler.
The settlement leaves Pressler, the SBC and SBC Executive Committee, and First Baptist Church Houston as defendants in the case, which is set for trial in May. The case’s eventual conclusion is potentially precedent setting for the Nashville-based SBC and the responsibility of its top leaders to address sexual abuse.
Pressler, a former Texas Court of Appeals judge, and Patterson famously led the late 20th-century Conservative Resurgence movement in the SBC that pulled the denomination further to the right. It was during that same time Pressler allegedly repeatedly sexually abused Rollins, according to the lawsuit.
Rollins’ case has sent shockwaves in the SBC and in Texas. It led to an adjacent Texas Supreme Court case over the statute of limitations and Rollins’ ability to sue Pressler. The Texas Supreme Court ruled last April in favor of Rollins, who argued the trauma of the abuse caused him to suppress memories until 2016.
For the SBC, Rollins’ lawsuit, through which additional abuse allegations against Pressler have emerged, helped spark a reckoning over abuse throughout the convention and cover-up by its top leaders. That reckoning is recently marked by a historic report in May following a third-party investigation and ongoing reform led by a task force.
“Dr. Patterson is grateful that he has been removed from a suit that he should never have been included,” J. Shelby Sharpe, Patterson’s attorney, said in a statement. “No money was paid on Dr. Patterson’s behalf or by him to have him non-suited.”
...
Suing Southwestern and Patterson
Rollins’ case against Southwestern and Patterson was part of a larger effort to hold SBC institutions responsible for Pressler’s alleged abuse.
“Rather than reporting, they collectively concealed,” Rollins said in an amended complaint about seven defendants. “Rather than cooperating in the workings of justice, they collectively obstructed it.”
Rollins sued Patterson because of his relationship with Pressler. Rollins sued Southwestern mostly because Patterson was its president between 2003–2018.
Due to Patterson and Pressler’s tight relationship as they led the Conservative Resurgence, Rollins calls Patterson a “joint enterpriser” in the lawsuit, a term that places liability on Patterson for not speaking up about suspected abuse.
Rollins said he interacted with Patterson on several occasions during the time of Pressler’s alleged abuse between 1979–2004, according to Rollins’ amended complaint. Later, when Pressler hired Rollins at his law firm in 2002, Pressler allegedly called Rollins his “special office assistant” to Patterson, the complaint said.
But Patterson denies abuse allegations against Pressler and any prior knowledge of Pressler’s abusive behavior, according to recently released court filings, including a deposition transcript.
“I cannot make a judgment about whether it’s true,” Patterson said in a deposition on Jan. 11, 2023. It was only on a trip to North Africa that included Pressler, Patterson and Rollins that Patterson said he interacted with Rollins.
Patterson has faced his own series of scandal related to abuse in the SBC.
When he was president of Southwestern in 2015 and president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2003, he reportedly treated female seminarians with hostility after they came forward with reports of sexual assault and downplayed their reports.
Reports of both incidents led Southwestern to fire Patterson in 2018, and the latter case led to a lawsuit against Patterson in federal court. A judge in that case dismissed some claims against Patterson ahead of a trial scheduled for early April.
Suing the SBC
Rollins’ suit still includes the SBC, SBC Executive Committee, First Baptist Church in Houston and Pressler’s former law partners.
Rollins’ argument against the SBC and SBC Executive Committee is based on multiple factors, such as that Pressler served on the SBC Executive Committee. The executive committee manages denomination business outside the SBC annual meeting.
...
The SBC denies all allegations it’s facing from Rollins, according to a recent court filing. Due to the bottom-up structure of the SBC, it’s always been a high bar for survivors to sue the SBC for incidents of abuse at a local Southern Baptist church.
However, Rollins’ suit and others have cited the report from Guidepost in May to argue the SBC has a hierarchy and a responsibility to prevent abuse in local churches. The convention is also facing two defamation lawsuits from alleged abusers.
———-
“Gerald D. Rollins, Jr. agreed to an undisclosed settlement with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas and former Southwestern president Paige Patterson, a major development in a six-year-long case against Paul Pressler.”
We don’t know what exactly the settlement was, but we know Paige Patterson settled. And based on everything else we know about this case, that was probably a fortuitous turn of events for Patterson, who worked so closely to Pressler over the decades that Rollins called them a “joint enterprise” in the lawsuit. And note how Rollins’s abuse at the hands of Pressler didn’t just include his interactions with Pressler as his youth pastor. Rollins got a job at Woodfill & Pressler in 2002, where he served as Patterson’s “special office assistant”. Or at least that’s how Pressler describe Rollins’s job to Patterson at the time:
...
Pressler, a former Texas Court of Appeals judge, and Patterson famously led the late 20th-century Conservative Resurgence movement in the SBC that pulled the denomination further to the right. It was during that same time Pressler allegedly repeatedly sexually abused Rollins, according to the lawsuit....
Due to Patterson and Pressler’s tight relationship as they led the Conservative Resurgence, Rollins calls Patterson a “joint enterpriser” in the lawsuit, a term that places liability on Patterson for not speaking up about suspected abuse.
Rollins said he interacted with Patterson on several occasions during the time of Pressler’s alleged abuse between 1979–2004, according to Rollins’ amended complaint. Later, when Pressler hired Rollins at his law firm in 2002, Pressler allegedly called Rollins his “special office assistant” to Patterson, the complaint said.
...
But this settlement wasn’t a settlement for Pressler, or the rest of the defendents in the case. This case isn’t over:
...
The settlement leaves Pressler, the SBC and SBC Executive Committee, and First Baptist Church Houston as defendants in the case, which is set for trial in May. The case’s eventual conclusion is potentially precedent setting for the Nashville-based SBC and the responsibility of its top leaders to address sexual abuse....
Rollins sued Patterson because of his relationship with Pressler. Rollins sued Southwestern mostly because Patterson was its president between 2003–2018.
...
Rollins’ suit still includes the SBC, SBC Executive Committee, First Baptist Church in Houston and Pressler’s former law partners.
...
You have to wonder if some future lawsuit against Patterson, Pressler, or the SBC will ultimately end up revealing the nature of this undisclosed settlement. It’s possible. Just ask Jared Woodfill.
The Judge Paul Pressler School of Law: Mike Johnson’s College that Never Was
So that was our look at the broader context surrounding Mike Johnson’s surprise Speakership. But we aren’t quite done yet. There’s a fascinating piece of Mike Johnson’s history worth recounting here: the time Mike Johnson was hired back in 2010 to lead a Christian legal school that never existed. It tried to exist, mind you. But reality got in the way. Realities like embezzlement of the funds needed to get the school started. Johnson wasn’t personally charged with any wrongdoing and ended up resigning from the position in 2012 and returning to his role as a Christian Nationalist legal advocate.
Now here’s the part that’s sadly poignant given everything we just looked at: the name of law school to be was the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law. It was supposed to be the kind of law school that administrators boasted would “unashamedly embrace” a “biblical worldview.”
Five years after Johnson left that role, of course, Pressler and much of the rest of the SBC found themselves facing Rollins’s second still-ongoing lawsuit. So while it was presumably seen as misfortune when the school was preemptively shuttered, that may not have been the worst outcome all things considered:
Associated Press
House Speaker Mike Johnson was once the dean of a Christian law school. It never opened its doors
By BRIAN SLODYSKO
Updated 8:25 PM CST, October 31, 2023WASHINGTON (AP) — Before House Speaker Mike Johnson was elected to public office, he was the dean of a small Baptist law school that didn’t exist.
The establishment of the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law was supposed to be a capstone achievement for Louisiana College, which administrators boasted would “unashamedly embrace” a “biblical worldview.” Instead, it collapsed roughly a decade ago without enrolling students or opening its doors amid infighting by officials, accusations of financial impropriety and difficulty obtaining accreditation, which frightened away would-be donors.
There is no indication that Johnson engaged in wrongdoing while employed by the private college, now known as Louisiana Christian University. But as a virtually unknown player in Washington, the episode offers insight into how Johnson navigated leadership challenges that echo the chaos, feuding and hard-right politics that have come to define the Republican House majority he now leads.
The chapter is just the latest to surface since the four-term congressman’s improbable election as speaker last week following the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a reminder of his longstanding ties to the Christian right, which is now a dominant force in GOP politics.
It’s also a milestone that he does not typically mention when discussing a pre-Congress resume that includes work as litigator for conservative Christian groups that fiercely opposed gay rights and abortion, as well as his brief tenure as a Louisiana lawmaker who pushed legislation that sanctioned discrimination for religious reasons.
...
“The law school deal was really an anomaly,” said Gene Mills, a longtime friend of Johnson’s. “It was a great idea. But due to issues that were out of Mike’s hands that came unraveled.”
J. Michael Johnson Esq., as he was then known professionally, was hired in 2010 to be the “inaugural dean” of the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law, named for a Southern Baptist Convention luminary who was instrumental in the faith group’s turn to the political right in the 1980s. The board of trustees who brought Johnson onboard included Tony Perkins, a longtime mentor who is now the president of the Family Research Council in Washington, a powerhouse Christian lobbying organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as an anti-gay “hate group.”
In early public remarks, Johnson predicted a bright future for the school, and college officials hoped it would someday rival the law school at Liberty University, the evangelical institution founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
“From a pure feasibility standpoint,” Johnson said, “I’m not sure how this can fail.” According to the Daily Town Talk, a newspaper in Alexandria, Louisiana, he added that it looked “like the perfect storm for our law school.”
Reality soon intruded.
For several years before Johnson’s arrival, the college had been in a state of turmoil following a board takeover by conservatives who felt the school had become too liberal. They implemented policies that restricted academic freedoms, including the potential firing of instructors whose curriculum touched upon sexual morality or teachings contradictory to the Bible.
The school’s president and other faculty resigned, and the college was placed on probation by an accreditation agency.
But a shale oil boom in the area also brought a wave of prosperity from newly enriched donors. And school officials, led by president Joe Aguillard, had grand ambitions beyond just the law school, which included opening a medical school, a film school and making a movie adaptation of the 1960s pastoral comedy TV show “Green Acres.”
Bringing Johnson into the school’s leadership helped further those ambitions. As dean of the proposed law school, Johnson embarked on a major fundraising campaign and described a big-dollar event in Houston with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Pressler, according to an account Johnson wrote in a 2011 alumni magazine.
But he struggled to draw an adequate amount of cash while drama percolated behind the scenes. That culminated in a flurry of lawsuits, including a whistleblower claim by a school vice president, who accused Aguillard of misappropriating money and lying to the board, according to court records.
A law firm brought in to conduct an investigation later concluded in a 2013 report that Aguillard had inappropriately diverted funds to a school the institution hoped to build in Africa, as well as for personal expenses.
...
Meanwhile, the historic former federal courthouse in Shreveport that was selected as the law school’s campus required at least $20 million in renovations. The environment turned untenable after the school was denied accreditation to issue juris doctorate degrees and major donors backed away from their financial pledges.
“Mike worked diligently to assemble a very elite faculty and curriculum,” said Gilbert Little, who was involved in the effort. But “fundraising for a small private college is very, very difficult.”
Johnson resigned in the fall of 2012 and went back to litigating for Christian causes. He also started a new pro-bono firm, Freedom Guard, which Perkins served as a director, business filings show.
Five years later, Pressler, the school’s namesake, was sued in a civil case that has since grown to include allegations of abuse by multiple men who say he sexually assaulted them, some when they were children. The matter, which is still pending in court, helped spark a broader reckoning by the Southern Baptist Convention over its handling of claims of sexual abuse.
Little said the school was named after Pressler because he had a close relationship with the institution’s leaders. Johnson didn’t stray entirely from the school. He represented the college for six more years in a case challenging a mandate in then-President Barack Obama’s health care law that required employers to provide workers access to birth control, court records show.
It was the type of case that has defined his legal career.
The 51-year-old Johnson was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the eldest of four children in what he has described as a “traditional Christian household.” Tragedy struck when Johnson was 12.
His father, Pat, a Shreveport firefighter and hazardous materials specialist, was critically injured when ammonia gas leaking inside a cold storage facility exploded during an emergency repair — leaving him permanently disabled, while killing his partner.
“None of our lives would ever be the same again,” his son wrote years later in a commentary piece published in the Shreveport Times.
Johnson and his wife, Kelly, married in 1999, entering into a covenant marriage, which both have touted for the difficulty it poses to obtaining a divorce, and the couple served as a public face of an effort by evangelical conservatives to promote such marriages. In 2005, Kelly Johnson told ABC News that she viewed anything less as “marriage-light.”
Johnson has said he was the first in his family to graduate college, enrolling at Louisiana State University, where he earned a law degree in 1998. He also worked on the 1996 Senate campaign of Louis “Woody” Jenkins, where he had an early brush with a contested election.
Jenkins, a conservative state lawmaker, narrowly lost to Democrat Mary Landrieu amid allegations of voter fraud, including ballots cast by dead people and voters who were paid. A subsequent investigation by the Senate’s then-Republican majority found no evidence “to prove that fraud or irregularities affected the outcome of the election.”
But in the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss, which Johnson played a leading role in disputing, the congressman offered a differing view of the decades-old contest while describing himself as a young law student “carrying around everyone’s briefcases.”
“Even though we had all the evidence all wrapped up,” Johnson, told Louisiana radio host Moon Griffon in 2020, the Senate “put it in a closet and never looked at it again.”
Even though Jenkins lost, Johnson drew notice from conservative activists who worked on the campaign.
Among them was Perkins, the founder of the Louisiana Family Forum, who has long promoted an existential clash between pious Christians and decadent liberals. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Mills, a longtime Perkins confidant who now leads the Louisiana Family Forum, called Johnson’s ascension to House speaker “a wonderful day in America,” adding, “if you don’t believe God is at work in the midst of this, then you aren’t paying attention.”
Of his initial interactions with Johnson, Mills said, “he just glowed.“
“The reality is Mike added value everywhere he went. And that was evident from the early days,” Mills said.
Soon Johnson was representing the group and others during his roughly decade-long tenure as an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit legal organization still in its infancy, which presented itself as a bulwark for traditional family values.
The group is no longer an upstart. Now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, the organization raised over $100 million in 2022 and conceived the legal strategy that led to the Supreme Court last year overturning the constitutional right to an abortion, among other conservative wins it helped secure from the high court.
Much of Johnson’s early work for ADF was far more prosaic. In court and before public boards, he represented conservatives on issues related to the exercise of faith in schools and alcohol regulations, as well as zoning disputes over casinos and strip clubs.
But Johnson’s vehement opposition to the burgeoning gay rights movement in the mid-2000s soon garnered greater attention.
In 2004, Johnson and the ADF filed suit, seeking to overturn a New Orleans law that allowed same-sex partners of city workers to receive health benefits, which a judge rejected.
He also wrote a semi-regular guest column in the Shreveport Times, where his defenses of “religious liberty” included stridently anti-gay rhetoric, including a prediction that same-sex marriage would be a “dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.”
...
Another column lamented the Supreme Court’s decision in 2004 to overturn a Texas law that outlawed same-sex intimacy, which Johnson referred to as “deviate sexual intercourse.”
His advocacy did not occur in a political vacuum. Then-President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign was looking to energize turnout among social conservatives, tapping allies across the U.S. to place referendums opposing gay marriage on the ballot in hopes of doing so. It’s a role Johnson leaned into.
In 2004, he represented the Louisiana Family Forum in opposing a case filed by gay rights supporters who sought to block a voter-approved state constitutional amendment that prohibited “civil unions” — a legal precursor to same-sex marriage — and codified marriage as between one man and one woman.
The amendment was overwhelmingly approved in an unusual and low-turnout election, held weeks before the 2004 presidential contest, in which it was the only issue on the ballot. The election was marred by the late delivery of voting machines to the Democratic stronghold of Orleans Parish.
In a legal brief, Johnson chided gay rights supporters for challenging the outcome in court.
“Discontent with an election’s results does not entitle one to have it overturned,” he wrote. Nearly two decades later, Johnson, then in Trump’s corner, would effectively argue the opposite.
Johnson’s harsh rhetoric in the early 2000s surrounding the issue of gay rights contrasts starkly with the amiable image he cultivated following his election to public office, which is punctuated with appeals for “a respectful, diverse society where citizens from all viewpoints can peacefully coexist.”
Yet his arguments often obscure a far more striking reality.
The Marriage and Conscience Act, which he sponsored as a freshman state representative in 2015, would have effectively blocked Louisiana from punishing business owners and workers who discriminated against gay couples, so long as it was for religious reasons — similar to arguments invoked during the Civil Rights era against interracial marriage. The bill was rejected by lawmakers in both parties.
The following year, critics charged that his “Pastor Protection Act,” which was focused on gay marriage, would also create a legal defense for clergy who opposed interracial marriage. Johnson, who has an adopted Black son, acknowledged the point but argued it wasn’t a big deal because opposition to interracial marriage was an issue of the past — unlike gay marriage.
“Maybe there are some people out there who do that. But it’s not a big current issue, I think we would agree, at least in the courts and the court of public opinion,” Johnson said during a 2016 committee hearing.
The bill was rejected by lawmakers in both parties. Johnson was elected to Congress the next fall, drawing his short tenure as a lawmaker in Baton Rouge to a close.
Lamar White Jr., a progressive who wrote a widely read Louisiana political blog, said his interactions with Johnson were always pleasant, even if he “disagreed with everything he stood for.”
“His climb to the top is not surprising considering his personal charm, his charisma and intellect, which were disarming,” said White. “That obscured the end goal and what he was really up to.”
———–
“The establishment of the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law was supposed to be a capstone achievement for Louisiana College, which administrators boasted would “unashamedly embrace” a “biblical worldview.” Instead, it collapsed roughly a decade ago without enrolling students or opening its doors amid infighting by officials, accusations of financial impropriety and difficulty obtaining accreditation, which frightened away would-be donors.”
Well look at that. The Judge Paul Pressler School of Law. The school that never was. It was going to be Mike Johnson’s next big project back in 2010:
...
J. Michael Johnson Esq., as he was then known professionally, was hired in 2010 to be the “inaugural dean” of the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law, named for a Southern Baptist Convention luminary who was instrumental in the faith group’s turn to the political right in the 1980s. The board of trustees who brought Johnson onboard included Tony Perkins, a longtime mentor who is now the president of the Family Research Council in Washington, a powerhouse Christian lobbying organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as an anti-gay “hate group.”...
For several years before Johnson’s arrival, the college had been in a state of turmoil following a board takeover by conservatives who felt the school had become too liberal. They implemented policies that restricted academic freedoms, including the potential firing of instructors whose curriculum touched upon sexual morality or teachings contradictory to the Bible.
The school’s president and other faculty resigned, and the college was placed on probation by an accreditation agency.
But a shale oil boom in the area also brought a wave of prosperity from newly enriched donors. And school officials, led by president Joe Aguillard, had grand ambitions beyond just the law school, which included opening a medical school, a film school and making a movie adaptation of the 1960s pastoral comedy TV show “Green Acres.”
Bringing Johnson into the school’s leadership helped further those ambitions. As dean of the proposed law school, Johnson embarked on a major fundraising campaign and described a big-dollar event in Houston with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Pressler, according to an account Johnson wrote in a 2011 alumni magazine.
...
But then the embezzlement charges came, along with costs for getting the campus ready that the school couldn’t afford. Johnson ended up resigning in 2012, returning to his career as a Christian Nationalist legal crusader:
...
But he struggled to draw an adequate amount of cash while drama percolated behind the scenes. That culminated in a flurry of lawsuits, including a whistleblower claim by a school vice president, who accused Aguillard of misappropriating money and lying to the board, according to court records.A law firm brought in to conduct an investigation later concluded in a 2013 report that Aguillard had inappropriately diverted funds to a school the institution hoped to build in Africa, as well as for personal expenses.
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Meanwhile, the historic former federal courthouse in Shreveport that was selected as the law school’s campus required at least $20 million in renovations. The environment turned untenable after the school was denied accreditation to issue juris doctorate degrees and major donors backed away from their financial pledges.
“Mike worked diligently to assemble a very elite faculty and curriculum,” said Gilbert Little, who was involved in the effort. But “fundraising for a small private college is very, very difficult.”
Johnson resigned in the fall of 2012 and went back to litigating for Christian causes. He also started a new pro-bono firm, Freedom Guard, which Perkins served as a director, business filings show.
Five years later, Pressler, the school’s namesake, was sued in a civil case that has since grown to include allegations of abuse by multiple men who say he sexually assaulted them, some when they were children. The matter, which is still pending in court, helped spark a broader reckoning by the Southern Baptist Convention over its handling of claims of sexual abuse.
Little said the school was named after Pressler because he had a close relationship with the institution’s leaders. Johnson didn’t stray entirely from the school. He represented the college for six more years in a case challenging a mandate in then-President Barack Obama’s health care law that required employers to provide workers access to birth control, court records show.
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Finally, note one final bit of Johnson’s gross hypocrisy in the name of his Christian nationalist cause: in 2004, Johnson chided gay rights supporters for challenging the outcome in court, writing, “Discontent with an election’s results does not entitle one to have it overturned.” 16 years later, he’s the guy writing legal memos arguing the opposite in an effort that culminated in an insurrection:
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In 2004, he represented the Louisiana Family Forum in opposing a case filed by gay rights supporters who sought to block a voter-approved state constitutional amendment that prohibited “civil unions” — a legal precursor to same-sex marriage — and codified marriage as between one man and one woman.The amendment was overwhelmingly approved in an unusual and low-turnout election, held weeks before the 2004 presidential contest, in which it was the only issue on the ballot. The election was marred by the late delivery of voting machines to the Democratic stronghold of Orleans Parish.
In a legal brief, Johnson chided gay rights supporters for challenging the outcome in court.
“Discontent with an election’s results does not entitle one to have it overturned,” he wrote. Nearly two decades later, Johnson, then in Trump’s corner, would effectively argue the opposite.
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But, of course, this isn’t about the hypocrisy of Mike Johnson. It’s about the existential threat to the fabric of the United States posed by the CNP and its vision for for the imposition of Christian Nationalist authoritarianism. A threat that seems to keep growing whether Republicans win or lose elections. Because that’s the kind of game the CNP is playing. It’s not a game centered around gaining power by winning elections. It’s about gaining power through any means necessary. With David Barton’s Christian Nationalism there to justify whatever is done in the name of Christianity. Or at least the arch-conservative ‘discipleship’ cult-like genre of Christianity championed for decades by CNP stalwarts like Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson.
It’s God’s Power Grab. The kind of power grab that starts with grabbing the state but doesn’t end there. The kind of power grab where the powerful are free to ‘grab’ whatever they want, and whoever they want, without any real consequences. A society run by power predators cynically operating in the name of God. So if you find the idea of the Speaker of the House voluntarily installing a creepy ‘discipleship shameware’ app on his phone highly disturbing, imagine how disturbing it’s going to be when it’s your phone getting the creepy shameware app and it’s not at all voluntarily because society is now run by a bunch of powerful cultist who seized power and now demand that everyone else join their cult or face the consequences. It’s happening. This cult with very big plans for the future really is steadily taking over. It’s a long-game. And the further it goes, the more ‘old school’ those consequences are going to get.
You probably haven’t heard about the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL). The group, formed in August of 2020, doesn’t have a huge public profile. State legislators, on the other hand, might be familiar with the group. Because when we’re talking about the NACL, we’re basically talking about ALEC for theocracy. Yes, it’s a group dedicated to the creation of Christian Nationalism ‘model legislation’, designed to be peddle to allied state lawmakers across the US. And while the group isn’t explicitly operating as an arm of the Council for National Policy (CNP), that’s basically what it is as we’re going to see when we look at who’s involved.
The NACL’s founder, Jason Rapert, is a former Arkansas state legislator and open Dominionist. As we should expect by now, Rapert’s name shows up on the leaked CNP membership lists.
But Rapert isn’t running the NACL on his own. The NACL advisory board consists of a number of leading theocratic personalities: Mike Huckabee, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Tony Perkins, and Matt Staver. Recall how Perkins served as the CNP’s president in 2018. Also recall that 2016 report about the leaked 2014 CNP membership list that listed Staver a CNP board member, alongside fellow CNP board members like the League of the South’s Mike Peroutka who is an open advocate of the theocratic imposition of the Old Testament. This is a CNP operation. And with NACL legislative members in 31 states, it’s another CNP operation already in a position covertly wield the CNP’s enormous influence.
So as we watch the ongoing Christian Nationalist takeover of Texas, which has the enthusiastic backing of Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, it’s important to keep in mind that Texas isn’t Vegas. What happens in Texas doesn’t stay in Texas. And ensuring that happens is what the CNP’s new NACL outfit is all about:
“Thanks to Rapert, the Christian Nationalist movement now commands a burgeoning political powerhouse, the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. A first-of-its-kind organization in U.S. history, NACL advances “biblical” legislation in America’s statehouses. These bills are not mere stunts or messaging. They’re dark, freedom-limiting bills that, in some cases, have become law.”
Yes, thanks to Jason Rapert, the Christian Nationalism movement has a powerful new tool in the form of National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL). But Rapert probably shouldn’t take all the credit. Founded in August 2020, the NACL’s advisory board includes a number of leading theocrats: Mike Huckabee, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Tony Perkins, and Matt Staver. Rapert, Staver, and Perkins are CNP members, with Perkins serving as CNP president in 2018. Again, recall that 2016 report about the leaked 2014 CNP membership list that listed Staver a CNP board member, alongside fellow CNP board members like the League of the South’s Mike Peroutka who is an open advocate of the theocratic imposition of the Old Testament. So while Jason Rapert may have founded the NACL, this is clearly a CNP-backed initiative:
And as we can see from the various ‘successes’ touted by Rapert and the NACL, the “model legislation” approach — ALEC for theocracy — is part of what makes the ongoing Christian Nationalist capture of individual states like Texas so powerful. Texas passes an unprecedented theocratic law, and NACL members in states around the US suddenly put forward their own copycat legislation:
Finally, note the praise delivered to Ron DeSantis. It’s long been clear that Ron DeSantis is one of the CNP’s favorite candidates. And it’s no surprise why. DeSantis’s brand of politics — like his ideological purge of New College — is basically a preview for what full blown Christian Nationalism is going to look like:
Yes, Ron DeSantis — long seen as the candidate of choice for the GOP mega-donors — is the theocrats’ candidate of choice too. Which is more or less what we should expect by now. DeSantis has basically tailored his political brand to champion the CNP’s culture wars. Culture wars that are no longer being fought to simply win elections, but instead to end them once and for all. It’s societal capture for God’s glory. Or, well, someone’s glory.
It’s a bad look. But a necessary one if the institution is to survive. Hence the bad act and nonsense excuses. That’s a brief summary of the awful update to the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) sexual abuse crisis we got this week, stemming from a case before the Kentucky Supreme Court that, on the surface, has nothing to do with the SBC. Instead, the case is centered around a woman who is suing the Louisville Police Department, arguing that they knew about the abuses her father — a police officer convicted of abusing her as a child in 2020 — was inflicting on her for years, and had a duty to report it.
So how did the SBC get involved in this case? An amicus brief filed back in April, but first publicly revealed in October, opposing expansion of the statute of limitations for lawsuits against third parties, including religious institutions. The brief that the SBC denomination has a “strong interest in the statute-of-limitations issue” in the case, and argues that a 2021 state law allowing abuse victims to sue third-party “non-perpetrators” was not intended to be applied retroactively.
It was a legal argument eerily reminiscent of the US government’s legal arguments in the Mohawk Mothers lawsuit over the systemic abuses of indigenous children as part of the Canadian wing of the MKUltra program. But as the following article excerpt describes, it’s a legal argument that also directly undercuts the years-long efforts by reformers inside the SBC and its roughly 47,000 local churches who are trying to put a stop to these abuses. And it more or less confirms the worst suspicions of the victims. Suspicions that at the SBC leadership is intent on thwarting their work and keeping the abuse going.
So what’s the SBC’s explanation for this brief? Here’s where it gets extra sleazy. The explanation is basically, ‘oops, we didn’t mean to do this’, or something along those lines. That’s basically was SBC President Bart Barber communicated when he issued a statement taking “full responsibility” for the SBC joining the brief. As he put it, the SBC legal team approached him asking for approval and he gave that approval without giving it the attention he should have. And yet, in the same statement, Barber kind of justifies the brief by adding “I am not sure exactly what I think about statutes of limitation. I think they are a mixed bag...I am uncomfortable with the harm statutes of limitations can do, but I also think that they play a valid role in the law sometimes.” So kind of ‘oops, but it was basically the right thing to do’ explanation.
Also note that one of parties signing onto the brief is the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Recall how former SBC President Paige Patterson was forced to resign from his position as the President of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in May of 2018 after he after he said he wanted to meet alone with a female student who said she was raped so he could “break her down,” according to a statement from seminary trustees. Patterson and his wife are both members of the CNP.
We also get some comments from Jonathan Whitehead, described as a lawyer who often represents religious institutions in court. Whitehead suggested that, while trying to stop abuses is a noble cause, it may be too much to expect the SBC denomination to assist victims in their question for justice while simultaneously protecting its own existence. It turns out Whitehead’s name also shows up on the CNP’s leaked membership lists. Surprise!
So that’s the bombshell the SBC community has been grappling with in recent weeks. A kind of confirmation of the worst suspicions. As as Russell Moore, the former head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, put it, “I’ve never seen such unmitigated and justified anger among Southern Baptists”:
“At the center of the case is a woman whose father, a police officer, was convicted in 2020 of sexually abusing her over a period of years when she was a child. The woman later sued several parties, including the Louisville Police Department, saying they knew about the abuse and had a duty to report it. Now, the state’s highest court is considering whether sex abuse victims can have more time to sue “non-perpetrators” — institutions or their leaders that are obligated to protect children from such abuse.”
Should the institutions that protect sexual predators also be brought to justice? That’s the question that was before Kentucky’s Supreme Court in a case that didn’t seem to have anything to do with the SBC. And then an amicus brief was submitted arguing against the expansion of the statute of limitations for lawsuits against third parties, including religious institutions. Submitted by the SBC’s lawyers. All of a sudden, this case was about the SBC and the sexual abuse mega-scandal it’s still grappling with. In the worst possible way:
And note the disturbing similarities between this case and the ongoing lawsuits in Canada being waged by the Mohawk Mothers over the decades of systemic abuses of indigenous children as part of the Canadian branch of the MKUltra program. In that case, arguments about the retroactive applicability of a Canadian law passed in 1982 that allows for the suing of foreign governments were made by the United States government to make the case that the 1982 law didn’t retroactively apply to crimes committed before 1982. And in this case, we have the SBC lawyers arguing that the 2021 Kentucky state law allowing for “third-parties” to be sued also cannot be applied retroactively:
And notice how this amicus brief was filed in such a way that even the SBC executive committee is claiming ignorance. Instead, we have SBC president Bart Barber issuing some excuse about how he gave his consent to the lawyers’ plan without realizing what it was all about. But then he goes on to more or less agree that the statue of limitations probably shouldn’t be expanded. It’s not exactly a compelling explanation but probably as good a cover story as they could come up with given the circumstances:
And then there’s the outrage from the local congregation leaders who have consistently supported anti-abuse reforms. Recall how ‘local church autonomy’ has long been the excuse SBC leaders used for explaining why the leadership was powerless to do anything about the abuse. And here, we have the SBC leadership effectively waging a legal battle that runs counter to the wishes of many of those local leaders:
Finally, there’s the obligatory CNP angle here. First, not how the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary — which a defendant in a Kentucky abuse case — signed the amicus brief. Recall how former SBC President Paige Patterson was forced to resign from his position as the President of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in May of 2018 after he after he said he wanted to meet alone with a female student who said she was raped so he could “break her down,” according to a statement from seminary trustees. Patterson and his wife are both members of the CNP. And then there’s the comments from lawyer Jonathan Whitehead, who suggested it may be too much to expect the SBC denomination to assist victims in their question for justice while simultaneously protecting its own existence. It’s the kind of commentary that should make it come as no surprise to learn that Whitehead’s name also shows up on the CNP’s leaked membership lists. It’s more or less what we should expect at this point:
Jonathan Whitehead may not have intended to put it in such stark terms, but he does have a point: an institution with a history filled with unaddressed systemic abuses and an unreformed leadership really does have to make a choice. It can either help try to address those abuses or it can protect its own existence. And sure, in theory, the institution should be saving itself by trying to rectify these injustices. But what if the abuses are so pervasive, deep, and ongoing, that there’s no plausible way they could be exposed without resulting in a complete loss of faith in the SBC’s leadership? What then? That appears to be the moral and legal conundrums the SBC is wrestling with. And we can see the kinds of solutions the SBC leadership came up. At least for the legal conundrum, at the cost of a much deeper moral conundrum that will presumably be ‘solved’ with more cover ups.
There’s an abundance of understandable alarm today in the wake of Donald Trump’s openly fascist Veterans Day speeches that included threats to “root out ... the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” As many pointed out, the kind of dehumanizing language not only echoes the tactics used by Hitler and the Nazis, but it’s happening amidst the ongoing warnings we keep getting about the scope of the planned Schedule F/Project 2025 mass purge. So with the growing use of dehumanizing language eliciting all this alarm, it’s worth keeping in mind how the dehumanization of the LBGTQ community — and in particular the trans community — and the aggressive portrayal of them as sexual predators who pose a threat to children has been one of the ‘go-to’ political mantra of the GOP since at least 2016.
And as we’re going to see in the following excerpt from a January 2018 Rolling Stone article, it was the anti-LGBTQ activism of Jared Woodfill, Steven Hotze, and their fellow political activists at the Second Baptist Church in Houston — led by Ed Young — where the template for this strategy of focused dehumanization of trans community was first established. It was 2014, when the Houston city council passed a robust anti-discrimination bill — the HERO bill — that set it all in motion. Woodfill and Hotze soon formed the anti-HERO opposition, drawing on the enormous support of Ed Young’s the Second Baptist mega-church they attend along with Lt Governor Dan Patrick.
Immediately after the HERO ordinance passed, Woodfill and Dave Welch — former national field director for the Christian Coalition — launched a petition to force a referendum vote on the measure. It was Woodfill who reportedly came up with the strategy of focusing the referendum on one particular part of the new law: trans people and bathroom access.
The city of Houston proceeded to invalidate thousands of the roughly 50,000 referendum signatures collected by Woodfill’s campaign, resulting in a lawsuit from Woodfill. That lawsuit, in turn, resulted in the city of Houston subpoenaing documents from some of the local pastors, including their sermons. This legal move by the city got spun into an ‘attack on religious freedom’ narrative, with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Family Research Council (FRC), playing a direct role in whipping it up into a national story. Recall how the ADF received large donations from the Betsy DeVos and Erik Prince and funneled that money into supporting Christian nationalist movements in Europe and backed a 2016 Belize law that punished homosexual sex with 10 years in prison. Also recall how the ADF has been playing a major behind the scenes role in shaping the current manufactured anti-trans panic. At the same time, the ADF shows up on the list of organizations involved with the Schedule F/Project 2025 plot. CNP member Michael Farris, who co-founded the “Convention of States” project designed to overhaul the Constitution — has served as the President and CEO of the ADF. And when it comes to the FRC, recall how the President of the FRC, Tony Perkins, is listed on the leaked CNP membership lsits a being the CNP’s president in 2018. In fact, according to the following article, he was the CNP’s President from 2014 through at least 2018, covering the period of the events in this story.
As the anti-HERO campaigning got underway, figures like Hotze would warn against the threat of “homo-fascists.” “Just like there was a Communist Manifesto, there’s a homosexual manifesto,” As Hotze put it. “The hackles will stand up on the back of your neck when you see what they have planned.”
In the end, the campaign worked and Houston voters rejected the HERO policies with 61 percent voting to reject it. And a national template was born. By focusing the alleged threat of trans child predators in bathrooms, a powerful political cudgel was now available nationwide.
And yes, it’s grossly cynical and hypocritical that Jared Woodfill — whose political rise can be attributed to his relationship to Paul Pressler who preyed on young men and teen boys for decades — is the figure who reportedly came up with the ‘trans bathroom predator’ narrative. Even more so given how Woodfill actively enabled the abuse through their law firm Woodfill & Pressler, LLP.
And while it was obvious that this trend of whipping up dehumanizing campaigns was a threat to the entire LGBTQ community, not the trans community, it may not have been obvious that this approach of cynically dehumanizing an entire swathe of the population can be applied to much larger group than just the LGBTQ population. It may not have been obvious at the time. But it should be obvious now, making now a good time to review how this CNP network discovered the power of politics of dehumanization:
“The avalanche of change wasn’t just legal but cultural as well, with polls showing a seismic shift in attitudes: Homosexuality was becoming increasingly accepted, even among a younger generation of evangelical Christians. At stake in the new culture war sparked by Obergefell, many conservative evangelicals and Catholics believed, was the future of Christianity itself. “We are moving rapidly towards the criminalization of Christianity,” former Arkansas governor and then-presidential candidate Mike Huckabee warned pastors in a conference call less than two weeks before announcing his presidential run.”
“We are moving rapidly towards the criminalization of Christianity.” That’s the deeply cynical framing being put to work with this anti-LGBTQ political theme. A kind of ‘it is us or them’ framing. And based on this report, it was at a May 2015 CNP meeting where Kelly Shackelford — Mike Johnson’s mentor — warned the audience that a Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage “is going to be a direct attack” on the religious freedom of everyone in the country. “No one will escape it.” By the next year, anti-trans ‘bathroom bills’ were the new hot political trend in conservative politics. A planned panic about trans predators was already underway, with Shackelford’s home city of Houston as ground zero:
And as the article describes, by the time Shackelford issued that warning at the May 2015 CNP gathering, Houston’s leading conservatives had already been engaged in a heating anti-LGBTQ political campaign in response to HERO, a May 2014 Houston City Council anti-discrimination law. Specifically, a campaign waged by Jared Woodfill and Steven Hotze, who are both part of a tight-knit circle centered around Houston’s Second Baptist mega-church led by Ed Young, where the parishioners include the virulently anti-LGBTQ Lt Gov Dan Patrick. Ironically, Woodfill met Hotze via Paul Pressler, who is now at the center of an ongoing lawsuit over decades of alleged sexual abuse of young men and teen boys. A lawsuit that cites Woodfill as one of Pressler’s key enablers. It’s ironic, but also profoundly cynical. A bad faith political campaign waged by predatory hypocritical theocrats:
And it didn’t take long for the ADF — Mike Johnson’s old employer — to get involved, thanks to a lawsuit filed by the city of Houston that involved the subpoenaing of sermons from five Houston pastors who helped to gather signatures, giving the ADF an opportunity engage in more bad faith cynical politics by accusing the city of “engaging in an inquisition”. It was a like bad faith political manna raining down on the city of Houston:
Even leading CNP member Tony Perkins got in on the political theatrics, using the subpoenas to frame the whole debate as a ‘religious liberties’ issue. This, as the same time Steven Hotze was warning audiences, “Just like there was a Communist Manifesto, there’s a homosexual manifesto”:
Following the success of the political campaign, a new national template was born, with groups like the Family Policy Alliance citing the success in Houston as the start of a national ‘pushback’ against LGBTQ rights. Note that Paul E. Weber — the President & CEP of the Family Policy Alliance and former executive of the ADF — also shows up on the CNP membership lists. Because of course his name shows up on those leaked membership lists. It would be weird if it didn’t:
Flash forward to March of 2017, and we find Lt Gov Dan Patrick making an anti-trans bathroom bill, SB6, one of his top legislative priorities, with enormous support from groups like the CNP, ADF, and FRC. That includes support from these groups’ leaders like ADF founder Alan Sears and FRC president Tony Perkins. Recall how Sears sits on the board of the CNP. And Perkins — the CNP President starting in 2014–2018 — even showed up as one of the first witnesses at the SB6 hearing. What was transpiring in Houston had the backing of the CNP’s national leadership:
So as the use of dehumanizing rhetoric by Donald Trump on the 2024 campaign heats up, it’s going to be important to keep in mind that Trump isn’t simply using this language for his own ambitions. He’s dehumanizing on behalf of his partners on the theocratic Right who have been standing by his side the entire time. Yes, the Schedule F/Project 2025 is Trump’s planned purged. But it’s the CNP’s planned purge too. The kind of planned purge that can’t happen without years of preemptive dehumanizing rhetoric.
It’s going to be one cringe inducing anecdote after another after another. Mike Johnson, the new Speaker of the House, is a Jesus freak of the worst variety. The problem isn’t his love of Jesus, of course. It’s the love of all of the things that seem to go directly against Jesus’s teachings. Like a love of earthly power and the pursuit of dominion over all. That and all the gross anti-LGBTQ stuff. The person inhabiting this powerful position in government — second in line to the presidency — is, quite simply, a wretched follower of the real teachings of his professed prophet. It’s an awful situation.
It’s not Mike Johnson’s questionable religiosity that’s the problem here. It’s his fealty. Because for all the talk of ‘loving Jesus’, Mike Johnson sure behaves like someone who truly worships power, damn the costs. Mike Johnson follows the lead of his fellow travelers. Extraordinarily powerful fellow travelers. Hence his close alignment to groups like the Council for National (CNP).
But as we’re going to see, Mike Johnson’s authoritarian allies include another very powerful group of CNP fellow travelers: leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) denomination of evangelical movement. A movement that aggressively backed Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and, as we’ve seen, follows the ‘Seven Mountains’ theocratic mandate for Christians to take control of the seven ‘mountains’ of power: family, the church, education, media, arts, the economy, and the government. Johnson may be a professed Baptist, but he very much aligned with the ‘Christians must take control of society’ theology of the NAR. Because while that theology is certainly associated with the NAR, the ‘Seven Mountains’ theology isn’t an NAR proprietary concept. Instead, it’s the animating concept behind much of the CNP’s efforts which is why we shouldn’t be surprised to find leading CNP pseudo-historian, and South Baptist, David Barton also advocates the Seven Mountains theology as part of his ‘and that’s how the Founding Fathers wanted it’ pseudo-historical Christian nationalist ‘scholarship’. It’s that shared ‘Seven Mountains’ theology that we’re going to be looking at in the following pair of articles.
First, here’s a following Rolling Stone article excerpt about a video broadcast of Johnson back in October — weeks before he became speaker — during an appearance on Jim Garlow’s World Prayer Network (WPN) event. Johnson can be seen openly lamenting the near Sodom-like state of American culture, specifically pointing out the historically high percent of young people who identify on the LGBTQ spectrum. As Johnson puts it, the “culture is so dark and depraved that it almost seems irredeemable.” While the comments themselves are quite newsworthy given Johnson’s new status, it’s the venue that’s the biggest story here. Garlow, like Johnson, was a prominent defender of Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and is quite open about his Seven Mountains theology. And while Garlow’s name may not show up on the CNP membership list, he is very much a fellow traveler:
“The prayer calls underscore the new House speaker’s alarming alignment with Christian nationalism — the extremist movement that holds America is not a secular democracy but was founded as a Christian nation and should be governed to uphold a fundamentalist morality. They also provide fresh evidence of Johnson’s apocalyptic worldview, in which he sees America as existing in “disastrous, calamitous” times and “hanging by a thread.” It raises questions about whether the Republican, who’s now second in line for the presidency, is leveraging his power not just to avoid a government shutdown, but to appease an angry deity — and avoid a more permanent Heavenly Shutdown.”
We didn’t exactly need further evidence of Mike Johnson’s Christian nationalism. But here is it: an October prayer call where Johnson laments how dark, depraved, and nearly irredeemable American culture is with all the LGBTQ youths running around. Divine retribution is at hand. America is Sodom. Disturbing sentiments made all the more disturbing by the fact that this conversation took place during a prayer call hosted by a Christian-nationalist MAGA pastor Jim Garlow and broadcast on Garlow’s World Prayer Network. Mike Johnson was sharing these sentiments with a powerful network of fellow dominionist. Johnson may be a Baptist, but that hasn’t prevented New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) dominionists preachers like Garlow from being becoming a “profound influence” on Johnson. These are close political allies:
As another example of how NAR leaders like Garlow closely coordinates with the broader network of politically connected religious leaders associated with this dominionist movement, note how Johnson, Garlow, and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins (CNP President from 2014–2018) organized the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance back in February. It’s a big dominionist tent:
And so, given this close alliance between Garlow and Johnson, we shouldn’t be surprise to learn that Garlow became one of the religious leaders advocating for the overturning of the 2020 election. Because of course he was. Garlow is clearly part of the same CNP-affiliated network of Christian nationalist leaders who helped to formulate the Trump White House’s strategy that culminated in the January 6 Capitol Insurrection. It’s the same group:
Intriguingly, in 2018, Garlow started a new project, Well Versed, that purports to be a be a group dedicated to ministering to members of Congress and the United Nations with overtly Christian nationalist messages. It almost sounds like a new version of The Fellowship (aka, “The Family”). So the pro-insurrection Christian nationalist lobby has a special new group focused on lobbying government officials. Great:
So in case it’s not entirely clear that Jim Garlow is very much an active member of the CNP-led ‘education reform’ movement, here’s an excellent piece by Jennifer Cohn in the Bucks County Beacon detailing the extensive ties between Moms for Liberty (M4L) — the CNP’s latest ‘education reform’ front group — and dominionists like Jim Garlow. And dominionists like prominent CNP pseudo-historian David Barton. Baptist. NAR. Whatever. Dominionism comes in many forms and the CNP is its umbrella:
“Likewise, few are aware that Moms for Liberty collaborates with influential proponents of the so-called ““seven mountains” mandate, the belief that Christians have a mandate from God to step outside of their churches and head into their communities to help claim the following “mountains” for God: business, government, family, religion, media, education, and entertainment.”
Moms for Liberty — the CNP’s latest ‘education reform’ front group — is a dominionist entity. Surprise! And while none of this should actually be surprising, it’s also all barely recognized by the public at large. A stealth movement that includes NAR leadership but is not limited to the NAR. It’s like an umbrella Seven Mountains dominionist movement:
And as we can see, Moms for Liberty isn’t the only dominionist group operating in this ‘education reform’ space on behalf of this ‘Seven Mountains’ theology. The Truth and Liberty Coalition — which has NAR leader Lance Wallnau sitting on its board — is a Moms and Liberty collaborator. Stealth collaborator, given how this whole ‘reform’ movement is a stealth operation:
And as we should expect to find, Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovish has been making appearances on shows hosted by prominent Seven Mountains promoters Jim Garlow and David Barton, another one of figures who has has a profound influence on Mike Johnson. It’s one big movement:
It’s one big movement operating under the CNP’s umbrella. So when we see how David Barton sets on the board of Christian data mining firm United in Purpose and Jim Garlow sits on the board of the related United in Purpose Education, keep in mind that at United in Purpose founder Bill Dallas and director Bob McEwen are both CNP members alongside Barton. McEwen is even the CNP’s executive director. So while Garlow’s name doesn’t show up on the CNP membership lists, he’s clearly part of this network:
And when we see how this year’s Moms for Liberty summit was sponsored by the Pennsylvania branch of the Family Research Council — founded by prominent CNP member President Tony Perkins — recall how this was the same summit where North Carolina Lt Gov Mark Robinson quoted Hitler during his speech, and not the first Moms for Liberty Hitler quote scandal from this year. Which is another reminder of the value of stealth for this movement. Religious extremism isn’t the only form of extremism manifesting here:
Finally, don’t overlook how the many prominent CNP members in this network of education ‘reformers’ — from Betsy DeVos to Morton Blackwell — also includes prominent CNP member Michael Farris, the figure behind the Convention of States movement to transform the US Constitution. It’s a reminder that the long-game they are playing is very long indeed. Like permanently long:
And that’s all part of the grim context of the comments Mike Johnson made about the irredeemable nature of American culture, weeks before becoming the new Speaker of the House and second in line for the presidency. Johnson’s words word ugly, but it’s the context that is truly chilling. Context that includes a powerful network of bad faith leaders of faith who never seemed to quite learn the true teachings of Jesus but who definitely learned a lot from Machiavelli. A network that tried to secure a permanent grip on power almost three years ago and is trying even harder to this day. A bad faith power grab done in the name of Jesus. ‘Seven Mountains’ corrupted Bizarro Jesus. It’s a shockingly large stealth movement dedicated to couping for Bizarro Jesus and it’s got practice at this point.
You’re a leading congressional member of a Christian Nationalist power grab and you’ve just ascended to the Speakership of the House of Representatives. And now one of the closely allied Christian Nationalist lobbies just invited you to give the keynote address at their upcoming gala even at the Museum of the Bible in Washing DC. What are you going to talk about during your speech to this group? Do you come straight out and crow about how Christian Nationalism is closer to permanently grabbing the reigns of power than ever? Or stick with some sort of begin ue non-threatening pablum for public consumption?
These are the kinds of questions recently elected House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing now that he’s accepting an invitation to give the keynote address at the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) annual event on December 5. As we’ve seen, the NACL is basically ALEC for pushing ‘template’ Christian Nationalist legislation at the state level under the ‘Seven Mountains’ New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) Evangelical theology. Founded in 2020 by CNP member, and dominionist, Jason Rapert, NACL already claims to have legislative members in 31 states. And here we are, just three years after its founding, and the NACL has a close ally as Speaker of the House about to give the keynote address at its annual event. You can’t say they haven’t made progress. It might be progress back into the Dark Ages, but it’s progress.
And as we’re also going to see below, while Johnson’s keynote speech as Speaker is a powerful symbol of the success of the NAR movement’s political ascendance, there’s another important symbol of the movement’s success and it’s sitting right outside Mike Johnson’s congressional office. That would be the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, a flag with roots going back to the Revolutionary War but over the last decade has become adopted as the kind of unstated reference to the ‘Seven Mountains’ NAR vision for the capture of society. Figures like Rapert started advocating for Evangelicals to adopt the flag as a rallying symbol around a decade ago. But it was in 2016, when NAR leaders began to truly embrace Donald Trump, when the flag because synonymous with MAGA politics too. Flash forward to January 6, 2021, and we can find dozens of instances of this flag among the insurrectionary crowds that stormed the Capitol.
And that’s the same flag now sitting outside the House Speaker’s congressional office. Which, all context considered, is some powerful symbolism. Context made all the more powerful by the fact that the House Speaker is going to give the keynote address to a group founded by these same dominionist:
“If anyone was trusting that Mike Johnson would cool his Christian nationalist jets now that he’s risen to Speaker of the House, that faith was misplaced. Johnson has been announced as the keynote speaker of a Dec. 5 gala of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, hosted at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. ”
Yes, Mike Johnson is slated to be the keynote speaker for the upcoming National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) event at the DC Museum of the Bible. It’s presumably quite an honor for Johnson, given how the NACL is one of the CNP’s outfits pushing a ‘Seven Mountains’ Dominionist agenda:
And when we see how the NACL gala will be emceed by Gene Baily, host of a Christian Nationalist news show aired on Kenneth Copeland’s Victory network, recall how Gloria Copeland, co-founder of he Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Texas, became Donald Trump’s Evangelical advisors. Which is more or less what we should expect at this point:
And then we get to this interesting Christian Nationalist symbolism used by both Johnson and NACL founder Jason Rapert: the “Appeal to Heaven” flag:
So is the new Speaker of the House flying a symbol of Christian Nationalism outside of his congressional office? Or is this all just a big misunderstanding? Well, as the following article makes clear, it’s not a big misunderstanding...despite the attempts by Johnson’s office to pass it all off as exactly that. While it is true the Appeal to Heaven flag wasn’t always a symbol of Christian Nationalism, it is a symbol now thanks in large part to the efforts over the last decade of Jason Rapert and his fellow NAR leaders:
“To understand the contemporary meaning of the Appeal to Heaven flag, it’s necessary to enter a world of Christian extremism animated by modern-day apostles, prophets, and apocalyptic visions of Christian triumph that was central to the chaos and violence of Jan. 6. Earlier this year we released an audio-documentary series, rooted in deep historical research and ethnographic interviews, on this sector of Christianity, which is known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). The flag hanging outside Johnson’s office is a key part of its symbology.”
The “Appeal to Heaven” flag, dating back to the Revolutionary War, may not not always have been a symbol of Christian Nationalism. But it is now, thanks to the efforts of Jason Rapert and other NAR leaders over the last decade:
And, of course, the last decade wasn’t just a random decade for Christian Nationalism in America. This was the decade when the movement made a deal with the devil in the form of an alliance with Donald Trump. And few were more influential in creating this theocratic fusion of movements than Dutch Sheets, one of the key disciples of NAR founder C. Peter Wagner. By the end of the 2016, the Ascend to Heaven flag was synonymous with the MAGA movement. And as we should expect, it turns out Mike Johnson has spent his political career glad handing with a Sheets acolyte, Timothy Carscadden:
And as we should also expect, those Appeal to Heaven flags were heavily scattered across the January 6 crowds that descended into an insurrectionary mob. Because this wasn’t just Trump’s insurrection. It was God’s insurrection, thanks to the blessings of NAR leaders like Dutch Sheets:
Finally, as an example of how deeply embedded the NAR movement is inside the halls of power, note the rather absurd explanation Mike Johnson’s office gave for the presence of the Appeal to Heaven flag outside of his office: “Rep. Johnson’s Appeal to Heaven flag was a gift to him and other members of Congress by Pastor Dan Cummins, who has served as a guest chaplain for the House of Representatives over a dozen times, under Speakers from both parties.” It’s an explanation that ignores how Pastor Cummins is, himself, a mentee of NAR leader (and Trump evangelical adviser) Jim Garlow:
And Dan Cumming has been the guest chaplain for the House of Representatives over a dozen times. And if that seems like an alarming number of times for a dominionist pastor to be invited as guest chaplain, just wait until they complete the Seven Mountains takeover. Dominionist pastors are going to be doing a lot more than just showing up to congress to hand out historically misinterpreted flags at that point.
The should be the year of the Florida GOP. Home to both Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, Florida has become a kind of gravity well of Republican party’s zeitgeist. For a brief moment there were three Florida Republicans in the 2024 GOP Presidential primary, before Miami mayor Francis Suarez dropped out. And yet, in reality, the GOP’s primary is already just an extended audition to be Trump’s veep while DeSantis continues to embarrass himself.
And then this week happened. A week that the Florida GOP isn’t going to forget any time soon, one one of the young rising star power couples saw their careers come crashing down. Or at least get very complicated.
Christian and Bridget Ziegler aren’t just rising stars in Florida GOP politics. They are increasingly the public face of Ron DeSantis’s anti-woke politics. As one of the co-founders of Moms for Liberty and Sarasota County School Board Member since 2014, Bridget Ziegler has made herself synonymous with the kind of anti-LGBTQ politics that has come to define DeSantis’s public crusade. When Ron DeSantis signed his “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law this year, Bridget Ziegler was standing there right behind him. Beyond that, she’s the salaried vice president of the Leadership Institute, the training academy for conservative activists founded by CNP co-founder Morton Blackwell. The International Program Coordinator for the Leadership Institute, Alex Van Anne, also shows up on the CNP membership list. Also, Marie Rogerson, who sits on the Moms for Liberty executive board and the director of program development, is a Leadership Institute graduate. You don’t become a salaried VP of the Leader Institute if you aren’t a major conservative mover and shaker. And then there’s her husband Christian. He’s the chair of Florida’s Republican Party, tasked this year with navigating the state party through the extraordinary challenge of threading the Trump/DeSantis primary needle without triggering Trump’s wrath.
That’s the Florida Republican power couple who had a story about them break this week that had Ron DeSantis calling for Christian’s resignation and Moms for Liberty offering poorly phrased defenses of Bridget. A story that cuts right into the public image of a happy pious Christian couple serving as public advocates for the government enforcement of a conservative moral code: According to police reports, Christian Ziegler has been accused of rape. The victim was a stranger but instead a woman who has known the couple for the past 20 years. And who has been in a secret sex three-way relationship with the Zieglers for the past three years. So it’s a rape accusation that is revealing a secret three-way sexual relationship maintained by this Republican power couple who has become the public face for Ron DeSantis’s anti-LGBTQ crusade. Which is clearly too hot for DeSantis, hence his immediate calls for Ziegler to step down as state party chair.
But as we’re going to see, the Zieglers still have their defenders. Lee County GOP Chair Michael Thompson Lee called the charges a “political hit job”. Moms for Liberty initially posted a tweet in support of Ziegler, then deleted it, and then issued a second tweet with replies turned off “because we won’t be part of allowing the trolls to denigrate women any further today.” The group followed up with the idea that the rape accusations are part of an attack against women by posting that “#StrongWomen scare those that seek to destroy our country. We stand with (Ziegler) & every other badass woman fighting for kids & America.” So the rape allegation is an attack against #StrongWomen, according to Moms for Liberty.
It also sounds like the denials can only go so far because there’s already so much that has been admitted to police. Christian admits he not only slept with the woman but insists it was consensual. He also told police he secretly videotaped it. He then deleted the video, but undeleted it after hearing about the accusations, and uploaded the video to Google Drive. We are told the police have yet to obtain the video.
The victim has told police that she had a consensual sexual encounter with the Zieglers about a year ago and agreed to another one on October 2 of this year. But Bridget had to cancel, so the victim decided to cancel too since she was mostly into Bridget. Minutes later, she opened her apartment door to take her dog for a walk when she saw Christian in the apartment hallway. He entered her apartment and proceeded to rape her. The victim contacted her sister after the assault, who drove her to Sarasota Memorial Hospital where a sexual assault kit was performed. Two days later, a friend of the victim contact the police requesting a welfare check after her friend missed two days of work. Describing a suicidal-sounding friend, she told the dispatcher that, “She hasn’t shown up for work the past two days and I just got off the phone with her and she sounds drunk and I know she has pain medication on her and she told me that she doesn’t think she can do it anymore.”
While those details make it sound like there were only a handful of encounters between the victim and the Zieglers, we are also told by sources close to the investigation that they’ve had a secret sexual relationship for the last three years. It’s a hint that this is the kind of story that’s going to get a lot more complicated, and sordid, before it’s over. Either that, or it’s a very elaborate attack on #StrongWomen.
Also keep in mind that we have no idea about the identity of the victim and therefore have no idea as to whether or not there’s a power dynamic between the two, like him being in a position to fire her or offer her new opportunities. Maybe that’s not the case but we don’t know yet. And if there is a power dynamic between the two, that makes her apparent suicidal state that much worse looking for Christian.
Ok, first, here’s an AP report about how Christian Ziegler is refusing to resign and insisting he’s innocent. And while it remains to be seen if he’s innocent of rape, it doesn’t appear he or is wife can still claim to not be involved in an LGBTQ relationship since he’s already admitted to police that he secretly videoed the incident, then deleted it, and then undeleted it:
“Christian Ziegler sent the statement to state Republicans on Saturday, saying that he and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, are being targeted because they are “such loud political voices.” His wife co-founded the conservative group Moms for Liberty, which has led a campaign with Gov. Ron DeSantis to roll back sex education in Florida schools.”
The co-founder of Moms for Liberty was caught in an abusive threesome, according to the allegations that are currently roiling Florida’s GOP political scene. Because Bridget Ziegler isn’t just an M4L co-founder and increasingly prominent public figure in Ron DeSantis’s ‘war on woke’. She’s a long-time Sarasota County School Board member known for her ‘anti-woke’ crusades and the wife of Christian Ziegler, the chair of the Florida GOP who was, until now, tasked with the delicate challenge of managing a 20204 president primary that includes being the home state for both Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump. The Zieglers are a Florida rising star power couple in both the church and politics. And now Christian Ziegler is accused of raping the woman they in in a secret threesome with. It’s the kind of scandal that can’t be swept under the rug with a few public statements and a few months of laying low. The Zieglers are going to have to refute these charges one way or another:
And note the extent of the already available evidence. There’s no question as to whether or they were in a secret three-way. That’s all established in texts and recorded phone conversations. He’s even admitted to police that he secretly recorded the sex during the encounter in question. They he deleted the video, and then undeleted the video in response to the rape accusation. He told all that to investigators. The only thing really in question at this point is whether or not Christian Ziegler committed the rape he’s accused of:
So are the Ziegler’s going to survive these accusations? Could Christian Ziegler face charges? How might this impact ‘anti-woke’ political brand that’s come to define Ron DeSantis’s politics? These are just some of the question that has the Florida GOP thoroughly roiled. This was not the scandal they wanted to be dealing with right now. But as we can see in the following Sarasota Herald-Tribune article excerpt, while DeSantis might already be distancing himself, the Ziegler’s still have political allies willing to stand by them, like Lee County GOP Chair Michael Thompson Lee, who called the charges a “political hit job”. Or Moms for Liberty, sort of. The group initially posted a tweet in support of Ziegler, then deleted it, and then issued a second tweet with replies turned off “because we won’t be part of allowing the trolls to denigrate women any further today.” The group followed up with the idea that the rape accusations are part of an attack against women by posting that “#StrongWomen scare those that seek to destroy our country. We stand with (Ziegler) & every other badass woman fighting for kids & America.” So if if you were wondering how Moms for Liberty was going to respond, they responded by calling the rape accusations against Christian Ziegler an attack against #StrongWomen:
“Citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the case, the Florida Trident – a publication of the Florida Center for Government Accountability – wrote that the woman accusing Christian Ziegler of sexual battery “alleged that she and both Zieglers had been involved in a longstanding consensual three-way sexual relationship prior to the incident.” The police are investigating an incident that occurred when Christian Ziegler and the woman were alone at the woman’s house, the sources told the advocacy group.”
The rape didn’t come out of the blue. Christian Ziegler and the victim weren’t strangers. Instead, they were in a longstanding consensual three-way sexual relationship prior to the incident. It was this one incident that lacked consent, according to the details emerging. And there’s not denying this secret three-way relationship at this point. The rape is still being denied. But the secret longstanding sexual three-way relationship is very much undeniable at this point. Which is a problem for a power couple that has made anti-LGBTQ content central to their rise to political and public prominence. Bridget Ziegler stood behind DeSantis as he signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill back in May of this year, while she was carrying on these secret bisexual trysts:
And while DeSantis is calling for Ziegler to step down as GOP state chair, Lee County GOP Chair Michael Thompson called it a “political hit job” and Moms for Liberty characterized the rape allegations as an attack on #StrongWomen. Responses varied, from scared distancing to jaded ultra-cynicism:
So how long has the secret three-way been going on? Well, as we can see in the original Florida Trident report that broke this story, the heavily redacted police report states the secret three-way has been going on for three years. That’s a serious secret three-way. Also, as the report points out, Bridget’s political includes her current position as the salaried vice president of the Leadership Institute, dedicated to training and networking young conservative activists. Recall how the Leadership Institute was founded by CNP co-founder Morton Blackwell. The International Program Coordinator for the Leadership Institute, Alex Van Anne, also shows up on the CNP membership list. Also, Marie Rogerson, who sits on the Moms for Liberty executive board and the director of program development, is a Leadership Institute graduate. Moms for Liberty isn’t the only organization with uncomfortable answers to give about its relationship with Bridget Ziegler:
” The woman, according to sources close to the investigation, alleged that she and both Zieglers had been involved in a three-year consensual three-way sexual relationship. The incident under investigation by Sarasota police occurred when Christian Ziegler and the woman were alone at the woman’s house, without Bridget Ziegler present, the sources conveyed.”
A three year-year consensual three-way sexual relationship. That’s how sources close to the investigation describe it. And while the rape was obviously non-consensual, note that the video-taping was apparently non-consensual too since it was done in secret. And while we don’t know the number of video-taped sexual encounters, its sounds like it’s more than one, according to these sources:
And, again, when we see how Bridget Ziegler is currently the salaried vice president of the Leadership Institute, recall how the Leadership Institute was founded by CNP co-founder Morton Blackwell. In addition, Marie Rogerson, who sits on the M4L executive board and the director of program development, is a Leadership Institute graduate. The Ziegler’s were basically on the fast track for CNP membership if they were already secret members. Until now? Maybe. It remains unclear if Ziegler remains the Leadership Institute’s vice president:
Will one, or both, of the Zieglers manage to keep an intact political career? That’s presumably going to depend heavily on the details that further come out. But as we can see in the following report, the more we’re learning, the more undeniable the whole situation looks. This wasn’t a casual one night stand.
Although the exact nature of the sexual relationship over this three year period remains a little muddled. As the following article describes, The Zieglers had known this woman for 20 years. But the victim told police, she “was sexually involved one time over a year ago” with Ziegler and his wife and they agreed to have a second sexual encounter as a three-some on October 2. So while some reports say they’ve been in a secret romantic sexual relationship for three years now, according to these details, there’s only been one sexual encounter between the three, about a year ago, followed by this rape incident. It’s the kind of mess that suggests we’re going to learn about a very complicated romantic relationship as more details come out.
Interestingly, while we are told that Christian Ziegler admitted to the police that he recorded the sexual encounter, initially deleted the video, but then uploaded it to his Google Drive after learning of the accusations. But police say that they had not recovered the video. So there’s talk of secret video that’s been deleted and undeleted. But no video? Keep in mind no charges have been filed yet so it’s possible it’s just a matter of police not asking for it yet.
We also learned more about how the police got involved in the first place: they were contact on October 4, after the victim’s friend asked them to conduct a welfare check, telling police, “She hasn’t shown up for work the past two days and I just got off the phone with her and she sounds drunk and I know she has pain medication on her and she told me that she doesn’t think she can do it anymore.” But even before that, the victim called her sister after the assault and went to Sarasota Memorial Hospital where a sexual assault kit was performed. This wasn’t an instance were the victim concludes it was rape days after the encounter. This was unambiguous. So the victim went to the hospital after the assault to have a sexual assault kit performed and was sounding so psychological distraught that a friend got the cops involved:
“With his attorney present, Christian Ziegler told detectives that the Oct. 2 encounter was consensual and that he recorded it. He said he initially deleted the video but then uploaded it to his Google Drive after learning of the allegation. Police said in the affidavit that they had not recovered the video.”
Ziegler told police the video exists, but they don’t have it yet. Are they ever going to get it? Have they even asked for it yet? It seems like an extremely relevant piece of evidence to the case.
Still, bit by bit we are learning more about this case, like the fact that the woman has known the Zieglers for 20 years and told police she “was sexually involved one time over a year ago” with Ziegler and his wife. The October 2 encounter was to be the second time, before Bridget had to bail. Minutes later, Christian standing in the hallway outside her apartment, according to the affidavit. The experience left the victim so palpably hurt her friend contacted police over fears of self-harm. That’s how the police got involved. But even before that, the victim called her sister after the assault and went to Sarasota Memorial Hospital where a sexual assault kit was performed. This wasn’t an instance were the victim concludes it was rape days after the encounter. This was unambiguous:
Again, either this is some sort of elaborate attack against #StrongWomen, like Moms for Liberty suggested above, or this was a very real rape that left a woman suicidal. And one of those situations seems a lot more probable than the other one at this point.
But, of course, thanks to the secret video tape Christian told the police about, this should all be potentially cleared up. Assuming the police eventually get the tape. So this seems like the kind of story where we should eventually get an answer. It may not be a pleasant answer, but the evidence is there. Might this come down to a ‘Is it rape?’ debate over some sort of sexual relations gray area? That sounds possible. Either way, it’s awful politics and career destroying for this rising Florida power couple.
It’s hard to imagine their political careers surviving this regardless of the ultimate legal conclusion. That said, Bridget Ziegler is probably going to be invited to a lot more parties as a result of all this. Christian hopefully not so much.
Mike Johnson is dangerous theocrat who pals around with other dangerous theocrats. It’s increasingly undeniable with each new report on Johnson’s extremist associations. Like the recent report on Johnson’s appearance back in October on Jim Garlow’s World Prayer Network where Johnson laments the rising number of Americans who identify as LGBTQ, suggesting the “culture is so dark and depraved that it almost seems irredeemable.” As saw, Garlow is leading New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) preacher advocating for the Dominionist “Seven Mountains” institutional capture of society. A movement with close ties to groups like Moms for Liberty pushing anti-LGBTQ hysterics on public schools. And then there’s the fact that Johnson agreed to give the keynote address at this year’s gala event for the Dominionist oriented National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL). There’s not hiding these associations with Johnson, which is part of what makes his elevation to speaker so disturbing. Making Johnson the House Speaker is like an act of mask-dropping.
And as we’ve also seen, there’s no real divide between the groups advocating this dominionist institutional capture of society and those who advocate for a violent capture of society. For example, recall the wildly disturbing reports we’ve had about Washington State Republican Matt Shea, who secretly penned a manifesto in 2016 calling for the waging of Biblical War to takeover the US in 2016 and the execution of any adult males who refused to submit to the new theocracy. Shea also plotting with other local militants in coming up with a assassination list of left-wing leaders. The plan to was kill the Antifa leaders in their homes. Shea is an ardent dominionist with close ties to the Oath Keepers who has been working on developing a national network of “Prayer Caucuses” in association with allies like extremist preacher Ken Peters. Peters not only attended the Jan 6 insurrection, but he actually spoke at one of the Jan 5 rallies at the Capitol. Another close Shea ally, Reverend Matthew Trewhella, came to national attention in the 1990s as one of three dozen signatories to a statement that declared that the murder of abortion providers is “justifiable homicide,” and later became an advocate for church-based militias. Trewhella’s son-in-law, Jason Storms, videos himself at the Capitol on Jan 6 calling it a “revolution”. Shea himself attended a Jan 6 rally in Idaho where he urged people to “fight back in every single sphere we possibly can,” and to prepare for “total war.”
It’s one big movement. So it should come as no surprise to learn that Mike Johnson’s legal career at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is emblematic of how intertwined violent Christian extremists like Shea are to this larger politically powerful movement. Recall how the ADF received large donations from the Betsy DeVos and Erik Prince and funneled that money into supporting Christian nationalist movements in Europe and backed a 2016 Belize law that punished homosexual sex with 10 years in prison. Also recall how the ADF has been playing a major behind the scenes role in shaping the current manufactured anti-trans panic. At the same time, the ADF shows up on the list of organizations involved with the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme. CNP member Michael Farris, who co-founded the “Convention of States” project designed to overhaul the Constitution — has served as the President and CEO of the ADF. And as we’re going to see in the following Daily Beast article excerpt, Johnson’s ADF career is filled with the legal defense of the most violent elements of this dominionist movement.
One example is Johnson’s legal work on behalf of radical anti-gay preacher Grant Storms. It turns out it was Johnson, working on behalf of the ADF, who successfully persuaded New Orleans officials in 2003 to allow Storms’s group demonstrate against that year’s Southern Decadence festival, known locally as “gay Mardi Gras.” A man ended up getting stabbed at the event and the stabber made clear in a recorded confession that he went to the event because “he wanted to kill a gay man”. Later that year, Storms gave a speech at the International Conference on Homo-Fascism in Wisconsin where he used rhetoric like, “It’s us or them. There’s no in between. There’s no having this peaceful co-existence.” Later that year, Johnson represented Storms in another legal case over permits for anti-abortion rallies in Jefferson Parish.
Johnson’s relationship with Storms appears to have ended by the time Storms became national news in 2012 following his confession to masturbating in a van by a playground. But that wasn’t Johnson’s only ties to the Storms family. As the head of Operation Save America (OSA), which has been called the US’s largest militant anti-abortion group, Grant’s son Jason Storms is the kind of figure the ADF exists to defend. And in 2009, that’s exactly what Johnson did on behalf of the ADF, representing Jason Storms in his lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee over a court injunction at abortion protests. Johnson’s Milwaukee lawsuit included affidavits from none other than Storms’s father-in-law, Rev Trewhella (Storms hasn’t exactly had the best father figures in his life). 2009 also happens to be the year abortion doctor George Tiller was murdered by an assailant associated with Operation Rescue.
And, of course, all of this culminates with Jason Storms, Ken Peters, and the rest of the insurrectionary mob on January 6 carrying out a coup attempt that had the theocratic Council for National Policy (CNP) and NAR Dominionist fingers all over it. Again, the selection of someone with Johnson’s theocratic pedigree to be the next Speaker of House really was a kind of mask-dropping moment. Because the more we look at Mike Johnson’s career arc, the more apparent it becomes that Mike Johnson isn’t just a theocrat. He’s a theocrat ready and willing to do ‘whatever is necessary’ to achieve that theocratic dream, and he’s just one person in a much larger army:
“Attorneys are, of course, not responsible for their clients’ actions or choices—particularly after their legal relationship ends. But Johnson chose to represent clients and causes—often for free—with a remarkable ideological consistency. While he could argue he took their cases on a First Amendment basis, Johnson was preoccupied with clients who reflected the same anti-gay and anti-abortion stances that he has held openly for decades. His clients’ embrace of violent rhetoric apparently did little to dissuade Johnson from taking their cases at the time, and the speaker did not avail himself of the opportunity now to denounce their actions, words, or involvement with the insurrection.”
Defendants deserve legal representation. You can’t blame a lawyer for representing unseemly clients. And yet it’s hard to avoid the observation that Mike Johnson wasn’t defending these clients out of some sort of sense that everyone deserves legal representation. He was accepting ideologically aligned clients, often for free. Because of course those were the kinds of clients he was representing as a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Again, recall how the ADF received large donations from the Betsy DeVos and Erik Prince and funneled that money into supporting Christian nationalist movements in Europe and backed a 2016 Belize law that punished homosexual sex with 10 years in prison. Also recall how the ADF has been playing a major behind the scenes roll in shaping the current manufactured anti-trans panic. At the same time, the ADF shows up on the list of organizations involved with the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme. CNP member Michael Farris, who co-founded the “Convention of States” project designed to overhaul the Constitution — has served as the President and CEO of the ADF. Defending Christian extremists like Storms is why the ADF exists. So when radical Christian preacher Grant E. Storms Johnson as a ‘brother on the path’ who ‘always had our back’, he could have added that the entire ADF had his back too. Johnson was just doing his job as an ideological radical:
And then there’s Johnson’s ADF work on behalf of Grant Storms’s son, Jason, who happens to be the leader of Operation Save America (OSA). Given that Operation Save America used to be called Operation Rescue, resulting in a battle over the name “Operation Rescue” with another group, it’s worth noting that the leader of the other Operation Rescue is CNP Troy Newman. And it was 2009, the year Newman’s Operation Rescue was tied to the murder of George Tiller, when Johnson and the ADF represented Jason Storms and Operation Save America over the free-speech rights of these extremist groups:
And it was during that 2009 case when Johnson and the ADF were representing Jason Storms and the OSA when affidavits for Storms’s father-in-law, Rev. Mathew Trewhella. Recall how Trewhella first came to national attention in the 1990s as one of three dozen signatories to a statement that declared that the murder of abortion providers is “justifiable homicide,” and later became notorious for advocating the formation of church-based militias. Trewhella is also close to former Washington state representative Matt Shea, who was found in 2018 to have secretly penned a manifesto in 2016 calling for the waging of Biblical War to takeover the US in 2016 and the execution of any adult males who refused to submit to the new theocracy. Shea also plotting with other local militants in coming up with a assassination list of left-wing leaders. The plan to was kill the Antifa leaders in their homes. Trewhella has been palling around with violent extremists for decades. And he was one of the people writing affidavits on behalf of Jason Storms in that at 2009 case represented by Mike Johnson and the ADF:
Flash forward to January 6, 2021, and we find Jason Storms posting celebratory videos while in the middle of the insurrectionary mob. Recall how another radical preacher there on January 6 associated with Storms, Trewhella and Matt Shea was Ken Peters, who actually spoke at one of the Jan 5 rallies at the Capitol. Amusingly, even Jason’s father, Grant Storms, now recognizes it was an insurrection:
Finally, when we see a reference to Mike Johnson exchanges praises with New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) preacher Jim Garlow, recall Garlow is a leading advocate of the ‘Seven Mountains’ theology calling for an Evangelical takeover of society at an institutional level. Garlow calls Johnson “a special brother” while Johnson has described Garlow as a “profound influence” on “my life and my walk with Christ”. Which is a reminder that when we are talking about networks of Christian extremists plotting the violent takeovers of society, this can’t be separated from the larger Dominionist movement:
It’s one big movement, as Mike Johnson’s resume makes clear. And now, after decades of legally defending some of the most dangerous violent theocrats in the US, this ‘spiritual warrior’ is serving as the Speaker of the House. So when we hear about Mike Johnson intentionally asserting his intention of blurring the photo of Jan 6 rioters in videos before releasing them to the public in order to protect rioters from law enforcement, it’s worth keeping in mind that, at least when it comes to theocrats in that mob, this may not be the first time Johnson has come to their defense.
It was always obvious that the overturning of Roe v Wade was going to get ugly. It wasn’t obvious it was going to get this ugly. Especially this quickly. But it’s happening. The state of Texas is operating in an even more ghoulish manner than many cynics expected.
It started with a ruling by Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble that Kate Cox — a woman pregnant with a fetus afflicted by a fatal genetic condition that could jeopardize Cox’s ability to have more children — should receive a temporary restraining order to pursue an abortion under the ban’s medical emergencies clause. Hours later, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the Texas Supreme Court to intervene and block the waiver. Paxton went on to issued a statement promising to prosecute doctors performing the procedure with felony charges, even if a court permitted the procedure. The state Supreme Court ultimately sided with Paxton the next day. As a result, Cox has been forced to flee Texas and get the procedure elsewhere, a move that may not have been possible had her medical condition worsened...or had she simply been too poor to travel out of state.
Why did this happen? What consumed Paxton with the idea that this was good politics, let alone decent policy or humane behavior? Keep in mind some Paxton-specific context here: the guy only narrowly survived an impeachment vote less than three months ago over corruption and bribery charges, with two Texas Republicans joining the Democrats in voting to convict. And here he is, taking the kind of extremist abortion stance that only extremists could love. What kind of game is he playing here with Cox’s life and health? What is the political logic here?
And that brings us to another scandal currently roiling Texas’s Republicans. Two scandals, actually. One new, and one that’s been building for decades. The fresh scandal involves a now-familiar name: Nick Fuentes. Yes, the same reactionary Catholic neo-Nazi who managed to secure that now notorious dinner with Donald Trump and Kanye West, was spotted back in October spending nearly seven hours somewhere he shouldn’t have been spotted at all. The offices of Pale Horse Strategies, a political consultancy group owned by former Republican state rep Jonathan Stickland.
Stickland also happened to be the head of Defend Texas Liberty, a political action committee largely financed by two West Texas oil billionaires, one of whom is Tim Dunn. It turns out Dunn has managed to turn himself into the Texas Republican Party’s kingmaker over the last couple of decades. Dunn also happens to be an ardent theocrat who doesn’t believe Jews should be positions of power in the US, something he personally told former Jewish Republican Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus. Straus was reportedly shocked by the whole conversation. So Nick Fuentes spent almost seven hours at the political consultancy group’s office owned by the guy who was the head of one of primary PACs run on behalf of Texas’s billionaire Republican king-maker. A king-maker who doesn’t think Jews should be anywhere near positions of power in America.
Oh, and it also turns out that Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Texas GOP, was also seen entering Pale Horse Strategies during Fuentes’s time there. Rinaldi claims he had no idea Fuentes was there. At the same time, Dunn acknowledges that Fuentes met with Stickland, calling it a “serious blunder”. At least that was the statement from Dunn put out by none other than Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick on behalf of Dunn. As we’re going to see, two of Texas’s most prominent politicians owe their political fortunes heavily to the millions of dollars in donation channeled to them from Dunn-controlled PACs: Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton. Defend Texas Liberty even pledged to go after any Republicans who voted to convict Paxton.
But Fuentes’s visit to one of the most influential political consulting groups in the state of Texas is just part of the emerging scandal. Another part has to do with the GOP’s response to the Fuentes story: in a 32–29 vote, the Texas GOP executive committee voted to reject a resolution that would have barred Texas Republicans from meeting with known Nazis and Holocaust deniers. Rinaldi abstained from the vote. As we’re going to see, the rejected resolution had actually been watered down significantly. The original resolution was to call for a break from Defend Texas Liberty. Yep. It was only after pushback that they changed it to barred associations with individuals or groups “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial.” Still, that generic proposed ban, some Republicans argued, was akin to “Marxist” and “leftist” tactics that could create guilt by association and be problematic for the party, its leaders and candidates.
Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan condemned the Texas GOP’s rejection of the anti-Nazi resolution, calling it “despicable.” AS Phelan put it, the Texas GOP executive committee “can’t even bring themselves to denounce neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers or cut ties with their top donor who brought them to the dance...There is a moral, anti-Semitic rot festering within the fringes of BOTH parties that must be stopped.” After Phelan called for fellow Republicans to redirect money from Defend Texas Liberty, Lt. Gov Dan Patrick accused Phelan of politicizing antisemitism and demanded he resign.
So we have the immediate scandal of the Texas GOP’s rejection of a ban on meeting with Nazis and Holocaust deniers. But it’s really just an small part of much larger scandal. That being Tim Dunn’s capture of the Texas Republican Party. A capture that he didn’t do alone. He had help. Extensive Council for National Policy (CNP) help. For example, in 1998, he joined the board of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), founded by CNP member James Leininger. Recall how former TPPF president and CNP member Kevin Roberts went on to become the current president of the Heritage Foundation. Dunn still serves as the TPPF Vice Chairman. In 2006, Dunn formed Empower Texans, which has turned into one of main vehicles for exerting Dunn’s political influence. By 2018, the majority of the seats in the Republican caucus in the Texas Senate were controlled by Empower Texans and TPPF.
This is also a good time to recall the disturbing stories about Charles Haywood and his fascist ties to TPPF. Recall how Haywood was seen as a rising right-wing media personality, until it was revealed that he was the person behind an online persona who long called for an ‘American Caesar’. Haywood is now openly planning on becoming an American ‘warlord’ operating an ‘armed patronage network’ in the event of the breakdown of government rule. And as we’ve also seen, Haywood was one of the figures working with the now-indicted John Eastman in developing the “79 Days Report” in 2020, where scenarios involving mass political violence that prevented the certification of the vote on January 6 were gamed out. Other participants in this ‘exercise’ included Kevin Roberts, now the head of the Heritage Foundation. The whole ‘simulation’ was ran by the Claremont Institute and TPPF. So the TPPF was running fascist takeover simulations in the lead up to the 2020 and Dunn still serves as its Vice Chairman.
Another Dunn interest involves overhauling the US constitution. In fact, Dunn co-founded the Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG) along with CNP members Mark Meckler and Michael Farris. Recall how it’s the CSG that runs the Convention of States (COS) push to implement a far right overhaul of the US Constitution.
Those are big ambitions. And not just Texas ambitions. Tim Dunn — a theocrat who claims to believe the oil he drills was placed there by God 4,000 years ago — is quite simply one of the most powerful men in America. And Dunn now admits guy who was running the main PAC Dunn used to exert that influence, Jonathan Stickland, met with an open neo-Nazi, and is insisting that everyone just pretend this never happened and its all an innocent mistake. And, sure enough, a majority of Texas Republican caucus is following Dunn’s lead. Even the watered down resolution couldn’t pass.
That’s all part of the context of the remarkable decision of Ken Paxton to take Texas’s abortion politics to a remarkable, and remarkably unpopular, extreme. Why did Paxton’s office take the extreme position that fertility risks don’t qualify as a life-threatening condition that would allow a patient to get an abortion under Texas laws and that a fatal fetal abnormality also wouldn’t qualify? What role did Tim Dunn’s religious extremism play in Paxton’s decision-making? We don’t know. But we do know Tim Dunn has more influence over Texas Republicans than anyone barring, perhaps Donald Trump at this point. And that’s why we can’t really separate this story about Ken Paxton’s extremist position on abortion from the extremist views of the billionaire theocrat leading his party:
“On Thursday, Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled that Cox should receive a temporary restraining order, allowing the 31-year-old mother of two to pursue an abortion under the ban’s medical emergencies clause. But hours after the ruling, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the state’s Supreme Court to intervene and issued a statement promising to prosecute doctors performing the procedure with felony charges, even if a court permitted the procedure. On Friday night, the state’s Supreme Court blocked the lower court’s order and once again put Cox’s health in jeopardy.”
Withing hours of a judge granting Kate Cox permission to get an abortion under the Texas medical emergency clause, Attorney General Ken Paxton decides to sue to block the ruling, only to be backed up by the state Supreme Court. Leaving Cox only one option: fleeing the state. An option that many women aren’t going to have, either for financial or medical circumstances. It was a medical nightmare created by one of the state’s top elected Republicans. The same Ken Paxton who was narrowly acquitted on impeachment charges by his fellow Republicans just a few months ago. And yet, Paxton’s move is bound to be a deeply politically unpopular move overall and put the party even more on the defensive over abortion at the same time the issue is turning out to be political kryponite for Republicans:
Why did the politically imperiled Paxton pull a stunt like this? Was this intended to be a kind of showy power play intended to defy his critics? Paxton doesn’t appear to be a very principled politician. Hence the impeachment vote. So what was his reasoning here? It’s a mystery. But when it comes to answering the question of who Ken Paxton answers to, there’s another story about Texas Republican turmoil that gives us a big clue: The Texas GOP just gave itself another self-inflicted wound in the same of extremism. This time it came in the form of a Texas GOP Executive Committee 32–29 vote on Saturday rejecting a proposal to ban the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers. The vote wasn’t in abstract. It was in direct response to unfolding scandal. The latest GOP/Nick Fuentes scandal.
Yes, Nick Fuentes caught spending nearly seven hours at the offices of Pale Horse Strategies, the political consultancy group owned by former Republican State Rep Jonathan Stickland. It gets worse. It also turns out Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Texas GOP, was seen entering the Pale Horse Strategies office during this period when Fuentes was there. Rinaldi claims he had no idea Fuentes was there at the time.
And we got confirmation that it was Stickland himself who met with Fuentes. Confirmation that came for Texas GOP king-maker Tim Dunn, a billionaire oilman who has managed to turn himself into one of the most powerful forces in Texas politics, in part through the largess of his Defend Texas Liberty political action committee. Stickland was the head of Defend Texas Liberty at the time of his meeting with Fuentes. Dunn confirmed the meeting, calling it a “serious blunder”, according to Lieutenant Gov Dan Patrick. Yes, Lt Gov Patrick was speaking on behalf of Dunn. It turns out Patrick and Paxton are both very close to Dunn. In fact, after Paxton narrowly survived an impeachment vote a few months ago, Defend Texas Freedom pledged to go after the Republicans who voted to convict. Dunn also happens to be a Christian fundamentalist. The kind of evangelical who claims God put oil in Texas 4,000 years ago for humanity’s use. And he’s become one of the most figures in Texas today, having spent the last decade purging the Texas GOP of those unwilling to submit to his will. So when we’re trying to understand why Ken Paxton did what he did, keep in mind you can’t understand Texas Republican politics without understanding the profound influence of Tim Dunn, a radical Christian fundamentalist and Ken Paxton’s key political patron. And an embarrassed fellow traveler of Nick Fuentes, it seems:
“In rejecting the proposed ban, the executive committee’s majority delivered a serious blow to a faction of members that has called for the party to confront its ties to groups that have recently employed or associated with outspoken white supremacists and extremists.”
That’s right, the faction of the Texas GOP that just had a blow struck against it is the faction trying to confront the party’s associations with Nick Fuentes. In a 32–29 vote, the Texas GOP’s executive committee stripped out a ban barring the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers. And in a separate move, roughly half of the committee members tried to keep their votes off the record...it’s not hard to figure out which half. This, of course, wasn’t the first ‘oopsy’ meeting with Fuentes for the Republican Party in recent years and not nearly as high a national profile as Fuentes’s dinner with Donald Trump and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago. But Fuentes’s visit to Pale Horse Strategies consulting firm back in October was a very big deal for Texas Republicans, especially after this vote:
So why is Fuentes’s visit to a consulting group rocking the Texas GOP like this? Because Pale Horse Strategies is owned by former state rep Jonathan Stickland, who also happened to run the Defend Texas Liberty political action committee. And Defend Texas Liberty is no ordinary PAC. Financed by billionaire Tim Dunn, Defend Texas Liberty is a king-maker in Texas Republican politics and close ally of about Lt. Gov Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton. Dunn even confirmed that it was Stickland who held with meeting with Fuentes. It’s a politically sensitive blunder. And yet, we still find Lt Gov Patrick attacking figures like Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan for calling the Executive committee vote “despicable”. Patrick actually called on Phelan to resign over the “despicable” comments and his demand that funds received from Defend Texas Liberty be redirected at the same time Patrick was forced into damage control over the vote and assurances that the $3 million he got from Defend Texas Liberty was invested in Israeli bonds. It was just one dollop of bad faith spin on top of another:
And note how Dade Phelan was far from alone in his calls for the party to cut ties with Defend Texas Liberty. Nearly half of the Texas GOP’s executive committee called for the party to cut ties with Defend Texas Liberty. Again, we can easily guess which half. And yet even those demands had been watered down before the vote to a more genetic barring of associations with individuals or groups “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial.”. So when the Texas GOP Executive Committee rejected the proposal, it was already a watered-down proposal and that was deemed to be too much of a slippery slope:
There’s also the still unexplained presence of Texas GOP chairman Matt Rinaldi the Pal Horse offices during Fuentes’s nearly 7 hour visit. Rinaldi claims he had no idea Fuentes was there, and then went on to abstain from voting on the ban after arguing that antisemitism is not a serious problem on the right:
And then there’s the demented attempts by some Texas Republicans to equate meeting an open neo-Nazi like Nick Fuentes with a meeting of LGBTQ advocates. They’re all just “political hot potatoes” that one shouldn’t be judged for meeting with:
Finally, given Ken Paxton’s decision to sue to block an abortion for a woman carrying a non-viable fetus, damn the consequences, keep in mind who Paxton is ultimately answering to: Defend Texas Liberty is one of his top advocates. The group even vowed retribution against Republicans who supported Paxton’s removal over corruption charges. So when we are trying to understand Paxton’s political calculus in making that decision to sue a woman facing a deadly medical emergency to prevent her from getting treatment, it’s important to understand just how beholden Paxton is to the billionaires behind Defend Texas Liberty:
And that brings us to the following December 2018 giant Texas Monthly report on what was then Tim Dunn’s ascension as the most powerful figure in Texas politics. But as we’re going to see, while Dunn has indeed spent decades working to create this influence peddling network, he didn’t do it alone. Dunn had help. From one prominent CNP member after another. Along with a bunch of Koch network dark money:
“Dunn is probably the most influential donor operating in Texas today. Since 2002, he has given at least $9.3 million in publicly reported campaign donations to Texas politicians. Federal candidates and super PACs have received $3.2 million of Dunn’s money since 2010. Quite likely, a similar amount of his money has flowed in obscurity, through a maze of nonprofit foundations, some of which he controls and many of which hide their true identity and never report their donors.”
Dunn was probably the most influential donor operation in Texas in 2018 when this Texas Monthly report was first published. And there’s no indication that influence has waned. In other words, Dunn is arguably the most influential person in Texas politics today. And he’s a theocratic lunatic. The kind of theocrat who doesn’t think Jews or any non-Christians should even be allowed to have leadership roles in the society he is trying to form. Yes, Dunn actually told the Jewish Republican Speaker of the Texas House that only Christians should be in leadership positions. Presumably fellow Christians who, like Dunn, insists the earth is only a few thousand years old:
It’s a political influence empire. But it didn’t pop up overnight. Dunn has been building his influence for decades. In 1998, he joined the board of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), founded by CNP member James Leininger. Recall how former TPPF president and CNP member Kevin Roberts went on to become the current president of the Heritage Foundation. The TPPF is a significant political force, and not just in Texas. Dunn still serves as the TPPF Vice Chairman. But it was 2006 when Dunn formed Empower Texans, which has turned into one of main vehicles for exerting Dunn’s political influence. By 2018, the majority of the seats in the Republican caucus in the Texas Senate were controlled by Empower Texans and TPPF:
And who do we find as two of the biggest recipients of Empower Texans’s political support? Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton. These are Dunn’s political creatures:
And as an indication of Dunn’s ties to the larger CNP network of theocrats, notice how, before he started Empower Texans in 2006, he joined the board of directors of the Free Market Foundation of Plano in the early 90s, which was originally intended to operate as the Texas chapter of Focus on the Family, the group founded by CNP founding member James Dobson. Other Focus on the Family CNP members include Tim Goeglein, Tom Minnery, Faye Bott, and Kevin B. Brown. Beyond that, Dunn remained on the board of the Free Market Foundation after CNP member Kelly Shackelford took over the leadership. Recall how House Speaker Mike Johnson has called Shackelford his personal mentor. Whether or not Dunn’s name shows up on the CNP’s leaked membership lists, he’s obviously a close fellow traveler:
Beyond that, there’s Dunn’s close ties to CNP member Mark Meckler, of the key figures behind the Convention of States (COS) push to implement a far right overhaul of the US Constitution. Dunn co-founded Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG), which is the group that actually runs the COS project. Yes, Tim Dunn is one of key figures behind the COS scheme, along with people like Meckler and fellow CNP member Michael Farris. Again, if Dunn isn’t a secret CNP member, he’s a very close ally:
Finally, note another one of the ‘usual suspects’ fueling this influence peddling network: Donors Trust, the primary dark money vehicle for the Koch network. Tim Dunn may have built the most powerful influence peddling network in Texas, but he didn’t build it alone:
And, of course, when we’re talking about groups like the CSG and COS, we aren’t just talking about Texas. These are groups with national ambitions. Tim Dunn isn’t just Texas’s theocratic headache. He’s got bigger ambitions. And many fellow travelers. Some of those fellow travelers are focused on Texas. Some on DC. And some, like Nick Fuentes, are focused on raising the kind of youth armies of Nazi thugs are will be required to provide the street muscle and threat of violence needed to cement Dunn’s vision in place when the time comes. A time that is presumably coming sooner rather than later, in Dunn’s estimation. And he should know.
The United States is no stronger to being a democracy in name only, efectively speaking. And yet it’s hard to ignore the accelerating transformation of the US from a covertly corrupted oligarchy into quite an overt one. Heck, that transformation into an overt authoritarian style of government is more or less what Donald Trump is campaigning on in his 2024 reelection campaign. But that authoritarian lurch is far from a Trump exclusive. The powerful Council for National Policy (CNP) is deeply involved with those evolving plans for authoritarian rule, and well positioned to make it a reality should Trump — or any other Republican — win in 2024, thanks in large part to a far right Supreme Court majority seemingly willing to make reality the CNP’s vision for a form of theocratic fascism. Americans are, quite simply, expected to get used to government by theocrats. At least that’s presumably the long term plan given that a complete capture of society is also part of the plan.
But no one said capturing a pluralistic democracy and putting it under your theocratic thumb would be easy. As a result, we are getting reports like the following Politico article about some rather significant warnings to Republicans coming from some unexpected sources. Warnings about the political death trap Republicans might be walking into over the politics of not just abortion but contraception. As we’ve seen with the stunning treatment of a pregnant woman facing a non-viable pregnancy by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Texas Supreme Court, the GOP can’t seem to help itself, in part, because the CNP runs much of the party and the CNP can’t seem to help itself either. The CNP isn’t just an elitist organization. It’s an extremist elitist organization with some very unpopular views of how the world should operate that it intends on imposing on the public whether it likes it or not. Dominionism isn’t exactly interested in what’s popular, after all.
And that brings us to the group of conservatives sounding an alarm about the stunningly low levels of support among even conservative voters for an issue that the CNP can’t possibly resist imposing its will upon: contraception. It turns out access to contraception is extremely popular across the political spectrum. So popular that a recent poll found that nearly half of conservative women “would consider voting for a candidate from a different political party” if Republicans back birth control restrictions. A poll carried out by none other than Kellyanne Conway’s polling firm. Conway, along with lobbyist Susan Hirschmann and Independent Women’s Voice CEO Heather Higgins, are now going public with their warning to conservatives about the toxic nature of restricting access to contraception. It’s quite a finding, made all the more significant by the fact that Conway and Heather Higgins both show up on the leaked CNP membership list. Susan Hirschmann’s name doesn’t show up the membership lists, but she did used to work as Chief of Staff for former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, himself a CNP member. So this is kind of an intra-CNP message we’re all getting exposed to here.
It points towards what will presumably be one of major challenges for this big authoritarian push we see the CNP and MAGA forces prepping for following the next election. Because it’s hard enough for a minority party to impose an agenda on a nation that is at least popular with the party’s base. But it’s another thing when even the authoritarian base isn’t on board with the plan.
How is the CNP planning on threading that needle? Conway has a proposal: the GOP needs to advocate for greater access to contraceptives. A reasonable sounding plan, until you learn that almost all of the GOP voted down the Right to Contraception Act that passed the House in July of 2022 but was ultimately blocked by Republicans in the Senate.
Now, it is the case that Republicans have already proposed a bill that would do a little bit to expand over-the-counter access to oral contraception, the OTC (Orally-Taken Contraceptive) Act. The bill was even co-sponsored by Rep Marjorie Taylor-Greene, which some suspect was due to the fact that the bill wouldn’t expand access to Plan B, which Greene has previously decried as an abortifacient that “kills a baby in the womb once a woman is already pregnant.” It’s the kind of bill that feels like an attempt to threat a political needle. And yet it ‘s not clear that will actually happen, with a 2022 poll showing 62 percent of conservatives supporting “emergency contraception like Plan B.”
The GOP’s politics around abortion and contraception aren’t just unpopular. They’re even more unpopular than many conservative leaders expected in the post Dobbs political environment. In fact, conservative voters even came out overwhelmingly in support of access to contraceptives regardless of the cost. As Conway put it, “I’ve been doing this for over three decades and I’m very surprised that over 8 in 10 independents and over 8 in 10 pro-lifers would agree with that...Because some people say: ‘You may have a right to contraception but why am I paying for it?’ That’s the classic libertarian argument.” Yes, conservative voters appear to back government subsidies to contraceptives at the same time conservatives are talking about even more abortion restriction.
And now the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could end national access to the ‘abortion pill’ Mifepristone. The case, of course, was brought by the CNP-backed Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The same group House Speaker Mike Johnson worked for as a lawyer for a number of years. That’s all part of the context of what amounts to an intra-CNP debate over how to thread this authoritarian needle:
“Conway plans to tell Capitol Hill Republicans that they “will lose precious political currency and votes” if they do nothing or take steps to put contraception further out of reach — pointing to the poll’s finding that nearly half of conservative women “would consider voting for a candidate from a different political party” if Republicans back birth control restrictions.”
Nearly half of conservative women are telling pollsters they “would consider voting for a candidate from a different political party” if Republicans back birth control restrictions. Beyond just guaranteeing access to contraception, conservatives overwhelmingly support the idea that the government should ensure access regardless of cost. Or as Kellyanne Conway put it, “I’ve been doing this for over three decades and I’m very surprised that over 8 in 10 independents and over 8 in 10 pro-lifers would agree with that...Because some people say: ‘You may have a right to contraception but why am I paying for it?’ That’s the classic libertarian argument.”
It’s the kind of poll results that some might consider that a dire warning for the Republican Party. Hence, this warning to fellow Republicans. A warning from a group that, interestingly, has a number of CNP ties. Conway and Heather Higgins both show up on the leaked CNP membership list. And while Susan Hirschmann’s name doesn’t show up the membership lists, it’s worth noting she used to work as Chief of Staff for former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who himself happens to be a CNP member. This is a warning to fellow theocrats from fellow theocrats:
And it’s a warning that comes after Republicans in the House and Senate have not only come out against family planning programs but Senate Republicans blocked the House-passed Right to Contraception Act last year. And then there’s groups like Turning Point USA — led by CNP Charlie Kirk — actively conflating contraception with abortion. Kellyanne Conway has her work cut out for her:
So is the GOP going to need Conway’s warnings? Maybe. Sort of, assuming the Republicans’ OTC (Orally-Taken Contraceptive) Act satisfies all those concerned voters. But observers point out, the proposed bill specifically aims to expand access to over-the-counter hormonal birth control, and not Plan B, which could be seen as a feature in the bill by backers like Marjorie Taylor Greene who has condemned Plan B as an abortifacient. In fact, Green claimed back in June that “Plan B pill kills a baby in the womb once a woman is already pregnant.” This was the same months of the Turning Points USA conference, where conservative podcaster Alex Carp made the case that women should stop taking hormonal birth control because, “it is completely altering your personality” and that “many birth control pills are actually abortifacients.” In other words, even the current GOP proposal to expand access to contraceptives is in line with the party’s anti-abortion politics.
And yet, polls show 62 percent of conservatives even support “emergency contraception like Plan B.” The GOP intentionally moderated stances on abortion remain wildly unpopular even with the party’s base:
“Birth control is overwhelmingly supported within the GOP, with a 2022 FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll showing that 93 percent of Republicans support birth control pills in “all or most cases.” A slightly smaller number of Republicans support other forms of contraception, with 82 percent supporting IUDs and 62 percent supporting “emergency contraception like Plan B.””
Yes, birth control is overwhelmingly popular with the US public. Even conservatives. But not so much for conservative politicians. It’s a kind of cognitive dissonance for the party that won’t necessarily be easy to paper over. But that won’t stop them from trying, leading to legislative gimmicks like the OTC (Orally-Taken Contraceptive) Act, a bill seemingly designed to thread this political needle, where hormonal OTC contraceptives will, potentially be me more available but not ‘abortifacients’ like Plan B:
The CNP can’t afford to lose the conservative women on board with its agenda. At least not before it manages to seize enough power that it no longer has to worry about winning elections. But even authoritarian societies rely on public support on some level. They can’t become too unpopular. And that’s part of what it’s going to be very interesting to see how the rest of the GOP responds to Conway’s warnings. The overturning of Roe is more unpopular than the CNP expected at the same time the GOP is growing more openly authoritarian by the day. Something has got to give here. It will probably be the principle of majority rule that ultimately gives, but it’s got to be something.
It can always get worse. It’s one of those lessons we shouldn’t have to learn over and over, but that’s kind of how humans work. We keep being forced to relearn that it can always get worse. Either by forgetting and blundering into an even worse situation. Or just by actively working to make things worse. Lesson learned either way. Learned and then generally forgotten.
It was a lesson residents of Oklahoma got to learn again this week after the voters of District 32 elected Dusty Deevers to the state senate. A pastor running on an overtly Christian nationalist platform, Deevers has called for measures including the banning of pornography and ending no-fault divorce. Beyond that, Deevers called for public shaming during divorces. Deevers won with 55 percent of the vote.
But it’s Deevers’ abortion stances that have received the most attention, in part because they are representative of what has been a radicalization inside the ‘pro-life’ movement since the Dobbs decision and the overturning or Roe v Wade. Deevers isn’t just pro-life. He’s an “abortion abolitionist” who views life beginning at conception and any attempts to end that life as an act that should be punished as murder. This would include not just punishing the doctors who perform abortions for murder but also the women receiving them.
While the “abortion abolition” segment of the anti-abortion community doesn’t yet appear to be a majority, it does appear to be growing fast, in part as a response to all the contradictions and juxtapositions laid clear with the overturning of Roe. If abortion is murder, as so many politicians love to tell audiences, then how can abortion to be allowed for up to 6 weeks, let alone 15 weeks? And how can the women choosing these acts of murder not be charged as murderers? These are examples of the kind of moral gray zones that now have to be grappled with and, as we should expect, a lot of the Christian right has adopted a ‘black or white’ approach to in response. Deevers’s election is a reflection of that. But just one example. Legislators in at least nine states introduced bills that would advance ‘abortion abolition’ policies this year alone. Dusty Deevers is only going to have more and more allies as these trends continue.
But Deevers’ extremist positions aren’t just an immediate issue for Oklahomans. As we’re going to see in the following set of article excerpts, Deevers hasn’t just been pursuing leadership positions in the Oklahoma state capitol. Deevers ran for the position of “first vice president” of SBC in this year’s elections. He didn’t win, and ultimately only got 20 percent of the vote. But it was 20 percent of the vote representing a growing faction of what has become known as the Conservative Resurgence: an ultraconservative wing of the SBC leadership that insists the group is currently far too progressive and needs to be more conservative on a range of issues. For example, the person who nominated Deevers for the position of first vice president was Allen Nelson, a pastor from central Arkansas who has spent the last several years popularizing the “take the ship!” phrase to describe the movement’s intent with the SBC. A phrase that comes with a real pirate flag. Yes, as Nelson makes clear with his now symbolic notorious black flag — that features a Skull and crossed swords that he likes to unfurl when describing the plan — he is advocating for an ultraconservative SBC takeover. But it’s obviously much more than that when we are talking about dominionism and well-oiled Christian Nationalist machines. Dusty Deevers may not have won that SBC leadership position, but he is an Oklahoma state senator now. One election at a time.
As we’re also going to see, while the current president of the SBC, Bart Barber, is deemed to be ‘too progressive’ by the Conservative Resurgence crowd, the divide between Barber and the ultraconservative faction is a great example of just how far to the right the SBC’s leadership is these days. Starting off as a Christian blogger in 2006, Barber had long been fully on board with the kind of Biblical fundamentalism advocated by SBC leaders like Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson, both of whom are, of course, the subject of a range of sexual abuse/cover up allegations. In 2008, Barber even wrote a post entitled “Why I Love Dr. Paige Patterson”. But by 2018, Barber found himself in a position where he could no longer support Patterson, which appears to have been the origin of his split with the Conservative Resurgence faction of the SBC.
What was it that forced Barber to publicly break with Patterson? Well, recall how Patterson, in May of 2018, was ousted as president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, following the revelations around how he tried to “break down” a student who claimed she was raped. It turns out Barber was on the board of trustees for the seminary and therefore in position where he needed to vote on whether or not Patterson should resign. Initially, Barber was one of two trustees to vote against asking Patterson to resign. But then the Washington Post published an article describing Patterson’s role “breaking down” the rape victim. A new vote was held and the board of trustees voted unanimously to ask Patterson to resign. The vote led to a wave of outcry by the Conservative Resurgent crowd. Because that crowd was Patterson’s crowd. And used to be Barber’s crowd. Flash forward to 2022, Barber gets elected SBC president, and has ended up having to spending his time in office dealing with an ongoing campaign to “take the ship!” and push the SBC into an even more conservative directly. Except now, that Conservative Resurgence is turbo-charged with the abortion abolition movement’s growing resonance among evangelicals in the post-Roe era.
In 2023, Barber was again challenged in his run for the SBC presidency post by member of this Christian Resurgence crowd close to Patterson: Mike Stone, who challenged Barber despite the SBC precedent that presidents running for reelection not be challenged. What were the issues dividing the two? Not theology. Barber and Stone are both extremely conservative Christians. The difference was how to proceed on the sex abuse reforms, with Stone pushing for a less aggressive approach that emphasized ‘local authonomy’ over some sort of nationally enforced denomination.
That’s all part of the context of Dusty Deevers’ new role as an openly Christian Nationalist Oklahoma state senator. Thanks in part to the increasingly powerful faction of theocrats who have their sites set on the SBC’s leadership too...seemingly largely so they can go easier on sexual abusers among other awful things. Things are getting worse in the Oklahoma senate. And if Deevers’ allies succeed in their campaign to retake the leadership of the SBC, they’ll be getting worse for the fate of those sexual abuse reforms. But Deevers’ victory appears to be also thanks in part to an “abortion abolition” extremist movement inside the anti-abortion community that is only growing in response to the overturning of Roe. It’s a convergence of unpleasant factors.
Ok, first, here’s a look at this week’s big bad news for Oklahomans in need of decent representation in their state senate. Instead, they got Dusty Deevers’ parade of open Christian Nationalism. The kind of parade increasingly seen in state capitals across the US:
“Deevers’ use of the term “abolish abortion” is no mere rhetorical flourish. On his campaign website, Deevers has identified himself as an “abortion abolitionist” – an adherent of a hardline, fringe segment of the anti-abortion movement that, in Oklahoma and elsewhere, is growing in the wake of the fall of Roe v Wade.”
Dusty Deevers’ election to the Oklahoma senate wasn’t just the electoral victory of a pastor-turned-politician. As an open “abortion abolitionist”, Deevers’ victory represents the rise of a anti-abortion fringe that’s only grown in strength since the overturning of Roe. A movement that calls for the criminal prosecution of women who seek abortions. For the crime of murder. In 2023, nine states saw legislation that would do exactly that introduced as bills. None of the bills passed. But, again, this movement is only growing:
And as professor Mary Zeigler observed, this movement is growing in strength inside the evangelical community at the same time it’s becoming clearer and clearer that “abortion abolition” is, for the most part, a political loser. As Zeigler puts it, “I think that the abolitionist movement is a litmus test for how much the anti-abortion movement needs to win or wants to win in democratic politics versus other means.” It points towards one of the ironic elements of Deevers’ victory: it’s a sign of a deepening commitment within the anti-abortion movement to prioritizing abortion restrictions over electability...which is a recipe for winning through ‘other means’:
And in case it’s not obvious that extreme abortion penalties aren’t the only part of this movement’s platform that is going to be very unpopular with the general electorate, note the other extremist positions championed by Deevers. Like abolishing pornography. Or the end to no-fault divorce to be replaced with public shaming for divorces. This isn’t just Deevers’ position. It’s the position of his fellow travelers. Like House Speaker Mike Johnson:
“Deevers’ remarks this week come as some other conservatives have also discussed the idea of ending no-fault divorce laws, which are currently in place across all 50 U.S. states. These laws allow for a person in a marriage to file for a divorce without citing a specific reason or behavior, such as abuse or adultery, as a reason for their decision.”
Again, Deevers’s isn’t just lone outlier here. He’s part of a movement. He’s not alone in calling for an end to things like no-fault divorces. Just ask House Speaker Mike Johnson, who claimed back in 2016 that no-fault divorce laws led the nation into a “completely amoral society”:
But Deevers isn’t just championing positions that are on the fringes of American society. His extremist views were sharply critiqued by none other than SBC president Bart Barber in 2022, who warned that, “Unless you 100% agree with every jot and tittle of Deevers’s obsession with sending 16-year-old girls to prison for succumbing to the coercion of their parents to have an abortion, he will label you ‘against the innocent preborn.’” What prompted Barber’s harsh words? The fact that Deevers had accused staunch anti-abortion advocate Brent Leatherwood — then the president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission — of not opposing abortion strongly enough. It’s the kind of absurdist critique that would have suggested Deevers was just a troll, if he wasn’t such a sincere zealot:
“This summer, Deevers was nominated for election as the Southern Baptist Convention’s first vice president but lost that race to Jay Adkins, a pastor from New Orleans. Deevers drew 20% of the vote.”
Yes, Deevers was nominated to position of first vice president for the SBC in the 2023 elections. He only got about 20% of the vote. It’s sign of the relative strength of this fringe Calvinistic faction within the SBC. A faction that apparently wants to abolish the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission because it is “divisive” and not conservative enough:
And, again, Deevers isn’t alone. He has a lot of allies. He got 20% of the vote, after all. Allies like Allen Nelson, the figure who actually nominated Deevers for the first vice president role:
“Dusty Deevers, pastor of Grace Community Church of Elign, Okla., received 784 votes (20.73 percent). Deevers was nominated by Allen Nelson, an elder at Perryville Second Baptist Church in Perryville, Ark.”
Dusty Deevers clearly has a lot of allies in this movement, with Allen Nelson being one of them. And as the following June 2021 NY Times article describes, Nelson’s goals are a lot more ambitious than getting Deevers elected as the SBC’s first vice president. Nelson is part of what is described as an ultraconservative populist uprising of pastors across the US on a quest to take over the SBC’s leadership. Or as Nelson put it, it’s time to “take the ship”. If that sounds like pirate talk, it’s because that’s exactly what it is in spirit. Including the black skull & crossed swords pirate flag Nelson has chosen to symbolize it:
“Mr. Nelson is not alone. He is part of an ultraconservative populist uprising of pastors from Louisiana to California threatening to overtake the country’s largest Protestant denomination.”
It’s not just a movement. It’s a hostile takeover, as Nelson’s black pirate flag should make clear. And while it’s a hostile takeover that’s, at this point, still reliant on the democratic process to succeed, the pirate themes underscore how deep the schism is inside the denomination. Not a schism between progressive and conservative factions, but instead between traditional conservatives and ultraconservatives:
But also note a major element of context here: this 2021 SBC election was taking place amid a string of bombshells related to the sexual abuse coverups that continue to rock the SBC to this day. This was following the department of Russell Moore as the SBC’s head of ethics and public policy over the denominations hard turn to the right and support of figures like Donald Trump. It effectively came down to a race between Mike Stone — the candidate backed by the ultraconservatives like Nelson and someone accused of covering up the sexual abuses — and Ed Litton who was representing the more traditional conservative faction. Litton eventually came out on top in the 2021 elections for SBC president, but that didn’t end this ideological battle. It just pushed the battle for SBC leadership off for another year:
And that brings us to the following article excerpt from several months about that ongoing SBC leadership battle, with the SBC’s current president, Bart Barber, currently serving his second and final term as SBC president. As we’ve seen, it was Barber who recently had to deal with the uproar caused by the SBC’s decision to file an amicus brief legal in a Kentucky court case. The case seemingly had nothing to do with SBC business, but instead centered around a woman who is suing the Louisville Police Department, arguing that they knew about the abuses her father — a police officer convicted of abusing her as a child in 2020 — was inflicting on her for years, and had a duty to report it. The SBC brief opposed the expansion of the statute of limitations for lawsuits against third parties, including religious institutions, and added that the SBC has a “strong interest in the statute-of-limitations issue” in the case and that a 2021 state law allowing abuse victims to sue third-party “non-perpetrators” was not intended to be applied retroactively. Barber took responsibility approving the amicus brief without giving it the full attention it deserved. At the same time, Barber hedged on whether or not the statute of limitations should indeed be applicable retroactively, adding “I am not sure exactly what I think about statutes of limitation. I think they are a mixed bag...I am uncomfortable with the harm statutes of limitations can do, but I also think that they play a valid role in the law sometimes.”.
It’s the kind of story that might make it sound like the ultraconservative faction finally managed to get one of their own as SBC president. But that’s not the case. While Barber was indeed aligned with the ultraconservative faction at one point, he’s no longer in the club. That’s, in part, thanks to Barber’s willingness to finally condemn one of the SBC leaders who has become a focal point for outrage over the coverup of sexual abuses: former SBC president Paige Patterson. Recall how Patterson was forced to resign from his position as the President of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in May of 2018 after he after he said he wanted to meet alone with a female student who said she was raped so he could “break her down,” according to a statement from seminary trustees. Patterson and his wife are both members of the CNP. As the following article describes, Barber was one of the seminary’s trustees at the time and also long one of Patterson’s staunchest defenders. Barber even initially voted against an initial resolution calling for Patterson’s resignation. It was only after the revelations about Patterson’s active role in trying to suppress an allegation of rape that Barber dropped his support for Patterson.
And as the article also reminds us, when we’re trying to understand this ultraconservative movement that’s trying to take the SBC in a more conservative direction, it’s important to keep in mind that this the same movement dedicated to ideals like Biblical inerrancy and fundamentalism that Patterson has spent decades leading. A “Conservative Resurgence”, as supporters call it. Current SBC president Bart Barber was fully on board with the Conservative Resurgence until the ongoing sexual abuse scandal forced him to choose a different path. And his former allies have never forgiven him:
“In May 2018, the Texas pastor and his fellow trustees at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth fired seminary president Paige Patterson, the architect of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Following years of financial-related controversies, revelations about Patterson mishandling reports of sexual abuse pushed Southwestern’s board past a point of no return.”
It was 2018 when Bart Barber effective broke with the “Conservative Resurgence”, after years of being one of Paige Patterson’s biggest fans and even penning a “Why I love Dr. Paige Patterson” blog post in 2008. But Barber is no progressive. He was a long-time fellow fundamentalist and believer in the inerrancy of the Bible:
But in 2018, Barber, as a trustee of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, could no longer ignore Patterson’s role in the sexual abuse scandal that continues to rock the SBC. Well, initially Barber seemed to be willing to defend Patterson from the charges. But then the Washington Post published an article detailing an incident where Patterson took a direct role in dismissing a rape allegation and Patterson was simply too toxic to continue to defend:
Would Barber still be a full fledged member of the Conservatives Resurgence today had he not been serving as a trustee of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2018 and had the Washington Post not published that embarrassing article? Who knows, but it sure looks like circumstances forced Barber into splitting with his old allies. And here we are today, five years later, with Barber now the president of the SBC, trying to find a compromise that can avoid the ratification of a measure that would enshrine a ban on women pastors. A ban many of his old allies currently support:
At the same time, also note the interesting juxtaposition here: the Christian Resurgence is having better electoral success at the ballot box than they do in the SBC’s own leadership elections. Dusty Deevers couldn’t win the first vice president election but he’s an Oklahoma state senator now. And this faction has lost the SBC presidency three years in a row now. But in a way that’s not surprising. The electorate for the SBC’s election consist of roughly thirteen thousand voting delegates, who are surely a lot more familiar with the agenda of this ultraconservative faction than the public at large. And as the following article describes, the agenda of this faction — also called the Conservative Baptist Network (CBN) — for these recent SBC elections really does seem to largely be all about a desire to not turn over too many more rocks in relation to the SBC’s ongoing sexual abuse scandal. When Bart Barber was running for his second term as SBC president back in June against CBN/Conservative Resurgence candidate Mike Stone, you couldn’t really find any theological disagreement between the two. The only real disagreement was how to proceed on sex abuse reforms:
“Despite their similarities in doctrine and practice, the two pastors represent an ongoing dispute over the SBC’s current direction and future. That dispute has been fueled by the rise of the Conservative Baptist Network — a group with close ties to disgraced former SBC leader Paige Patterson — along with allies such as Florida-based Founders Ministries. This faction, which helped ignite the national debate over critical race theory, argues the SBC has become too liberal, in particular on issues of race and sexuality — and for a while, had referred to itself as a group of pirates striving to take control of the denomination. Leaders allied with the CBN have also resisted sexual abuse reforms.”
Yes, it can be rather difficult to see what distinguishes the leadership of Bart Barber and his opponent Mike Stone, who hails from the “Conservative Baptist Network”, which looks like a new label for the Conservative Resurgence. Barton and Stone more or less have the same theology. The only real difference appears to be loyalty to Paige Patterson and the handling of the sexual abuse scandals:
And note how Stone was challenging Barton, who was running for his second term, despite the precedent of current SBC presidents running unopposed for their second terms. It’s a sign of just how earnest this faction is about winning back in SBC leadership. It’s the kind of urgency that begs the question as to just many yet-to-be disclosed sex abuse scandals there really are waiting to be discovered:
And that’s all why, when we see news about Dusty Deevers’ election as an open and aggressive Christian Nationalist, it’s important to keep in mind that Deevers isn’t some random firebrand pastor who decided to run for office. He’s a member of the “Conservative Resurgence” executing the “take the ship!” plot to capture the leadership of institutions and drive them even further to the right. A plot that hasn’t succeeded quite yet when it comes to the SBC’s leadership, although time will tell if the ban on women pastors sticks. But as now-senator Deevers’ electoral victory reminds us, the SBC isn’t the only institution this movement has in its sights.
At the same time, it’s not like anti-abortion extremism has grown more popular with the American electorate in general. If anything it’s the opposite. That’s also part of the context of Deevers’ electoral win. He won a state senate seat, but on a platform that is increasingly popular with the evangelical fringe but increasingly unpopular with the rest of the electorate. So should the US once again find itself facing a Donald Trump-led insurrectionary force next year, intent on gaining political power through any means necessary, don’t be surprise if Deevers and his many fellow travelers on this growing fringe are standing there right beside him, framing the insurrection in Biblical terms. While presumably waiving some sort of pirate flag. Because it can always get worse. Especially when powerful networks are earnestly working to make it worse in God’s name.
There’s a battle for the soul of the Texas Republican Party. The Nazis are unfortunately gaining the clear upper hand. So clear they aren’t really bothering to hide it anymore in a strategy that’s part infiltration, part recruitment, and part assimilation. That’s the disturbing reality of contemporary Texas Republican politics we got another reminder of in a recent stunt pulled off by a group affiliated with the Defend Texas Freedom network of political organizations and non-profits largely funded by Christian nationalist oil billionaire Tim Dunn:
Cary Cheshire, the executive director of Texans for Strong Borders, sent Christmas card mailers to the constituents of Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan ‘joking’ about Phelan wishing “Happy Ramadan” and accusing Phelan of being pro-Muslim. The primary funder for Texans for Strong Borders is Defend Texas Freedom. Making it the latest in a growing feud between Dunn’s Defend Texas Freedom network and Phelan.
Recall the recent blowup, with Phelan attacking the Texas GOP executive committee for its 32–29 vote to reject a resolution condemning associations with individuals or groups “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial.” That rejected resolution was actually watered down from an earlier resolution calling for a break from Defend Texas Freedom in response to the fact that its president, Jonathan Stickland, also ran the Pale Horse Strategies consulting group that held that seven hour meeting with Nick Fuentes on October 6. Also recall how Dunn is a Christian nationalist who once told Joe Straus, then the Jewish Republican Speaker of the Texas House, to resign because Dunn believed only Christians should be in leadership positions. Dunn is also deeply involved with both the CNP-backed push to rewrite the US Constitution and the Texas Public Policy Foundation where he serves as vice chairman. He formed Empower Texans in 2006, eventually replacing it with Defend Texas Freedom which has become one of the most important entities in Texas Republican politics today, closely allied with Ken Paxton and Dan Patrick. In fact, a majority of Texas Senate Republican caucus taking money from Defend Texas Freedom. The Texas GOP couldn’t imagine having to part ways with that Dunn money.
But, of course, as this mailer stunt also communicated to Texas Republicans in elected office, if you mess with the Defend Texas Freedom network it will come after you. On Christmas. Even if you are the Speaker.
This ongoing intra-GOP power struggle is one part of the nasty Christmas mailer attack ad story. There’s a nastier side. The kind of nasty we should expect at this point. For starters, Cary Cheshire and other leading figures in Texans for Strong Borders appear to be Nazis. Or at least fellow travelers. Yep. In fact, the group’s founder and president, Chris Russo, was seen chauffeuring Fuentes to and from the Pale Horse offices on the day of that seven hour meeting.
In addition to Cary Cheshire, we find figures like Ella Maulding and Shelby Griesinger. Maulding, a social media coordinator for Pale Horse Strategies, has praised Fuentes as the “greatest civil rights leader in history.” Griesinger, the treasurer of Defend Texas Liberty, used social media to call Jews the enemy of Republicans.
Griesing also sits on the board of a new pro-Second Amendment pact launched by Kyle Rittenhouse back in August. Rittenhouse appears to have grown been embraced by this network as he’s become a right-wing media star. It turns out Rittenhouse was at Pale Horse Strategies during the seven hour meeting with Fuentes. Rittenhouse claims to have left the office after learning of Fuentes’s presence. Maulding was also seen at the Pale Horse offices on the day of Fuentes’s visit, helping to film a video for Texans for Strong Borders
And then there’s Julie McCarty, founder of the True Texas Project, another group that has Defend Texas Liberty as its primary donor. McCarty openly sympathized with the motives Patrick Crusius in the wake of the El Paso Walmart attack. Three weeks before Fuentes’s meeting at Pale Horse Strategies, the True Texas Project co-hosted a “passing the torch” event in Dallas that featured John Doyle and Jake Lloyd Colglazier. Doyle has frequently appeared alongside Fuentes at events. Recall how Doyle and Fuentes co-led a Lansing Michigan “Stop the Steal” rally in the lead up to the January 6 Capitol Insurrection. Colglazier was one of the most prominent members of Fuentes’s ‘groyper army’.
In 2019, Colglazier, Fuentes, and Patrick Casey — the leader of Identity Evropa — were the headliners at a white nationalist conference where they advocated a strategy of pulling the Republican Party further to the right with a strategy of attacking Republicans for issues like being weak on immigration or support for Israel. A strategy that more or less describes what Defend Texas Liberty is doing right now.
But attacking Republicans from the right on issues like immigration was just part of this overall strategy for pulling the GOP to the right. Back in 2018, Patrick Casey of Identity Evropa (since rebranded as the “American Identity Movement”) was openly telling NBC News about the other part of his plan: infiltrating the Republican Party, with an emphasis on befriending and winning over young college Republicans.
So when we read about what might be passed off as a tasteless political attack ad in the form of a Christmas Card mailer, it’s important to keep in mind all that context. Context like the fact that this attack was part of a “attack and befriend” strategy designed to push the Republican Party further to right. And context like the fact the founder and leader of the group that sent out these Christmas cards was chauffeuring Nick Fuentes for his meeting with Pale Horse Strategies, the most influential conservative consulting group in Texas. A scandalous meeting that prompted an initial failed attempt by the Texas GOP executive committee to call for the party to disassociate themselves with Defend Texas Freedom, and then a followup failed attempt to simply pass a resolution condemning associations with individuals or groups “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial.” Defend Texas Freedom won the battle over the political fallout of that meeting with Fuentes and now it’s in ‘pay back’ mode:
“The cards were paid for by Cary Cheshire, a longtime right-wing activist who was previously the vice president of Empower Texans. Cheshire is currently the executive director for Texans For Strong Borders, a right-wing group that has been increasingly influential in pushing lawmakers to crack down on legal and illegal immigration. Texans For Strong Borders is led by Chris Russo, who the Tribune recently reported was behind numerous, anonymous social media accounts that were full of racist posts. Russo is also an ally of white supremacist and Adolf Hitler admirer Nick Fuentes.”
Well look at that: Cary Cheshire, the former vice president of Empower Texans and current executive director for Texans For Strong Borders, sent out ‘Christmas Cards’ attacking Texas’s Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan. Part of the ongoing spat between Phelan and the extreme far right faction of Texas Republicans aligned with Empower Texans. A faction that, as we’ve seen, now includes a majority of the Republicans in the Texas senate. It’s key context to keep in mind in this story. This isn’t a spat between the Texas Speaker and some obscure group. Empower Texans is one of the most influential entities in Texas politics today. Or at least was, before it was dissolved and reformed as Defend Texas Freedom, with which Cheshire is also affiliated.
And it was, of course, the now-former head of Defend Texas Liberty, Jonathan Stickland, who hosted Nick Fuentes during a seven hour meeting at Pale Horse Strategies back in October, prompting Phelan’s demands that elected officials return donations from Defend Texas Liberty and all of political bickering that followed, including the calls by Lt Gov. Dan Patrick for Phelan’s resignation. Cary Cheshire appears to have a lot more friends in Texas GOP circles than the Speaker Phelan at this point:
We have a figure associated with Empower Texas/Defend Texas Liberty launching a Christmas attack on the Republican House speaker. Which raises the question: so who will Texas Republicans sympathize with the most as this attack plays out? Speaker Phelan or Cary Cheshire and Defend Texas Freedom? Well, again, a majority of the Republicans in the Texas senate has now taken money from the Defend Texas Freedom network. That’s one clue as to who would win this popularity contest.
But in case it’s not obvious after the whole Nick Fuentes/Pale Horse Strategies fiasco that the politics embraced by Nick Fuentes are the same politics Defend Texas Liberty is championing, here’s a Texas Tribune article from back in October describing how Fuentes’s politics are very much at home at the Defend Texas Liberty network. In addition to Cary Cheshire, we find figures like Ella Maulding and Shelby Griesinger. Maulding, a social media coordinator for Pale Horse Strategies, has praised Fuentes as the “greatest civil rights leader in history.” Griesinger, the treasurer of Defend Texas Liberty, used social media to call Jews the enemy of Republicans.
Griesing also sits on the board of a new pro-Second Amendment pact launched by Kyle Rittenhouse back in August. Rittenhouse appears to have grown been embraced by this network as he’s become a right-wing media star. It turns out Rittenhouse was at Pale Horse Strategies during the seven hour meeting with Fuentes. Rittenhouse claims to have left the office after learning of Fuentes’s presence. Maulding was also seen at the Pale Horse offices on the day of Fuentes’s visit, helping to film a video for Texans for Strong Borders, another Defend Texas Liberty spin-off which, as we just saw, has Cary Cheshire as its executive directory and Chris Russo as its founder and leader. As we’re going to see, Russo was seen chauffeuring Fuentes to and from the Pale Horse offices. So the founder and leader of the group that sent out these Christmas cards was chauffeuring Fuentes for his meeting with Pale Horse Strategies, the most influential conservative consulting group in Texas.
There’s also Julie McCarty, founder of the True Texas Project, another group that has Defend Texas Liberty as its primary donor. McCarty openly sympathized with the motives Patrick Crusius in the wake of the El Paso Walmart attack. Three weeks before Fuentes’s meeting at Pale Horse Strategies, the True Texas Project co-hosted a “passing the torch” event in Dallas that features John Doyle and Jake Lloyd Colglazier. Doyle has frequently appeared alongside Fuentes at events. Recall how Doyle and Fuentes co-led a Lansing Michigan “Stop the Steal” rally in the lead up to the January 6 Capitol Insurrection. Colglazier was one of the most prominent members of Fuentes’s ‘groyper army’.
In 2019, Colglazier, Fuentes, and Patrick Casey — the leader of Identity Evropa — were the headliners at a white nationalist conference where they advocated a strategy of pulling the Republican Party further to the right with a strategy of attacking Republicans for issues like being weak on immigration or support for Israel. A strategy that more or less describes what Defend Texas Liberty is doing right now.
It’s all key context for Cary Cheshire’s Christmas postcard attack on the Republican House Speaker for being weak in immigration: it was a political attack ad in the form of a Christmas card carried out by Texans for Strong Borders, a Defend Texas Liberty spin off run by open Nazis and close associates of Nick Fuentes, executing a strategy to further radicalize the Republican Party that Fuentes has been advocating for years:
“While Fuentes’ unapologetic hate mongering has made him perhaps the nation’s best-known white supremacist, he was merely the latest in a line of people who have been embraced by Defend Texas Liberty and its close allies despite publicly espousing antisemitic views or partnering with extremists. That includes, among others, Ella Maulding, a social media coordinator for Stickland’s consulting firm who has praised Fuentes as the “greatest civil rights leader in history”; and Shelby Griesinger, the treasurer for Defend Texas Liberty who has claimed on social media that Jews worship a false god and shared memes that depict them as the enemy of Republicans.”
It was always obvious that the ‘whoops!’ explanation for Nick Fuentes’s seven hour meeting at Pale Horse Strategies was laughable on its face. You don’t randomly have seven hour meetings. Especially not with notorious neo-Nazis. But it’s when we see the string of open extremists associated with Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty that the absurdity of the ‘we didn’t know who he was’ excuse becomes glaring. Defend Texas Liberty’s social media coordinator, Ella Maulding, even praised Fuentes as the “greatest civil rights leader in history,” while the group’s treasurer, Shelby Griesinger, called Jews the enemy of Republicans on social media. Defend Texas Liberty is a nest of Nazis. And also one of the most influential PACs in Texas. The closest the group has come to providing an explanation for the Fuentes meet is a statement from the Lt Gov. explaining how Tim Dunn told him “mistakes were made”. Which is undoubtedly true. Allowing the world to catch wind of this meeting was indeed a mistake. It was supposed to be a secret neo-Nazi gathering:
But another part of the context here is the fact that Defend Texas Liberty is gearing up to primary the Republicans who aren’t already part of this faction of the Texas GOP. In other words, this Christmas card attack on Dade Phelan was part of an ongoing power play. An intimidation tactic, by the looks of it. Defend Texas Liberty was making an example out of Dade Phelan:
And then there’s the fact that Ella Maulding was on site during Fuentes’s seven hour visit. This is the same person who publicly pushes ‘white genocide’ narratives almost daily to tens of thousands of followers online. So what was Maulding doing during Fuentes’s visit? Recording a video for Texans for Strong Borders, a group founded by Chris Russo, the person seen chauffeuring Fuentes to and from the Pale Horse Strategies meeting. Cary Cheshire just happens to be the executive director of Texans For Strong Borders. So the person who sent the attack Christmas cards is the executive director of the group whose co-founder was chauffeuring Fuentes to that now notorious meeting:
And as an example of how influential this network has become, we find none other than Kyle Rittenhouse, now a right-wing media star, also present at Pale Horse Strategies during Fuentes’s visit. And it turns out Shelby Griesinger is one of three board members for a new pro-Second Amendment nonprofit Rittenhouse launched back in August. In addition, the registered agent for the Rittenhouse Foundation is Tony McDonald, a lawyer for a number of Defend Texas Liberty affiliates, along with Jim Watkins. Recall the evidence suggesting Jim and Ron Watkins are the figures behind QAnon. Yes, one of the Defend Texas Liberty lawyer might be Q’s lawyer too:
Another example of how this group directly promotes a ‘white genocide’ narrative, there’s Julie McCarty, founder of another Defend Texas Liberty spin-off group, the True Texas Project. McCarty openly sympathized with the motives of the El Paso terror attack:
But perhaps the best example how closely Defend Texas Liberty and Pale Horse Strategies are working together was the 2019 white nationalist conference where Nick Fuentes was one of the headliners along side Jake Lloyd Colglazier and Patrick Casey the leader of Identity Evropa. It was there where they advocated for effectively carrying out the exact same strategy currently pursued by Defend Texas Liberty:
As we can see, Fuentes was publicly advocating a strategy of publicly attacking conservatives for not being conservative enough back in 2019. The strategy that Defend Texas Freedom is now using to radicalize the Texas Republican caucus. A strategy that appears to have been used to great success. So great a success that we now of Texans for Strong Borders — founded and led by Nazis while operating as a Defend Texas Freedom front — sending Christmas card political attacks against the Republican House Speaker. The same strategy Fuentes, Colglazier, and Identity Evropa leader Patrick Casey were advocating in 2019.
But publicly attacking Republicans is only one of the strategies these groups are deploying to radicalize the Republican Party. As the following October 2018 NBC News report makes clear, Patrick Casey had no intention of hiding his other plan to move the party further to the right. A plan to have Identity Evropa members secretly infiltrate the Republican Party. And in particular target young college Republicans for radicalization. This is a good time to recall how women who left Identity Evropa describe jokes about imposing ‘white sharia’ to force white women to breed. As one girl put it, her boyfriend’s view was, “ ‘Women deserve to be subjugated. Women deserve to be humiliated. Women deserve to be raped. Women deserve to be impregnated.’ It wasn’t a joke. ... I can’t believe I supported that stuff.” That’s a big part of the radicalization Identity Evropa has in mind. “White sharia” and virulent open white nationalism really is on the agenda and they want to get as many Republicans in on it as possible:
“As the executive director of Identity Evropa, Casey is on a bold mission. “To take over the GOP as much as possible,” he told NBC News.”
Patrick Casey wasn’t even trying to hide it when talking to reporters in 2018. Which is rather remarkable given that he was talking about a covert campaign to take over the GOP. But here he was, in October of 2018, making it clear to the world, and especially the GOP, that he was executing a plan to get as many of his Identity Evropa members into the GOP as possible:
How successful has Identity Evropa been over the past five years in its quest to infiltrate the GOP? They aren’t going to list all their successful infiltrators. But as the fallout over the now notorious Pale Horse Strategies meeting with Nick Fuentes should make clear, the merger of the Texas GOP with the white Christian Nationalist far right is effectively a done deal. Presumably with plenty of converts. Sure, figures not on board with this merger still exist in the Texas GOP, including Speaker Phelan. But there’s no denying that Phelan’s faction of the Texas GOP is losing this battle for the hearts and minds of the Texas GOP. Just as the coalition of Nick Fuentes, Identity Evropa, and white Christian Nationalists working for Tim Dunn’s Defend Texas Freedom is undeniably winning. Time will tell. Likely in the form of more nasty Christmas card next year. And a lot more unofficial ‘oops!’ meetings between top Texas GOP officials and the kind of Nazis the party just held a 32–29 vote to ensure it can continue merging with.
What’s in store for the Texas GOP in 2024? We’re about to find out. But we probably aren’t going to like the answer. At least assuming current trends continue. Trends like the growing consolidation of the faction of the party loyal to Tim Dunn, the Christian nationalist oil billionaire who has spent the last couple of decades building a political finance machine that now has a majority of the Texas Republicans in the state senate on the take. But also trends like the quiet embrace of Nazis like Nick Fuentes, who attended a seven hour meeting back on October 6 at the offices of Pale Horse Strategies, one of the most influential political consulting groups in the state and closely connected to Dunn’s influence network. As we saw, other figures who just happened to be at the Pale Horse offices at the time including Kyle Rittenhouse and Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Republican executive committee. The same executive committee that voted down, in a 32–29 vote, a resolution calling for the party to disassociate with known Nazis and Holocaust deniers in the wake of the controversy over the meeting with Fuentes. Oh, and the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — one of the highest ranking state officials to be part of Dunn’s political empire — was impeached for corruption and bribery by the GOP-controlled Texas House but ultimately acquitted by the GOP-controlled Texas Senate. Again, a majority of the Texas GOPers in the state senate took money from Dunn’s political machine. So it hasn’t just been a rough year for the Texas GOP from a public relations perspective. The party is in the middle of a very real civil war, with Dunn’s Christian nationalist political machine on one side and the rest of the Texas GOP on the other.
And that brings us to the following fascinating Texas Monthly article excerpt about the rise of Matt Rinaldi, the party’s chair who happened to be at Pale Horse Strategies during that seven hour meeting with Nick Fuentes. As the article describes, Rinaldi isn’t exactly your traditional party chair. Instead of working to keep all the various factions of the party working together, Rinaldi is serving in a more Trumpian mold: exacting revenge on GOPers who have yet to align themselves with the Dunn agenda.
Rinaldi didn’t start off as one of Dunn’s political minions. Instead, he was a minion of Dallas billionaire hotelier Monty Bennett, who financed Rinaldi’s initial run for judge in 2010 before making Rinaldi a director of one of his real estate investment trusts in 2013. From that position, Rinaldi got to know Texas’s politicians on a much friendlier level thanks to the incredible state laws that allow companies to hire state legislators.
In 2014, he again ran for office as an anti-RINO Republican and someone who will try to oust then-Republican House Speaker Joe Straus. Recall how Tim Dunn personally told Straus, who is Jewish, to step down because only Christians should hold power in Dunn’s view. Rinaldi was by this point aligned with the Dunn faction intent on pushing the party further to the right. And boy did they succeed. In 2018, Rinaldi was first elected by the executive committee to party chair with 34 votes. The “normal guy” candidate got 6 votes. Since then, Rinaldi has been operating as Dunn’s political hammer, with plans are accruing even more power over the party, including the proposal that the party chair have the right to veto candidates selected by voters in the primary. Which is, of course, a recipe for an ideological purge of the party, potentially permanently. And all indications are Rinaldi is going to keep his job in 2024, probably unopposed.
Now, the Texas GOP hasn’t been captured entirely yet. The House is still led by Speaker Dade Phalen, one of the top target of Dunn’s network. And the fact that the House voted to impeach Ken Paxton is a sign of just how unpopular the Dunn wing is with the rest of the Texas GOP. Interestingly, it sounds like this party divide follows regional lines, with representatives for suburban areas tending to be aligned with Dunn while rural conservatives have become the relative moderates in the party. The suburban conservatives also tend more to be people who weren’t born in Texas and only moved there more recently and don’t have a memory of the state’s more bipartisan eras of the past. Texas’s suburb are also, of course, the home base of the SBC mega-churches that play an increasingly important organizing role in Texas’s political sphere. So the Texas Republican Party’s civil war could end up with the state officials representing the communities that are home to the powerful SBC mega-churches executing a party power grab. Which is more or less what we should expect from a power grab orchestrated by Tim Dunn. He’s a Christian nationalist. Any power grab he finances is going to be a Christian nationalist power grab.
But as we should also expect, this power play isn’t necessarily popular with the rest of the Texas GOP establishment. Which presumably explain, in part, why Rinaldi reportedly hasn’t had much success in fundraising as the party chair, outside of the money he’s able to raise from Dunn. So Dunn is increasingly the financier of the Texas Republican Party’s operations. And that brings us to the second article excerpt below: Tim Dunn just sold his oil company for $12 billion, which is expected to earn Dunn $2 billion personally. In other words, Dunn has a lot more money to throw into this power grab.
Finally, given the reality that this is a power grab being executed by allies of Nick Fuentes, it’s worth noting what Fuentes recently called for after conservative take power: the execution of ‘occultic Jews’. It’s the grim reality of the Texas Republican Party today. The party chair, Matt Rinaldi, uses his position to expand the influence of Tim Dunn’s political empire. An empire that has a growing alliance with Fuentes’s Groyper Army. And Rinaldi just happened to ‘accidentally’ be in the building during the seven hour meeting with Fuentes as Pale Horse Strategies almost three months ago. The more we learn, the grimmer it gets.
Ok, first, here’s that Texas Monthly article about the rise of Matt Rinaldi, the Texas Republican Party chair with the grand idea of giving the party chair the power to decide who can run as a Republican:
“Rinaldi has a different vision. Instead of tying the factions together, the party organization should be a cudgel with which to bring Republicans in line. With the support of his longtime friends—a right-wing crew that includes billionaire oilmen Tim Dunn, who is a Christian nationalist, and Dan and Farris Wilks—Rinaldi believes he should be the one to do the bludgeoning. For many Texans it has been a matter of some concern that the most-conservative Republican primary voters—some 3 percent of the state’s population—wield so much political power. Rinaldi wants to ensure they have even more.”
The chairman of the Texas GOP, Matt Rinaldi, isn’t your typical party chair who on keeping the Texas Republican ‘big tent’ living together harmoniously. He’s there to represent the interests of the Tim Dunn and the growing faction of the Texas GOP loyal to Dunn’s Christian nationalist agenda. An agenda that would appear to include giving the party chair the ability to select the candidates, or at least veto them. And as Rinaldi has made clear with his factional style of leadership, he’s more than ready to use such power to purge the Texas GOP of the remaining non-loyalists, starting with the House speaker Dade Phelan. Matt Rinaldi is using his party chairmanship to not just execute Dunn’s ongoing power play but deepen it and make it permanent:
Rinaldi’s foray into politics wasn’t through Dunn’s political machine. Instead, Monty Bennett, a Dallas billionaire hotelier, who financed Rinaldi’s initial run for judge in 2010 before making Rinaldi a director of one of his real estate investment trusts in 2013. From that position, Rinaldi got to know Texas’s politicians on a much friendlier level thanks to the incredible laws that allow companies to hire state legislators. In 2014, he again ran for office as an anti-RINO Republican and someone who will try to oust then-Republican House Speaker Joe Straus, who Tim Dunn personally told to step down because only Christians should hold power in Dunn’s view. By 2014, Rinaldi was a fellow traveler of Dunn’s push to capture and radicalize the Texas GOP:
And by 2018, that radicalization was on full display with Rinaldi’s lopsided victory in the vote for Texas Republican Party chair. The guy representing the “normal guy” faction got 6 votes. Rinaldi got 34 votes, and proceeded to wage political warfare against conservative Republicans deemed not conservative enough. And all indications are Rinaldi is going to keep his job in 2024, probably unopposed:
And as we should probably expect by now, Rinaldi’s hyperpartisan ‘us or them’ style of party leadership has him running cover for a candidate accused of getting a 19 year old staffer drunk to have sex with her. At the same time Rinaldi was pressuring the State Republican Executive Committee to stay quiet about the matter, Tim Dunn and Jonathan Stickland donated $135,000 to the state party. This is a good time to recall the State Republican Executive Committee is the same committee that rejected a resolution calling for Texas Republicans to avoid associations with individuals or groups “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial.” This is the state of affairs of the Texas Republican Party:
So is Rinaldi’s leadership at least succeeding in the area of fundraising? Nope. Rinaldi can fundraise from Dunn and a few other affiliated local kingmakers, but that appears to largely be it. And that was the case before the public relations meltdown for the party thanks to the seven hour meeting at with Nick Fuentes at Pale Horse Strategies back on October 6. A meeting that underscored just how closely this Dunn-centric faction of the Texas GOP really is to a growing constellation of overt Nazi sympathizers. Rinaldi was at Pale Horse Strategies during Fuentes’s seven hour meeting. Sure, he claims he was there for completely unrelated reasons, but the reality is he is now part of this growing public image problem for the Texas GOP. And yet, his position is more or less secure as party chairman for now:
Donors are holding back at the same time Dunn’s faction continues to grow in numbers. Which is a recipe for turning the Texas GOP into even more or a Dunn-controlled entity. And that brings us to the following piece of potentially very related news: it turns out Dunn just sold his oil firm in a deal expected to earn Dunn a $2 billion payday. So while the Texas GOP’s hard turn to the far right might be scaring away most of its donors these days, the few remaining donors are set to have more money than even:
““His influence has mutated in various ways and taken different forms, but the end result is the same,” Rottinghaus said. “And that is his brand of politics becoming the dominant strain of the GOP.””
The paymaster behind the now dominant strain of the GOP just got another $2 billion. Just in time to help fill in the donor gap created by all the bad press around the party’s growing Nazi embrace.
So what can we expect from the Texas GOP going forward. Well, presumably more cozying up to Nazis. Which brings us to the following article about the latest policy proposal from Nick Fuentes: the death penalty for ‘the occult element’ among Jews:
““I’m far more concerned,” Fuentes said, about “these people that are communing with demons and engaging in this sort of witchcraft and stuff” than “I am [concerned about] even non-white people or mass migration.””
Nick Fuentes isn’t a racist, he just hates demons. At least that’s the spin he was putting on his proposal for the mass execution of the “occult element at the high levels of society”, an obvious reference to ‘Illuminati’ style narrative, which is the kind of narrative that can be potentially applied to a lot more than just ‘occultic Jews’. Mass executions for the people Nick Fuentes doesn’t like, more or less. That’s what Nick Fuentes, ally of the dominant faction of the Texas GOP, decided to share back on December 8, 2023. This was also just a little over two months after the seven hour meeting at Pale Horse Strategies, when Rinaldi was also known to be in the building. Rinaldi insist he wasn’t there for that meeting with Fuentes. Who knows if that’s true. But there’s no denying Pale Horse Strategies represents the political leadership of Rinaldi’s political faction. Don’t forget that Pale Horse is led by Jonathan Stickland, the leader of Defend Texas Freedom before this Fuentes scandal, the primary political vehicle for wielding Tim Dunn’s influence. It’s not a surprise to find Rinaldi at those offices. He’s an important player in Dunn’s political machine. But that’s also why we don’t really have to ask whether or Rinaldi met with Fuentes personally or not. Someone within Dunn’s political empire was meeting with Fuentes that day. We don’t know who, but someone was. And that makes Rinaldi and Fuentes fellow travelers whether they’ve personally met or not. Fellow travelers with another $2 billion in cash to finance their journey.
We got a recent update to one of those stories that has to be a waking nightmare for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC): the sexual abuse lawsuit against Paul Pressler has reportedly been settled.
This would be the lawsuit brought by Duane Rollins, brought against not just Pressler but a number of figures accused of enabling Pressler’s predations, including the SBC Executive Committee, CNP member Paige Patterson, and Jared Woodfill. Recall how Patterson reportedly settled with Rollins for an undisclosed amount back in April of 2023.
Notably, Rollins managed to score a major victory for sexual abuse survivors in bringing this suit in the first place. That’s because many of the abuses happened decades ago starting when Rollins was 14, meaning the statute of limitations is long passed. But Rollins argued that, while the abuses happened decades ago, he didn’t actually recognize it as abuse until much more recently while Rollins was serving time in prison. Instead, Rollins asserts that he developed a Stockholm Syndrome-like mental state that didn’t allow him to recognize the abuse Pressler began inflicting upon him at a young age. Rollins, in turn, argues that the statute of limitation shouldn’t apply to the time the abuse took place but, instead, when he recognized it as abuse decades later while sitting in prison. The Texas Supreme Court accepted Rollins’s argument, allowing the case case to proceed.
But, of course, the Texas Supreme Court hypothetically allowed for a lot more abuse cases where the statute of limitations seemingly already passed by making that ruling. Recall that extremely controversial decision by the SBC last year to file an amicus brief in a case that had nothing to do with the SBC but instead involved a woman who is suing the Louisville Police Department, arguing that they knew about the abuses her father — a police officer convicted of abusing her as a child in 2020 — was inflicting on her for years, and had a duty to report it. The SBC argued in the brief that the SBC denomination has a “strong interest in the statute-of-limitations issue” in the case, and that a 2021 state law allowing abuse victims to sue third-party “non-perpetrators” was not intended to be applied retroactively. The SBC knows it’s protected a lot more abusers than just Paul Pressler over the decades. It’s all part of the mystery regarding the details of the settlement that was apparently reached with the rest of the parties in the suit. Recall how Patterson’s settlement details were also kept private.
Interestingly, one of the parties, Jared Woodfill, is telling reporters that he was not part of any settlement while also denying any wrongdoing. This is despite the fact that a Harris County judge signed off on a motion saying “all claims, counterclaims and controversies” in the suit were resolved. Keep in mind Woodfill’s odious role in this whole affair. For starters, it was Woodfill who actually served as Pressler’s attorney during Rollins’s earlier lawsuit back in 2004 and negotiated the $450,000 settlement which included a confidentiality agreement. That lawsuit wasn’t over sexual abuse but instead some sort of incident Rollins suffered 2003 while serving as Pressler’s “special office assistant” at the law firm Pressler and Woodfill ran at the time. Woodfill publicly denied for years that the 2004 settlement for $450,000 ever happened until he was forced to reveal it during testimony back in February of 2023. Rollins was apparently just one of many “personal assistants” Pressler abused at the law firm Woodfill ran with Pressler from 2002–2014. So Woodfill, who denied the secret 2004 settlement for nearly two decades, is again denying there was a settlement. But this time the settlement isn’t a secret. It’s a little puzzling.
But there’s another angle to this story and Woodfill’s denials: he’s running for office. Specifically, a Texas House seat currently held by conservative Republican Lacey Hull. Woodfill is primarying Hull by castigating her as a ‘Republican in Name Only’ (RINO) who conspired with House Speaker Dade Phalen in last year’s impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. In other words, Jared Woodfill is playing a very direct role in the ongoing intra-party power struggle between the ‘normie’ Texas Republicans (who are, in fact, incredibly conservative by any objective standard) and the growing faction loyal to Christian Nationalist billionaire Tim Dunn and his Nazi fellow travelers.
That’s all part of the broader context of this story about the mystery settlement in the case against Paul Pressler, one of the architects of the current fundamentalist SBC theology. It was a settlement that didn’t just help put a lid on a lawsuit that threatens to expose the depth of the institution’s systemic coverup efforts, but also kind of cleared the way for Jared Woodfill’s run for office. A run that, itself, is part of the ongoing battle for the soul of the Texas GOP. What was the SBC, or Woodfill for that matter, willing to pay to make this issue go away? We don’t know. But it was presumably a lot more than the $450,000 settlement Woodfill secretly helped negotiate for Rollins back in 2004:
“Rollins claimed in court documents that the alleged attacks pushed him into drug and alcohol addictions that kept him in prison throughout much of his adult life. After disclosing the alleged rapes to a prison psychiatrist, Rollins filed the suit in Harris County against Pressler along with other defendants who he accused of enabling or concealing Pressler’s behavior — including the Southern Baptist Convention and Jared Woodfill, the former chair of the Harris County GOP and Pressler’s longtime law partner.”
This is the kind of settlement that has to have A LOT of SBC officials breathing a sigh of relief. And then there’s Jared Woodfill, Paul Pressler’s long-time law partners who appears to have operated as a kind of co-conspirator in Pressler’s sexual predations for years. Although, curiously, Woodfill continues to insist that he hasn’t actually settled, despite the judge in the case stating the opposite. It’s a denial by Woodfill that only serves as a reminder that it was Woodfill who actually helped negotiate an earlier settlement between Rollins and Pressler back in 2004:
And note the significance of this case that goes well beyond the story of Paul Pressler and could impact sexual abuse cases in general going forward: Duane Rollins successfully argued that the statute of limitations should have begun not when the abuses took place but instead when Rollins realized he was abused decades later. The Texas Supreme Court agreed with that argument, allowing a case to move forward that would otherwise have been tossed on a technicality. It’s a potentially very big deal. Especially for all of the other victims of abuse at an SBC-affiliated institution. Again, recall that extremely controversial decision by the SBC last year to file an amicus brief in a case that had nothing to do with the SBC but instead involved a woman who is suing the Louisville Police Department, arguing that they knew about the abuses her father — a police officer convicted of abusing her as a child in 2020 — was inflicting on her for years, and had a duty to report it. The SBC argued in the brief that the SBC denomination has a “strong interest in the statute-of-limitations issue” in the case, and that a 2021 state law allowing abuse victims to sue third-party “non-perpetrators” was not intended to be applied retroactively. The SBC really does have a strong interest in cases involving the statute of limitations around abuse cases. It’s not a great interest, but it’s a strong interest:
Also note this disturbing detail: Pressler recently bragged about skinny-dipping with three boys who were younger than 10. How much abuse is Pressler still be allowed to perpetrate and how young are his victims? These are some of the questions still looming over this story
Then we get to this very salient detail: Jared Woodfill is running for a Texas House seat. But he’s not running in an open district with no incumbent Republican. He’s running against incumbent Republican Lacey Hull. And already has the endorsement of Attorney General Ken Paxton:
And as the following article from back in November describes, Woodfill wasted no time in not just attacking Hull as a Republican in Name Only (RINO) but also accusing her of conspiring with Texas House Republican Speaker, Dade Phalen, in the impeachment of Paxton. Which is a reminder that Jared Woodfill is running as a member of the faction of the Texas GOP loyal to billionaire Tim Dunn and his quest to turn the Texas GOP into an overtly Christian Nationalist party:
“Woodfill announced his candidacy for House District 138 this week, touting his legal challenges to COVID-19 mandates and LGBTQ+ legislation, and the four “Republican sweeps” that Harris County Republicans saw during his tenure as the local GOP’s leader from 2002 to 2014.”
Yes, Jared Woodfill is no stranger to politics. On top of serving as the head of the Harris County GOP from 2002 to 2014 (which includes 2004, when he negotiated Pressler’s first settlement with Rollins), Woodfill has been one of the leading figures pushing anti-LGBTQ policies in the state. And here his, characterizing his Republican opponent Lacey Hull — who was ranked as one of the most conservative members of the Texas House this year — as RINO. But beyond that, he’s attacking her for conspiring with Republican House Speaker Dade Phalen to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton. In other words, this race between Woodfill and Hull is part of the larger battle for the control of the Texas GOP between the faction loyal to Christian Nationalist billionaire Tim Dunn vs Dade Phalen and the rest of the non-Dunn-loyalist faction of the Texas GOP. It’s one of the reasons this is a race to watch:
So how might this secret settlement play in Woodfill’s run for office? Will Hull go on the attack over Woodfill’s sordid history of enabling and coverup Pressler’s sex abuse? We’ll see, but the fact that Woodfill jumped into this race before the settlement was even reached suggests he’s not feeling overly vulnerable to the story, which is pretty amazing considering how bad he ultimately looks with the available facts. Jumping into this race is kind of the last thing we might expect from Woodfill given the circumstances. But he did it, and here we are, with Woodfill fighting for the Groyper-friendly Dunn faction of the Texas GOP and potentially heading to the Texas House next year. It’s all part of the ongoing battle for the heart and soul of both the Texas GOP and the SBC. Jared Woodfill is an important man in Texas politics today, electoral an denominational politics. Scandalously so, it would seem. More scandalously should he get elected. It’s a race to watch. For reasons truly tragic for Texas.
What are they hiding? That’s probably not the question SBC leaders were hoping would be left lingering in the air following the surprise decision to settle the abuse claims against former SBC leader Paul Pressler. But that’s clearly the question that abuse survivors and SBC members are left wondering about now that the case is no longer going to trial.
Of course, part of what made the entire case against Pressler so remarkable and historic — settlement or not — was the fact that the case was allowed to go forward at all. As we saw, the plaintiff in this case, Duane Rollins, suffered abuse by Pressler decades ago, starting when he was teen in the late 1970s. But he was able to argue that the statute of limitation shouldn’t limit his ability to take Pressler to court because Rollins didn’t actually internalize the reality of the abuse he suffered until much more recently while Rollins was languishing in prison. By successfully arguing that the statute of limitation should only start after he realized what he experienced was abuse, Rollins established a powerful legal precedent that can potentially be applied to the numerous other cases the SBC leadership has been systematically covering up over the decades. Paul Pressler wasn’t the SBC’s only serial abuser. He was just the most prominent of them.
So with the settlement of Rollins’s case — a settlement that ultimately included Pressler, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Jared Woodfill, First Baptist Church of Houston, the Southern Baptist Convention and the SBC Executive Committee — the question of “what are they hiding?” implicitly looms large. But so does the question of “what’s next?” Because it’s hard to imagine the settling of this case suddenly settled this scandal. Especially since the settlement has the consequence of keeping hidden from the public many of the dark secrets that would have come forward had the case proceeded to trial. Hence ongoing questions of “what are they hiding?” Because there’s most certainly still a lot being hidden. That’s presumably the whole point of settling in the first place. To keep stuff hidden.
But there’s another reason we have to ask “what are they hiding?”: there’s been an ongoing Department of Justice investigation since 2022 into the sexual abuse under the SBC’s leadership. That investigation followed the shocking independent report put out by Guidepost Solutions, a consulting firm hired by the SBC to investigate the abuse claims. Recall how the 2023 SBC leadership election hinged on a debate over whether or not the hiring of Global Solutions was a good idea, with the more conservative candidate, Mike Stone, coming out against the decision.
Interestingly, as we’re going to see, the lawyers for Rollins actually decided to include the SBC executive committee in the lawsuit after they attempted to get documents from the SBC during the discovery phase of the case and realized that the reason they never received the documents is because they were in the possession of the executive committee. Finally, a week before the trial was scheduled to start, the SBC turned over 1.5 million documents. Days later, they decided to settle. And based on some comments from Rollins’s attorneys it wasn’t hard to see why they might be interested in settling since the turned over documents included letters from the SBC’s lawyers laying out how they weren’t planning on cross examining the witnesses because that would prove the plaintiff’s case.
Also of note if the fact that the plaintiffs were planning on bringing three new witnesses to testify at the trial, including District Judge Jaclanel McFarland, who currently presides in the court where Pressler once presided. mcFarland was also an opponent of Pressler’s push to takeover the SBC and steer it in an ultraconservative direction. McFarland was reportedly ready to state at trial that it was common knowledge Pressler acted inappropriately with young men.
That testimony never got to happen, but the fact that McFarland was willing to do so only underscores the giant questions of what are they hiding, but also how have they kept this hidden all these years? Somehow the SBC has managed to keep a lid on rampant serial abuse for decades. Abuse perpetrated by far more than just Paul Pressler. And it’s obvious at this point that the decision to settle was made, in part, to keep that system of silence under wraps. Will they succeed? Perhaps, but only if they can manage to keep “what are they hiding?” purely in the realm of questions to be asked and never answered:
““It just left me wondering who all knew and what else are they hiding,” Minick said Monday, expressing frustration that the case would never reach its February trial date. It was his belief that SBC had “calculated the cost of the cost of settlement versus trial and did what they had to do to protect themselves and there was no concern for victims or integrity. It was all just self-preservation. No question.””
The settlement was purely an act of self-preservation on the part of the SBC, according to Russell Minick, a former employee of First Baptist Church of Houston. The kind of self-preserving act that left Minick wondering what else are they hiding. It’s a sentiment seemingly shared by a number observers, and especially abuse survivors, following the news of the settlement. Abuse survivors who weren’t all Paul Pressler’s victims. As we’ve seen, the SBC’s abuse scandal involves hundreds of abusers going back decades. This is far from a Paul Pressler-specific problem. Pressler is just the most senior figure to be implicated. So what’s going to happen with all of those other cases as a result of this settlement? Well they be successfully swept under the rug? That’s the fear we’re hearing expressed at this point:
And note the rather laughable claims on the of the SBC executive committee that they reached this settlement despite being “fully prepared to proceed to trial.” Settling was merely the “prudent choice”, according to the narrative we’re getting from the SBC:
And that claim by the SBC executive committee about being “fully prepared to proceed to trial” brings us to the following report in the Baptist News with more details about what the Rollins’s lawyers discovered during the case. The plaintiffs had three new witnesses that they were ready to bring forward, including District Judge Jaclanel McFarland, who currently presides in the court where Pressler once presided. McFarland was reportedly “prepared to state it was common knowledge Pressler acted inappropriately with young men.” Notably, it sounds like McFarland, a Baptist, was an opponent of Pressler in the SBC’s “Battle for the Bible.” It’s one of those details that hints at a much larger scandal by also hinting as a remarkable control mechanism in place for keeping all these stories of abuse under control and out of the public light. Here was McFarland, a long-time opponent of Pressler’s ultra-conservative push inside the SBC, only now revealing what was common knowledge about Pressler’s abuses. Something was keeping McFarland quiet all these years but not just him. All the people with that “common knowledge” were staying quiet somehow. It’s hard not to wonder “what else are they hiding” when that’s the case.
According to the Rollins’s attorneys, at first they were getting completely stonewalled by the SBC when requesting documents. The lawyers then proceeded to include the SBC executive committee in the lawsuit under the premise that the executive committee was in control of the documents that weren’t being handed over. One week before the trial, the executive committee turned over 1.5 million documents. As we might imagine, there was what the lawyers described as “smoking gun documents” turned over, including documents describing a legal defense philosophy of delay, filing lots of motions and blaming the victim. Along with documents where SBC lawyers stated that the defendants would not depose the plaintiff’s witnesses because they believed it would only prove up the plaintiff’s case:
“Baker Botts identified three new witnesses who would have testified against Pressler, in addition to others who have come forward with their own stories of being abused by the judge, the article said.”
We’ll probably never get to hear from these witnesses, at least not under oath. But at least we are learning some of the details they would have shared had this case gone to trial. Details like District Judge Jaclanel McFarland’s assertion that “it was common knowledge Pressler acted inappropriately with young men”. It would have been a damning form of testimony had it happened. Damning not just for Paul Pressler but the entire SBC leadership:
And then we get to the truly incriminating documents found in the cache of 1.5 million documents been belatedly turned over to Rollins’s attorneys only a week before the trial was supposed to happen. Smoking gun documents like those of SBC lawyers saying they would not be deposing witnesses due to fears that it would only prove Rollins’s case. It’s part of the context of the decision to offer a settlement: the SBC had just turned over troves of damning documents:
And don’t forget the truly remarkable outcome of this entire legal saga: while the case may not have gone to trial, it did at least set the precedent that the statute of limitation for abuse cases shouldn’t depend on when the abuse took place but rather when the victim realized what happened, possibly years later. It’s the kind of precedent that could allow for a lot more of these cases to come forward in the future. Which was, in turn, all the more incentive for the SBC to settle and try to contain this scandal as much as possible:
So as a reminder of what’s at stake here for the SBC, here’s an article from August of 2022 about something that presumably weighed heavily on the SBC’s decision to settle: the ongoing federal investigation by the US Department of Justice into the SBC’s rampant sexual abuse:
“The statement from SBC leaders — including Executive Committee members, seminary presidents and heads of mission organizations — gave few details about the investigation, but indicated it dealt with widespread sexual abuse problems that have rocked the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.”
As we can see, the case against Paul Pressler wasn’t the only sexual abuse coverup legal nightmare the SBC has been dealing with. This investigation is ongoing, and follows a highly disturbing 288 page report by independent consulting firm Guidepost Solutions. Recall how opposition to the creation of that Guidepost investigation became one of the focal points in the 2023 race for the SBC’s leadership. It’s a reminder that the SBC leadership faction that wants to keep this as covered up as possible remains very influential:
What impact will the decision to settle have on that ongoing DOJ investigation? It’s hard to say, but it presumably didn’t help the investigators.
Still, it’s not as if the DOJ is lacking in compelling evidence. Including now the evidence of the SBC executive committee’s extreme desire to put an end to the Pressler case. It’s circumstantial evidence, but for pretty awful circumstances. The kind of circumstances that get more awful the more we learn. The kind of circumstances that calls for some very difficult leadership at the SBC. Or very extensive hiding.
It was a landslide victory. Donald Trump dominated the Iowa caucuses as largely expected. At least that’s what observers expected in the days leading up to the vote. It wasn’t obvious it was going to be a go this way a year ago. But it’s been obvious for months now that Trump wasn’t just going to win but trounce his competition. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley never stood a chance.
Not for lack of trying. In fact, as we’re going to see, it was less than two months ago when DeSantis scored what, in years past, would have been a major boost to his flagging presidential campaign: the endorsement of Iowan evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats, head of The Family Leader, an Iowa-based conservative Christian non-profit with ties to Tony Perkins’s Focus on the Family. Vander Plaats endorsed the winners of Iowa’s Republican caucuses in 2008, 2012, and 2016. And as of a week before Iowa’s caucuses, Vander Plaats was predicting a last-minute break to DeSantis by Iowa’s voters. 2024 was the year Vander Plaats was dethroned as Iowa’s political king-maker.
It’s that victory by Trump despite Vander Plaats’s endorsement of DeSantis that we’re going to take a closer look at in the articles below. As we’re going to see, Trump’s fight with Vander Plaats didn’t start two months ago after DeSantis got that endorsement. It it was just over a year ago, in November of 2022, following the GOP’s relatively disappointing midterm results, when Trump started facing growing criticism from evangelical leaders. Including Vander Plaats, who tweeted out on November 10, 2022, a call for Trump to depart from politics: “Regarding President Trump’s big announcement next Tuesday, I recommend a HUGE thank you for the privilege of serving the greatest country. However, now it’s time to turn the page. America must move on. Walk off the stage with class.” Three days later, Dr Everett Piper, the ex-president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, wrote an op-ed entitled “It’s time for the GOP to say it: Donald Trump is hurting us, not helping us.”
Less than two weeks after that pair of prominent rebukes, we got news about Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dinner with Catholic Nazi online leader Nick Fuentes and Kanye West. It really was a moment when it looked like Trump’s star might be fading.
Then, on December 7, 2022, we saw the launch of a new group: Pastors for Trump. The launch was announced by Tulsa pastor Jackson Lahmeyer during an appearance on Roger Stone’s “Stone Zone” podcast. And as we’re going to see, while technically separate from the Trump campaign, Pastors for Trump has become interwoven with the Trump campaign, operating as a kind of campaign surrogate. A role that became particularly heated when it came to responding to other evangelical leaders like Vander Plaats. In fact, it was November of 2023 when Lahmeyer called Vander Plaats a “street whore” over his endorsement of Ron DeSantis.
In January of 2023, Trump publicly accused Vander Plaats and other evangelicals who had then-recently become critical of him of “disloyalty”. So following the GOP’s disappointing 2022 mid-term results, Trump started facing criticism from key evangelical leaders and, within two months, he responded by first having a Nazi dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West, then creating a new Pastors for Trump Group, and finally by decrying these evangelical leaders as disloyal. That’s all part of the context of Trump’s Iowa victory. It really was a kind of battle inside the conservative evangelical community over since the 2022 midterms, and Trump’s side won.
Beyond the ties to the Trump campaign, Lahmeyer has very close ties to another evangelical pro-Trump outfit that we’ve seen before: the ReAwaken America tour. Recall how Clay Clark’s ReAwaken America has events with speakers so extreme that Christian Zionist John Hagee had to release a face-saving statement about not endorsing the group’s views after his Cornerstone Church hosted one of their events back in November of 2021. An event where Michael Flynn made the open Christian Nationalist declaration: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.”. And as we also saw, Flynn isn’t even the most extreme figure to attend these ReAwaken America events. There’s also Scott McKay, who has been invited to speak about how a cabal of fake Jew” Satanic child-sacrificing Khazarians have been secretly controlling the world for millennia. Also, Hitler was misunderstood and fought the evil Jews. And along with figures like McKay, we also find key Trump World figures Kash Patel and Eric Trump speaking at these events.
As we’re going to see, Lahmeyer apparently is the person who first introduced Clay Clark, a member of Lahmeyer’s church, to Michael Flynn, in early 2021. Flynn and Clark went on to host dozens of these ReAwaken America events and Lahmeyer claims to have attended every single one of them. One of these ReAwaken events was even hosted a the Trump-owned Doral resort in May of 2023. Lahmeyer and Stone were both scheduled to speak at the event.
So we have an explicitly pro-Trump evangelical movement co-led by the openly Christian Nationalist pro-insurrectionist Michael Flynn. And it’s closely aligned with Pastors for Trump, a group that was started less than a month after Trump started receiving open criticism for key evangelical leaders like Bob Vander Plaats.
And yet, while Trump did ultimately win a majority of Iowa caucus votes, it was still a bare majority at just 51%. A substantial number of Iowa Republicans — notorious for being heavily dominated by evangelical voters — rejected Trump. At the same time, as we’re going to see, the growing alignment of evangelicals with Trumpian politics has coincided with another profound change in the American evangelical community: far fewer self-identified evangelicals go to church anymore, with many choosing to get their religious teachers from obscure online figures. More and more self-described evangelicals are primarily evangelical in terms of personal identification but not so much in lifestyle. That’s the demographic Trump appears to have heavily won over. A demographic that is increasingly replacing organized religion with choose-your-own-adventure online religion and Trumpian politics, often casting politics in the frame of “spiritual warfare”. Led by figures like Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.
There’s been an undeniable evangelical love affair with Trump going back to 2016. A love affair that culminated in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, an event effectively planned and executed by the Council for National Policy (CNP). But then, following the 2022 midterms, that love affair began to fade, at least in the eyes of some evangelical leaders. A fight for the hearts and minds of the conservative evangelical community was on. Pastors for Trump was launched. Trump attacked his critics as disloyal. And, in the end. Trump won. Albeit only a slim majority.
The political implications from the outcome of the Iowa caucuses are fairly easy to discern. Trump is the established unambiguous front runner who has a clear path to the nomination. The results make that clear. What’s far less clear is what this fight means for the conservative evangelical community. A community that, itself, appears to have spent much of last decade moving away from the churches and closer to Trump and Trump-style politics.
Ok, first, here’s a quick look at a fascinating piece by McKay Coppins in The Atlantic, comparing the Trump rallies are today to those of yesteryear. Coppins decided to attend a Trump rally in Mason City, Iowa. In other words, a rally filled with Iowa’s conservative evangelicals. And as Coppins eerily notes, while Trump rallies these days have much of the same form as rallies of the past, there really is something different. There’s a stale quality to much of antics. The over-the-top statements about vengeance and stolen elections are still there. But it’s now delivered with an unnerving rote quality. Trump’s dark apocalyptic rhetoric is no longer titillating. It’s just expected now:
“My own takeaway from the event was that there’s a reason Trump is no longer the cultural phenomenon he was in 2016. Yes, the novelty has worn off. But he also seems to have lost the instinct for entertainment that once made him so interesting to audiences. He relies on a shorthand legible only to his most dedicated followers, and his tendency to get lost in rhetorical cul-de-sacs of self-pity and anger wears thin. This doesn’t necessarily make him less dangerous. There is a rote quality now to his darkest rhetoric that I found more unnerving than when it used to command wall-to-wall news coverage.”
McKay Coppins wasn’t sure what to expect when he attended his first Trump rally since 2019. And it doesn’t sound like he found a more circus-like atmosphere than the rallies of 2016. Instead, Coppins found something arguably more unnerving: apocalyptic Trump rhetoric is now delivered with a rote quality. It’s just expected now. Because that’s what is ultimately animating his base. Trump’s revenge agenda is his base’s agenda too. At least that’s how they see. Trump is running an “I will be your retribution” campaign and it’s resonating, like the 71 year old sweet grandma who was hoping Trump is plotting a military coup:
But, of course, when we’re talking about the radicalization of Trump’s base, we’re not talking about a random sampling of the American electorate. This is a predominantly white evangelical base. In other words, that was a predominantly white evangelical Trump rally attended by McKay Coppins. The latest example of a story of Trumpified evangelicals that we’ve been hearing since 2016. But as the following NY Times piece describes, the Trumpification of the evangelical community in the US hasn’t been the only foundation breaking transformation that’s taken place in recent year. Today’s self-identified American evangelical voter is far less likely to attend church than in the past and far more likely to follow fringe online preachers and podcasters as their primary source of religious content.
At the same time, Trump has been elevating obscure evangelical pastors who demonstrate their devotion, like Tulsa pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, the founder of Pastors for Trump. As we’re going to see, Pastors for Trump is basically interwoven with the Trump campaign and closely affiliated worth Roger Stone and Michael Flynn. Importantly, Pastors for Trump is also doing battle with far more mainstream evangelical figures like Bob Vander Plaats who opted to endorse Ron DeSantis. It’s all part of fascinating, but perilous, transformation happening inside America’s evangelical community: the hard right evangelical mainstream leadership is either already openly loyal to Trump or under attack by those who are:
“Being evangelical once suggested regular church attendance, a focus on salvation and conversion and strongly held views on specific issues such as abortion. Today, it is as often used to describe a cultural and political identity: one in which Christians are considered a persecuted minority, traditional institutions are viewed skeptically and Mr. Trump looms large.”
America’s evangelical community has undergone a number of profound shifts over the last decade or so and it’s a shift towards Trump: less church attendance and more intertwining conservative Christianity with Trumpian politics. And a new generation of Trump-backed obscure online religious personalities are on the ascendance. Personalities like Jackson Lahmeyer, the founder of Pastors for Trump. The Book of Trump is replacing the Bible:
But also note that when we are digesting Trump’s trouncing of all his rivals in the Iowa caucuses, this is trouncing that happened despite Ron DeSantis having the backing of major evangelical leaders in Iowa who have traditionally played powerful roles in the Iowa primary like Bob Vander Plaats. It’s not like the conservative evangelical establishment hasn’t tried to limit Trump’s influence. But it failed. Loyalty to Trump is winning out over traditional loyalties. It’s not just a sign of Trump’s success in winning over this audience but also the profound failure of that traditional leadership. The evangelical base preferred Trump’s message:
But it’s not just extreme loyalty to Trump that defines the extremism of the groups like Pastors for Trump that have assumed new leadership roles in Trumpified evangelical community. As we’ve seen, Pastors for Trump has been working closely with the ReAwaken America Tour. Recall how Clay Clark’s ReAwaken America has events with speakers so extreme that Christian Zionist John Hagee had to release a face-saving statement about not endorsing the group’s views after his Cornerstone Church hosted one of their events back in November of 2021. An event where Michael Flynn made the open Christian Nationalist declaration: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.”.
And as we also saw, Flynn isn’t even the most extreme figure to attend these ReAwaken America events. There’s also Scott McKay, who has been invited to speak about how a cabal of fake Jew” Satanic child-sacrificing Khazarians have been secretly controlling the world for millennia. Also, Hitler was misunderstood and fought the evil Jews. And along with figures like McKay, we also find key Trump World figures Kash Patel and Eric Trump speaking at these events.
And that brings us to the following Guardian article from back in May of 2023 about the growing influence of Pastors for Trump, which was launched in late 2022 with an announcement by Jackson Lahmeyer on Roger Stone’s “Stone Zone” podcast. As Lahmeyer told reporters, he was planning on speaking at a then-upcoming ReAwaken America event scheduled for later that month at Trump’s Doral resort, alongside Roger Stone. But as the article describes, Lahmeyer ties to ReAwaken go far deeper. In fact, ReAwaken’s founder, Clay Clark, was first introduced to Michael Flynn by Lahmeyer back in early 2021. It turns out Clark is a member of Lahmeyer’s church. Clark and Flynn went on to host dozens of ReAwaken events and Lahmeyer said he has attended each one.
Another rather notable detail in this article is the fact that Pastors for Trump appears to have formed at point when it was looking like Trump’s support in the evangelical community was waning. In fact, it was Iowa evangelical king-maker Bob Vander Plaats who tweeted about Trump: “It’s time to turn the page. America must move on. Walk off the stage with class.” Trump was getting so much criticsm from evangelical leaders he accused them of “disloyalty” in January of 2023. This was about a month after Lahmeyer launched Pastors for Trump.
That’s all part of the crucial context of groups like Pastor for Trump: it was a group formed at a point when it seemed like the conservative evangelical leadership that rallied around Trump in 2016 and helped craft his attempts to overturn the 2020 election tried to break free of Trump’s grip. And clearly failed as Iowa’s voters just proved:
“But the group, Pastors for Trump, is drawing sharp rebukes from mainstream Christian leaders for being extremist, distorting Christian teachings and endangering American democracy by fueling the spread of Christian nationalism.”
Yes, back in May of 2023, less than a year ago, Pastors for Trump was getting criticized by evangelical leadership for being extremists. Which they most undoubtedly are by traditional standards. But as Iowa’s evangelical-heavy Republican primary voters showed the world, today’s conservative evangelicals have a Trump-oriented religiosity, where Biblical battles are playing out today with God as Trump’s avatar. And that’s exactly the kind of extremism Jackson Lahmeyer is peddling, where theology and extreme politics merge. Politics as spiritual warfare:
And as we can see, Lahmeyer has been integral to the ReAwaken America tours from the beginning. It was Lahmeyer who introduced Michael Flynn to Clay Clark, a member of Lahmeyer’s church, back in early 2021. Flynn and Clark went on to host ReAwaken America events around the nation. Lahmeyer called Flynn a father figure. ReAwaken America and Pastors for Trump are closely aligned entities at a leadership level:
And then there’s Roger Stone’s role in all this. It was Stone’s “Stone Zone” podcast where Lahmeyer first announced the formation of Pastors for Trump on December 7, 2022. But Stone isn’t the only figure close to Trump directly interacting with Pastors for Trump. Rudy Giuliani and Trump himself have both participated in calls arranged by Lahmeyer. Lahmeyer wasn’t exaggerating when he characterized his group as being “interwoven” with the Trump campaign:
And as we can see, the creation of Pastors for Trump took place not long after a number of evangelical leaders started criticizing him, prompting that January 2023 public grousing by Trump about the “disloyalty” of these leaders, who happen to include Bob Vander Plaats, the Iowan king-maker who ultimately backed Ron DeSantis in the 2024 caucuses. This is a good time to keep in mind that the December 7 launch of Pastors for Trump came days after the reporting on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dinner with Catholic Nazi online leader Nick Fuentes and Kanye West. But note the timing: the criticism Trump endured from Vander Plaats as well as Dr. Everett Piper was on November 10, 2022, and November 13, 2022. Trump’s dinner with Fuentes and West took place in late November 2022. So when we see the arc of Trump’s triumph over wayward evangelical leaders, keep in mind the evangelical leadership started publicly turning on him in early November of 2022 and then Trump had his Nazi dinner at Mar-a-Lago a couple weeks later, with Pastors for Trump soon launching. Flash forward to 2024, and Trump has absolutely crushed the Vander Plaats’s endorsed candidate of Ron DeSantis. Trump won over the evangelicals while growing more extreme in the face of criticism by major evangelical leaders. It’s quite a trend:
So what does Trump’s political dominance tell use about what to expect in terms of the leadership of the conservative evangelical community? Well, here’s a hint: in November of 2023, Jackson Lahmeyer was castigating Bob Vander Plaats as being a “street whore” for accepting $95k contribution from the DeSantis campaign. The payments were apparently in exchange for DeSantis and supporting groups receiving advertisements in a booklet distributed at a forum as well as attendance to the summit, lunch, and an after-dinner event. The attacks came shortly after Vander Plaats endorsed the DeSantis campaign, a normally crucial endorsement for Republican Iowa caucus contenders. This is the state of affairs in the Trumpification of the evangelical community in the United States. Bob Vander Plaats didn’t just see his preferred candidate lose by a historic margin. He was called a “street whore” too in the process:
“Bob Vander Plaats, the president and CEO of Christian conservative Iowa-based nonprofit The FAMiLY Leader, endorsed DeSantis for president on Fox News on Tuesday. Lahmeyer, who heads the coalition of pastors supporting former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential run, took multiple jabs at Vander Plaats the next night.”
It was less than two months ago when Bob Vander Plaats endorsed Ron DeSantis in the Iowa caucuses. And there’s Lahmeyer, the leader of Pastors for Trump, calling him a “street whore”. And as we saw above, Lahmeyer isn’t just the leader of a group that has declared its support for Trump. Pastors for Trump has been operating as a kind of campaign surrogate. This was like the Trump campaign calling Vander Plaats a street whore:
So we have an answer to the question of whether or not a campaign can score a historic victory in the Iowa cacuses even after its pastor-proxy calls Bob Vander Plaats a street whore. That may not have been a question we were we expecting to get an answer on in this election cycle, but we have that answer. The Trumpian forces dethroned Iowa’s political king-maker.
It was obviously a big victory in the political area. But what does this tell us about the direction of conservative American evangelicals? A quiet battle for the heart and soul of that community has been quietly playing out for over a year now and loyalty to Trump won.
Is it too soon to predict a special “Book of Trump” addition to the Bible? Because that’s where this is heading. “The New New Testament”? “Trump’s Testament” has a nice ring to it. Either way, the evangelical community’s leadership is facing a number of profound questions. Including whether or not they want their names showing up in the Trump’s Testament inevitable section on disloyal street whores.
It’s not just a question of federalism and balance of state vs federal power. It’s the rally cry for a new civil war. Or at least one might jump to that conclusion based on the rhetoric coming from Republicans regarding the Supreme Court’s 5–4 ruling last week about the Texas border. A ruling that the national GOP is heavily invested in rallying against and turning into a national issue, with 25 Republican governors having already sent state national guard troops to Texas’s border as part of this showdown with the Biden administration. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt even publicly entertained “force-on-force” scenarios involving troops refusing to follow President Bidens orders ‘in defense of the homeland’ and firing on federal troops. And this is, of course, all happening in the context of 2024 presidential showdown that is promising to be some sort of horrible sequel to January 6, with Donald Trump basically running on a platform of winning back the White House through any means necessary. The political conflict playing out over the Texas border crisis is a story that could both symbolize and amplify this broader political crisis threatening already roiling the United States.
But for all the national implications of this story, it’s important to keep in mind we’re talking about a constitutional crisis originating from the Texas Republican Party. And when we’re talking about the contemporary Texas Republican party, we’re talking about a party in the middle of power struggle, with Christian Nationalist oil-billionaire Tim Dunn emerging as the organizing force pushing the Texas Republican Party further and further to the right, especially on issues of immigration. As we’ve seen, Dunn’s political influence was dispensed, in part, through his political action committee Defend Texas Liberty, which has set up additional front groups like Texans for Strong Borders. It was the president of Defend Texas Liberty, Jonathan Stickland, who ran the political consultancy offices of Pale Horse Strategies, which gained infamy after reporting on the seven hours of meetings held at the Pale Horse offices with none other than Catholic neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes back on October 6. As we’ve also seen, the connections between Dunn’s political network and white supremacists goes far beyond that one meeting, with the Texans for Strong Borders spinoff being a prime example. Texas’s GOP is in the process of being radicalized with alarms about immigration operating as one of the key points of radicalization.
That brings us to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, one of the most significant figures in the Dunn camp of Texas GOP politics. Recall how Defend Texas Liberty pledged to run campaigns against GOPers who voted to impeach Paxton last year. And while it’s governor Greg Abbott who is leading the political aspects of this showdown with the federal government, it’s Ken Paxton who is executing the legal strategy. And as we’re going to see, Paxton has been quite open about his legal strategy on this issue for years. A strategy designed to win the right Texas to enforce federal immigration laws as it deems fit. He was even telling audiences back in 2022 how he was specifically seeking legal cases designed to challenge the 2012 Supreme Court ruling Arizona v. United States, a 5–3 ruling explicitly asserting the federal governments exclusive right to execute federal border policies. That 2012 ruling was in response to the 2010 Arizona that become known as the ‘Papers Please!’ law, because it would force anyone in the state to be able to prove their immigration/citizenship status to any law enforcement official at any time, creating a culture of fear and intimidation. Paxton has been feeling confident about his prospects of overturning the ruling given the new makeup of the high court.
Now, as we just saw last week, Paxton didn’t get his wish. Barely. The Supreme Court finding that the federal government had the right to cut or remove the barbed wire was only a a 5–4 ruling, after all. Paxton almost won. And, as such, we can be confident that he isn’t going to give up any time soon.
But there’s another key piece of context to keep in mind in this story: the recent passage of new Texas immigration bill that makes crossing the US-Mexico border outside ports of entry a misdemeanor. Beyond that, the new law gives state officials the power to seek deportations of individuals. In effect, the new law puts Texas law enforcement in the business of immigration enforcement, presumably setting the state for another Supreme Court fight. The law is set to come into effect in March.
It’s not just the expansion of border enforcement powers to Texas law enforcement that has Texas’s immigrant communities on edge. It’s also the fact that this new law is going to result the kind of “Papers Please!” regime of official intimidation Arizona was forced to partially repeal with that 2012 Supreme Court ruling.
But there are much bigger stakes in play here. Because what happens in Texas isn’t necessarily going to stay in Texas, especially when it comes to the legal consequences of the kind of Supreme Court victory Ken Paxton is seeking out on this matter. If Texas wins the right to impose its own version of federal immigration law, including the right to seek deportations, what’s to stop every other state from doing the same? We could see dozens of Republican-controlled states passing laws designed to target the state’s non-white populations with exactly the kind of “papers please” threats we’re seeing unfold in Texas.
And, of course, if Trump loses again and decides to wage a civil war in response, it’s hard to think of a more animating issue these days than some sort of immigration showdown between Texas and federal government. There’s a nasty cauldron cooking right now in Texas. The Texas GOP is dancing to the tune of Tim Dunn’s Nazi-friendly faction and it’s the kind of tune that could become very popular in Republican-controlled states around the US if Ken Paxton is granted his Supreme Court wish. A state-level assertion of the power to enforce immigration laws is almost in their grasp and in the mean time they have an excuse to have a showdown with the federal government. It’s the political equivalent of crack cocaine to today’s immigration-obsessed white nationalist GOP. And it’s probably just a matter of time before they find the right legal case that wins them — and the rest of GOP-controlled states — these immigration powers from the Supreme Court. That’s their plan. And while it hasn’t come to fruition yet, it’s a work in progress.
And in the mean time, there’s a showdown with the feds at Eagle Pass that still has to play out. The kind of showdown that also has the ‘usual suspects’ calling for a show of defiance. Usual suspects like the Claremont Institute, which recently warned Abbott that if he has any national political ambitions he has better defy the Supreme Court:
“The 5–4 decision allows Border Patrol to cut or move the miles of razor wire deployed under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border crackdown. In doing so, the high court temporarily settled the state’s dispute with the Biden administration, which says the barriers endanger migrants and impede federal immigration enforcement.”
The issue has been settle. Temporarily. But it’s as temporarily settled as the US constitution allows thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling. The federal government has the right to remove the barbed wire put up by the state of Texas at the US border. But despite that ruling, Texas authorities were continue to restrict the movements of federal Border Patrol agents along the border in the area of Eagle Pass where the state is still carrying out an unprecedented state border takeover. This is apparently be done under the logic that the ruling only allows for federal agents to remove fencing but doesn’t prevent the state from continuing to block federal access to the border. It’s a bit of a catch 22 legal interpretation. A bad faith catch 22 interpretation that Abbott’s administration will continue to fall back on a policy of blocking federal agents and instead having state agents arrest the migrants for trespassing. Or at least the migrants who don’t drown in river. In other words, drowners will be still be allowed to drown under Texas’s interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling:
And this is all playing out as Abbot just signed into law the new Senate Bill 4 that empowers state officials to deport those suspected of crossing the border illegally, something that is presumably going to make its way to the Supreme Court any month now as the Biden administration has already sued to block the enforcement of the law:
And also note the signs of where this crisis is heading: Abbott as so far resisted calls to declare the migrant crisis an “invasion” with the unilateral enforcement of Texas’s own version of federal immigration law. It’s the kind of precedent that, if established, could result in a state-level political free-for-all on all issues involving immigration. The kind of situation the far right would obviously love. But, of course, that’s more or less what the newly passed Senate Bill 4 will do with the state attempting to effectively usurp the federal government’s border enforcement responsibilities. That’s part of the dynamic at work here. If the newly passed law is allowed to be enforced, it’s a recipe for the kind of constitutional crisis that can spread to every other state:
And as we should expect at this point, the Supreme Court’s ruling isn’t the final say on the matter, even if only temporarily. Instead, we’re seeing calls to defy the Supreme Court for the now-usual suspects, like the Claremont Institute and Texans for Strong Borders, one of front groups for Tim Dunn’s Defend Texas Freedom. Recall the significant role played by the Claremont Institute in the planning and legal rationalizing for the Trump White House’s post 2020 election moves that led up to the January 6 Capitol insurrection, with John Eastman playing a particularly crucial role. The Claremont Institute seems to exist to challenge a constitutional order at this point. So of course we’re finding them cheering on defiance of the courts and a showdown with the federal government.
Similarly, recall how the executive director of Texans for Strong Borders, Cary Chesire, was responsible for Christmas mailers to Texas Republican House Speaker Dade Phalen’s constituents, accusing him of harboring pro-Muslim sentiments. As we saw, the mailers were just the latest in the long-standing, and so far successful, power play going on inside the Texas GOP, with Texans for Strong Borders operating as one of the many front groups for billionaire Tim Dunn in his quest to push the Texas GOP further and further to the right. But as we also saw, Chesire’s mailers were emblematic of the kind of extremist increasingly embraced by the Dunn faction of the Texas GOP. It was Chris Russo, the founder and president of of Texans for Strong Borders, a spin-off of Dunn’s Defend Texas Liberty, who was the figure seen chauffeuring Catholic Nazi Nick Fuentes during the day Fuentes of the now infamously held meetings at Pale Horse Strategies, the political consulting firm of Defend Texas Liberty’s now-former president Jonathan Stickland. It’s crucial context for the political environment Abbott is operating in during this showdown. He’s facing a kind of permanent political insurgency of his own in the form of Tim Dunn’s ongoing capture of the Texas GOP. A capture that, itself, is a local example of the kind of capture of the GOP at the national level by radical undemocratic forces like the Claremont Institute. It’s the kind of horrible context that doesn’t excuse Abbott’s decisions but does help explain them:
And as we’ve also seen, those members of the Texas GOP closely allied with Dunn’s faction includes the state party chairman Matt Rinaldi, who also happened to be at the Pale Horse Strategies office during those seven hours of meetings with Fuentes. But Rinaldi isn’t the highest ranking Texas GOP official clearly aligned with Dunn. That prize goes to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, one of the central figures in the unfolding border fight. It was an alliance that was on full display during Paxton’s impeachment trial, with Dunn’s groups like Defend Texas Liberty pledging to go after GOPers who voted to impeach. Paxton’s close alliance with Dunn — an alliance that only grows in strength the more legal troubles Paxton faces — is a big part of the political context to keep in mind as this border showdown with the federal government plays out. Because as the following article from almost three months ago describes, it’s Paxton house has been waging the legal battles on behalf of Texas in order to assert this idea that Texas can assert its own border patrolling policies that supersede federal law.
It was Paxton who sued the Biden administration back in October, arguing that the Border Patrol’s decision to cut through the barbed wire was an illegal destruction of state property, done to “assist” migrants to “illegally cross” the border. Paxton won that legal battle and a federal judge ordered agents to temporarily stop taking down barbed wire in Eagle Pass. But, as the article notes, when it was judge made that ruling, she issued it with “one important exception for any medical emergency that mostly likely results in serious bodily injury or death to a person, absent any boats or other life-saving apparatus available to avoid such medical emergencies prior to reaching the concertina wire barrier.” In other words, the judge wasn’t granting Texas the right to continue blocking federal agents from saving migrants facing death. It’s an especially important detail in the context of the recent Supreme Court ruling and all the threats of civil war that have erupted in response, because it’s a reminder that Texas is fighting for the ability to have to right to leave the migrants to die under the legal argument that the Biden administration is assisting in an “invasion” of the United States. And it’s Ken Paxton leading that fight:
“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration last Tuesday, claiming that the Border Patrol illegally destroyed state property when its agents cut through concertina wire on the banks of the Rio Grande to “assist” migrants to “illegally cross” the border.”
Federal agents didn’t cut barbed wire placed by the state in order to help human beings facing death. No, it was to “assist” migrants to “illegally cross” the border. That was the argument Ken Paxton made back in October. A winning argument in the eyes of George W. Bush appointee District Judge Alia Moses, who grant Paxton temporary “relief” as the case played out through the courts. But there was one key exception: medical emergencies. Which was not something without precedent. A state trooper reported a miscarriage a migrant experienced while entangled in barbed wire earlier in the year. Even a 4 year old girl was pressed back by Texas Guard soldiers under Abbott’s orders until she passed out in the heat. Maintaining that kind of brutality was Ken Paxton was suing for:
But, again, Paxton wasn’t just suing for the right to maintain brutal conditions at the border in defiance of federal law. He was also suing to assert Texas’s right to enforce border policy on its own and in defiance of federal policy. We don’t have to infer this intent. As we can see in the following March 2022 Houston Chronicle piece, Paxton has been quite clear about those intentions. Specifically, Paxton is pursuing legal challenges to the 2012 Arizona v. United States Supreme Court ruling that found the state of Arizona couldn’t unilaterally choose how it enforces federal border policy. Or as Paxton’s top deputy put it at the time, state legislators should consider passing laws that could spur a legal case “so that once again Texas could be enabled through federal law to enforce immigration.” Paxton was open about feeling emboldened by the new conservative makeup of the Supreme Court compared to 2012. Keep in mind that Arizona v. United States was based on Arizona’s 2010 law that became known as the “papers please” law because anyone could be subject to proving their immigration (or citizenship) status at any moment to any law enforcement officer. It was not just seen as a logistical nightmare to enforce but also terrorizing on Arizona’s immigrant community, legal or illegal. Which, of course, is half the point for politicians affiliated with Tim Dunn and his white Christian Nationalist agenda. And none more so than Ken Paxton:
“Paxton has said for months that he is looking for a legal path to challenge the 2012 ruling in the case, known as Arizona v. United States. At a committee hearing last week, First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster — Paxton’s top deputy — encouraged state legislators to consider passing laws that could spur a legal case “so that once again Texas could be enabled through federal law to enforce immigration.””
He’s not hiding it. Ken Paxton wants the Supreme Court to grant him the right to choose how federal immigration policy is enforced in Texas and to do that he’s going to have to see Arizona v. United States overturned. A ruling that has prevented the Abbott administration from making life much hard to Texas’s immigrant community. The whole community potentially, whether they are there legally or illegally, migrants or citizens. ANd Paxton isn’t just fighting for the power to charge undocumented migrants with crimes. He’s fighting for the power to deport:
And while this is being framed by Abbott and Paxton as Texas vs Biden, note another one of the ‘usual suspects’ cheering it all on: the Heritage Foundation, which was cheering Abbott’s push to unilaterally enforce his own version of border policy before Abbott put the policy into effect. This is a good time to recall how the current president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, isn’t just a CNP member but the CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). Recall how Tim Dunn has been a TPPF board member since 1998. What Abbott and Paxton (and Tim Dunn) are trying to achieve in Texas — creating constitutional havoc around immigration — is entirely in line with the kind of politics we routinely see from the contemporary GOP mega-donor class:
So how much turmoil can we expect Abbott and Paxton to unleash on Texas’s immigrant community? Well, just listen to the alarm from that community’s representatives, like State Rep. Armando Walle who has been representing a Texas border community since 2009 that is about 83 percent Hispanic, who warns that the bills under consideration at the time (and now signed into law by Abbott back in December days before Christmas) empower Texas officials to arrest and seek the deportation of people charged with being in the state illegally. And as Walle also warns, while laws like this might succeed in terrifying Texas’s latino community — especially given the vagueness of the rules around deportations under this new system — it still doesn’t nothing to reverse the underlying causes behind the migrant surge in the first place. It’s just harmful manipulative politics of the worst kind, and poised to spread to every other Republican-controlled state:
“Walle and other Democrats say the GOP’s approach is deeply flawed and could have dangerous consequences for the state’s growing population of immigrants — even those with legal status, who could be erroneously removed under vaguely worded guidelines that, they argue, offer little in the way of due process. While supporters say the bills are necessary to fill the gaps left by the Biden administration’s border policies, Walle said they appear “designed to put fear in immigrant communities,” with none of the deterrent effects promised by Republicans.”
As State Rep. Armando Walle described, the proposed bills (that are now signed into law) appear “designed to put fear in immigrant communities,” with none of the deterrent effects promised by Republicans. Fear that will pervade immigrant communities living with the awareness that state officials eager to deport them are empowered to do so. It’s not just terrorizing for undocumented migrants but their families too, who might also get charged under the new anti-trafficking laws. And yet, as terrifying as these rules might be for the immigrant community already in Texas, it’s nothing compared to terrors driving the migrant surge. Nothing will be fixed by this other than Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton’s poll numbers:
And note the explosion in state spending on border security: it was $50 million in 2009. Today, it’s over $6.5 billion, a 130-fold expansion in spending. Spending that, again, does absolutely nothing to address the underlying causes of the migrant surge:
And note how even one of new law’s main backers — State Rep. David Spiller, the Jacksboro Republican who authored the House bill — predicted that the deportation powers would likely only be used near the Texas border because “you run into a proof problem to determine when someone actually crossed”. Of course, he also acknowledged that, “I’m not saying it couldn’t” happen far from the border. Similarly, Spiller cautions that the new law won’t be applicable to who have been in Texas illegally for more than two years because of the two-year statute of limitations in Texas for a misdemeanor. Which might be true in terms of whether or not the law an be fully enforced against someone. But it’s the kind of assurance that does nothing to remove the day-to-day hassle of living under a “papers please” legal regime where anyone who doesn’t look ‘American’ enough:
And, again, this isn’t just a problem for Texas. Once this precedent is established, every state could end up with ‘Papers please’-style laws targeting anyone who doesn’t look ‘American’ enough. Which is, of course, the goal here. Texas’s GOP is trying to turning being an immigrant in the United States — legal or illegal — into a very unpleasant experience. But not just immigrants. Anyone who might look like an immigrant had better have their documentation ready once these state-level immigration laws become the new normal.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that, win or lose at the Supreme Court, it’s pretty clear who is winning the battle for the heart and soul of the Texas GOP. Who knows what exactly Greg Abbott’s border policies would be right now if he wasn’t facing a political insurgency in his own party. But it’s clear by now the party if effectively being led by the extremist politics championed by Tim Dunn’s Christian Nationalism.
And let’s not forget that warning from the Claremont Institute to Abbott: if he has national ambitions, he had better defy the Supreme Court. In other words, the national GOP establishment is viewing this fight as something that will resonate in states across the US. Which is a reminder that all of this is probably going to be moot should Donald Trump win reelection, in which case immigrants in every state are presumably going to be living under some sort of national threat of arrest if they can’t prove their immigration status or something along those lines.
And in related news, recent polls indicate Donald Trump has higher approval ratings among US Latinos than Joe Biden.
Why would anyone want to be the Speaker of the House in 2024? Or, at least, Republican Speaker of the House. It’s not exactly a forgiving job. After all, Kevin McCarthy didn’t just resign a Speaker last year. He ended up resigning from congress entirely. Republican Speakers — forced to navigate the impossible terrain of pleasing an unhinged caucus while dealing with reality — simply do not fair well under the ‘lunatics running the asylum’ dynamics of contemporary US politics. So what compelled Mike Johnson to run for a kind of political death sentence in the first place?
That’s the question we’re going to get some answers to in this post. Unsatisfactory answers that don’t actually reveal Johnson’s true motives, but instead serve as a reminder that we shouldn’t expect figures like Johnson to be up front about their motives because they have motives that would terrify most people and they know it. Dominionist motives that involve nothing less than the implementation of a Bible-based reorganizing of American society. Specifically, an Old Testament Bible-based reorganizing of American society. It’s one of the important details about the nature of this movement that’s described in the Daily Beast investigation below about the dominionist theology animating Mike Johnson. There’s a simple rule when it comes to whether or not the Old Testament should be the model for society: the Old Testament is the model for society unless the New Testament specifically overrules it on a particular matter.
So how ‘Old Testament’ does dominionism get? Well, as the Daily Beast investigation also describes, it includes support for Bible-based slavery. In fact, even the key pseudo-historian for this movement — David Barton — had an article defending Bible-based slavery on his Wallbuilders website posted in 2003. That article remained on the website until it was taken down in 2022. Of course, Barton is far from the only leader of this movement to openly defend Bible-based slavery. Two important co-founders of the Council for National Policy (CNP) — Gary North and his father-in-law RJ Rushdoony — both took a similar Old Testament embrace. This is the true face of dominionism. Recall how Johnson has referred to how Barton has has a “profound influence on me, and my work, and my life and everything I do.”
And yet, it’s the true face the dominionists would rather the general public not know about. At least not yet. That deceptive nature of the movement was on full display, ironically, during the recent keynote address by Johnson at the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) award gala back in December. Recall how the NACL was founded by open dominionist — and Arkansas state senator — Jason Rapert. Also recall how the NACL advisory board includes the important CNP leaders Tony Perkins and Matt Staver. Notably, as the Daily Beast investigation reports, when Johnson gave the keynote address to the CNP in 2019, he repeatedly namechecked both Perkins and Staver as big influences, and referring to Perkins as a “big brother”.
So when Johnson gave his NACL keynote address and shared with the audience why he decided to run for the Speakership in the first place, we shouldn’t have been surprised if he referenced figures like Perkins, Staver, or even Barton. But that’s not who Johnson cited as the figure who talked him into running. Nope, that figure was God. As Johnson tells it, God repeatedly spoke to him in the middle of the night. At first, Johnson felt like the message from god was for him to play a role analogous to the role Aaron played in assisting Moses in the Bible. Johnson needed to get ready for a “parting of the Red Sea” moment, both for the Republican Party and the United States at large. But, as Johnson recounts, as one Speaker candidate after another went down in failure, God kept speaking to Johnson and eventually Johnson realized that it was the role of Moses, not Aaron, that God wanted him to fulfill. That was when he decided to run for the Speakership.
Interestingly, before Johnson got into all these details about God’s will, he shared how pleased he was that the NACL hadn’t invited the media to the event. As Johnson put to the audience, “I’ll tell you a secret, since media is not here.” What he didn’t seem to realize was that the NACL was recording the event and posted it on Facebook. Oops.
So has Mike Johnson been engaging in conversations with God and were those conversations the true motivation for running for the Speakership? That’s what claims. Which happen to clash with claims made by Johnson’s “big brother” Tony Perkins just days after Johnson won the Speakership. As Perkins told the Christian Post, “There was a need for leadership, and Mike and I had been talking about that and just praying through it and felt like the opportunity was going to come where a leader like him could step forward, and that did, in fact, occur.”
Who should we believe? Johnson and his conversations with God stories? Or Perkins’s admissions about the “big brother” role he played in encouraging Johnson to run? While it would be interesting to know how many more alleged conversations with God Johnson has been engaging in lately, it doesn’t really matter. Either way, we’re talking about a dominionist movement whose power has yet to peak. And it’s very possible, should Donald Trump somehow win back the White House, that this movement will once again have solid control of all the branches of the federal government, much like they had from 2017–2018. But this time, with the CNP’s ongoing Project 2025/Schedule F scheme, they’re going to be ready to fully exploit the opportunity, while recognizing that the public at large is going to have to be kept in the dark about the nature of their vision for the future of the United States. That’s why Mike Johnson’s weird ‘I have a secret...God told me I’m the new Moses’ story is more than just some personal religious quirk. It’s a reflection of the hidden extremism at work here. Old Testament extremism:
“Johnson addressed the National Association of Christian Lawmakers at the group’s award gala at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Perhaps unaware that the event was being recorded for the NACL Facebook page, Johnson told the crowd: “I’ll tell you a secret, since media is not here.” (“Thank you for not allowing the media in,” Johnson added, alleging that journalists have been taking his comments “out of context” with “great joy for the last few weeks.”)”
Whoops! Someone forgot to tell Mike Johnson about the NACL’s Facebook feed. Who knows how Johnson ended up making that mistake. Perhaps he, rather reasonably, assumed that a group radical and extremist as the NACL wouldn’t be putting a recording of their gala event out to the public? Who would have suspected that a group that’s effectively ‘ALEC for theocracy’ would post this event on Facebook? Mike Johnson obviously didn’t suspect it, and for good reason. It’s not like journalists weren’t going to be on the lookout for content from the event. Johnson’s decision to accept the keynote address was already in the news. So Johnson gave his keynote address with his guard down and shared the kind of details about his religiosity that he apparently doesn’t want to share with the broader public. Specifically, the details of how he arrived at the decision to run for Speaker of the House: God repeatedly spoke to Mike Johnson in the middle of the night with a message that Johnson first interpreted as a desire by God for Johnson to play the role of Aaron to Moses. He needed to prepare for a “Red Sea moment”, both for the Republican conference “and in the country at large”. But as one candidate for House Speaker after another went down, Johnson realized through further conversations with God that Moses was the role God had in mind for Johnson. Johnson isn’t going to help some other Republican ‘part the Red Sea’. He’s going to be the one doing the parting. It’s God’s will:
And that divine calling that brought Johnson into the Speakership brings us to the following Daily Beast investigation into Johnson’s dominionist ties. And as experts cautioned, there’s no reason to expect Johnson to be open about his dominionism. It’s kept hidden for a reason, typically behind an ‘aww shucks’ folksy veneer. That reason being that the vast majority of Americans, including devout Christians, probably wouldn’t approve of the kind of theocratic vision Johnson has for how the United States should operate. A vision that doesn’t simply merge lawmaking with ‘the Bible’. It’s a merger of government and the Old Testament. The same Old Testament that justified things like Biblical slavery.
Yes, Biblical slavery is just one of many Old Testament norms this dominionist movement would like to see again enshrined in law. Because according to this strain of theology, everything in the Old Testament that Jesus didn’t explicitly denounce should be considered God’s law. Including Biblical slavery. It’s not a fringe view within this movement. For example, even key pseudo-historian for this movement, David Barton, wrote an essay in 2003 defending Biblical slavery and challenging aspects of the 13th amendment that freed the slaves. That essay remained available on his Wallbuilders website for nearly 20 years, finally getting taken down in 2022.
As the article highlights, even CNP-cofounders Gary North and RJ Rushdoony backed Biblical slavery. Because, again, they were Old Testament dominionists. These are the actual theological foundations of this network. Keep in mind Johnson gave the CNP’s keynote address in 2019. Notable, when the Daily Beast directly posed questions to Johnson’s office about his ties to figures who endorse Biblical slavery, his office returned with a kind of non-answer dodge.
And, returning to Johnson’s interesting claims during his NACL keynote address about that fateful decision. Claims made not by Johnson but instead by one of his long-standing key allies: Tony Perkins, founder of the Family Research Council. As the article mentions, Johnson isn’t shy about the influence Perkins has played on his career. In fact, during his 2019 keynote address to the CNP, Johnson namechecked Perkins multiple times, referring to him as a “big brother”. Recall how Perkins was the president of the CNP from 2014 until at least 2018.
Another figure namechecked by Johnson during that 2019 CNP keynote address was Matt Staver. Recall how Perkins and Staver — both members high-level members of the CNP — also served on the advisory board of the NACL.
Now, what did Perkins have to share about Johnson’s decision to run for the Speakership? Well, as Perkins described to the Christian Post days after Johnson won the Speakership, “There was a need for leadership, and Mike and I had been talking about that and just praying through it and felt like the opportunity was going to come where a leader like him could step forward, and that did, in fact, occur.”
So who had a bigger role in Johnson’s decision to run for the Speakership? Tony Perkins? Or God? On one level, it’s a silly question. But on another level, when you think about the distorted power-worshipping nature of the dominionist theology Johnson claims to follow — a theology seemingly devoid of any of the real teachings of Jesus about compassion and grace — it’s a legitimate question. When someone is secretly backing a theological power grab on behalf a movement that is ok with Biblical slavery, it’s hard not to wonder what they truly believe. We can’t trust what Johnson says he believes. He’s demonstrably deceptive about that. But we can observe his actions. And as the Daily Beast investigation shows, Mike Johnson hasn’t just been acting like a theocrat. He’s been a key actor for a theocratic movement that worships at the altar of wealth and power....along with the mass deception needed to keep is safe from scrutiny:
“A Daily Beast investigation of his affiliations, influences, and public statements shows that Johnson’s worldview was forged in a radical theological tradition—the leaders and adherents of which have disputed some of the country’s most important constitutional principles, including amendments that freed the slaves and extended basic rights to all citizens.”
Mike Johnson’s religious radicalism isn’t exactly a secret. But that doesn’t mean the depths of that radicalism is recognized. It’s not a secret. But he’s not open about it either. Or at least not intentionally open, as he made clear about in his ‘God told me to run for the Speaker’ keynote speech at the NACL gala. And yet, as the answers to the Daily Beast’s questions addressed to Johnson’s office about his extensive ties to the world of dominionism make clear, he’s unwilling to denounce dominionism too. Even when pressed on issues like the dominionist justification of Biblical slavery. His office refused to denounce Biblical slavery and instead tried to spin the question away. It’s a pretty big red flag:
And it’s not like a theological justification for Biblical slavery is something we find in just a handful of fringe figures in this movement. Even David Barton — key pseudo-historian for this movement — wrote an essay in 2003 defending Biblical slavery and challenging aspects of the 13th amendment that freed the slaves. An essay that stayed up on his Wallbuilders website for nearly 20 years:
But it’s not just Johnson’s affiliations that make him such a concerning individual to hold the House Speakership. There’s also his years working as a lawyer for the ADF. Recall how the ADF received large donations from the Betsy DeVos and Erik Prince and funneled that money into supporting Christian nationalist movements in Europe and backed a 2016 Belize law that punished homosexual sex with 10 years in prison. Also recall how the ADF has been playing a major behind the scenes role in shaping the current manufactured anti-trans panic. At the same time, the ADF shows up on the list of organizations involved with the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme. CNP member Michael Farris, who co-founded the “Convention of States” project designed to overhaul the Constitution — has served as the President and CEO of the ADF. And when we look at Mike Johnson’s work as an ADF lawyer, we find him representing some of the most open defenders of ‘pro-life’ violence like Grant Storms and his son Jason Storms. When it comes to Mike Johnson’s crypto-theocratic orientation, it’s both a matter of guilt by association and built by action. A broad spectrum of available evidence going back decades clearly implicates Johnson as being a hard core theocrat, whether he’s open about it with the public or not:
But Johnson’s ties to this network aren’t just through his work as an ADF lawyer or ties to personalities like David Barton. There’s the fact that the CNP is effectively the leading dominionist organizing entity in the US at this point. Along with the fact that you can’t understand the power dynamics of the contemporary GOP without recognizing the enormous behind-the-scenes influence the CNP wields over the GOP’s operations. Behind-the-scenes operations that became a lot less behind-the-scenes with Mike Johnson’s ascension to the speakership. And as we can see, the origins of the CNP included figures like Gary North and his father-in-law RJ Rushdoony, both of whom embraced an Old Testament model for society. An Old Testament that happens to endorse slavery. That’s part of the significance of Johnson’s keynote address at the 2019 CNP annual meeting. But there’s also the fact that Johnson namechecked both Tony Perkins and Matt Staver during his address. Recall how Perkins and Staver — both members high-level members of the CNP — also served on the advisory board of the NACL, which is also a reminder that we can’t really separate the NACL from the CNP. Both organizations are working towards the same goal, with largely overlapping leadership:
But when it comes to Mike Johnson’s relationship to Tony Perkins — who happened to be the president of the CNP from 2014 to at least 2018 — we don’t just find Perkins serving as a kind of a “big brother” to Johnson. As Perkins himself described, it was Perkins who apparently sat down and talked Johnson into running for the Speakership. And yet, Perkins doesn’t mention any conversions with God:
Did Johnson share with Perkins all of his various Aaron-then-Moses divine revelations he was allegedly experience during this period? Perkins didn’t bring it up. But who knows, maybe they had lots of conversations about Johnson’s conversations with God. Again, it doesn’t really matter. What’s important here is the fact that one of Tony Perkins’s long-standing dominionist operatives now holds the Speakership. And whether or not God really did tell Mike Johnson to run for that office, that’s their story and they’re sticking to it. Because that’s how dominionism works. If dominionist society seems like an authoritarian hellscape it’s because that’s how God wills it to be. It’s the future of American democracy. Or rather, American theocracy. God-derived laws channeled through elite holy servants like Mike Johnson. And don’t be too worried about any future calamities caused by this movement that threatens to tear the United States asunder. It’s just the upcoming modern version of the ‘parting of the Red Sea’. Mike Johnson, aka Moses II, has it covered.
Credit where credit’s due: Donald Trump is an excellent bloviator. The guy can talk about almost anything without really saying anything at all. Maybe it’s an acquired skill. Perhaps it’s dementia. Either way, the guy knows how to ramble. It’s a demonstrably handy skill for someone operating under Trump’s Chaos Agent political brand where it’s really all about breaking stuff and getting away with it.
And yet, it’s not clear that Trump’s formidable rhetorical obfuscation skills are going to be enough to get him out of the political pickle created by what was arguably his only real ‘success’ from his first term in office: stacking the Supreme Court with a 6–3 far right majority. Because as one Supreme Court ruling after another is reminding the American public, elections have consequences. Especially presidential elections. Consequences that can linger for decades to come thanks to the relatively young ages of Trump’s court picks. Consequences that now include the overturning of Roe v Wade and all of the political and real-world turmoil created by that decision.
Put simply, Trump as a Supreme Court problem. It’s primarily an abortion problem right now, but as we learned with last week’s Alabama Supreme Court ruling that conferred personhood rights onto frozen embryos, imperiling the ability for Alabama families to use in vitro fertilization, it’s not going to remain an abortion problem. The political dilemmas created by the overturning of Roe are only going to grow for Trump. He really does need to get a handle on these dynamics.
But can he? What can Trump possibly do to find some sort of common ground on issues like that will satisfy his ardent pro-life base while calming the fears of, well, anyone who wants to start a family without worrying about a pregnancy-related complication killing the mother. Or, thanks to the Alabama ruling, wants to start a family with IVF. And don’t forget, while the Alabama ruling just applies to Alabama, it’s the kind of ruling that’s going to make its way to the Supreme Court. There’s no reason to assume embryonic personhood won’t be a federally enforced reality after this case gets its Supreme Court review. Especially if Trump wins the election and gets a chance to stack the court with even more extreme justices.
But all those challenges doesn’t mean the Trump campaign doesn’t have a plan. And it looks like we may have gotten a hint as to the nature of that about a week and a half ago in the form of a fascinating New York Times report ostensibly describing Trump’s private thinking on the topic of abortion. The piece is based entirely on two anonymous sources said to be familiar with Trump’s thinking on the matter. And as we’re going to see, Trump has apparently arrived at the conclusion that a federal 16 week abortion ban, with exceptions for medical situations after 16-weeks, could be the compromise he’s looking for that will satisfy all the sides. Beyond that, these sources say Trump has privately been blaming the Republican Party’s relative underperformance in 2022 and 2023 to the overturning of Roe, which was overwhelmingly responsible for the GOP’s poor showing, according to Trump’s thinking. In other words, Trump has a culprit for the GOP’s poor showing in recent years and that culprit isn’t named Donald J. Trump. The culprit is named Dobbs.
It’s a remarkable report, in part because it’s not clear what the motive was of the two anonymous sources. Where they ardent pro-life activists alarmed by Trump’s thinking on the topic? Or was this a deliberate strategic leak? Because if you read between the lines, Trump is effectively asking his Christian fundamentalist base for a pass on this issue. At least until he’s elected. Trump desperately wants to be able to campaign on something like a 16-week federal ban and yet, as we’ve seen, that base has zero interest in something as loose as a 16-week ban. In comparison, recall the position taken by now-former presidential candidate Ron DeSantis: a federal 6‑week ‘heartbeat’ ban that put DeSantis in line with what we were hearing from Heritage’s Vice President of Domestic Policy, Roger Severino, declaring in October 2022 that he wants to see “heartbeat or better for the next presidential candidate that is conservative”, which is effectively a call for a 6‑weeks (or less) national abortion ban from the next GOP candidate. And 6‑weeks is, quite frankly, 6 more weeks than many pro-life activists want to see at all. After all, if ‘life begins at conception’, 0‑weeks is the only acceptable option.
And that brings us back to the Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF ruling, which came just days after this New York Times report on Trump’s abortion tightrope. A ruling that not only appeared to take the “life begins at conception” concept very seriously, but was done using straight up Dominionist theological language. Yep, it turns out the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Tom Parker, is a longtime ardent Dominionist who has for decades been seen as one of the pro-life movement’s top activists with his ability to make rulings with the aim of enshrining fetal personhood in law. In years past, the primary direct goal of these rulings was to lay the pretext for a Supreme Court case that could lead to the overturning of Roe. But today, these kinds of rulings are about the next steps. The restrictions long-feared by pro-choice activists that would inevitably come after Roe’s fall. Like extending fetal personhood rights and ending IVF treatments in the process. This was always the long-term goal of the pro-life movement, and especially hard core Dominionists like Parker.
That’s all part of the context of Trump’s apparent desire to get the permission to run on a 16-week ‘compromise’ federal abortion ban. Literally just days after that report, which almost reads like a cry for help from the Trump campaign, Alabama’s dominionist-led Supreme Court dropped this political time bomb in his lap. But it gets more ominous for Trump’s plans for getting some sort of abortion pass: on the same day of the Alabama ruling, a QAnon-friend dominionist podcaster, Johnny Enlow, posted a new interview with Justice Parker. Enlow, of author of “The Seven Mountain Prophecy,” praised Parker for being a “pioneer” for the movement. Parker, for his part, demonstrated a familiarity with Enlow’s work. In other words, Parker didn’t just accidentally show up on a dominionist QAnon podcast.
As we’re also going to see, Parker’s history in the movement includes his role in setting up a pair of think tanks associated with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. Recall how Dobson is a founding member of the Council for National Policy (CNP). Later, Parker served as the legal lieutenant, strategist and spokesman for none other than CNP member Roy Moore, who himself served as Alabama’s Supreme Court Chief Justice from 2000–2003. Moore was eventually ousted in 2003 after he defied court rulings ordering him to remove a giant 2 1/2 ton statue of the Ten Commandments that he placed on the courthouse grounds in 2001. Following Moore’s ouster, Parker went on to serve at Moore’s Foundation for Moral Law, a think tank that promoted Biblical Reconstructionism, a form of dominionism. When Parker was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court himself in 2004, he recruited John Eidsmoe to be his chief of staff. Eidsmoe is an ex-law professor and author of several seminal Reconstructionist works.
By 2013, Parker earned the praises of Matt Staver. As Staver put it, “He’s someone who really takes time to read history and the development of jurisprudence...He’s not a surface thinker.” Recall the 2016 report about the leaked 2014 CNP membership list that listed Staver a CNP board member, alongside fellow CNP board members like the League of the South’s Mike Peroutka who is also an open advocate of the theocratic imposition of the Old Testament. Staver also sits on the advisory board of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL), which is like ALEC for Dominionism. And let’s not forget who repeatedly namechecked Staver as a major influence on his during during the keynote address of last year’s NACL gala event: House Speaker Mike Johnson. It’s a reminder that the CNP is the ultimate dominionists organizing institution in the United States today.
So the same day Alabama exacerbates Trump’s political abortion-related perils, the leading author of ruling basically engages in a victory lap with a fellow dominionist on a QAnon podcast. Parker knows how to play to the crowd too. So given the palpable enthusiasm from organized dominionism for more restrictions now, will Parker and his fellow dominionists be willing to government Trump a pass for the rest of the year on not just abortion but a whole host of related issues like fetal personhood? That’s what we’re going to find out, either in the form of outcry from pro-life leaders over Trump’s proposed 16-week federal ban compromise...or their eerie strategic silence:
“When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Mr. Trump told advisers that he believed the decision was going to be harmful to Republicans. Since then, he has formed the view that the abortion issue is overwhelmingly responsible for a string of Republican losses in congressional races.”
Trump has found his culprit: the collapse of Roe. That’s why Republicans keep losing. Not Trump’s antics and chaos. This is the conclusion Trump has privately arrived at, according to this report based on two anonymous sources familiar with Trump’s private thinking on the matter. Private thinking that is now reported on in the New York Times and not very private anymore. This was either two people betraying Trump’s confidence, or two people helping Trump deliver a message to a core constituency that can’t be directly communicated. A message warning Trump’s pro-life supporters that he’s planning on running as far less overtly pro-life than many of those supporters might prefer. So this was either a warning call by disappointed pro-life Trump insiders or, more likely, just one part of deliberate communications campaign designed to set expectations for Trump’s pro-Life base. Expectations that come with the implicit wink & nod that he’s taking these positions in order to get elected.
And let’s face it, he’s probably largely correct in that political assessment. As damaging as Trump himself may have been in 2018 and 2020, he wasn’t on the ballot or in office in 2022 or 2023, when the GOP seriously underperformed. Which is part of why it’s so interesting that the message these anonymous sources are sharing is a message of how Trump is seeking some sort of compromise on the issue of abortion that ‘can make everyone happy’. A compromise that wil allow Trump to avoid the fate of losing the whole election on this issue. In other words, a vital public compromise that Trump’s pro-life Christian fundamentalist base has to allow him to public make if they want to maintain their generational lock on the Supreme Court. T
hat’s all part of the context of Trump’s proposed 16 week federal ban. He’s hoping to get permission from his base to run on a political palatable ‘compromise’. A 16-week compromise if we take what he’s been saying at face value. Of course, that 16-week federal ban proposal is implicitly just an opening bid. Trump is going to have to compromise on that, presumably in the direction of 0 weeks. A compromise Trump hinted at back in September when he predicted, “What’s going to happen is you’re going to come up with a number of weeks or months...You’re going to come up with a number that’s going to make people happy.” That’s the apparent plan. An impossible plan to sincerely execute since there is no ban that really would “make people happy” without alienating large voting blocks. But it is a plan that could work if executed insincerely. A ‘say what it takes to get elected’ wink & nod plan where the base understands what’s really being promised:
So what kind of ‘compromise’, authentic or not, is Trump going to arrive at? Will he be able to get by with the 15 week ban proposed by Senator Lindsay Graham? Well, to get an idea of what Trump’s evangelical base is really willing to accept, we just have to look at the position taken by now-former presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and his 6‑week ‘heartbeat’ ban. A 6‑week federal ban that put DeSantis’s position in line with what we were hearing from Heritage’s Vice President of Domestic Policy, Roger Severino, declaring in October 2022 that he wants to see “heartbeat or better for the next presidential candidate that is conservative”, which is effectively a call for a 6‑weeks (or less) national abortion ban from the next GOP candidate. Which is a reminder that, should we see Trump’s pro-life base accept anything less than a federal 6‑week ban, we’re probably seeing some sort of arranged theatrics going on. Theatrics that will require the cooperation of Evangelical and Catholic leaders who can effectively convey to their followers the need to give Trump space on this issue:
It’s that need for the Trump campaign to work out some sort of arrangement with his staunchly pro-life base that allows him to skirt this issue during the presidential election that brings us to the following story that blew up days after the above New York Times report: Alabama’s anti-IVF ruling that extends fetal personhood protections to frozen embryos. As we’re going to see, it’s the kind ruling that pro-life activists have long been working to make happen. But also a complete political nightmare for Trump and Republicans in general. Which is part of what makes this Alabama Supreme Court ruling so fascinating in the context of not just the 2024 election cycle but the deep alliance be between MAGA-world and the Christian fundamentalist power networks that have long-dominated GOP politics and form a crucial base for Trump to this day. Trump can’t ignore this movement. But this movement needs Trump to win if its going to have any shot of implementing its agenda. An agenda proven to be politically toxic since the fall of Roe and all the more toxic following this Alabama ruling.
Something has to give if Trump’s going to avoid the issue of abortion, and now IVF access, from tanking his campaign. And yet, as we’re also going to see, it’s not like Trump is negotiating with moderates. He’s negotiating with Dominionists. Like Justice Tom Parker, the Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice who has been strategically making rulings from an explicitly Dominionist “Seven Mountains” perspective for years now. The kind of perspective that implores conservative Christians to seek out stations of power and influence across society and impose fundamentalist laws on all members of society, regardless of the laws’ popularity. It’s not exactly a position of compromise. Nor did Justice Parker seem at all concerned about the electoral implications of this ruling. Quite the opposite, he actively threw fuel on the issue and forced Trump and many other Republican officials to issue statements declaring their support for IVF. Support for IVF that may work with the majority of the electorate but not for the hard-core pro-life base. A base that will not allow itself to be ignored.
But, of course, it’s not just the millions of pro-life voters who make up this crucial base of support Trump needs to win in November. It’s the pro-life leadership like the organized dominionism of the CNP. And as we should expect, Justice Parker has long-standing CNP ties. For starters, before Parker was a Supreme Court justice, he worked as a lobbyist who helped set up two think tanks associated with James Dobson of Focus on the Family ( the Alabama Family Alliance, now the Alabama Policy Institute, and the Alabama Family Advocates). Dobson is, of course, a founding CNP member. Parker later became the confidant of Roy Moore, another CNP member. When Moore became chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 200, Parker served as his legal lieutenant, strategist and spokesman. Recall how, in 2001, Moore placed a 2 1/2 ton granite monument of the Tne Commandments in the State Judicial Building, touching off a legal battle he ultimately lost, which gives us a sense of the kind of strategies Parker was concocting at the time.
After winning a seat on the Alabama Supreme Court in 2004, Parker went on to issue one ruling after another designed to ultimately undermine Roe v Wade, primarily by focusing on the concept of fetal personhood. But he didn’t just issues these rulings. He consistently did so using language that cast the US legal systems as ultimately being dependent on the Bible as its foundation. One Domioninst-friendly ruling after another. As we should expect, pro-life forces came to view Chief Justice Parker as a leading force in the effort to overturn Roe.
Now, of course, Roe is already overturned. That mission has been accomplished. But that doesn’t mean the mission is over. Overturning Roe was just the start. Parker’s Dominionist allies aren’t going to be satisfied with just returning the issue of abortion back to the states. And they’re going to need Trump, or some other Republican, to win back the White House if they want to secure that Supreme Court majority.
Oh, and on the same day the Alabama Supreme Court made this ruling, a QAnon-friendly podcaster posted an interview with Chief Justice Parker. That podcaster, Johnny Enlow, also happens to be the author of “The Seven Mountain Prophecy.” Which, itself, is a reminder that Trump’s intense QAnon-affiliated following is bound to include large numbers of Dominionist true believers. Which also means any sort of wink & nod ‘compromise’ stance Trump adopts on these issues during the general election is going to need to have buy-in from QAnon influencers who can make it clear to this Dominionist-heavy audience that Trump’s ‘compromises’ are only as good as Trump’s word and can therefore be utterly ignored.
So about a week after we get reports based on anonymous sources from inside the Trump campaign signaling to the world that Trump is seeking some sort of compromise stance with his pro-life base on abortion that he can take into the general election, one of the pro-life movement’s long-standing dominionist activists drops this judicial turd right in Trump’s lap. And on the same day as that ruling, a QAnon podcaster posts an interview of Justice Parker. How are we to interpret this sequence of events? Because it sure seems like Justice Parker — who is no ‘lone nut’ in the pro-life movement — has no room for any sort of compromise on the issue of abortion or any of the other issues animating his dominionist theology:
“Parker repeatedly invoked scripture in his ruling, arguing that Alabama law is based on theology that says God created every person “in His image.” He and the other justices in the 8–1 majority said that life begins at conception and that therefore frozen embryos are protected under the law.”
Personhood for frozen embryos. It’s something the pro-life movement has been working towards for years. But this wasn’t just a legal victory for the fetal personhood movement. Chief Justice Parker framed his ruling from a view of Biblical authority over US jurisprudence. This was a victory for dominionism too:
It’s quite an accomplishment for the dominionist movement. After all, it was over 20 years ago in 2003 when then-Alabama Chief Justice (and CNP member) Roy Moore was dismissed after he refused to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the judicial building while Parker was working as Moore’s strategist. It’s been quite a successful couple of decades for the dominionists:
It’s also worth noting some of the potentially controversial new technologies that could play into the politics of this issue. Recall the story about the growing number of US firms like Genomic Prediction and the Orchid offering embryo selection services that veer awfully close to eugenics services. And as we’ve also seen, figures in Peter Thiel’s orbit have been quite excited about these services, like Founders Fund principle Delian Asparouhov who began touting Orchid’s services as a means of competing with China. Orchid was co-founded by former Thiel Fellow Noor Siddiqui. Also recall how OpenAI co-found Matt Krisiloff started Conception, a company dedicated to creating human eggs from stem cells. And as we’ve seen, part of the promise of this technology is the mass creation of large numbers of eggs, and therefore embryos, that can be used for genetic screening and “optimal” embryo selection. Yes, embryos from synthetically created fertilized eggs could become part of this national debate. Which is a reminder that these issues of fetal personhood could create a rather fascinating split inside the far right between dominionists and transhumanists factions:
And then we get to the remarkably timed podcast from QAnon dominionist author Johnny Enlow, uploaded literally the same day as the ruling. Was that a coincidence? Or a kind of Seven Mountains victory lap?
And in case it’s not clear that Justice Parker knew who Enlow was before he agreed to come on for an interview, Parker shared with a familiarity with Enlow’s work as a dominionist author, and even used the interview to call for more people to “step back into these mountains right now”:
“Enlow has also repeatedly pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory, sometimes even connecting it to the Seven Mountain Mandate. Per Right Wing Watch, Enlow has claimed that world leaders are “satanic” pedophiles who “steal blood” and “do sacrifices” and that “there is presently no real democracy on the planet” because over 90 percent of world leaders are involved in pedophilia and are being blackmailed.”
A fusion of QAnon and the Seven Mountains Mandate. That’s the kind of theology one can expect to find on Johnny Enlow’s podcast. It’s not a secret. So when Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker decided to make an appearance on Enlow’s show, that wasn’t an accident. Not only did Parker demonstrate a familiarity with Enlow during the interview, but the interview itself was posted on February 16, the exact same day as the Alabama IVF ruling. An interview where judge Parker exchanged “Seven Mountains” dominionist language with Enlow. This was like a pair of fellow dominionists celebrating the success of their ongoing power grab:
Is an open embrace of QAnon theories going to be part of the public messaging of the dominionist movement? Maybe some sort of “we overthrew the government to save you from the Satanic elite pedophiles” messaging? We’ll see, but it’s not like Justice Parker is some completely obscure figure who decided to go on a QAnon podcast. He’s the Alabama Supreme Court’s Chief Justice. But beyond that, Parker is someone who has long been seen by the pro-life movement as one of its leading jurist. That’s the picture that emerges in the following 2014 piece about Parker published by ProPublica. A profile that’s now nearly 10 years old. And as we’re going to see, even by 2014, Parker was at that point a crucial individual in the push to confer personhood rights to fetuses and embryos. Someone who repeatedly used his position on the bench to push fetal personhood causes on cases that didn’t even have anything directly to do with reproductive rights. Or as key Domionionist leader (and CNP board member) Matt Staver put it at the time, “He’s someone who really takes time to read history and the development of jurisprudence...He’s not a surface thinker.”
You can’t separate Parker from this larger movement. Which is why we should probably view Alabama’s IVF ruling, and the QAnon interview that came out the same day, as more than just a ruling by a conservative court. It was also the next step in the long march of organized dominionism:
“In the nine years Parker has now served on the court, he has made the most of his opportunities. Child custody disputes, for instance, have made good occasions to expound on the role of religion in parental rights. (“Because God, not the state, has granted parents the authority and responsibility to govern their children, parents should be able to do so unfettered by state interference,” he wrote in one case.) But Parker has been the most creative in his relentless campaign to undermine legal abortion. Again and again, he has taken cases that do not directly concern reproductive rights, or even reproductive issues, and found ways to use them to argue for full legal status for the unborn.”
Again and again, Justice Parker found ways to take cases that didn’t even have anything directly to do with reproductive rights and turn them into cases about the full legal status of fetuses and embryos. And that was already the case in 2014 when this report was written. It’s been another decade now of Parker operating as one of the pivotal figures in this movement. Roe is now overturned but Parker isn’t done. He’s just getting started. But not just Parker. The whole dominionist movement is just getting started. That’s a big part of the context of the recent Alabama ruling. It was a signal from the powerful dominionist wing of the pro-life movement that they aren’t remotely content with the overturning of Roe and aren’t planning on settling for any political compromises:
And then we get these additional details on Parker’s ties to the broader dominionist infrastructure. For example, Parker wasn’t just Roy Moore’s aid. He was his legal lieutenant, strategist, and spokesman, which is the kind of role that suggests Parker played a major role in Moore’s decision to install that giant Ten Commandments statue in the courthouse and refuse to remove it. And then, after losing his job with Moore following Moore’s ouster, Parker goes on to work at Moore’s Foundation for Moral Law think tank. Flash forward to 2013, and we find none other than Mat Staver singing Parker’s praises. As Staver put it, “He’s someone who really takes time to read history and the development of jurisprudence...He’s not a surface thinker.” And as we’ve seen, Staver is a leading dominionist. Recall the 2016 report about the leaked 2014 CNP membership list that listed Staver a CNP board member, alongside fellow CNP board members like the League of the South’s Mike Peroutka who is also an open advocate of the theocratic imposition of the Old Testament. Staver also sits on the advisory board of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL), which is like ALEC for dominionism. And let’s not forget who repeatedly namechecked Staver as a major influence on his during during the keynote address of last year’s NACL gala event: House Speaker Mike Johnson. The point being that when someone like Staver is singing your praises, you’ve clearly done a lot to advance the dominionist cause:
Staver’s influence hasn’t exactly waned since he made those comments about Parker over a decade ago. The Speaker of the House openly follows Staver’s lead, after all. Staver, along with the rest of the dominionists at the CNP, have finally achieved their generational goal of far right lock on the Supreme Court. This is their moment. A moment that could last quite a while. Even longer if Trump manages to get reelected and has the opportunity to stack the court even more. A reelection that is arguably more imperiled by the GOP’s abortion extremism than Trump’s own criminality at this point. Trump really does need that pass from his based. He has to find a way to convince the general public that a vote for Trump is NOT a vote for dominionism, and dominionists like Staver know it.
How is this going to play out? It’s going to be interesting. But don’t be surprised if, somehow, Trump ends up getting his free pass on this issue. And, in turn, also don’t be surprised if we start hearing about A LOT more interviews with QAnon friendly podcasters by Trump surrogates who are quietly assuring his dominionist base that the Seven Mountains are waiting for them at the end of the Trumpian rainbow. Trump has a tricky tightrope to walk, but he really can do it with a little help from his dominionist friends. And boy does he have a lot of dominionist friends, whether or wants to admit it or not.
It’s Donald Trump’s Republican Party. We already knew that. But it’s official, again, following last week’s Super Tuesday primaries and the exit of his last remaining primary opponent.
But for all the attention given to Trump’s capture of the Republican party at the national level, it’s easy to overlook what just happened in Texas: billionaire theocrat Tim Dunn now almost completely controls the Texas GOP. Or at least he will once all the runoff elections are completed. Yes, in a huge reversal from 2022 — when 18 out of 19 Dunn-backed candidates for the Texas House last their primaries — 11 out of 28 Dunn backed candidates won their primaries outright last week, with another 8 races going to runoffs. It was a big day for Christian Nationalism in Texas.
Beyond that, the top target of Dunn’s ire, Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan, was note only one of the candidates forced into a runoff again Dunn-back opponent, David Covey, but Covey ended up getting more votes. Recall how Dunn’s loathing of Phelan is, in part, driven by the fact that Phelan condemned the state Republican Party’s executive committee for its rejection of a proposal, in 32–29 vote, to condemn the association of party members with Nazis and holocaust deniers. Originally, the resolution was intended to call for a break with Dunn’s Defend Texas Liberty, follwing the reporting on a seven hour meeting with Catholic extremist neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes back in October at the headquarters of Pale Horse Strategies, the political consultancy of group of Defend Texas Liberty’s chairman Jonathan Stickland. Also recall how another Dunn-backed group, Defend Texas Freedom, was behind a series of tasteless ‘Happy Ramadan’ Christmas Cards sent to Phelan’s constituents back in December accusing Phelan of ‘pro-Muslim’. The executive director of Texans for Strong Borders, Cary Chesire, was responsible for Christmas mailers to Phalen’s constituents, accusing him of harboring pro-Muslim sentiments. Chesire’s mailers were emblematic of the kind of extremist increasingly embraced by the Dunn faction of the Texas GOP. It was Chris Russo, the founder and president of of Texans for Strong Borders, a spin-off of Dunn’s Defend Texas Liberty, who was the figure seen chauffeuring Fuentes during the day Fuentes held seven hours of meetings at Pale Horse Strategies. It wasn’t just Dunn who had it out for Phelan. His entire network of extremist is threatened by Phelan’s refusal to go along with party’s embrace of Nazis and theocrats. But it’s looking like their Phelan problem may be close to being solved.
Dunn’s grand victory wasn’t entirely an in-house affair. He had help. For starters, Governor Greg Abbott — who is pushing for a Dunn-backed school privatization scheme that could funnel public money to private religious schools — was out there backing a number of Dunn’s candidates. And now that school privatization bill is almost certain to become law.
Ken Paxton, the scandal-plagued state attorney general who narrowly survived an impeachment push back in September that was supported by Speaker Phelan, also hit the campaign trail for Dunn’s candidates, which isn’t surprising given the immense support he’s received from Dunn including pledges to end the careers of Republicans who voted to impeach.
Notably, following Paxton’s lead was none other than Steve Bannon and Donald Trump, both of whom issued a number of endorsements to Dunn-backed candidates. Dunn’s theocratic capture of Texas has Trump’s endorsement. Theocratic capture is MAGA-compatible.
There was one notable Dunn-backed candidate who lost their primary bid: Kyle Biedermann. It wasn’t a surprise he loat. If anything, it was surprising Biedermann managed to get 43% of the vote considering the rather controversial stance he took in the defense of another Dunn-backed candidate a month who was expelled from the House back in May of last year after he was caught sleeping with a drunk 19-year-old aide. The special election to replace Slaton was held back in January. Dunn-backed Brent Money narrowly lost to Jill Dutton despite a number of high profile endorsements.
Money handily defeated Dutton on Super Tuesday. In part because he didn’t make the same mistake Biedermann made last month at a Tea Party event where Biedermann, in front of a crowd of roughly 80 people, not only defended Slater by pointing out that 19 is past the age of consent in Texas, but went on to accuse the Texas Republican Party of gross hypocrisy and selectively enforced punishment. Because what Slater did was being done by countless others in the Austin state capitol grounds all the time and not only are the perps not punished by they are frequently rewarded with powerful committee assignments and close friendships. Yep. That’s what Biedermann said and it was all captured on video.
It wasn’t the first time Biedermann found himself in a political storm. The guy was literally at the US Capitol on January 6. Back in 2016, he dressed up as “gay Hitler” and gave Nazi salutes for a food bank fundraiser. He later downplayed criticism for the costume to “political correctness”. Biedermann similarly downplayed criticism over the meetings with Nick Fuentes at Pale Horse Strategy by arguing that it was overblown and that “there is lots of things that happen in politics that aren’t always kosher.”
Needless to say, Biedermann’s comments accusing Texas’s elected officials of rampant sex with drunken young aides didn’t go over well with his party. And yet, he did manage to get 43% of the vote. Still, he lost unlike most of the Dunn-backed candidates and it looks like the straw that broke the camel’s back was his decision to defend Slater by highlighting a scandalous state of affair involving rampant sex with drunk aids in the Capitol. A situation where getting caught doing it results in more powerful committee assignments, which sure sounds like a status quo of systemic blackmail and control. There’s more than a few echoes of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal here. Public airing that potential mega-scandal out was what did him in.
And that brings us to another potentially huge aspect of Tim Dunn’s big win on Tuesday. Because there’s another controversial stance championed by Biedermann that won big on Tuesday even though Biedermann lost: As a legislator, Biedermann proposed legislation that would have put a refendum on Texas secession to voters. Bryan Slaton proposed a similar bill last year before being expelled.
This is a good time to recall how the Texas GOP adopted a resolutions in both 2020 and 2022 during their party convention calling for the passage of a bill in 2023 that would require a referendum on secession. So Biedermann and Slater are two lone nuts. They’re a reflection of where the party is at today and just two of the many Dunn-backed candidates who are on the record in favor of Texas secession, including the seven who won their primaries outright and five who are advancing to runoffs, which includes David Covey, who might replace Speaker Phalen. As Daniel Miller, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, put it after seeing the primary results, “This was a big night for us. It means that we are virtually guaranteed to see the Texas Independence Referendum Act filed in the next session of the Texas Legislature, putting Texans one step closer to a vote on TEXIT. It shows that we are winning the battle for the future of Texas.” Tim Dunn’s big win was a win for the Texas secession movement too. The Texas GOP will almost certainly by in the grips of pro-secession faction by the time the 2024 election cycle plays out.
Disturbingly, a recent poll found that 44 percent of Texans were either more likely or significantly more likely to back secession over the migrant crisis. So when the GOP intentionally exacerbates the border crisis to assist Trump’s campaign, it turns out they were promoting the Texas secession movement too.
That’s the meta-story of Tuesday’s huge win for Tim Dunn’s question to capture the state Republican Party and turn Texas into a theocracy: Dunn didn’t just win big. He won big despite the recent Nick Fuentes scandal and now Texas is poised to go into full blown secession mode. Dunn isn’t planning on turning the state of Texas into a theocracy. He’s planning on turning the independent nation of Texas into a theocracy. And he seeming has Steven Bannon’s and Donald Trump’s blessing:
“Instead, Dunn and Wilks emerged from Tuesday perhaps stronger than ever — vanquishing old political foes, positioning their allies for a November takeover of the state Legislature, and leaving little doubt as to who is winning avicious civil war to control the state party.”
The Christian Nationalist wing of the Texas GOP is now stroner than ever following this weeks primaries. One moderate Republican after another went down, to be replaced by a Dunn-backed extremist. And keep in mind that ‘moderate’ is a relative term here. It’s not like centrists were losing. They just weren’t extreme enough and/or beholden enough to avoid Dunn’s wrath. The theocrats won. Or as outgoing Rep. Glenn Rogers put it, “History will prove that our current state government is the most corrupt ever and is ‘bought’ by a few radical dominionist billionaires seeking to destroy public education, privatize our public schools and create a Theocracy that is both un-American and un-Texan...May God save Texas!” Yes, may God save Texas from the Christian Nationalism theocratic fascists that are about to take unchecked control of the state’s government:
But it’s not just the scale of Dunn’s victory. It’s the dramatic swing from just two years ago. Doubling and tripling down on Christian Nationalism worked. That’s what the Texas GOP voters want. And even in the racs where the Dunn-backed candidates lost, there’s always the next election, which will inevitably take place in a political environment where the extremism of today is increasingly normalized. Dunn has been playing the ‘long game’ for a long time now, and has plenty of time left to complete his capture of the state:
And that dramatic swing in Dunn’s favor, of course, happened just months after the now notorious 7 hour long meeting held with top Dunn strategist Jonathan Stickland with Catholic extremist neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes. And as we also saw, Matt Rinaldi, the Dunn-backed chairman of the Texas Republican executive committee, happened to be at the Pale Horse Strategies office at the time of Fuentes’s visit. This was, of course, followed up with executive committee voting down, in a 32–29 vote, a resolution calling for the party to disassociate with known Nazis and Holocaust deniers in the wake of the controversy over the meeting with Fuentes. This wasn’t just a scandal for Dunn and Stickland. It was a scandal that exposed how the same party leaders loyal to Dunn were engaging in direct relations with overt Nazis. And that’s the faction that’s now more powerful than ever. If anything, the lesson from this is that cavorting with neo-Nazis is good politics for Texas Republicans. It’s hard to take away a different lesson from this:
And Governor Greg Abbott wasn’t the only politican to align with Dunn’s faction in this year’s primaries. The nearly-impeached state attorney general Ken Paxton — a key Dunn ally — was barnstorming the state. But he wasn’t alone, with both Steven Bannon and Donald Trump amplifying Paxton’s endorsements. Which is a major reminder that Tim Dunn’s capture of the Texas GOP isn’t some quixotic quest of a lone billionaire. He’s got MAGA world backing him up:
And that dramatic swing towards far right candidates even happened with Shelley Luther, a candidate who complained that students shouldn’t be punished for making fun of transgender children. This is a month after the death of non-binary Oklahoma student Nex Benedict apparently after being jumped by three teenage girls in a school bathroom. In other words, cruelty is a hot political commodity right now in the Texas GOP. Expect a lot more of that:
And then there’s the fact that the biggest target of Dunn’s ire and the one person standing in the way of Dunn’s complete capture of the state party — House Speaker Dade Phelan — was not only forced into a run off but actually got less votes than his Dunn-backed challenger, David Covey. Recall how the executive director the Dunn-backed groupt Texans for Strong Borders, Cary Chesire, was responsible for Christmas mailers to Phalen’s constituents, accusing him of harboring pro-Muslim sentiments. As we saw, the mailers were just the latest in the long-standing, and so far successful, power play going on inside the Texas GOP, with Texans for Strong Borders operating as one of the many front groups for Dunn in his quest to push the Texas GOP further and further to the right. But as we also saw, Chesire’s mailers were emblematic of the kind of extremist increasingly embraced by the Dunn faction of the Texas GOP. It was Chris Russo, the founder and president of of Texans for Strong Borders, a spin-off of Dunn’s Defend Texas Liberty, was the figure seen chauffeuring Catholic Nazi Nick Fuentes during the day Fuentes the now infamously held meetings at Pale Horse Strategies, the political consulting firm of Defend Texas Liberty’s now-former president Jonathan Stickland. Phelan is being successfully taken down by the political allies of Nick Fuentes. The Nazis won. But also note how Covey is one of the many Dunn backed candidates who have signed a referendum to support Texas’s secession for the US. This is bigger than just the capture of the Texas Republican Party. They’re aiming to capture Texas:
And then we get to one of the more revealing stories about the true nature of this ‘Christian’ capture of the Texas GOP: the expelling of representative Bryan Slaton over having sex with a drunk 19-year-old aide. After losing in January’s special election to replace Slaton, Dunn-backed candidate Brent Money prevailed. But the controversy did ultimately cost Dunn’s faction in a different race. Kyle Biedermann lost after defending Slaton a month ago. And as we’re going to see, it was a helluva defense:
So how exactly did former state representative Biedermann defend Slaton’s sex with a drunk 19-year-old aide? Well, let’s just say it wasn’t a rooted in forgiveness and grace. Nope, Biedermann instead went on a rant during a Tea Party event about how what Staton did is done all the time by other in the state Capitol and that the whole thing was selective punishment. As Biederman put it, “Affairs run rampant in the Austin swamp,” and asserted that House members who have been accused of extramarital affairs have been “rewarded with powerful committee assignments and close friendships.” But it’s not just affairs that Biedermann was alleging. In response to someone pointing out to Biedermann that, “He had sex with an underage person,” Biedermann replied, “Want me to tell you how many people have done that in the House?...Let me tell you how many people have done that in the Capitol and nothing happens to them.” Biedermann didn’t just defend Slaton. He accused the Texas legislature of engaging in, and rewarding with more power, the same kind of behavior regularly. Which, again, kind of describes a system for blackmail-based control. Once your caught, you can either take the promotion — and do what you’re told by the people with the tape — or get exposed and have your career ended.
And given that he’s talking about people getting powerful committee assignments, odds are he was specifically talking about Republicans. That’s all part of the context of this capture of the Texas GOP be a ‘Christian’ nationalist movement. One of the few Dunn-backed candidates to lose this year was the guy who defended the guy who slept with his drunk 19-year-old aide by pointing out that the rest of the party is doing the same thing all the time:
“In a statement, Biedermann said the point he was trying to make was that leaders “selectively punish impropriety.””
He’s not condoning Slaton’s behavior. He’s condemning the hypocrisy and selective punishment. That’s the case Kyle Biedermann made just a month before last weeks primaries. It was literally an ‘everybody does this’ defense of Slaton. Which didn’t seem to go over well with his Tea Party audience:
Not surprisingly, it turns out Biedermann was not only at the US Capitol on January 6, but he has a history of far right provocations like dressing up as “gay Hitler” for a costume party and doing Nazi salutes to raise money for a local food bank. And as we should expect, while Biederman condemned the October Pale Horse Strategies meeting with Nick Fuentes, he also argued it was overblown and that there is lots of things that happen in politics that aren’t always kosher.” It’s not hard to see why he had Dunn’s backing:
And as we can also see, we can include Biedermann in the pro-secession caucus. In fact, he was a feature speaker at a conference back in November for the Texas secessionist movement. And look how proposed a similar pro-secession bill before his expulsion: Bryan Slaton:
So with all these Dunn-backed candidates turning out to be pro-secession, we have to ask if secession is part of the Dunn agenda. With that answer being obviously, yes, secession is very much a part of the agenda, as the Dallas Morning News was warning voters days before last week’s primaries. The agenda is clear, thanks to all the candidates who have signed the “Take Texas Back” pledge to support secession moves. More than just Wesley Virdell and David Covey as we saw above. Shelley Luther, Andy Hopper, and Mitch Little too. Along with Kyle Biedermann, of course. One Dunn-backed candidate after another signed the pledge. Because Tim Dunn isn’t just trying to capture Texas’s politics. Texas is slated to be Dunn’s Christian fiefdom by the time he’s done:
“But there are some who take Texas’ famous independent streak a bridge too far. As Super Tuesday approaches, Republican primary voters in Texas should beware. A worrying number of candidates for the Texas House of Representatives and other offices have signed the “Take Texas Back” pledge that makes them promise to advance legislation to help Texas secede from the United States under certain conditions.”
It is indeed quite worrying to see one candidate after another sign that pledge. Much more worrying now that so many of them won their primaries and are almost certain to get elected in Texas’s hyper-gerrymandered districts. Dunn clearly supports secession. And he’s playing a long game to get it:
And Daniel Miller, president of the pro-independence Texas Nationalist Movement, crowed following Tuesday’s victories, “This was a big night for us. It means that we are virtually guaranteed to see the Texas Independence Referendum Act filed in the next session of the Texas Legislature, putting Texans one step closer to a vote on TEXIT. It shows that we are winning the battle for the future of Texas.”:
“A Texas Independence Referendum Act, calling for a referendum on whether Texas should “reassert its status as an independent nation,” was proposed by then-Republican state Representative Bryan Slaton in 2023 but failed to pass the committee stage.”
In 2022, the Texas GOP adopts a resolution calling for the passage of a bill that was trigger a referendum on independence and in 2023 that’s exactly what Bryan Slaton did. The resolution didn’t make it out of committed because the Texas GOP wasn’t fully united on the issue. But it’s going to be a lot more united after the 2024 election cycle plays out and all these Dunn-backed pro-secession candidates win their races. An independence referendum is virtually guaranteed at this point:
And note the disturbing dynamic between this issue and the contemporary GOP’s fixation with ‘illegal immigrant’: polls show Texans are more likely to support independence due to the migrant crisis at the border. So the more the GOP allied media fixate on the ‘migrant super crisis’ narrative, the more we can expect support of secession to grow:
Given the role immigration fears play in the politics of secession, it’s hard to imagine a politician at this point who is more effective at driving Texas voters into the arms of secession movement than Donald Trump. Again, don’t forget how the Texas GOP adopted a resolution in 2020 too calling for a secession resolution, during Trump’s presidency. It’s not like we can expect Texas’s independence movement to subside should Trump win in November. This is Tim Dunn’s smash and grab moment. And if things keep going his way, he could end up with whole state of Texas. Or, rather, the whole independent Christ’s Kingdom of Dunnland, or whatever name his well paid, and possibly blackmailed, minions come up with.
It’s not a cabal. Certainly not. It’s a civic fraternal organization. Like the Masons. Nothing more.
That’s the public face being put on the Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR), an entity we first started hearing about last year and that we’re learning a lot more about thanks to some new reports. Recall how we first learned about SACR last year, seemingly led by the wealthy owner of a shampoo company, Charles Haywood. As we saw, Haywood has made calls for an ‘American Caesar’ on platforms like the Claremont Institute’s The American Mind podcast. Haywood is now openly planning on becoming an American ‘warlord’ operating an ‘armed patronage network’ in the event of the breakdown of government rule. Haywood added that the “possibilities involving violence” that ‘APNs’ might face include “more-or-less open warfare with the federal government, or some subset or remnant of it”.. Yes, an armed patronage network of warlords. That’s what SACR is preparing for.
Well, not just that. They aren’t going to be any old network of warlords. These will be theocratic warlords dedicated to a particular vision of a patriarchal Christian-based society that has rejected virtually all of the unconstitutional ‘progressivism’ that has infected American society from the early 20th century onward. This will be a armed patronage network based on a 19th century vision of what constitutes Natural Law.
Oh, and it will be very white, of course. How white? Well, check out the the other model apparently embraced by SACR: the Afrikaner Broederbond. SACR isn’t just borrowing from the Broaderbond from an operational standpoint. Haywood is a big fan of The Camp of the Saints. And as Haywood has written, “the goal of the Left was always total expropriation of white people and then, if at all possible, their extermination, a goal made explicit by many powerful people in 2020...How, given this history, should white Americans respond?” With SACR obviously being Haywood’s response.
But, of course, this isn’t just a story about a lone fascist wannabe warlord. Haywood has friends. The same ‘usual suspect’ friends we’ve seen popping up repeatedly in schemes to seize control. In particular, friends at the Claremont Institute, the once mainstream conservative institution that has fully embraced both the insurrectionary ‘politics’ of the Trump era but also the Schedule F purge politics that is promised for the future Republican administrations. In fact, Claremont Institute president, Ryan P. Williams, sits on SACR’s board.
Another now-familiar figure who is deeply involved with the SACR efforts happens to be Scott Yenor, the Idaho State professor who made national news in 2021 over his arguments that feminism had made women “more medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome than women need to be.” Recall how Yenor’s emails, sent as an employee of public institutions, were obtained by the New York Times, showing how Yenor was communicating in early 2021 with a world of cranky elderly billionaires concerned about what ‘wokeism’ will do to their grandchildren and reeling from the reality of the 2020 election loss and the shock of the George Floyd protests. A powerful network of wealthy extremists in desperate need of a message that would win over voters and energize the conservative base. The Claremont Institute’s chairman, Thomas D. Klingenstein — who is also a New York investor and major Republican donor — decried how, “rhetorically, our side is getting absolutely murdered...We have not even come up with an agreed-on name for the enemy.” But they found a name for “the enemy” thanks to Chris Rufo: “Critical Race Theory”. Chris Rufo is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute In February of 2023, Yenor was tapped to served as the head of the Claremont Institute’s special Florida branch, which has been leading Ron DeSantis’s ‘anti-DEI’ crusade in Florida’s public universities. You can’t separate Scott Yenor from the Claremont Institute and the conservative movement’s ongoing institutional purge operations at this point.
And that brings there’s another fellow traveler who is crucial to keep in mind with this story: Curtis “Mencious Moldbug” Yarvin, one of the leading lights of ‘Dark Enlightenment’ and who has been pushing for a society-wide ‘Schedule F’ purge of ‘the Left’ from all major institutions, public and private. It’s that embrace of Yarvin’s post-democracy worldview by the mainstream Claremont Institute that is the meta-story here. SACR being a manifestation of this alliance is the key context to keep in mind when reading about SACR’s Broederbond ambitions.
For example, recall how:
* Charles Haywood was one of the figures who showed in in connection with one of the more incriminating stories about what the Claremont Institute was up to during this period. That would be the “79 Days to Inauguration” report jointly prepared by the Claremont Institute and the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s (TPPF) in mid-October 2020. A report that gamed out different scenarios for how the 2020 election might play out, including a scenario without a clear victory that involved large street protests by ‘antifa’ and other left-wing groups trying to disrupt the certification of the vote on Jan 6, and a resulting mass crackdown on ‘the left’ by the government in response. A response that included deputizing groups like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters so they could assist in the leftwing crackdown. Haywood’s presence in this milieu was notable since he was known for calling for an “American Caesar”.. And when we see the TPPF involved with fascist politics, don’t forget Texas billionaire theocrat Tim Dunn’s ties to the TPPF.
* Recall Senator Tom Cotton’s June 2020 New York Times op-ed calling for the use of the military against protesters during the Trump administration — eerie echoes of Rex84 — as not just a viable option but a constitutional obligation? Keep in mind Cotton won a Claremont Institute fellowship during his time at Harvard.
* Not only did Claremont figures Mathew Spalding, Charles Kesler, and Chris Rufo all join the board of New College as part of Ron DeSantis’s ideological purge of the university, the Claremont Institute set up its first out-of-state outpost in Florida to help lead this effort. Oh, and it turns out the DeSantis staffer who was caught inserting Nazi imagery into DeSantis campaign videos, Nate Hochman, was a Claremont alum. That out-of-state outpost was, of course, headed up by Scott Yenor.
* As an example of how deeply intertwined these efforts are with the Council for National Policy (CNP) and its many theocratic interests, recall the “Civic Alliance” project pushing the “American Birthright” curriculum ‘template’ on state legislatures and governors. As we saw, the “American Birthright” curriculum was launched by the CNP-affiliated National Association of Scholars (NAS) and assembled by a kind of institutional who’s‑who of the right-wing US think-tanks, including the Claremont Institute, the Family Research Council (FRC) and the Discovery Institute (all with CNP members in their leadership), along with a number of other CNP members like CNP co-founder Richard Viguerie. Other coauthors, consultants, and board members involved with the creation of the “American Birthright” curriculum include multiple staffers associated with Hillsdale and Mari Barke, whose husband runs one of Hillsdale College’s charter school. The “American Birthright” curriculum cites Hillsdale’s “1776 Curriculum.” And when Florida governor Ron DeSantis unveiled the new Florida educational standards focused on fighting ‘wokeness’ in public schools, it was none other than Hillsdale College that his administration consulted with in creating the new standards. The Claremont Institute’s Co-Founder Dr. Larry P. Arnn, and former Executive VP, Douglas A. Jeffrey, both show up on the CNP member list. ALEC’s CEO Ann Nelson also shows up on the CNP membership list.
* It was the Claremont Institute’s John Eastman who played a key role in formulating a number of different legal justifications for overturning the 2020 election results. Also recall how Claremont continued to embrace Eastman long after January 6 and even featured him in a 2021 event on “Election Integrity and the Future of American Republican Government.”. Eastman was the founding director of the Claremont Institute‘s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. And don’t forget how the Claremont Institute released an interview of Eastman in August of 2023 where Eastman openly admits that the Trump administration really was engaged in what amount to revolutionary actions. Revolutionary actions that he framed as being in keeping with same underlying fight for freedom and democracy that animated the Founding Fathers’ 1776 Declaration of Independence. A fight against a tyrannical government that every populace inherently possesses.
* Recall how, in January of this year, the Claremont Institute was openly threatening Texas governor Greg Abbot that if he has any national political ambitions he had better defy the Biden administration and the Supreme Court on the migrant crisis on the Southern border and institute a harsher state-level response in defiance of the federal government. As Jeremy Carl, a Claremont senior fellow, put it, if Abbott “wants to have a future on a national ticket he will defy this lawless Supreme Court and protect the Texas border from invasion.”.
* As an example of Haywood’s ties to eugenics-oriented movements that tend to be hyper-alarmed by falling birth rates of whites, recall how Haywood was one of the featured speakers at the “Natalist Conference” in Austin, Texas, back in December.
* The Claremont Institute starting publishing the writings of Curtis “Mencious Moldbug” Yarvin back in 2019. Writings that were calling for a kind of Schedule F purge that goes far beyond public institutions.
* Recall how Yarvin is happy to share all sort of view on the ‘American Casear’ idea and has been given a prominent platform to share his ideas after The American Mind online publication of the Claremont Institute began publishing his essays back in 2019. As Yarvin described in a May 2021 podcast on the American Mind, an online publication of the Claremont Institute, with Michael Anton — the author of 2016 ‘Flight 93’ essay who went on to serve on Trump’s National Security Council for a year — the US is primed for a leader to run on the platform of saving the country by declaring a national emergency and wielding emergency power purge the government and society of the progressive order. Then, on the first day of taking office, this figures should declare a national emergency and then using those emergency powers to take control of the Nation Guard and engage is a far right military-enforced purge ‘The Left’ from institutions and public life. The hypothetical American Caesar would rely on fascist innovations like apps that could be used to organize mobs of backers who would swarm the government agencies that don’t carry out this agenda. That was Curtis Yarvin’s vision he shared one a Claremont Institute Podcast with Michael Anton back in 2021. And here we are in 2024, with Trump as the GOP nominee running on a platform of purging his ‘Deep State’ enemies and ‘joking’ about being a dictator on the first day of office. So far Yarvin’s American Caesar scenario is more or less playing out.
* Finally, regarding the Claremont Institute and Michael Anton, recall how the Claremont Institute not only published the ‘Flight 93’ essay in the Claremont Review of Books by Michael Anton arguing in favor of voting for Trump, but also puts out the American Mind publication that, back in March of 2021, argued that “most people living in the United States today—certainly more than half—are not Americans in any meaningful sense of the term,” and that conservatives should “accept the fact that what we need is a counter-revolution.””.
As we’re going to see, in October 2022, Haywood appeared on Anton’s The American Mind podcast to again discuss an ‘American Ceasar’ scenario. During the podcast, Haywood refers to the ‘secret event’ that brought them together. Haywood concludes with the call for a “national divorce” an obvious reference to secession.
That’s all part of the context of this big update we just got on SACR and its Afrikaner Broederbond model for dragging the US back to the 19th century. This is very much Charles Haywood’s ‘American Caesar’ project. But it’s not just his alone. Haywood has help. Extensive quasi-secret help from the Claremont Institute and its many powerful allies.
But Haywood doesn’t just have help. He has a template. The same template provided to the world by Curtis Yarvin back in 2021, when the Claremont Institute’s The American Mind podcast decided to invite Yarvin on for an extensive discussion on the need to overthrow society and impose strong-man rule. To save America, of course. So before we dive into the big new SACR update, it’s worth taking another look at that remarkable May 2021 interview. Because, so far, it’s turning out to e Curt Yarvin’s political future for the United States, and we’re all just living in it:
“The indisputable fact is that a leading and longstanding conservative institute in the United States hosts a podcast by someone who served as a senior official in the presidential administration of a man who may run again for the nation’s highest office in a few years. And on an episode of that podcast, this former official and his invited guest genially rehearsed arguments about why a future president would be justified in turning himself into a tyrant, and how he could set about accomplishing this task.”
There were a lot of questions implicitly raised by the Claremont Institute’s decision to have Michael Anton host Curtis Yarvin for a discussion on the need for an American Ceasar back in May of 2021. But we don’t have to ask whether or not it happened. It happened. This mainstream conservative institution really did host Yarvin to have this discussion just four months after January 6. And this was almost three years ago. Three years during which Yarvin’s predictions — like someone running for office on a platform of ruling as a dictator — have largely played out:
And that look back at that ominous May 2021 interview of Yarvin on the Claremont Institute’s American Minds podcast brings us the following major update on the Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR). The kind of update that makes it abundantly clear that that Curtis Yarvin’s ‘American Caesar’ dream scenario is a dream shared by a number of other figures in the conservative movement, with the Claremont Institute operating as a kind of shadow organizing force. Not only do we find figures like Scott Yenor — who took up a leading role in Claremont’s Florida-based operations for Ron DeSantis’s anti-woke purge back in February of 2023 — but Claremont president Ryan P. Williams sits on SACR’s board.
And as we’re going to see, while the creation of 19th century-style theocracy appears to be the group’s overall goal of the group, there’s another model they envision for achieving that goal: the Afrikaner Broederbond. Yep, and if it’s not clear that this group’s embrace of the Broederbond model includes its white supremacy, it turns out Charles Haywood is a big fan of The Camp of the Saints. “The goal of the Left was always total expropriation of white people and then, if at all possible, their extermination, a goal made explicit by many powerful people in 2020,” Haywood wrote at one point. “How, given this history, should white Americans respond?” With SACR obviously being the response to that perceived exterminationist threat by ‘the Left’ against ‘white people’. An American Broederbond:
“It sounds like the stuff of fantasy, but it’s real. The group is called the Society for American Civic Renewal (the acronym is pronounced “sacker” by its members). It is open to new recruits, provided you meet a few criteria: you are male, a “trinitarian” Christian, heterosexual, an “un-hyphenated American,” and can answer questions about Trump, the Republican Party, and Christian Nationalism in the right way. One chapter leader wrote to a prospective member that the group aimed to “secure a future for Christian families.””
The ‘armed patronage network’ we were first warned about last year has a name: the Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR). But we’re now learning a lot more about the secretive group thanks, in large part, to Boise State University professor Scott Yenor’s publicly discoverable emails, the gift that keeps on giving. And as those emails reveal, the goals of SACR don’t just include planning for the creation of ‘armed patronage network’ to take control in the event of a collapse of the US government, but also includes the core mission of creating a mini-state within a state. Or rather, the creation of a mini-patriarchal theocracy within a state, which will presumably quietly lay the groundwork for that eventual period of collapse a ‘civic renewal’:
And what does the vision for society renewal entail? A return to 19th century America. It’s not just a rollback of the civil rights era. It’s a rollback of the 20th century. But also a rollback of much of Christianity. Only a “particular Christianity that is not blurred by modernist philosophies” will be accept as authentic:
But it’s not just the stated goals of the group that makes it so disturbing. It’s the fact that it’s so intertwined with the Claremont Institute, which has become a nexus point for far right extremism and the mainstream conservative political establishment. Ryan P. Williams, president of the Claremont Institute, sits on SACR’s board and confirmed to reporters that the new regime this American Caesar would help usher in would be a “U.S. Constitutional order brought much closer to its origins after about a century of what we regard as its corruption and undermining by progressivism, which I regard as anti-constitutionalist in its roots and its evolution.” Progressivism is unconstitutional and only by tearing it up, root and branch, can the US return to its constitutional foundings. So says the president of the Claremont Institute, today’s leading institution for the promotion of post-democratic conservative thought in the US:
And then there’s the role the Claremont Institute’s media outlets have played in promoting these ideas. We saw about how Michael Anton hosted Curtis Yarvin back in May of 2021 for a discussion on an ‘American Caesar’ and the monarchy. And then there was the October 2022 interview by Anton for Charles Haywood for another ‘American Caesar’ discussion, which included Haywood’s call for a “national divorce”. And note what else Haywood mentioned during his conversation with Anton: an unspecified “secret event” that brought the group together:
And that brings us to the distinguished nature of the known SACR members. Distinguished in the sense that they are all quite wealthy and not really facing any sort of discrimination at all, other than perhaps the kind of discrimination one might face when they share how they want to impose a patriarchal theocracy on everyone. And as we can see, these wealthy members aren’t just suppose to put their resources towards helping the group’s theocratic cause become a reality. They are also meant to just help each other in general in areas included business but also defending each other from vague threats. It’s fascist networking, presumably in anticipation of the ‘warlord’ phase of this plan when the ‘armed patronage networks’ we’ve read about spring into action:
And then we get this clarity on what exactly Haywood was thinking of in terms of these ‘Armed Patronage Networks’ and the “possibilities involving violence” that could include “more-or-less open warfare with the federal government, or some subset or remnant of it.” He’s thinking about the Afrikaner Broederbond. And he’s apparently adopted the ‘whites are under assault’ worldview to go along with it. The guy is a Camp and the Saints fan. Haywood isn’t hiding his sympathies. But it’s note just Haywood. This whole network has been chattering about the Broederbond, as evidence by Scott Yenor posts back in November of 2020. Yes, this Broederbond talk was in anticipation to January 6:
An American ‘South Africa’ experience, where a powerful minority of white warlords wield power through violence force against anyone who poses a threat to their rule. This is obviously the plan. They aren’t ready to admit it quite yet, but we don’t really have to wonder too much about whether or not they are serious. They were literally chatting about the Broederbond in November of 2020, the month when the plotting for January 6 starting seriously getting underway.
But, again, don’t forget that the scheming for some sort of post-constitutional order didn’t start with Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. Haywood was one of the figures involved with the “79 Days to Inauguration” report jointly prepared by the Claremont Institute and the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s (TPPF) in mid-October 2020. A report that was envisioning a kind of Rex84 crackdown by the Trump administration on ‘the Left’. They were already thinking about a post-constitutional order even if Trump won. In other words, this is something this network has spent a lot of timing thinking about. And with the creation of SACR, we can see that they’ve moved past the ‘thinking about’ phase of making this post-constitutional order a reality. With Trump as the candidate running on a platform of declaring a national emergency and becoming dictator on day one, the plan is already operational.
The Trump Bible has arrived. Yes, it’s a bad joke. Too surreal to be real. And yet it is oh so real. And ominous. This is what Trumpian Christian Nationalism is going to look like, after all. It’s a joke but it’s also a preview. The Trump experience is steadily transforming conservative Christianity in the United States into a cult of personality.
A highly politicized cult of personality with a broad array of potential beneficiaries should this cult succeed, most notably the Dominionist movements under the Council for National Policy (CNP) that have long desired to see a Christian Nationalist takeover of the United States. And that brings us to the following set of articles about one of the growing movements dedicated to seeing this Trump-centric Christian Nationalist political revolution to its logical end in the form of full blown Dominionist theocracy. A movement focused on converting Christian pastors into more than just pastors but revolutionary political change agents who will lead their congregations into righteous battle — political battle or literal battle should the time come — in the name of Christianity and Donald Trump. A movement focused on turning ‘Stop the Steal’ election theft sloganeering into a theocratic calling: the Black Robe Regiment.
It’s also a movement that, like so much of the contemporary Christian Nationalism in the US, is ultimately rooted in ahistorical readings of history. As we’ve see, much of the Christian Nationalist movement in the US is predicated on the ‘history’ taught by pseudo-historian David Barton. And sure enough, as we’re going to see, the Black Robe Regiment is not only based on a mythical group of pastors who fought in the US Revolutionary War, but it was David Barton who helped popularize the idea with Glenn Beck back in 2007. Various pastors tried to create their own reincarnated versions of the Black Robe Regiment in the following years, but the movement never really took off. Until the 2020 election and the “Stop the Steal” hysteria that gripped the GOP. At that point, not only was the ground fertile for a flourishing of “black robe” chapters but it was done with an explicit Trump-centric theology. The alleged theft of the 2020 election from Donald Trump is part and parcel with the US turning away from the Bible and the historical central role Christianity is supposed to play over US society and government.
A number of the figures involved with the Black Robe Regiment are people we’ve heard plenty about already. For starters, General Michael Flynn — someone who has been extremely open about his Christian Nationalist designs — appears to be playing a major role in recruiting pastors into Black Robe Regiment led by Pastor Bill Cook. By November of 2022, Flynn and Cook had 150 pastors who were willing to sign their Black Robe Regiment pledge. Former congressman Allen West and Roger Stone appear to be supporters. Cook also claims to have discussed his movement with Eric Trump.
A number of pastors who were directly involved with riling up crowds at “Stop the Steal” rallies at the Capital in the lead up to January 6 are playing leading roles as Black Robe Regiment recruiters. Bill Cook also spoke at Stop the Steal rallies, at times where an Oath Keepers shirt. Other Black Robe pastors who spoke at these rallies include Greg Locke, Joshua Feuerstein, and Ken Peters.
As we’re going to see, Ken Peters isn’t just trying to build his own chapter of the Black Robe Regiment. He’s also the head of the “Patriot Church” movement, which appears to be his term for churches that take a militant approach to politics and specifically Donald Trump. Peters’s network of Patriot Churches seems to be based on some sort of franchise model, where churches can join the Patriot Church network for the cost of a 10% cut of their revenues. Donations presumably increase after a church basically dedicates itself to Trump.
As we also saw, we don’t have to look to hard to find Peters’s theocratic. For example, recall the wildly disturbing reports we’ve had about Washington State Republican Matt Shea, who secretly penned a manifesto in 2016 calling for the waging of Biblical War to takeover the US in 2016 and the execution of any adult males who refused to submit to the new theocracy. Shea also plotting with other local militants in coming up with a assassination list of left-wing leaders. The plan to was kill the Antifa leaders in their homes. Shea is an ardent dominionist with close ties to the Oath Keepers who has been working on developing a national network of “Prayer Caucuses” in association with allies like Ken Peters. Another close Shea ally, Reverend Matthew Trewhella, came to national attention in the 1990s as one of three dozen signatories to a statement that declared that the murder of abortion providers is “justifiable homicide,” and later became an advocate for church-based militias. Trewhella’s son-in-law, Jason Storms, videos himself at the Capitol on Jan 6 calling it a “revolution”. Shea himself attended a Jan 6 rally in Idaho where he urged people to “fight back in every single sphere we possibly can,” and to prepare for “total war.” And as we also saw, when he was working as a lawyer for the ADF, House Speaker Mike Johnson has a history of serving as the legal defense for Storms in relation to his anti-abortion activism.
Flash forward to January of this year, and we find Bill Cook opining about how ‘all this election fraud’ could be ‘cured’ if a few people suddenly dropped dead. By God’s will, of course. He wasn’t openly calling for someone to murder election workers. But he was openly suggesting to his followers that a few dead election workers might solve everything. And that was back in January, 10 months before the election. What kind of rhetoric can we expect from the growing number of “Black Robe Regiment” pastors present today? And how many are these even? We don’t really know. We just know that the most extreme elements of the Trump-centric theocrats who brought us January 6 have managed to rebrand their Trump-centric theocratic movement as the modern day rebirth of a Revolutionary War myth. A Revolutionary War myth that could come in awfully handy should the 2024 election devolved into something much bigger and much worse than January 6:
“But fictitious or not, Peters and a growing number of pastors like him are now using the myth of the Black-Robed Regiment as a rallying cry, spreading the lie about stolen elections to inflame and incite their congregations to be prepared for a coming civil war, a battle of good versus evil where they fight back against what they see as the tyranny of the left.”
As we’ve seen, Ken Peters is the kind of pastor for which something like the Black-Robed Regiment is a natural fit. He’s a far right pro-insurrectionary radical who started a “Patriot Church” movement focused on elevating Donald Trump’s political and legal battles into a kind of Biblical God-ordained spiritual warfare. But he’s not the only one. Peters is a sign of things to come as Christianity’s embrace of Christian Nationalism deepens:
And note how the kind of language Peters was using back in 2021, warning of political violence and civil war if Trump isn’t reinstated in office, is awfully similar to the kind of “bloodbath” warnings we’re hearing from Trump on the campaign trail today. Trump and Peters are speaking the same barely coded language:
Also note this rather creepy franchise-like structure for Peters’s Patriot Church operation: pastors can join for the price of a 10% cut of the church’s earnings. The idea is presumably that joining the Patriot Church organization and making the church an overtly pro-Trump entity will increase donations:
And when we see other pastors joining this Trump-centric Christian movement like Pastors Joshua Feuerstein, Greg Locke, or Bill Cook, recall how both Locke and Feuerstein joined Peters in riling up crowds at the “Stop the Steal” events in the days and hours leading up the January 6 Capitol insurrection. That’s on top of Cook speaking at these events while wearing an Oath Keepers t‑shirt. It’s a reminder that the ‘stolen election’ rallying cry is the common thread connecting all of these increasingly radical pastors. All of the ingredients needed to promote a theocratic power grab, from a divinely inspired figure in Trump to the perceived loss of the god-ordained Christian domination of US society through theft, can be found in this narrative:
But the movement to create some sort of Christian Nationalist Black Robe Regiment didn’t start in the lead up to January 6. It began in 2007 when Florida pastor Chuck Baldwin launched his own version of the group. Recall how Chuck Baldwin has a history of railing against the Zionist control of America and even spoke at a 2017 “Secession Day” event at the Roy Moore Foundation. A League of the South board member also spoke at the event. Then, Glenn Beck and key Christian Nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton picked up the Black-Robed baton. And when we see David Barton talking about something, we know it’s not just a fringe element of the Christian Nationalist movement that’s interested. Barton is like a living manifestation of the Christian Nationalist ‘mainstream’:
And then there’s the congregations like the Unification Church spinoff Rod of Iron Ministries. This is a good time to recall how Trump spent the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks giving the keynote address at the “Rally of Hope Think Tank” event organized by Hak Ja Han Moon, widow of Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon. Newt Gingrich also appeared on video at the event. This was all following a similar event months earlier that included appearances by both Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence. It shouldn’t be a surprise to learn the Rod of Iron Ministries had Black-Robe Pastor Dan Fisher speaker at their events:
And then we get to the laughable dismissal of the whole movement by prominent evangelical leader and CNP member Ralph Reed. Reed, of course, was one of major evangelical leaders to give Donald Trump his blessings back in May of 2016, effectively telling devout Christians that they shouldn’t have qualms about voting for a man of Trump’s character. This is a good time to recall how Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, and Jack Abramoff got together to scam Native American tribes. Reed dismisses all of this Christian Nationalism stuff as a complete fringe movement that he hasn’t even heard about. Very disingenuously, which is true to form for a leader like Reed:
So that was the disturbing report we got on this Black Robe Regiment movement back in October of 2021. And as we can see in the following November 2022 Vice News report, the movement is no longer just a handful of pastors. By that point, 150 pastors signed on to the Black Robe Regiment group formed by Michael Flynn and Pastor Bill Cook. And Flynn and Cook are just two of growing number of figures recruiting for this movement:
“MacLellan is one of many pastors across the United States who are seeking to revive the Black Robe Regiment movement and take advantage of the rise in support for Christian nationalism. But while MacLellan is working on his own to spread the message, others are coordinating to bring the movement to a national stage.”
As we can see from this report during the 2022 midterms, the Black Robe Regiment movement continued to grow following its Jan 6 ‘stolen election’ jump start. And it’s been none other than Michael Flynn playing a key leadership role and managing to get over 150 pastors to sign a pledge to join the regiment. And that was as of November 2022. It’s presumably going to be a lot more pastors by November of 2024:
But, of course, the Black Robe Regiment movement isn’t just about radicalizing pastors. It’s about radicalizing entire congregations into a revolutionary fervor fueled by a sense of religious righteousness but also a call to patriotic revolution buttressed by fear that the entire country has been stolen through mass electoral fraud. It’s like a Molotov cocktail for civil society:
Other figures involved with promoting the movement include Allen West and even Roger Stone. The Black Robe Regiment concept has obvious appeal to more than just fringe pastors in the age of Trump:
And then there’s this interesting claim by Bill Book: he spoke with Eric Trump to discuss the movement. Shocking, perhaps. But not surprising:
Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne is even on board with the agenda. Along with long-time Trump spiritual advisor Paula White. Keep all these people in mind the next time you hear someone like Ralph Reed try to dismiss this as a fringe:
And when we see Dominionist leader Lance Wallnau participating in these meetings, it’s a reminder that the Black Robe Regiment’s ultimate goal is effectively Dominionism. The kind of Dominionism we’ve seen repeated advanced by the CNP and its allies. Recall how Wallnau sites on the board of the Truth and Liberty Coalition, a group that works closely with the CNP-backed Moms for Liberty. Also recall how Wallnau was pushing the idea that Donald Trump is a God-ordained change agent analogous to the Biblical figure King Cyrus, back in 2017. For a fringe theology, it sure has a lot of prominent advocates:
Finally, since we’re talking about a theocratic movement intent on capturing the whole of society, it’s worth keep in mind the ‘classic’ memes we often see in relation to movements intent on capturing a society. That would of course be ‘Jews control the world’ narratives. The kind of narratives that have alarming levels of synergy with this broader movement:
As we can see, this movement didn’t just maintain the momentum it acquired after January 6 but has been building that momentum. And as the following January 2024 article makes clear, the Black Robe Regiment didn’t suddenly fade away following the 2022 midterms. Instead, we find Bill Cook openly opining about how election fraud could be cured if a few people started dropping dead:
“While speaking with Alex Newman, an executive editor at The Liberty Sentinel, Cook referenced a verse from the Bible, seemingly warning that anyone “involved in election fraud” will be “struck dead by God.””
God will strike down the evil-doers. This is where we are. It’s not an open death threat against those accused of vague “election fraud” charges. But it’s not not a death threat either. And note how Cook seemed to be suggesting that people dying in the lead up to the 2024 election might help prevent the mass election fraud he warned against: “Nothing would cure election fraud like a couple people dropping dead in the moment”:
Are we going to see a wave of dead election workers in 2024? Let’s hope not, but we don’t need to see someone show up dead for these kinds of threats to work. Simply intimidating honest people who otherwise may have agreed to be election workers could be enough.
But, of course, the movement we’re talking about is capable of far more than just intimidating election workers. The Black Robe Regiment is led by the people who helped make January 6 happen, after all. They have a track record. One of open violent insurrection. And it’s hard to imagine they won’t righteously foment another insurrection, or worse, should the need arise.
Either Trump wins, or the US experiences ‘bloodbath’. It’s not just Trump’s pledge to America. The Black Robe Regiment is on a mission from God to not just see Trump return to office, but also help Trump implement the Christian Nationalist vision for the future that he’s more or less openly campaigning on at this point. “Make America Pray Again” isn’t just Trump Bible sales pitch. It’s a preview. A preview of the future of Republican Party and the future of conservative Christianity in America. Conveniently, it’s a single preview since we’re talking about a merger of politics and religion. Or at least it will be really convenient for all the self-appointed divinely chosen leaders. Not so much for real Christians or basically anyone else.
Donald Trump is an instrument of divine providence. Of that there’s no doubt. Who can doubt all the empirical evidence? At least that’s how Steve Bannon sees it. As Bannon asserted on his April 1, 2024 ‘War Room’ episode, a big part of the reason Trump’s supporters continue to support him is that they recognize he’s a vessel for God’s will. Who can argue with that?
But, of course, Bannon — a long-time member of the theocratic Council for National Policy (CNP) — is far from the only figure making these divine providence claims. Nor is this the first time he’s asserted that Trump is a divine agent. There’s a ‘divine Trump’ cottage industry at this point. And as we’re going to see, this cottage industry isn’t just making claims about Trump’s divine backing. They’re issuing prophecies. Granted, many of those prophecies have already fizzled out, but the prophecies are still coming, thanks in large part to the fact that so many prophecy-oriented Christian evangelical leaders appear to be huge Trump fans. And, obviously, also thanks to the raw shamelessess of these ‘prophets’. Their shamelessness — issuing one failed prophecy after another — is a key ingredient to this story.
And as we should expect, Trump and his family are more than happy to embrace this divine role. For example„ it was back in May of 2023 when the Trump-owned Doral resort hosted a back-to-back weekend of ‘divive Trump’ events that featured a call-in phone visit by Trump. The weekend started off with a Friday event for Pastors for Trump, followed by a Saturday event for the ReAwaken America tour.
As we’ve seen, Pastors for Trump and the ReAwaken America tour are closely intertwined organizations. Recall how Pastors for Trump was started by Tulsa, Oklahoma, pastor Jackson Lahmeyer. ReAwaken America, which was launched in early 2021, was founded by Clay Clark, a member of Lahmeyer’s church. Lahmeyer has been a regular attendee of the ReAwaken events.
And as we’ve also seen, the content at these ReAwaken America events — co-hosted by Michael Flynn — have been so extremist that even some extremists have felt the need to distance themselves from the tour at the same time the Trump world has been embracing the tour. For example, these events have featured a number of Trump-world figures, including Kath Patel and even Eric Trump. Along with QAnon figures like Scott Mckay and Ann Vandersteel. As we saw, McKay, who has a history of making claims like “Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we’re trying to take down today”, has frequently appeared at these events and even appeared on stage with Eric Trump. And it was November 2021, when pastor John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church hosted one of these events, where Flynn openly declared that “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.” Hagee subsequently released a statement about how his church didn’t necessarily endorse Flynn’s views.
And yet, while the ReAwaken America tour message may have been too controversial for some evangelical leaders to embrace in 2021, it’s not clear that’s still the case in 2024. Especially now that Donald Trump has secured the GOP nomination and appears to be openly running as some sort of ‘God’s vengeance’ overt Christian Nationalist candidate. In other words, expect to hear a lot more proclamations from Steve Bannon and others about Trump’s divine mandate the closer we get to Election Day.
But as we’re going to see, there’s another reason we should probably expect more pastors to jump about the ‘divine Trump’ train: claiming a divine mandate is probably the best get-out-the-vote strategy available to Trump as this point. At least when it comes to the evangelical base that is crucial for his victory.
And then there’s the ‘prophets’, who can’t help but issue one ‘message from God’ after another about how Donald Trump is poised to vanquish all his enemies any day now. And enrich his followers in the process. For example, at the Pastors for Trump event at the Doral last year, we found Stacy Whited, a Christian Nationalist media personality who told the audience that not only will Trump be back for a second term but that he’s going to trigger a massive wealth transfer due to the great “transference of wealth from the wicked to the righteous” coming, adding “imagine when we partner with God, the Creator of the universe, what we’re going to do with this money.”
The next day, during the Saturday ReAwaken event, ‘prophet’ Julie Green predicted the imminent collapse of the Biden administration, explaining “That’s what the Lord is saying.” Green went on to describe the US as being in midst of another “Revolutionary War”. But don’t assume the failure of Green’s Biden-collapse prophecy deterred her from issuing more Trump-related prophecies. That’s not how this works. Back in September, Green welcomed none other than Eric Trump and Clay Clark on her podcast, where she asserted that Eric’s dad was being protected by God similar to how God protected the Biblical figure of David. As Green put it, “no matter what they’re going to try to do to your dad, it will not go the way they want it. It will not go the way they want it because God’s on his side, and he’s called him his David.”
And that brings us to Julie Green’s New Years Day message from God she decided to share at the beginning of the year: “My children, the time has come. A time that you have been waiting for. A reinstatement. A shift of power. A new government in control. An overthrow, and a takeover in this nation from the hands of the wicked, to the hands of the righteous.” Green went on to add that a “coup is about to be disrupted and annihilated,” with those involved “exposed and removed.”
That’s all part of the context of Steve Bannon’s recent ‘Trumpian divine providence’ rant. Not only is Bannon not alone in ascribing divine motives to Trump’s actions but all indications are this narrative is poised to explode over the 2024 election year. A vote for Trump is a vote for God’s wrath upon the enemies of Christianity. It’s the ultimate get-out-the-vote strategy. Which doubles as the ultimate mandate for the upcoming purge after Trump wins:
No doubt about it. The evidence of Donald Trump’s divine providence is empirical. At least that’s how long-time CNP member Steve Bannon sees it.
And while actual evidence for Trump’s divine mandate is, let’s just say, more subjective than empirical, what is empirically established at this point is the elevation of Trump to divine status by a growing number of evangelical leaders. Along with the growing empirical evidence that Trump is more than happy to embrace this role. And as an expert warns in the following Guardian article, a big part of what is driving the evangelical base’s enthusiasm for Trump is a sense of persecution directed against not just Trump but themselves. And the more Trump is mocked for his overt embrace of these divine narratives, the more his supporters are likely to feel mocked and persecuted themselves. So get ready for Trump to double and triple down on these divine narratives knowing full well that it’s going to invite all sorts of ridicule. That ridicule is just more fuel for this theocratic fire. That’s the state of affairs in American politics in 2024. A demented hellscape:
“While Trump has long enjoyed popularity among evangelicals, and has been courted by leaders including televangelists and pastors at mega-churches, this is the first election cycle in which he has been confident enough to compare himself to Jesus Christ. So, what’s changed?”
He’s not hiding it anymore. Trump is a Christ-like figure who is sacrificing himself for God’s glory and the protection of persecuted Christians. Trump is apparently comfortable enough in this role to make it part of his 2024 campaign pitch. Trump’s victory won’t just be the start of Trump’s reign of vengeance against his enemies. It will be God’s vengeance too. The wrath of God, channeled through Trump. That’s the message we’re hearing in this 2024 campaign in speeches like the one he delivered at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention back in February. A message that was presumably very well received given that the NRB is effectively an arm of the CNP. Recall how the 2023 NRB convention featured Michael Farris and Mark Meckler of the Convention of States project where they made clear that they are still very interested in overhauling the US Constitution by triggering a constitutional convention. Farris also became the group’s legal counsel that year, making Farris one of the many CNP-connected figures involved with the NRB leadership. That’s a key part of the context of Trump’s embrace of a Christ-like role: the CNP network of theocrats are his primary audience:
But while the CNP may be Trump’s primary audience in terms of cozying up to a power structure that can help him secure and run the White House, CNP luminaries are obviously not his only audience. If he win, it’s going to be thanks to average evangelicals coming out in record numbers. Which brings us to this ominous and depressing warning: the more Trump is mocked for his claims of a Christ-like status, the more sympathy he’s going to garner among evangelicals who are already suffering from feel of religious persecution. Feels Trump is constantly stoking. Trump isn’t just claiming to be doing God’s work. The protection of persecuted Christians from diabolical progressives is the divine mission he claims to be on. It’s a demented, but potent, political dynamic:
And then we get to this important wrinkle in Trump’s theocratic courting: Trump hasn’t just been courting the Dominionist of the ‘Seven Mountains’ “New Apostolic Reformation” branch of evangelical Christianity. He’s been particularly close to ‘prosperity theology’ figures like Paula White, the person tapped to be his spiritual advisor and bring the rest of the evangelical leadership onboard. The rise of Trump as an influence on US evangelicalism is inevitably going to translate into a rise of prosperity theology. The more he’s seen as a divine figure, the more valid people like Paula White become too in the eyes of conservative evangelicals:
Then we get to this ominous but important warning that when we are talking about a flowering of Christian Nationalist extremism, we’re also talking about an opportunity for the further fusion of these ideologies with white supremacy. Divinely ordained white supremacy:
And as the following TPM piece by Sarah Posner points out about how Trump’s February speech at the NRB was received b the evangelical community, while his speech may have seemed rambling, inflammatory, and seemingly incoherent to the general public, it was quite coherent to the target audience and dutifully clarified and amplified in the days following the speech by all sorts of evangelical groups like Kelly Shackleford’s First Liberty Institute and Paula White’s NFAB. And as Posner also grimly reminds us, pushing the this kind of divine war message is probably the best get-out-the-vote strategy Trump has this year, so expect to hear a lot more of it:
“In Trump’s twisted, false narrative, Christians are “hunted down by the Biden regime,” by “the same Biden DOJ that dropped charges against Antifa, where they kill people.” He then claimed that, in Portland, because of Antifa, “they don’t even have storefronts anymore,” and because of the “invasion” of immigrants, “cities are being inundated, they’re being overrun, they’re taking the parks from children, there are no more baseball fields, no more soccer fields.””
Christians are being “hunted down by the Biden regime” and God sent Donald Trump to save them. That’s the underlying message the Trump campaign is apparently planning on going with and as Posner warns, it’s a strategy that could appeal to more than just Trump’s core base of white evangelicals. It’s a potentially potent political play, as raw appeals to religion tend to be:
And when we see email newsletter from Paula White’s NFAB boasting that members like Jack Graham were present for the remarks and linking to a Liberty First Institute synopsis of Trump’s NRB speech sent out in talking point format while, recall how First Liberty President Kelly Shackleford and Jack Graham were both among the small group of prominent evangelical leaders, like CNP member Ralph Reed and CNP co-founder James Dobson, who met with then-candidate Donald Trump in May of 2016 and effectively conveyed to evangelical voters that they should have no qualms about voting for someone as openly un-Christian as Trump. The First Liberty Institute and megachurch pastors like Graham has been running cover for Trump with evangelicals for a long time now:
And as Sarah Posner warns, claiming a divine mandate is probably the best get-out-the-vote strategy Trump has at this point. We should only expect this dynamic to get much worse by election day, whether he wins or loses:
And as the following May 2023 Rolling Stone report makes clear, part of the reason we should expect the Trump 2024 campaign to lean into the whole divine mandate narratives is he’s been cultivated this narrative for years. Like the weekend in May 2023 when the Trump owned Doral resort hosted back to back events for groups that basically exist to proclaim Trump to be divinely guided. The weekend started with a Friday event for Pastors for Trump, the group founded by Tulsa-based pastor Jackson Lahmeyer. Christian Nationalism figure Stacy Whited announce her prophetic vision of a “transference of wealth from the wicked to the righteous” coming, adding “imagine when we partner with God, the Creator of the universe, what we’re going to do with this money.” Followed by a Saturday ReAwaken event featuring Michael Flynn and another prophet, Julie Green, who let the crowd know that God let her know that the “removal of The Biden is coming,” while describing the US as being in the midst of another “Revolutionary War.” And as we should have expected, given that Trump owns the property, he made a call-in appearance, showering Flynn with accolades and cautioning him “to stay healthy because we’re bringing you back.” Trump was calling into a ‘Trump the divine’ event held at the Doral and this was almost a year ago. This is a strategy that’s been cultivated by both the Trumps and his theocratic allies for a while now, with a demonstrated appetite among Trump’s evangelical base for more of it:
“Both of these groups have previously operated with tacit support from Donald Trump, but this was the first time that either group had staged their hijinks at a property owned by the former president, or appeared jointly. Trump himself called into the ReAwaken proceedings to laud Flynn and give his well wishes to the throngs of his admirers at Doral.”
Trump called into the pro-Trump theocracy events held at his resort back in May of 2023 because of course he did. It would have been shocking had he not called in. These groups exist for the purpose of elevating him to a kind of saint. Those events were like a giant Trump magnet. Starting with a Friday Night Pastors for Trump event led by founder Jackson Lahmeyer. And as we can see, Pastors for Trump includes theologies like Christian Nationalist Stacy Whited who promised a great “transference of wealth from the wicked to the righteous” coming soon, presumably thanks to the divine works of God and Trump. Which sure sounds a lot like some sort of mass looting and theft. The Holocaust included a “transference of wealth from the wicked to the righteous” too, at least in the mind’s the Nazis and their collaborators. It’s a reminder that a fascist prosperity theology movement coupled to something as dangerous as an insurrectionary MAGA movement with a divine mandate of wiping out ‘the left’ once and for all is the kind of situation that could lead to some massive plundering on a scale not seen in a long time:
And then we get to Saturday’s ReAwaken America event, where Mike Flynn received his phone call from Trump. And it was that night we got to hear from another figure seemingly gift with the power of clairvoyance. Although maybe not so much: MAGA “prophet” Julie Green revealed how “The removal of The Biden is coming” while the US finds itself in the midst of another “Revolutionary War”:
The removal of Biden was going to happen. The Lord told Julie Green and now everyone knows. Tat was May of 2023. It hasn’t quite happened yet but technically there’s still time for a divine smiting of some sort at Biden before Election Day. But the lack of a Biden removal hasn’t prevent Green was announcing more Trump-related prophecy. Four months later, Green shared another prophecy delivered by God on her podcast. All four indictments against Trump would soon “explode” and “all fall apart”. Green also shared that God considers Trump to be “his David”. Oh, and Eric Trump and Clay Clark of ReAwaken America happened to be the guests while she was sharing this. There’s a growing number of Trump-related prophecies looming in the air thanks to this deepening alliance between the Trumps and the conservative evangelical world where “prophet” figures Julie Green are abundant. And thanks to God too, of course:
“On Thursday’s episode of her show, which can be viewed on Green’s YouTube and Rumble channels, she welcomed Eric Trump and Clay Clark, an entrepreneur and founder of the ReAwaken America tour. Both Green and the younger Trump have made appearances at ReAwaken America events, which have been criticized for spreading QAnon conspiracy theories and COVID-19 misinformation.”
Julie Green and the Trumps sure have an interesting relationship. Sadly, it’s not a particularly surprising relationship given Green’s propensity for making divine Trump prophecies. So of course Eric Trump was going to appear on her September 2023 podcast to talk about how his dad had divine protection look the Biblical figure David:
And there was more Julie Green Trump prophecy where that came from. Flash forward to New Years Day of this year, when Green shared with her audience a New Years message from God. Although it wasn’t exactly new. It was more or less the same message about a Trumpian revolution that’s about to unfold:
“In the latest video, posted by Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of the liberal media outlet MeidasTouch, Green delivers a potent message: “My children, the time has come. A time that you have been waiting for. A reinstatement. A shift of power. A new government in control. An overthrow, and a takeover in this nation from the hands of the wicked, to the hands of the righteous.””
A New Years message from God to Julie Green about how overthrow is at hand. A takeover is about to happen that will tear power from the hands of the wicked to the righteous (who will presumably get very wealth by plundering the wicked). That was the message Green shared. A long with a vague message about how “coup is about to be disrupted and annihilated,” with those involved “exposed and removed.” 2024 is going to be a wild year. And Donald Trump and the righteous will prevail. That was Julie Green’s New Years message from God:
Has the coup been distrupted and annihilated yet? It was apparently about to happen. Maybe it will take a little more time. You can’t argue with prophecy, after all. Time will tell, as always.
But it’s worth keeping in mind in all of this madness that, when it comes to exposing deceivers and false prophets, you almost couldn’t ask for someone more appropriate than Donald Trump and his merry band of sycophants. Sycophants who seem intent on misreading the teachings of Jesus at pretty much every opportunity. Sure, the odds of seeing some sort of real moral revelations sweeping the conservative evangelical community over the grossly un-Christian nature of this movement are exceedingly low. They always were. But it’s hard to imagine a better opportunity than this. Well, ok, a better opportunity would actually be Trump winning and helping this movement impose its demented version of theocracy. It might be too late for American democracy at that point, but boy would Americans learn a thing or two about the corrupt nature of these theocrats. Because as many the devout like to remind us, God works in mysterious ways. Or in-your-face ways that you can’t possibly keep ignoring as you hit rock bottom, as the case may be.
Well that’s quite a twist: In a unanimous three-judge ruling, an Indiana appellate court just ruled that Indiana’s abortion ban ran afoul of the religions freedoms of a group of from anonymous plaintiffs of faith. According to the plaintiffs, their personal faiths imposed no restrictions on getting an abortion and, therefore, the state’s abortion ban amounts to a state restriction on their personal faith and a violation of the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act that protects religious objectors from laws that “substantially burden” their “sincerely held” religious beliefs.
And what was the precedent that the three-judge panel cited in their legal reasoning? The 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Supreme Court ruling that found that anti-abortion employers don’t have to offer employees coverage for birth control. Yep, that historic ruling in favor or ‘religious freedom’ is the basis for what might be a legal loophole in Indiana’s strict abortion laws.
We’ll see how the Indiana Supreme Court ultimately rules after the state presumably appeals the ruling. But either way, this unanimous appellate court ruling is a stunning reminder to the theocratic right about an implicit risk on one of the movement’s biggest legal strategies for breaking down the Separation of Church and State. Because as we’re going to see, the theocratic right, and in particular the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), has been waging a highly successful legal strategy for almost 30 years now predicated on the idea that the protection of devout Christians against “viewpoint discrimination” should take precedent over the Establishment Clause that prevents the state from endorsing a religion.
In fact, it was ADF’s victory in the 1995 Supreme Court ruling of Rosenberger vs. The Regents of the University of Virginia, that the precedent of prioritizing “viewpoint discrimination” over the Establishment Clause was first set. But that was just the start. The ADF has been waging similar legal battles ever since, with a particular focus on the rights of conservative Christians to condemn homosexuality in defiance of anti-harassment codes at schools and universities.
But it’s not just the case that the ADF has been successfully carving out special exemptions for conservative Christians to condemn the LGBTQ community. As the ADF has put it, The “homosexual agenda,” is implicitly anti-Christian and the two cannot coexist. Anti-harassment codes at schools and universities, gay rights events, and other expressions of freedom or equal rights for LGBTQ people silence Christians who are biblically compelled to condemn homosexuality. Or as ADF founder Alan Sears put it, “the homosexual agenda and religious freedom are on a collision course.”
That ‘rights for me, but not for thee’ stance long adopted by the ADF is part of fascinating context of this legal battle now playing out in Indiana over an interpretation of the 2014 Hobby Lobby ruling. Because this “viewpoint discrimination” legal wedge always begged the question of what happens when you have “viewpoint discrimination” in conflict with each other. Whose viewpoint wins out? It’s a question for which the Christian Nationalists have a clear answer. If The US is fundamentally a Christian country than, obviously, the views of Christians should take precedent. But the courts may not see it that way. And if “viewpoint discrimination” can now be used to get around abortion laws, what other legal loopholes are there waiting to be discovered?
Perhaps the Indiana Supreme Court will somehow squash this case in a manner that effectively closes the door in “viewpoint discrimination” cases brought by people who are conservative Christians. But if not, something very interesting is developing in the US courts. Ok, first, here’s a piece by Christian extremism expert Sarah Posner about that stunning Indiana appellate court ruling:
“The unanimous ruling from the three-judge panel, which found that the state’s abortion ban burdens the religious beliefs of those whose faiths permit abortions, signals the possibility of a long overdue shift in the conservative bias of religious freedom jurisprudence. It also signals the emergence of a partial, albeit untested, argument for people needing an abortion in states that have banned it.”
As we can see, religious freedom for me and thee creates a lot of complications. The religious freedom legal loophole created by the Hobby Lobby ruling that granted Christians the right to legally elevate personal faith over the law isn’t exclusive to Christians, according to this unanimous ruling from the three-judge panel appellate court decision in Indiana. Anyone of any faith can exploit that loophole. Including people of faiths that allow for the right to an abortion. Whoops!
We’ll see if the ruling is upheld by the Indiana Supreme Court. It’s going to be interesting. Either the loophole is upheld for all faiths, in which case the Hobby Lobby ruling could become a massive complication for the theocratic far right. Or some sort of legal reasoning that leaves this loophole open only to conservative Christians will have to be deployed by the court, which will make the theocratic nature of these ‘religious freedom’ legal strategies glaringly clear to the public at large. It’s a major test of whether not the ‘freedom for me, but not thee’ goals of this movement. And kind of an inevitable test:
It’s a remarkable legal battle playing out in Indiana. Will the theocratic legal push face a thoroughly ironic comeuppance? Or will ‘freedom for me but not thee’ somehow win out? Time will tell, but as the following 2007 piece by Sarah Posner makes clear, the ADF’s legal strategy has been focused on “viewpoint discrimination” for decades now as its legal wedge for carving out special rights for devout conservative Christians. It was the ADF’s victory in the 1995 Supreme Court ruling of Rosenberger vs. The Regents of the University of Virginia, when the elevation of “viewpoint discrimination” over the Establishment Clause — barring the state from endorsing a particular religious — was first created as a legal precedent. A precedent that was subsequently used by the ADF to effectively argue that attempts to block Christians from harassing the LGBTQ community was a form of “viewpoint discrimination” barred by the Constitution. As the ADF put it, The “homosexual agenda,” is implicitly anti-Christian and the two cannot coexist. Anti-harassment codes at schools and universities, gay rights events, and other expressions of freedom or equal rights for LGBTQ people silence Christians who are biblically compelled to condemn homosexuality. Or as ADF founder Alan Sears put it, “the homosexual agenda and religious freedom are on a collision course.” You can’t separate the contemporary theocratic movement from the “religious freedom” legal arguments its relied on for decades now:
“Its three principal goals are protecting the “sanctity of human life” (through litigating cases relating to abortion and end-of-life issues); promoting the “traditional family” (via cases concerning gay marriage and adoption); and ensuring the “religious freedom” of Christians (by portraying them as victims of discrimination on the part of those who seek to silence their ability to “speak the Truth” by preaching the Gospel). Using the propaganda machinery of conservative media outlets and churches, ADF has created a zeitgeist of Christian victimhood among people like Rev. York, who believes Christian students are the victims in Boyd County, and who has long admired ADF’s “fight with the ACLU to protect Christian freedom and Christian liberty.””
The ADF’s principal goals include ending abortion and gay marriage, but it doesn’t stop there. Cultivating a zeitgeist of Christian victimhood that can be exploited under the banner of “religious freedom” has long been a key element of the ADF’s long-term strategy, as we can see in this 2007 report by Sarah Posner. It’s a strategy that ADF established with its first landmark ‘religious freedom’ case, Rosenberger vs. The Regents of the University of Virginia, that managed to convince the Supreme Court to deviate from precedent and base its decision not on the Establishment Clause that prohibits the state from endorsing a religion and instead rule in favor of the ADF’s “viewpoint discrimination” reasoning. As the ADF seemed to argue, the prevention of the establishment of religious clubs at a public institution was a form of anti-Christian discrimination. And the Supreme Court agreed, creating a legal precedent that is still playing out to this day as we just saw:
And as we can see, the particular type of “viewpoint discrimination” the ADF has been focused on is the ‘discrimination’ against Christian who want to discriminate against the LGBTQ community. Or as ADF founder, Alan Sears, put it, “the homosexual agenda and religious freedom are on a collision course.” You simply cannot have gay rights without discriminating against devout Christians. Rights for me and thee are impossible in this situation. Society needs to choose one group’s rights over the other, and that should obviously be the rights of conservative Christians, as the ADF sees it:
Also note how the ADF was kind of encouraging exactly the kind of lawsuit we’re seeing play out in Indiana today when it decided to join the legal defense of Joseph Frederick over his “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, when his school forced him to take down the sign. While the ADF may have sided with Frederick at the time out of some sort of sense of obligation to defend all forms of Christian-themed speech, it’s pretty clear that Frederick was actually just making a joke that didn’t really have anything to do with his personal religion. He was just sharing a funny viewpoint. It’s going to be interesting to see if the ADF’s siding with Frederick in this case comes up at all in the current case playing out in Indiana:
Then there’s the obligatory recognition of the extensive CNP presence in the figures we’re seeing in this story: Alan Sears, James Kennedy, Bill Bright, James Leininger, Edgar and Elsa Prince, and Erik Prince are all CNP members, along with CNP founding member James Dobson. And don’t forget how CNP member Michael Farris, who co-founded the “Convention of States” project designed to overhaul the Constitution — has served as the President and CEO of the ADF. The ADF is a CNP project, even if it’s not official:
Finally, note the ADF attorney we find in this 2007 piece seemingly defending the bullying of LGTBQ kids by portraying criticism of that bullying as “outright hostility sometimes, against . . . kids who hold a Christian kind of world view who want to share Christian viewpoints or speech on campus”: Mike Johnson, the current speaker of the House. There he is as an ADF lawyer, defending the rights of students who feel a biblical duty to harass gay kids:
If devout Christians don’t have the right to aggressively discriminate against gays, that’s discrimination. While the ADF may have had enormous legal success to pushing this argument, those successes always begged the question of what happens when people of different faiths assert the same rights. For example, what if someone is compelled, by the their, to decry those who discriminate against the LGBTQ community? Are we going to see special rights carved out for those who want to harass outspoken devout conservative Christians who have a history of protesting LBGTQ rights? Because that’s kind a logical end point of this kind of legal reason. Or at least one of the possible end points.
There’s always the possibility that the courts will somehow find a way to limit these special rights carve-outs for conservative Christians only. Time will tell. But in the mean time, don’t be surprised if state legislatures in places like Indiana suddenly feel compelled to add special “* for conservative Christians only” clarifications to their religious liberty laws now that the CNP’s ‘religious freedom’ genie appears to have escaped from the bottle.
Paul Pressler died. It was a couple of weeks ago, just days before this year’s annual Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting. Rather awkward timing giving Pressler’s dual stature as both one of the co-leaders of the “conservative resurgence” decades ago in the SBC but also one of the biggest serial sexual predators in the SBC’s history. As we saw, the SBC actually settled the lawsuit it was facing from one of Pressler’s victims, Duane Rollins, in late December 2023. So how did the SBC address Pressler’s passing? By saying nothing.
But while the SBC’s silence on Pressler might seem like an implicit acknowledgement of Pressler’s guilt, that shouldn’t be interpreted as some sort of new more ethical approach to the handling of sexual abuse claims. In fact, as we’re going to see, a resolution to call on the SBC to end its use of nondisclosure agreements (something very handy when trying to cover up a sexual abuse claim) never even made it to a vote. Beyond that, the powerful Conservative Baptist Network (CBN) put out a 38 page document describing the group’s agenda. An agenda that includes questioning the honesty of sexual abuse victims. As we’ve seen, the CBN was formed in 2020 and operates as a kind of contemporary “conservative resurgence”, with the blocking of sexual abuse investigations as one of its top priorities. Don’t forget that Pressler was merely the most high profile sexual predator inside the SBC. There’s an ongoing sexual abuse epidemic in the SBC’s churches thanks, in large part, to the SBC’s utter refusal to address the problem. It’s part of what made Pressler’s passing all the more awkward and the silence around his passing all the more deafening.
But a sexual abuse epidemic is just one of the many issues the SBC has been grappling with. Women serving as pastors was another one. And while a majority of the SBC membership is opposed to women being allowed to serve as pastors, a resolution that would have banned women being called “pastor” narrowly failed the necessary two-thirds-majority vote. It’s being touted by some as “the center holding” against the CBN’s push to the right. But, again, it almost passed. And there’s always next year.
One of the CBN-backed resolutions that did pass had immediate reverberation far beyond just the SBC’s millions of members: a ban on all IVF treatments. It was a vote that is seen as a powerful confirmation to the broader “pro-life” movement that the SBC’s leadership will back their desire to expand the “pro-life” movement to more fronts than just abortion. New fronts like IVF bans.
As we’re also going to see, while access to IVF is widely endorsed by the vast majority of US evangelicals today, it’s also the case that IVF treatments is a topic that almost no one had actually thought much about until the Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF ban back in February. That Alabama Supreme Court ruling is seen by IVF opponents as an opportunity to change minds on the issue and it sounds that minds are changing. But more importantly, the opponents of IVF — who tend to be leaders in the anti-abortion movement — are intent on waging the same kind of decades-long struggle to ban all IVF treatments that it took for the overturning of Roe. Of course, with today’s Supreme Court composition and the prospects for an even more conservative Supreme Court should Trump win this election, it probably won’t be decades-long struggle this time. More like a few years, if that.
But the SBC’s history IVF ban wasn’t the only political potent news to emerge from the SBC’s annual meeting. In what was characterized as an SBC side event, the Danbury Institute held a luncheon featuring Donald Trump, with Trump telling the group, “These are going to be your years because you’re going to make it come back. Like just about no other group. I know what’s happening. I know where you’re coming from and where you’re going, and I’ll be with you side by side.”. As we’re going to see, the Danbury Institute was formed earlier this year and appears to be run largely by CBN members and has close ties to Paige Patterson. Recall how Patterson is not just seen as the co-leader of the “conservative resurgence” alongside Pressler and a former leader of the SBC. Patterson also played a lead role in formulating the legal coverups of sexual abuse claims. In 2018, Patterson was ousted as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, after it was revealed he said he wanted to meet alone with a female student who said she was raped so he could “break her down”. Patterson separately settled in Duane Rollins’s lawsuit back in April of 2023. So when Trump pledged to the group that “these are going to be your years”, he was making that pledge to the CBN and Paige Patterson’s close allies.
The other speaker at the Danbury Institute event was Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of the two people who submitted the IVF resolution for consideration at the SBC annual meeting. Mohler’s message to the group included statements on his opposition to IVF but also a critique of Trump’s recent felony convictions over the hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. “What we are looking at is the misuse of the American legal system in a way that, quite frankly, will not allow for recovery,” according to Mohler.
And that defense of Trump’s felony convictions by Mohler brings us to another dark chapter in this ongoing story about the SBC’s inability to grapple with sexual predators: it was back on February 16, the same day the Alabama Supreme Court made its IVF ruling, when Mohler was speaking at a in Louisville, KY, sponsored by the Kenwood Institute where he engaged in a truly absurd defense of Pressler over the sexual abuse charges. First, Mohler has claimed that he knew nothing about Pressler’s abuse until 2017, when Rollins’s recently settled lawsuit was first raised. That’s despite the fact that rumors about Pressler’s predations had been rampant for decades. In fact, it turns out Pressler was initially tapped by George H. W. Bush in 1989 to lead the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Pressler’s nomination was quietly withdrawn for unclear reasons following an FBI background check. Keep in mind Pressler’s abuse of Rollins started over a decade earlier. Also keep in mind that Pressler had already secretly settled a lawsuit from Rollins back in 2004. And yet, Mohler, one of the SBC’s senior leaders today, claims he knew nothing about it all until 2017. Which is all part of what makes his defense of Pressler so absurd: according to Mohler, the charges against Pressler were too horrendous to be believed.
More specifically, Mohler points to the lack of accusations against Pressler from the late Ken Chafin, who was a moderate SBC leader long seen as an enemy of Pressler. Both Chafin and Pressler were based in Houston during the period of Pressler’s rise to SBC prominence. And according to Mohler, if the accusations against Pressler were true, Chafin would sure have said something about it. It’s the kind of defense that assumes a rumor mill about Pressler’s predations going back decades. And yet Mohler claims he knew nothing about these rumors until 2017.
And, again, the SBC Executive Committee had settled in the Rollins case less than two months before Mohler made this argument. It’s one of the many warning signs that the settling of that case didn’t somehow settle an internal SBC debate over whether or not to continue covering up these cases. The coverups are to continue.
That was more or less the message Mohler delivered — delivered in the form of a perverse defense of Pressler — on the same day the Alabama Supreme Court made its history IVF ruling. And here we are, four months later, with the SBC formalizing that opposition to IVF at its annual meeting. An annual meeting that took place just days after Pressler’s passing...with a single mention. The SBC is putting Pressler in the past, while looking to a future of more abuse coverups and a new ‘IVF’ front in the ‘pro-life’ movement. The Conservative Baptist Network may not have won all of the votes at this meeting, with the ban on female pastors narrowly failing. But it’s pretty clear the CBN is steadily winning control of the SBC. And as Trump’s appearance at the CBN’s Danbury Institute also makes clear, the CBN’s influence is set to explode. Not just within the SBC but across the US. “These are going to be your years because you’re going to make it come back. Like just about no other group. I know what’s happening. I know where you’re coming from and where you’re going, and I’ll be with you side by side.” Trump wasn’t mincing words, for once.
So while the silence around the passing of Paul Pressler might seem like the end of a very dark chapter for the SBC, it’s important to keep in mind that this is a strategic silence intended to ensure the power network Pressler thrived in continues to thrive and expand:
“Herman Paul Pressler III of Houston died June 7, four days before the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, where nothing was said about his passing.”
He dies just four days before the SBC’s annual meeting and there’s not a single mention. Pressler was one of the co-architects of the SBC’s “conservative resurgence” decades ago. The silence is deafening. And kind of an admission of guilt. Pressler’s abuses didn’t happen in a vacuum, after all. They happened in a culture of coverups and protecting the powerful, hence the SBC Executive Committee itself eventually settling in the longstanding sexual abuse case brought against Pressler and the SBC back in 2017.
But while Pressler’s passing didn’t get a single mention at the SBC’s annual convention, that shouldn’t be interpreted as the SBC somehow putting these sordid sex abuse scandals to rest. Pressler isn’t the only abuser in SBC has had to deal with, after all, and as we’ve seen, there’s an influential new group inside the SBC that has made ending the sexual abuse investigations one of its top priorities: The Conservative Baptist Network (CBN), formed in 2020. As the following New Yorker piece describes, the CBN was still busily sowing doubt about the credibility of accusers during this year’s convention. It was part of a 38 page document that included other CBN priorities, like an opposition to female pastors and social justice.
The CBN was undoubtedly pleased that a measure that would have called for an end to the SBC’s use of nondisclosure agreements never made it to a vote. A proposal to formally ban allowing women to be called “pastor”, however, barely fell short of a two-thirds-majority vote at the conference. But there was one major victory for the ultraconservatives: a measure to ban all use of IVF technology passed, helping to to fuel a major new front in the ‘pro-life’ movement. The next front:
“To many observers, the confrontation over female pastors is simply one salvo in an internal power struggle over the future of evangelicalism. “It’s a sign that the center held for now, but the culture-war faction is already saying they are regrouping, and their main aim is to turn the Church into a political weapon,” Kristin Du Mez, the author of “Jesus and John Wayne,” a history of American evangelicalism, told me. The real tension lies between conservatives who possess little interest in influencing secular politics, and those for whom politics are paramount. At this year’s convention, messengers also approved a resolution condemning reproductive technologies, such as I.V.F. Another resolution, called “On Defending Religious Liberty,” warned against the influence of Christian nationalism and opposed “any effort to use the people and the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention to establish Christianity as the state religion of the United States of America.” It was overwhelmingly approved. Yet another, which drew attention to the ongoing scandal over sexual abuse and called for an end to the S.B.C’s use of nondisclosure agreements, never made it to a vote. Al Mohler, the seminary president, said, “Given the secularizing pressures of the age, I don’t think anyone thinks that list is going to get shorter.””
It was quite hashing of issues for the SBC. And as we can see, while the ban on female narrowly failed to get the required two thirds majority, the conservative wing of the SBC still had a number of ‘wins’. Or rather, the ultra-conservative Conservative Baptist Network faction that arose back in 2020 and appears to to be attempting to amplify the “conservative resurgence” from decades past. As as we’ve seen, in addition to goals like reducing the role of women, fighting against “social justice”, and a successful resolution condemning IVF treatment, this Conservative Baptist Network has another key agenda item: ending investigations into sexual abuse:
But as we’re going to see the following Politico article, while this Conservative Baptist Network (CBN) may have succeeded in getting its desired IVF resolution passed, we shouldn’t interpret that as a sign of broad support for the banning of IVF therapy among regular evangelicals. Instead, what we find is not just general support for IVF treatments among evangelicals for also a general lack of conviction behind that support because the issue has quite simply been off most people’s radar until now. Whether or not to allow IVF is largely a new issue for the vast majority of evangelicals, but not for the ultra-conservatives of the CBN who have long held a desire to restrict IVF. As such, the recent passage of the SBC resolution condemning IVF is less of a sign of general disapproval for IVF among the membership of the SBC’s churches and more a sign of the conviction of these leaders to turn this into an issue that evangelicals care about. In other words, these theocratic leaders are attempting to replicate the decades old post-Roe wild success in converting evangelicals who never thought about abortion into political soldiers who prioritize ending it above all else. And as we all now know, that’s a very plausible strategy. It’s worked before. Which is why we probably shouldn’t be surprised if banning IVF treatments becomes not just more and more popular among evangelical voters but increasingly seen as an existential issue of great theological importance...the kind of issue that can drive evangelical voters back to polls over and over:
“The move may signal the beginning of a broad turn on the right against IVF, an issue that many evangelicals, anti-abortion advocates and other social conservatives see as the “pro-life” movement’s next frontier — one they hope will eventually lead to restrictions, or outright bans, on IVF at the state and federal levels.”
IVF bans are the “next frontier” for the “pro-life” movement. At least that’s the plan embraced by the SBC’s leadership. For most evangelicals, IVF was a non-issue. And still today, an overwhelming majority of self-described evangelicals are in favor or allowing access to IVF. And then the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision happen. Now, IVF bans are the new frontier, for decades to come, whether regular evangelicals realize it yet or not. Regular evangelical may not care deeply about banning IVF yet, but they will. It’s just a matter of time. Time and heavy doses of pulpit propaganda:
And note how this opposition to IVF treatment isn’t the limit to the restrictions this movement is seeking. In the view of Albert Mohler — the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary one of the two people who submitted the IVF ban resolution for consideration — the creation of any human embryo outside of a sexual act between a husband and wife is inherently unethical. So same sex couples who rely on sperm or egg donors would obviously be ruled out too, along with pregnancies outside of marriage:
And as we can see, Mohler was quite frustrated with Republican officials pushing for IVF protections in the wake of that Alabama Supreme Court ruling. Which raises the question about Donald Trump’s position on the matter. After all, if he wins again and gets to appoint even more Supreme Court justices, it’s not hard to imagine a Supreme Court majority very much aligned with Mohler’s views. So it’s worth noting that both Trump and Mohler made appearances at another recent SBC event: a free luncheon hosted by the Danbury Institute, a new conservative evangelical group that just came into existence this year. Mohler’s speech emphasized his opposition to IVF. Trump’s speech had a much more vague message in the sense that he wasn’t taking any particular theological stand. Instead, he basically declared that the Danbury Institute’s priorities will be his priorities when he’s back in the White House. Or as Trump put it, “These are going to be your years because you’re going to make it come back. Like just about no other group. I know what’s happening. I know where you’re coming from and where you’re going, and I’ll be with you side by side”:
“Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president, spoke via video to participants at a free luncheon hosted by the Danbury Institute as a side event to the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis.”
As we can see, Trump made a campaign appearance at an SBC convention side event. A special get together for evangelical leaders. So when Trump makes statements about how “these are going to be your years”, he’s effectively telling the ultra conservative leaders of the Danbury Institute that their agenda is his agenda. Which presumably now includes the agenda of banning IVF.
But also note who introduced Trump: Scott Colter, a former administrator at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Recall how the long-time leader of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Paige Patterson, ended up settling a law suit back in 2023, which was part of the much larger lawsuit brought against long-time SBC leader Paul Pressler over years of sexual abuse. As we’re going to see, the people running the Danbury Institute have extensive ties to Patterson:
And then we get to Al Mohler’s speech, which not only included a reiteration of his opposition to IVF treatments for also included a defense of Donald Trump’s recent court convictions. So this event wasn’t just an opportunity for Trump to express his fealty to this group of theocrats and also an opportunity for this group to shower Trump with the praise and loyalty signals he desires:
Now, to get a better idea of the context of these speeches at this Danbury Institute entity, here’s an article from just a few months ago about the creation of the Danbury Institute. And as we can see, it’s more or less run by the theocrats in Paige Patterson’s orbit running the Conservative Baptist Network:
“In an email to supporters this week headlined, “New Christian Group Enters the Arena!” Gary Bauer, vice president of public policy for the Dobson Institute, said he welcomes The Danbury Institute for joining “the battle raging in our country to preserve faith, family and freedom. The future of America will be bleak indeed if we are ripped out of the rich soil of Judeo-Christian civilization, which is rooted in the Bible.””
It’s a new theocratic institution...that happens to be run by the same old people already playing leading theocratic roles. For starters, there’s Richard Land, chair of the group’s Advisory Council. Not surprisingly, Land — like Patterson, Pressler, Dobson, and Bauer — shows up on the CNP members list. And then there’s string of people with ties to Patterson and the Conservative Baptist Network. By the looks of it, this is basically the Conservative Baptist Network’s new institution:
And note the disturbing message inherent in the choice of the name “Danbury Institute”: it appears to be a reference to the idea that the separate of church and state is a one way separation. The state may not control the church, but it’s fine for a church to attempt to control the state:
So when Trump and Mohler mode those appearances at the Danbury Institute luncheon during the SBC convention, they were we effectively speaking to the theocrats behind the new Conservative Baptist Network, which appears to basically be a modern rehashing of the same “conservative resurgence” led by figures like Pressler, Patterson, and Mohler and other longstanding ultra-conservative baptist leaders for the last generation. Trump was engaging in the kind of cynical transactional politics that helped fuel his initial White House run while Mohler was speaking to his own fellow ultra conservative baptist leaders. Fellow leaders who, as the following piece points out, joined Mohler in denying and covering up the torrent of sexual abuse by Pressler and others for decades now. In fact, it turns out Mohler made the case back in February — after the SBC Executive Committee already settled Pressler’s case — that Pressler couldn’t be guilty of the charges because they were too horrendous to imagine. And he happened to do this on February 16, the same day the Alabama Supreme Court made its anti-IVF ruling:
“During Feb. 16 forum in Louisville, Mohler stretched credulity beyond its limits, bending over backward to defend his old friend. While doing so, he applied logic so weak it wouldn’t earn a passing grade at his seminary across town. Nearing the end of his esteemed career, nobody ever again is likely to think Mohler is the smartest guy in the room, a devastating loss for the prince of SBC seminary presidents.”
Yes, it was February 16, the very same day of the Alabama Supreme Court IVF ruling, when Al Mohler spoke at a forum in Louisville where he made the case that the sexual abuse charges against Paul Pressler were too horrendous to be credible. And he made this argument despite the fact that the SBC Executive Committee settled in the Pressler lawsuit less than two months prior. Mohler was effectively engaging in a kind of historical revisionism for Paul Pressler’s legacy of sexual abuse. Extremely bad faith historical revisionism:
But Mohler didn’t just engage in a bizarre historically revisionist defense of Pressler. He also attempted to revise his own history on the matter, claiming to have never heard about the allegations against Pressler until 2017. A denial that flies in the face of 35 years of rumors about Pressler’s abuse going back to 1989 when Pressler was passed over to direct the U.S. Office of Government Ethics for George H. W. Bush after failing an FBI background check:
And as the piece reminds us, it’s not like Mohler is the only SBC leader seemingly unable to acknowledge Pressler’s actions, with Paige Patterson — who, again, settled over his own role in Pressler’s coverup in April of 2023 — being another prominent example. But he’s not the only one:
How many more serial abusers are there inside the SBC? And what about the SBC’s leadership? Any more serial abusers hiding there? We don’t know, but we can be confident at this point that they will be kept well hidden if they exist. That was the message Mohler delivered to this forum, whether that was his intended message or not. Rapist are to be protected while those desiring a pregnancy via IVF are to be denied.
And in related news, Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris just resigned following a confession to sexually assaulting a girl in the 1980s while she was between the ages of 12 to 16 and he was in his early 20s. Morris’s Gateway Church, based out of Dallas, is an SBC member. Oh, and Morris also happens to be a former spiritual advisor to Donald Trump and served on his evangelical advisory board for Trump’s 2016 campaign. Because of course.
And the hits keep coming. Right the heels of the Supreme Court’s string of horrid rulings last week — gutting both federal anti-corruption laws AND the federal power to implement regulations — we get the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity that effectively turns the president into an unaccountable individual who operates above the law and can even legally order Navy seals to assassinate his political opponents. Presidential lawlessness is the new law of the land. So while it was hard to imagine higher stakes in the upcoming 2024 election, the stakes did indeed just get higher. Trumpian pledges of retribution of vengeance have new legal grounding.
So with Trump now poised to operate with complete immunity during his upcoming second term, it’s worth keeping in mind that the vengeance and retribution Trump doles out won’t necessarily be just his vengeance and retribution. As Trump himself declared back in March of 2023, “In 2016, I declared I am your voice. Today, I add, I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” It’s going to be an avalanche of vengeance and retribution.
But, of course, Trump can’t actually implement the desired vengeance and retribution for all of his random supporters. That’s just not logistically possible. On the other hand, it’s not hard to imagine major donors getting Trump’s ear and expressing some vengeance and retribution plans of their own.
And that brings us to the following highly disturbing Rolling Stone report about a figure with big plans for transforming the US who also happens to be one of Trump’s biggest backers at this point: Texas oil billionaire theocrat Tim Dunn.
As we’ve seen, Dunn has effectively captured the Texas GOP after years of waging a scorched earth campaign against Republicans who deviate from his extremist views. The Texas GOP is Tim dunn’s party now. Despite scandals like the seven hour meeting with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
But as the Rolling Stone report makes clear, Dunn isn’t content on transforming Texas into a theocracy. He has national ambitions. National ambitions already on display with Dunn major donations to the Convention of States project working to triggered a far right overhaul of the US Constitution. And Donald Trump’s return to the White House is clearly part of the national plan. In fact, it turns out that Dunn gave $5 million to Make America Great Again Inc., a PAC that actually ran commercials featuring Trump’s “I am your retribution” message.
It also sounds like Dunn is involved with the Schedule F/Project 2025 plot to purge the federal government of all non-Trumpian loyalists. In 2021, Dunn signed on as a founding director of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI). The CEO of AFPI happens to be Brooke Rollins who not only served as Trump’s domestic policy advisor but also served as CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which has long operated as one of Dunn’s political influence operations. Beyond that, Dunn has donated heavily to the Center for Renewing America, run by key Project 2025 operative Russ Vought. Recall how Vought actually penned an opinion piece in March of 2021 advocating for open Christian Nationalism.
Other Trump-related initiatives of Dunn’s includes partnering with Brad Parscale. It sounds like the pair are working on something that sounds like an AI-powered version of the Cambridge Analytica microtargeting operation from 2016.
And as the report also makes clear, it’s not just that Dunn sees an ally in Trump. The two have remarkably similar personalities. In fact, Dunn himself admits to being a “self-o-holic” who “wanted to be in control, but without taking responsibility.” As Dunn describes, he possesses a knee-jerk petulance and megalomania and tends to intimidate people to get his way. Beyond that, Dunn admits to an overt god complex. “I get tapped on the shoulder fairly often. And Jesus says, ‘Excuse me, you’re sitting in my chair.’” Dunn also acknowledges how, “I very effortlessly can channel my inner four-year-old at any time.” Dunn even hears a voice all day long calling for him to be a tyrant ruler. “‘Be a tyrant ruler. You should ascend to the most high’ — I hear that voice all day long, every day.” All day, every day.” Dunn basically admits to being Trump with a god complex.
How does Dunn resolve these admittedly un-Christian attributes with his Christian Nationalist agenda? Well, by declaring himself a ‘jerk for Jesus’ and insisting that “niceness” (in the form of tolerance) is in fact “cowardice” that will leave people living in Hell in the end. Forcing people to live a life according to his understanding of the Bible is Dunn’s version of Jesus’s compassion. Yep. “Niceness” is in fact “cowardice” that will leave people living in Hell in the end. Forcing people to live a life according to his understanding of the Bible is Dunn’s version of Jesus’s compassion.
Oh, and then there’s this remarkable gem of a fun fact: Dunn’s chief partner in his Texas operations is megadonor Farris Wilks. And not only is Wilks a fellow fundamentalist zealot, but it turns out Wilks also serves as an Old Testament preacher who teaches his followers to avoid Christmas and Easter because they are “rooted in paganism”. Keep that in mind the next time you hear about a left-wing ‘war on Christmas’.
Farris Wilks along with his brother Donald also happen to be the major financiers for Ted Cruz’s super-PACs. And as we’re going to see in a December 2015 Washington Post report, it was the Wilks ranch where around a 100 major faith leaders gathered to further strategize around who to endorse in the 2016 election. Now, as we’ve seen, those faith leaders ended up endorsing Donald Trump after it because clear he was going to win the GOP primary. But before ty endorsed Trump, it was Cruz who managed to secure most of those endorsements. In other words, the Dunn/Wilks operation almost had one of their key political patrons, Ted Cruz, secure the GOP nomination in 2016. It’s a reminder that Dunn and Wilks have been on the cusp of seeing their theocratic impulses enforced at the national level for a number of years now. And have presumably been planning on how to exploit that opportunity for a number of years too.
So Tim Dunn — the Texas billionaire partnered with the guy who opposes Christmas on theological grounds — also happens to be one of Donald Trump’s biggest backers at this point. But he isn’t just supporting Trump. He’s supporting the much broader CNP-backed Schedule F/Project 2025 plot to exploit a future Trump presidency for their maximum advantage. And if that seems like an overly ambitious agenda, don’t forget that we’re talking about the guy who already managed to capture Texas:
“A notorious figure in Texas, Dunn has not previously been a power player in Washington, D.C. But with $2 billion in his war chest — from the recent sale of his fracking business — that’s changing dramatically. Dunn has staked millions to send Donald Trump back to the White House in 2024. And he has formed an alliance with Trump’s former presidential campaign manager and voter-targeting guru Brad Parscale, who has opened up shop in Midland. Dunn is also bankrolling a bevy of high-profile groups that are crafting an extreme 2025 agenda, one that seeks to roll back reproductive rights and tear down the wall between religion and politics.”
As we can see, Tim Dunn’s oil-fueled $2 billion political war chest isn’t just taking aim at Texas anymore. Dunn’s has national Christian Nationalist ambitions and, quite logically, sees Donald Trump’s return to the White House as his vehicle for making that happen. So when we read that Dunn hasn’t just donated heavily Trump’s reelection effort but is also deeply involved with the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme. A scheme that, as we’ve seen, is fundamentally a Christian Nationalist project of the CNP with the goal of a society-wide capture of all institutions. It should come as no surprise to learn that Dunn is a major Trump backer. It would have been shocking if he wasn’t.
But it’s also hard not to notice how Dunn’s embrace of Trump juxtaposes with one of the more absurd aspects of Dunn’s professed moral paradigm: in Dunn’s comic book-style version of Christianity, “Sexual immorality is a sin that’s worse than all the others.” Beyond being a profoundly shallow form of moral priorities, here he is backing a convicted rapist felon who just got convicted of 34 counts related to paying off a porn star with hush money to cover up with sex he had with her while his wife was pregnant. There’s no doubt a comic book explanation for why this is theologically fine:
And then we get to Dunn’s extraordinarily Trumpian character. The god literally admits to having a god complex when it comes to his religious fervor. That’s on top of admitting that he finds “annoying” Christianity’s calls from traits like being hospitable, being loving and patient, and “walking in the spirit.” A “self-o-holic” who “wanted to be in control, but without taking responsibility.” Sound like anyone familiar running for president again? Beyond that, Dunn admits to possessing a knee-jerk petulance and strain of megalomania who intimidates people to get his way. As Dunn puts it, “I get tapped on the shoulder fairly often. And Jesus says, ‘Excuse me, you’re sitting in my chair.’” In another Trumpian admission, Dunn acknowledges how, “I very effortlessly can channel my inner four-year-old at any time.” Dunn even hears a voice all day long calling for him to be a tyrant ruler. “‘Be a tyrant ruler. You should ascend to the most high’ — I hear that voice all day long, every day.” All day, every day.”
So how does Dunn reconcile his apparently very un-Christian personality? By arriving at the conclusion that imposing his will on society is actually the most Christ-like thing he could do. “Niceness” is in fact “cowardice” that will leave people living in Hell in the end. Forcing people to live a life according to his understanding of the Bible is Dunn’s version of Jesus’s compassion. He’s a jerk for Jesus so it’s all ok. It’s like if Trump wasn’t just completely out for himself but thought God was talking to him telling him to run for president. That’s kind of Dunn’s headspace in his own words. Which is arguably a lot scarier than even Trump. It’s one of the harder to accept aspects of this story: some of the people behind Trump are even scarier than he is. Even much scarier. It’s hard to believe but true:
Also hard to believe, but true, is the fact that Dunn isn’t just a director of Convention of States Action — a group dedicated to a far right overhaul of the US Constitution — but it’s simultaneously the case that Dunn’s chief political partner happens to be Farris Wilks, a fellow billionaire Christian Nationalist zealot who is so extreme he literally wants to wage a legal war on Christmas and have it banned as a pagan violation. Hard to believe, especially given all the right wing uproar the alleged ‘War on Cristmas’. And yet it is true. Trump’Texan champion is a co-champion with a Christian Nationalist who really did declare a war on Christmast. And almost no one noticed:
But Dunn isn’t just working to turn Texas into a theocracy. He’s part of the broader MAGA ecosystem of entities working to implement the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme, serving as as a founding director of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) alongside fellow TPPF official Brooke Rollins:
And then there’s Dunn’s significant donations to Russ Vought’s Center for Renewing America (CRA), another key Schedule F/Project 2025 entity. This is a good time to recall how Vought penned that opinion piece in March 2021 touting Christian Nationalism as a good thing. Flash forward to today, and we find Vought’s CRA is actively planning on implementing a Christian Nationalist agenda when Trump returns to the White House. That’s at the same time William E. Wolfe has been warning that “we are getting close” to a point where Christians will have to “heed the call to arms.” So when we learn that Dunn is a major CRA donor, it’s a reminder that Dunn isn’t waging his theocratic agenda alone. He has an incredibly powerful network of allies feverishly making preparations:
And then we get to this disturbing partnership with Brad Parscale that sure sounds a lot like an AI-powered version of the Cambridge Analytica microtargeting operation from 2016. What kind of next-generation microtargeting scheme do they have in store for 2024?
Finally, note the ominous message in MAGA ads Dunn has been paying for: “I am your warrior, I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” Dunn is fully on board with plans for a wave of Trumpian retribution and vengeance. Which is a reminder that it’s not just going to be Trump’s retribution and vengeance. Trump’s powerful allies have plans for retribution and vengeance of their own:
We’ve been warned. Warnings right there in Dunn-financed ads. Warnings all the more ominous following the Supreme Court’s latest ‘above the law’ ruling. And yet, despite all these glaring warnings of the incredible danger presented by a second Trump presidency, the US appears to be on the verge of doing exactly that.
So given the high likelihood of Dunn’s Christian Nationalist Texas agenda morphing into a national agenda after Trump returns to the White House, here’s a reminder to try to enjoy Christmas this year. Because it’s not just going to Dunn wielding all of this influence. His long-time partner Farris Wilks is presumably going to be in a position to impose his theocratic impulses as well:
“So, what else do we know about the Wilks brothers? They are devout proponents of a tiny but fierce faith tradition called the Sacred Word Movement, which shares with Adventists a belief in Sabbath worship and the observation of traditional Jewish dietary laws. But Sacred Word goes further than Adventists in embracing a sort of Hebraic Christian or Messianic Jewish set of tenets in which none of the “gentile holidays,” including Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and Halloween, are to be observed.”
Farris and Donald Wilks weren’t just two of the biggest financial supports for Ted Cruz back during his 2016 run for the White House. They’re also opponents of “gentile holidays,” like Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Christmas and Easter.
And as the following December 2015 Washington Post piece about that consolidation of conservative evangelical faith leaders behind Cruz makes clear, it wasn’t just a gathering of 100 Texas-based faith leaders. That gathering was like a ‘Who’s Who’ of the evangelical far right with prominent national figures in attendance like James Dobson Farris and Donald Wilks. And at the core of this gathering was a group of around 50 conservative faith leaders calling itself “the Group.” Now, as we’ve seen, by May of 2016 Donald Trump had managed to secure the endorsement of Dobson and other major faith leaders. But before they backed Trump, they were rallying around Ted Cruz. So when we learn about how the Wilks brothers were hosting a gathering of “the Group” to secure its support for their political patron Ted Cruz’s most important super PAC donors, it’s a reminder that Wilks, Dunn, and “the Group” came awfully close to being a position to implement their Christian Nationalist transformation of the US via a Cruz presidency since back in 2016, and have presumably been refining those plans ever since:
“Since the Dec. 7 meeting, endorsements have been announced by influential figures such as James Dobson, a radio host who founded Focus on the Family; Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage; and Bob Vander Plaats, head of the Iowa Family Leader organization.”
The secret meetings were held, with major endorsements to follow. Endorsements of Ted Cruz, in this case. And while we don’t know the identities of all the members of “the Group”, it’s pretty clear that we’re talking about a large network of major evangelical conservative faith leaders:
And we we find another secret meeting at the Wilks ranch, it’s not just a reflection of the Wilks brothers’s status as key Cruz mega-donors. It’s also a sign of how influence they are with this national network of theocrats. Influence that has only grown over the last eight years as the Dunn/Wilks political operation has successfully capture the Texas Republican Party:
It’s hard to imagine Ted Cruz actually becoming President. But at this point it’s not too difficult to imagine what a Christian Nationalist administration might look like. Although the fact that it’s going to be Donald Trump — one of the most openly and demonstrably amoral and un-Christian political figures in US history — who will make that Christian Nationalist vision a reality is somewhat surprising. Or at least was surprising back in 2016. It’s more or less what we should expect at this point.
The largely unnoticed War on Christmas and Easter by Ted Cruz’s biggest backer is still pretty surprising.
Well that was weirdly appropriate timing: just two days before this year’s 4th of July US Independence Day celebration, Kevin Roberts — Heritage Foundation president and the head of the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme to destroy and rebuild in a far right image the federal bureaucracy — just announced a Second American Revolution is underway. And in case it’s not clear that he is talking about a very real revolution for very permanent consequences, Roberts went on to add that this revolution “will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Nor should we assume that Roberts is just talking about the next four years under a second President Trump term. As Roberts predicted, this revolution could be completed by 2050. Yes, the guy heading up Project 2025 is openly talking about unchallenged rule under threat of violence against ‘the left’ for the next 25 years or so. That’s the Second American Revolution he’s talking about. A plan that goes far past Trump’s lifespan. Trump is just going to lay their foundations for that permanent grip. We’re all along for the ride. The steering wheel is being taken away.
It was Kevin Roberts’s July 2, 2024, Second American Revolution declaration. July 2, going forward, at best, can eerily haunt the US as a kind of dark anti-holiday two days before every Independence Day to serve as a reminder of how far the threats to democracy can get (November 22 would be another good day for that kind of anti-holiday). And that’s only if Donald Trump does not get a second+ term. Because if that comes to be, it just might result in July 2 becoming some sort of new fascist Independence Day for the new post-democracy America Roberts is warning us about. The day they calmly and plainly stated out loud the new order. And no one blinked. Either way, get ready for fascist fireworks on July 2 going forward. He wasn’t talking about the next 4 years. He was talking about revolution that will take a generation or more to complete. That’s on the ballot, unofficially. One of many ‘surprises’ we all get starting next year. A plan intended to seize power and not give it up under the threat of violence basically for as long as they can get away with it.
Beyond that, Roberts predicted that the implementation of this Second American Revolution will coincide with a “great awakening” that would bring America to God. As Roberts put it, “Our definition of ‘freedom’ is not the freedom to do whatever the heck we want, but the freedom to do what we ought.” Which is a reminder that Kevin Roberts isn’t just the president of the Heritage Foundation. He’s also a member of profoundly powerful and theocratic Council for National Policy and the former head of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). And not only does the TPPF have strong theocratic ties but it served as a kind of warning of the upcoming CNP-backed January 6 Capitol Insurrection. As we’ve seen, the TPPF has long served as one of the political influence operations for theocratic Texas billionaire — and now Trump mega-donor — Tim Dunn as part of Dunn’s personal quest for political power to impose his fundamentalist brand of Christianity on the public at large.
And as we’ve also seen, the TPPF was found to be running the “79 Days report” election simulations in the final weeks of the 2020 election in coordination with the Claremont Institute and Charles Haywood. A simulation that assumed mass left-wing protests and the imposition of mass preemptive arrests and other extreme measures like calling up the Proud Boys and other far right paramilitary groups to help keep order. And yes, that’s the same Charles Haywood participating in the “79 Days report” who hasn’t just called for an “American Caesar” but has gone on to organize the Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR), an ‘Armed Patronage Network’ dedicated to overthrowing the federal government and imposing a Christian fundamentalist theocracy. Same guy.
So when Kevin Roberts warns ‘the left’ of violence repercussions should it intervene in his July 2 declaration of a Second American Revolution, it’s important to keep in mind that he’s speaking on behalf of powerful theocratic institutions and networks of radicalized millionaires and billionaires ready to pull the trigger on ending democracy. Which is more or less the same network that brought us Leonard Leo’s hand-picked radicalized Supreme Court. They are done planning. It’s happening. They have the lock on the court. They’re taking their capture court for a multi-decade spin through the landscapes of national transmutation. They are thinking about the decades to come. This is a good time to recall how Leo (another CNP member), somewhat ironically, had his political war chest — which will be used to further this Christian Nationalism legal movement for decades to come — massively turbo-charged thanks to a $1.6 billion fortune left to him libertarian Jewish businessman Barre Seid. Seid must have really hated government. And not minded financing the Christian theocracy angle to Leonard Leo’s life’s work.
It’s also worth noting that Roberts made these comments about a possibly violent Second Revolution in the context of his praise of the Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling grating Donald Trump seemingly unchecked powers to do anything ‘officially’. Roberts was obviously very much in favor of the ruling, suggesting people read Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist No. 70 where Hamilton makes the case for a ‘Unitary Executive’ legal theory the George W. Bush administration used with abandon. Which is a reminder that this upcoming power grab isn’t actually new. It’s building on a foundation of corruption. A long term plan. That Leonard Leo probably had a lot to do with formulating. What’s new is the extent of that corruption and the power that’s now been granted by a Supreme Court captured for decades to come. Decades of a super amped up version of the George W. Bush administration’s power grabbing proclivities. That’s almost here. Permanently. Or for ‘at least 25’.
Karl Rove saw the Unitary Executive theory’s potential, was so enthusiastic about asserting when facing investigations. And as we’re going to see, in the third article below, a June 13, 2008 By David Iglesias — one of the federal attorneys improperly fired for political reason by the Bush administration — where he points out a disturbing detail about the kind of authority they were asserting under the Unitary Executive theory: It was a ‘the Executive Branch is the first among equals and not actually co-equals’ interpretation that allowed the them to extend the presidential privilege of privacy well beyond the President and included communications between the President’s advisors, whether or not they were communicating with people inside or outside of government. As Iglesias pointed out, it was an interpretation that led to almost all White House communications potentially being held back from release under executive privilege. It’s an interpretation of the Unitary Executive theory that we can be confident Roberts, the head of the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme, would be extremely keen to talk about given that he and his organization are presumably going to be directing the federal government going forward. A lot of conversations with government officials are going to need the ‘Bush special’ “Unitary Executive” extension of Trump’s executive privileges stretched to keep them out of investigators hands. A declaration of Unitary Executive powers followed up with a compliant rubber stamp Supreme Court will get whatever the Trump administration makes up legally covered. Now that the Supreme Court is this corrupt, the executive branch really can be first among equals:
It’s also all a reminder that the Bush administration was horrific. And scarily competent at its corruption. Awful policy blunders non-stop but the Bush administration knew how to be corrupt. And we are returning to that, but now with super powers granted by the permanent far right Supreme Court. Buckle up. And probably fill out a will if you haven’t yet. Get your affairs in order. Things are sounding kind of death squad‑y next year and going forward. How long before the Proud Boys get Judge Dredd powers? The countdown has begun.
And if the prospect of death squads sounds like silly hyperbole, don’t forget the time frame and scope of what Roberts is warning about: ‘the left’ is on notice for violent suppression of getting in the way of this upcoming Second American Revolution for the next 25 years or so if they get this plan in place, at which point it’s their new radically different country permanently. Keep in mind the plans this network has for overhauling the US Constitution. And Charles Haywood is literally putting together some sort of very super-rich-guy-led-deathy-squad-y-sounding organization based on the The Broederbond. Haywood was participating in that “79 Days report” where they played out deputizing paramilitaries like the Proud Boys to suppress protesters. And then he started assembling SACR.
‘Vote like your life depends on it because it does’ is suddenly a much more compelling slogan. ‘Happy July 2’ doesn’t really work as as slogan for the new anti-holiday. Maybe ‘Oh F*ck, it’s July 2! Be extra on guard for fake fascist ‘Revolutions’.’ It’s not exactly punchy but gets the point across:
“Roberts then declared himself an insurrectionist who is open to violence: “We are in the process of the second American Revolution,” he said, “which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.””
Bold words from Kevin Roberts. The kind of bold language that aligns with classic “submit or else” fascist rhetoric. It’s both a further dropping of the mask but also a prelude for the post-majority-rule America Roberts and his allies are eagerly getting ready to usher in under the next Trump term:
But also note how Roberts wasn’t predicting this “Second Revolution” would happen with just one more Trump term. It’s going to take until 2050. In other words, ‘the left’ should expect to be out of power for at least the next 25 years, but really forever. It’s that kind of revolution.
And it won’t just be a ‘MAGA’-centric revolution. It’s going to be a religious “great awakening” where “freedom” is defined as “the freedom to do what we ought”, with “what we ought” obviously defined under Christian fundamentalist terms. Because of course that’s what Roberts is advocating. As we’ve seen, Roberts is closely connected to the most powerful theocratic networks in the US. For starters, he’s an ally of Texas billionaire thoecrat Tim Dunn, having previously run the TPPF. Recall how the TPPF was found to be running the “79 Days report” election simulations in the final weeks of the 2020 election in coordination with the Claremont Institute. Also recall how Roberts is a member of Council for National Policy. The guy may be leading the call for a MAGA Revolution, but the longterm revolution he’s planning on waging isn’t really a ‘MAGA’ revolution. It’s the same revolution Christian fundamentalist and their oligarch allies have spent decades building towards. ‘MAGA’ is just a branding exercise:
And if we look at the transcript of that appearance, we can find that not only did Roberts issue that implicit threat of violence should ‘the left’ get in the way of their planned decades-long ‘Second American Revolution’, but he was also openly celebrating the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity, referring back to the Federalist Papers, in particular Federalist No 70. as an example of how the Founding Fathers (well, at least Alexander Hamilton) were in favor of a powerful executive. Federalist No. 70 also happens to be a favorite of those in the conservative movement who have long advocated for a “Unitary Executive”, which was effectively practice under the George W. Bush administration. So when we see Roberts citing Federalist No 70 in his celebration of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling, it’s a reminder that presidential immunity is another one of the building blocks towards a “Unitary Executive” that the conservative movement has been working towards for decades:
“Number two, to the point of the clips and, of course, your preview of the fact that I am an early American historian and love the Constitution. That Supreme Court ruling yesterday on immunity is vital, and it’s vital for a lot of reasons. But I would go to Federalist No. 70.”
Go read Federalist No. 70 to understand why the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling was so important. That’s the message Roberts was delivering. A “vigorous executive” is necessary because otherwise every president would be double or triple guessing every decision. Roberts doesn’t explain how the lack of such presidential immunity before impeded presidents but he doesn’t really have to explain because it’s obvious he’s talking about how presidents are going to be behaving going forward under this planned ‘Second American Revolution’, which will be much closer to a king:
And that fixation on ensuring presidents are empowered to operate with impunity when it comes to official acts serves as a reminder that it wasn’t that long ago that we were hearing very similar arguments in favor of another Republican presidency. That would of course be the Unitary Executive powers repeatedly asserted by the George W. Bush administration. Power that, as the following 2008 piece in Slate points out, weren’t just being asserted on behalf of then-President George W. Bush. They were being expanded to include anyone Bush talked to about official matters and anyone they talked to also. Inside or outside of the administration. Which, if you think about it, will be an exceptionally handy power to assert during the upcoming Schedule F/Project 2025 federal purge. A purge that is presumably going to be followed up with an unprecedented expansion of Executive Power in order to empower all of the Trump loyalists installed in those official positions. In other words, when we inevitably start learning about horrible abuses of power being perpetrated by all the new cronies up and down the federal hierarchy, try not to be shocked if the super-presidential immunity just conferred onto Trump ends up getting passed along to those cronies:
“Since when did executive privilege cover nondiplomatic and nonmilitary secrets involving advice given by nongovernmental advisers? I’d call this executive privilege on steroids, or maybe even executive carte blanche. Then again, if you subscribe to the unitary executive theory, then the executive branch is always first among equals. The Bush administration last summer claimed executive privilege no less than four separate times in about a one-month period. If that’s not a record, I’ll offer to clean Bob Woodward’s office for free. I wonder if the administration would claim it if Congress asked for a list of the temperature readings in the Rose Garden?”
First among equals. That was the George W. Bush administrations view of the executive branch’s relationship to its co-equal branches. It’s another reminder that what we are seeing the Republican Party push under the “MAGA” brand is really just an expanded version of the same power grab Karl Rove was pushing for roughly two decades ago.
And note how this version of the unitary executive theory advocated by the George W. Bush administration didn’t exclusively apply to the president when it came to the executive privilege to seek candid advice from his advisors in the executive branch. It was expanded to include anyone the president talks to and anyone they talk to even outside the Executive Branch. Think about how useful that kind of expansive interpretation of executive privilege will be in the context of the Schedule F/Project 2025 power grab Kevin Roberts is currently helping to formulate. It will be ‘King Trump’ and his many super-empowered followers:
And don’t forget, there’s no way they can pull this off without creating a giant violent ‘the left’ boogieman that they get to violently crack down on. For at least 25 years. Longer if necessary. The duration presumably depends on how long they face any resistance and mass attempts to revert back to, you know, the very imperfect democracy the US had that was infinitely better than the permanent Christofascism that is just months away. Expect policies awful enough to elicit extreme a passionate response and then violent false flags as necessary. False flags are one skill set the Trump administration is definitely not gutting in the upcoming purge. Gonna be A LOT of those. Especially at first to ‘set the tone’. It’s coming. The writing is on the wall. And coming out of Kevin Roberts’s mouth. And in the extreme nature of the Project 2025 documents. It’s right there. All the planning for the Convention of States far right overhaul of the US Constitution. Something way beyond how democracy has functioned before. It’ll probably still be called a “democracy”. Some sort of perverse hollowed out version of what the US used to have buttressed along by an even more rigged Supreme Court. They are planning for permanent rule under threat of violence. At least 25 years. That’s quite a warning.
And since it’s July 4th, it’s also an extra good time to recall how one of the nice things about democracy is we don’t just get one revolution. Every election is a revolution. A systematic organized democratic non-violent planned revolution. Only the first one was violent. That’s how it works. That’s how it’s supposed to work. Not one way under threat of violent suppression. But that’s what’s coming. That’s the new ‘democracy’ on the way.
Welp. We’re almost back to permanent revolutions by the group that seizes power. Again. It was a good run. Happy 4th of July for Americans. Savor this one. Although now we have to add the caveat of ‘and be extra on guard for fascists today too’ since 4th of July’s are obviously a date fascists might want to plot some sort of horrible coup event or false flag. 2024 has been a bad year for updates on US holidays. Let’s hope we don’t rack up too many more.
The celebrating has only begun. And why not? Donald Trump’s big was truly historic. Like the start of a new age for the US and perhaps the world. A darker age, no doubt. But new. There’s no going back and we haven’t even gotten started yet.
That’s all part of what made the plea that Trump pursue “unity, not revenge” by Joe Rogan — the podcast giant who made a now famous last-minute endorsement of Trump on the day before the election as he dropped the tweet on Elon Musk’s X.com with a link to a 2 1/2 hour interview of Elon Musk. Joe Rogan is a cultural giant who has glommed himself onto what’s about to unfold. And he surely knows it’s going to be ugly. Bloody and brutal. Calls for “unity, not revenges” are certainly understandable for those who don’t want to be associated with the orgy of fascism Trump is about to inflict upon the US. Foolish, but understandable. this final chapter of Trump’s fascist legacy has yet to be written, but it’s not going to be unifying. The only unifying that’s going to be happening is the unification of federal powers under the ‘super Unitary Executive’ theory the Trump administration is undoubtedly going to assert.
Who knows how much real remorse Rogan is going to have once the scope of America’s historic, probably fatal, mistake becomes more clear. But given how much of Trump’s support appears to have come from voters unhappy with inflation and willing to convince themselves Trump isn’t serious when he sounds like a fascist — not serious about deporting large numbers of immigrants, not serious about persecuting his political enemies, etc. — it’s not hard to imagine voter regret being a common theme for 2025. Trump is going to start his administration with very real shock and awe. It’s going to be shocking. That’s the point. And it’s only going to get worse. Anyone who voted for Trump expecting a return to normalcy is in for a season of very early regrets.
It’s going to be retribution and chaos. Maybe not immediately, but it’s unlikely to take long. And not just meted out by Trump. The Christian Nationalist infrastructure behind him, crafting the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme, is eagerly finalizing those plans right now. And as we saw with that recent report about key Project 2025 architect Russ Vought’s behind-the-scenes talk about the plans to ‘inflict trauma’ on federal workers and ensure Trump is able to call in the military on domestic protests, the Christian Nationalist nightmare about to unfold has plenty of vengeance and retribution of its own that its planning on dishing out. As soon as possible. Millions of Trump voters definitely did NOT vote for that kind of theocratic nightmare. But millions did vote for that and they the ones who aren’t going to have regrets.
But beyond individual voters or celebrities like Rogan who might end up regretting their vote, we have to wonder how much institutional regret there’s going to be when this is over. The institutions of conservative Christian churches in America. Because whatever unfolds is going to have more than just a conservative Christian patina. Dominionism is soon going to be a concept Americans are MUCH more familiar with because that’s going to be the guidebook for the MAGA New Normal. Trumpian Dominionism. Florida and Texas on steroids. That’s going to happen across the US and it’s going to be experienced as a merger of Church and Trump for at least the next for years. That’s Project 2025. The Council for National Policy’s decades-long Dominionist agenda realized under the MAGA banner and reaching all facets of American life. Trump might take credit for what’s to come, but it’s going to be a group effort. What kind of long-term impact is this coming era of fascist madness going to have on American Christianity when Trump is already seen as a kind of god-sent figure?
And that all brings us to the following report about the grossly misogynistic forms of ‘celebrating’ reported across social media immediately following Trump’s victory. Celebration in the form of calling for retribution and blood. Democrats need to be treated as a cancerous infection that must be cleansed through trials and executions. Or military tribunals and executions. Executions are demanded, one way or another.
It’s not just random conservative profiles making these demands. Steve Bannon spent election night broadcasting from the Willard Hotel and making declarations like, “You stole the 2020 election, you’ve mocked and ridiculed and put people in prison and broken people’s lives because you said this thing was stolen...This entire phony thing is getting swept out. Biden’s getting swept out. Kamala Harris is getting swept out. MSNBC is getting swept out. The Justice Department’s getting swept out. The FBI’s getting swept out. You people suck, and now, you’re going to pay the price for trying to destroy this country.” Bannon wants prison for “trying to destroy the country”. How wide a net is Bannon going to deman Trump cast should those trials start happening? Dozens of trials? Hundreds? Thousands? Its going to be up to Trump. The guardrails are off.
And let’s not forget that Bannon is a member of the Council for National Policy (CNP). He isn’t just calling for trials of his political opponents and jail. Bannon is a theocrat. He has many more demands and they really will be made reality. That’s the nature of the New Normal. Theocrats like Steve Bannon get to make demands and Trump and the Christian Nationalist bureaucracy he’s going to set up will ensure those demands are made reality. Many people will be listening to Bannon’s demands. It won’t just be Trump who has to hear him.
Which, again, raises the question about what kind of impact this coming experience will have on the legacy of the conservative Christian church in America. Theocrats like Steve Bannon are going to see their demands of retribution and Dominionism realized. And it’s going to be hard for the public not to notice. The public is the target of this agenda, after all. Abortion may have underperformed as a political issue at the ballot box in 2024 but that doesn’t mean this new MAGA coalition actually voted for a new Christian theocracy. But that’s what the whole US public is about to get, whether they voted for it or not.
And Bannon is far from the only notable conservative ‘thought leader’ to make these kind of disturbing victory declarations. Christopher Pohlhaus, the leader of neo-Nazi Blood Tribe gang, wrote, “Thanks Trump...Cheaper gas will make it easier to spread White Power across the whole country.” Sure, Pohlhaus may not be generally considered to be a mainstream conservative thought leader. But as we saw, it was Pohlhaus who devised the ‘Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs’ meme that was so enthusiastically embraced by the Trump campaign and much of conservative media. Pohlhaus has demonstrably been a conservative thought leader in 2024. What kind of role will he play in 2025?
Other unofficial conservative thought leaders who decided to chime in with Nazi-inspired online trolling include Catholic reactionary youth Nazi personality Nick Fuentes and conservative social media personality Evan Kilgore. Kilgore also happens to be an ‘ambassador’ for Turning Points USA, the youth-oriented conservative Christian Nationalist organization founded by CNP member Charlie Kirk. And as Kilgore wrote, “Women, back to the kitchen; Abortions, illegal; Gays, back in the closet; Interracial marriage, banned; Illegals, pack your bags; Trannies, back to the asylums; Jesus, back in our schools...We are so back.”
Fuentes chimed in with messages like “Your body, my choice. Forever,” and, “I’d just like to take the opportunity to thank men for saving this country from stupid bitches who wanted to destroy the world to keep abortion.” Fuentes later claimed it was all just jokes, which is a prelude to ‘I was just joking’ normalizing techniques that are surely going to permeate the coming fascist New Normal. And, again, Fuentes and Kilgore aren’t just random online far right trolls. Turning Points USA is very much a mainstream conservative entity these days. And as we’ve seen, Fuentes just keeps showing up in surprising places. First there was the dinner with Donald Trump and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago in November of 2022. Almost a year later, we got reports about the 7 hours Fuentes spent back in October 2023 at the office of Pale Horse Strategies, a political consultancy group owned by former Republican state rep Jonathan Stickland. But Stickland isn’t a regular political consulting. He’s the head of Defend Texas Liberty, the main political action committee used by Christofascist Texas Billionaire Tim Dunn to capture control of most of the Texas Republican Party in recent years. Recall how Dunn was not only very much involved in Trump’s 2024 election effort, he gave millions to a Super PAC that ran ads featuring Trump’s “I am your retribution” rhetoric. Nick Fuentes had secret meetings all day long at the offices of the main political strategist for the theocrat who basically controls Texas. That’s pretty mainstream. Not just mainstream conservative. Mainstream conservative Christianity.
And we don’t have to completely speculate as to how the public at large, and women in particular, are going to react to American’s political New Normal. We’re already seeing growing interest in a movement that first got started in the #MeToo movement of South Korea: the 4B movement, which is basically young women giving up on men and plans of starting a family and instead just focus on their careers and being happy on their own. Interest in the movement 4B has already surged across social media. Along with rape and death threats targeting women’s social media accounts.
Unity is not on the agenda. Society being torn asunder, on the other hand, is very much what the electorate ordered. Whether they all realized it or not. That’s what’s coming. A Christian Nationalist fascist purge that will leave a permanent scar on the American psyche. Assuming there’s an intact country left after this is over. Assuming it ever ends. The ‘Second American Revolution’ predicted by Heritage Foundation president (and CNP member) Kevin Roberts is just getting started:
“And now that he has won the election, his supporters seem just as thirsty for revenge.”
‘Unity’ is clearly not on the agenda. A unitary executive, sure. But not unity. Quite the opposite. Now is the time for blood and vengeance. Bridges aren’t simply going to be burned. New chasms are going to be rupturing across the sociopolitical landscape. It’s not going to be an accident. That’s the plan, as Project 2025 architect Russ Vought made clear in his recently revealed private speech to fellow collaborators. Creating the kind of turmoil that results in massive protests that can be used as a pretext for unleashing the military on Democrats domestically is the plan. And what better way to see that plan come to fruition than massive political reprisals against ‘the Left’. It’s silly at this point to expect anything else. Especially when Steve Bannon is calling for all of his enemies to be “swept out”. Enemies like the Justice Department and FBI, along with media entities like MSNBC.
And note the location where Bannon was making these remarks on election night: the Willard Hotel. The same hotel that hosted Bannon’s ‘war room’ in the lead up to the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Recall how key insurrection plotter John Eastman participated in strategy meetings with Bannon the day before the insurrection, along with Rudy Giuliani. Also recall how Eastman admitted during that Jan 5 meeting how Mike Pence had no constitutional authority to throw out the electoral votes of key states to throw the election to Trump, but Eastman argued the plan was still worth doing because he concluded the courts would determine that the constitutional crisis created by such an act was too large for them to handle and they would defer to the politicians. But this wasn’t just a meeting among some of Trump’s top supporters. Trump was reportedly in contact with Bannon in the days leading up to the insurrection, with Bannon privately encouraging Trump to have a reckoning on January 6th and kill the Biden presidency in the crib. So for Bannon to return to the Willard Hotel on election night and make declarations about about Trump’s need to carry out his revenge promises carries quite a bit of symbolism about what’s about to transpire:
And then there’s the cheers coming from Blood Tribe leader Christopher Pohlhaus. The same Pohlhaus who, as we’ve seen, has been networking with the Azov Battalion and happens to be the origin the “Haitian immigrant eating cats and dogs in Spring, Ohio” narrative that was almost like the id of Donald Trump’s now-successful presidential campaign. Pohlhaus presumably has very big plans for the next four years. He knows Trump’s second term is going to be very different from the first for America’s Nazis. Even if many of Trump’s voter never figured that out. Pohlhaus isn’t a normal Trump voters. He’s more like an insider:
But then we get to the incredible levels of misogyny and the flood of outright rape threats that of inundated social media in the wake of the election results. Most notably Nick Fuentes’s predictable “Your body, my choice. Forever,” ‘trolling’ on Elon Musk’s X.com along with conservative social media personality Evan Kilgore’s X.com proclamation that, “Women, back to the kitchen; Abortions, illegal; Gays, back in the closet; Interracial marriage, banned; Illegals, pack your bags; Trannies, back to the asylums; Jesus, back in our schools.” Keep in mind that when Evan Kilgore makes open Nazi-like statements, he’s as an “ambassador” Turning Points USA, a group that at this point a mainstream GOP youth outreach entity. Don’t forget it was founded by Charlie Kirk, one of the younger members of the Christofascist Council for National Policy. On the surface, Kilgore and Fuentes aren’t in the same league. Fuentes leads a modern open neo-Nazi movement. Kilgore is a random prominent online MAGA troll. With convergent celebratory messages. Except Kilgore didn’t claim to be trolling:
But let’s not forget that Fuentes is no normal neo-Nazi. He’s pretty mainstream himself at this point. At least inside the GOP. It was was Fuentes who Kanye West invited to that now notorious November 2022 dinner with Donald Trump. And it was Fuentes who spent 7 mysterious hours back in October of 2023 at the office of Pale Horse Strategies, a political consultancy group owned by former Republican state rep Jonathan Stickland. But Stickland isn’t a regular political consulting. He’s the head of Defend Texas Liberty, the main political action committee used by Christofascist Texas Billionaire Tim Dunn to capture control of most of the Texas Republican Party in recent years. Recall how Dunn was not only very much involved in Trump’s 2024 election effort, he gave millions to a Super PAC that ran ads featuring Trump’s “I am your retribution” rhetoric.
And let’s also not forget that Fuentes isn’t just a neo-Nazi, he’s a Catholic Christofascist too, and very aligned with Dunn’s Christofascism. That’s part of the context of his terrifying tweets. Nick Fuentes is kind of a ‘mainstream’ conservative thought leader at this point. He’s ‘respectable’ enough for secret meetings, at a minimum. Just as Evan Kilgore is ‘respectable’ enough to be a Turning Points USA ‘ambassador’, effectively speaking on behalf of Charlie Kirk.
And that’s all part of why the grotesque misogyny expressed by thought conservative leaders like Fuentes, who as deep ties to both MAGA world and Tim Dunn’s Christofascist movement, doesn’t just raise ominous question about the fate of women in America. It also raises major questions about the fate of conservative Christianity in America. Because it’s not really a question at this point as to whether or not the US is going to experience a Dominionist takeover. It’s a question of how far will they go and how long will they hold power. Are we looking at 2 years of haplessness followed by a swing back to ‘normalcy’ with the 2016 mid-terms? Or the start of the next 1000 Year Reich. Because it’s looking like it could go either way at this point and conservative Christianity isn’t just along for the ride. Conservative Christianity is going to going to be playing a leading role in whatever unfolds.
And with conservative Christianity’s fixation of reproduction and female traditionalism, that’s also why we should expect the coming backlash from American women against this theocratic takeover to be a big part of how conservative Christianity shapes the new dominion they control. Even Kilgore is basically describing a Gilead-style reality. Maybe it’s a joke. Maybe not. But it’s not really a questions as to whether or not the hardcore Dominionists want to create such a future. We know they do. And we know they are about to have more power than ever. How much power remains to be seen. But the Dominionists like Tim Dunn aren’t wasting this opportunity. And they’re clearly going to have plenty of Nazi fellow travelers eager to go along with whatever they deem God’s will. The closer to Gilead, the better:
“Fuentes’s streams on video site Rumble, which often exceed three hours, receive upwards of 100,000 views, some more than double that, and the topics reflect a similar trend of podcasts which speak to younger male voters who shifted in Trump’s favor.”
A Nazi leader for the internet age, where the extremist ‘trolling’ on his Rumble stream routinely receives Tens of thousands of views. It’s not hard to see why Trump would have been interested in dinner with someone like Fuentes. He’s a fascist voice for the contemporary information age of Manosphere video streams. A veteran troll who knows how to trollishly couch real threats as harmless jokes:
And note how the “Your body my choice” slogan Fuentes shared was part of a much larger meme that surged following Trump’s victory. Along with open rape threats across social media. The psychological terror tactics that have long been a core aspect of fascist movements are easy than ever to engage in and the fascists have figured it out. Fascists who, in many cases, are just teenage males who got radicalized months or years ago from exactly the kind of online content Fuentes specializes in. Again, you can see why Jonathan Stickland had people meet with Fuentes for a day of meetings at his offices last year. Fuentes is clearly the future of Republican politics:
But another part of the future of Republican politics is the response to the “4B movement” of female celibacy. Just giving up on men entirely. The “4B” movement that’s been imported out of South Korea’s #MeToo feminist backlash against pervasive misogyny. The US is in a social doom spiral. Exactly the kind of social doom spiral that someone like Fuentes thrives in:
And, again, Fuentes isn’t just a Nazi. He’s a Catholic reactionary who is very ok with the kind of Dominionism Tim Dunn is trying to impose. Trying to impose and likely to succeed in imposing in coming year. The training wheels are off. This is going to be full blown fascism coming. With figures like Nick Fuentes and Tim Dunn playing significant roles in shaping how this unchecked fascism manifests. What is that going to do to the reputation of Christianity when this is all over? Assuming it end. How will religion in US be changed by the coming national traumas about to unfold. Trauma upon trauma. When key Project 2025 architect Russ Vought laid out his plans for inflicting “trauma” on US federal workers and making them dread waking up each day and sending in the military against protestors, it was pretty clear he had plans for trauma that went well beyond federal works. Societal trauma is the plan. In the name of a particularly misogynistic and cruel version of Jesus.
It was fun at first. Exciting even. But the welcome is wearing thin. This whole ‘co-president’ situation that’s emerging is untenable. Elon has got to go. That’s the narrative that’s been emerging in one article after another in recent days. Trump transition team insiders whispering to the press about this whole Elon Musk as ‘co-president’ shtick is getting old and in the way. Musk isn’t just a no longer welcome guest. He’s getting in the way of business.
Part of what makes the reports about these Musk-related murmers so bizarre is the fact he’s been tasked with what is effectively carrying out the Republican mega-donors’ decades-long dreams of eviscerating federal spending with his new ‘Department of Government Efficiency’. It’s not just that Musk has already promised to find more than $2 trillion in cuts. As we saw, the Trump team is looking at tactics like the presidential power to unilaterally impound spending to impose whatever cuts its wants witout congressional authority. Musk is going to be the public face of Grover Norquist’s dream. ‘I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub,’ as Norquist declared in 2001. It took about 23 more years, but they did it. Or are about to do it. And Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Donald Trump have signed up to be the public faces of it. You would think the mega-donors expressing their frustrations with Musk would show at least some appreciation. He’s about to deliver one of the biggest political payouts to the super-rich in history.
But, alas, the right-wing billionaire networks that are going to actually to be running the Trump administration are getting annoyed and letting the world know. Because while Musk’s ‘efficiency commission’ has 18 months to start finding cuts, the folks truly running the show aren’t planning on waiting that long. If Musk and Ramaswamy can managed to deliver on trillions in cuts some time in 2026, wonderful, but mega-donors aren’t waiting until then. The cuts they’re thinking about are coming much sooner.
And that brings us to another remarkable narrative to emerge regarding to Trump transition process. A narrative that actually first popped in a New York Times report in late October, days before the election. A report about two allegedly competing transition projects. One, the Project 2025 project that everyone had heard so much about for months and that Trump had loudly disowned months early. And a second transition project peddling itself as somehow separate from Project 2025. An America First Policy Institute (AFPI) transition project. Of course, as we’ve seen, when Jonathan Swan first reported on the ongoing Schedule F scheme in Axios back in July of 2022 with a pair of giant reports sourced heavily from the insiders of this effort, the AFPI was cited as one of the entities that was going to be involved, along with other entities like the Heritage Foundation and Center for Renewing America (CRA). Of course, as we’ve seen, it was Heritage’s CEO, Kevin Roberts, who made headlines back on July 2 when he made his comments about how they were preparing for the “Second American Revolution” which would be “bloodless” if the “the left allows it”. And the founder of the CRA, Russ Vought, was recently exposed giving speeches at CRA events where he spoke about the plans to use Project 2025 to “inflict trauma” on the federal workforce. In other words, a lot of the entities behind Project 2025 have already racked up some rather unpleasant press. That’s part of the context of this story presenting the AFPI as being engaged in its own independent efforts that are somehow competition for Project 2025.
Recall how, as we saw in that initial giant July 2022 Axios piece about the Schedule F scheme, the AFPI, run by Trump’s former Domestic Policy Council director Brooke Rollins, had brought in Michael Rigas to lead AFPI’s 2025 personnel project. Rigas previously ran the Office of Personnel Management under Trump’s first term. The AFPI was, at that point, working on a personnel database for whichever Republican wins the GOP nomination. One of Trump’s PAC’s donated $1 million to the group in June of 2021. The AFPI was clearly part of the collective scheming that flowered into “Project 2025”. A major part of the scheming. Coming up with personnel databases of MAGA loyalists to replace the tens of thousands of civil service professionals who are about to be mass-firedis kind of half the scheme. But now, we are being told in the following New York Times report that there’s this AFPI transition project that is a completely independent competitor to Project 2025 that’s been operating under the radar this whole time.
So what is this transition project’s agenda? Well, as we’re also going to see, like Project 2025, the AFPI published a booklet describing its plans. A much less detailed booklet than the 900-ish page tomb put out by Project 2025 that captivated/terrified Democrats through the 2024 race. That lack of detail, and lack of any public profile, is apparently part of what has the Trump administration looking favorably on the AFPI’s transition plan in comparison to its Project 2025 competitor. That’s the narrative. A completely farcical narrative that allows the Trump transition team to follow the Project 2025 transition script while pretending that this is all from some completely different effort. And the New York Times is playing along.
But this isn’t just a story about how the Trump team is deflecting the bad ‘Project 2025’ reputation while sticking to the Project 2025 plan. It’s also a story about the increasingly close role Texas billionaire theocrat Tim Dunn seems to be playing in the affairs of MAGA world. Dunn isn’t just capturing Texas anymore. He has much bigger plans. As we’ve seen, Dunn has donated heavily to the CRA, which means Russ Vought’s plans to ‘inflict trauma’ in the federal workforce are Dunn financed plans. He’s already investing in influence at the national level by making himself once of Trump’s biggest mega-donors. And as one of the co-founders of the AFPI, we’re seeing how Dunn is manifesting that national influence at the very foundations of the Trump White House.
Dunn, of course, is the same far right billionaire Texas oilman theocrat who built a political patronage network that has already captured control of most of Texas Republican Party. A patronage network that as its centerpiece not long ago the Defend Texas Freedom PAC whose director, Jonathan Stickland, hosted Nazi Catholic radical youth leader Nick Fuentes for a still-mysterious October 2023 day of seven hours os meetings at the headquarters of his political consulting business. Tim Dunn is arguably the most powerful man in Texas. We could also say Tim Dunn is the most powerful person in Texas, but it goes without saying that in Tim Dunn’s Texas, the most powerful person is going to be a man. A Christian man. At least if Dunn gets his way. Because Tim Dunn is very conservative. And wants the rest of society be very conservative too. Tim Dunn is a Dominionist.
So when we see the AFPI, co-founded by Dunn, quietly taking a leading role in the Trump transition, it’s a reminder that the organized force behind Project 2025 is much bigger than just the Heritage Foundation and it’s a theocratic force. The Heritage Foundation was also sort of playing a ‘front man’ role for a much larger multi-institutional initiative which included the AFPI from the beginning. To present it as somehow a competitor to the Heritage Foundations efforts is an effort in playing dumb.
There’s another relevant Dunn-related angle to this story worth mentioning: we are told AFPI’s origins started soon after Trump’s defeat in 2020, when Brooke Rollins and Linda McMahon approach Dunn with the idea of creating a national organization that would lay the groundwork for a second Trump term. While we don’t know how exactly this trio first met, it’s not hard to imagine Rollins just picked up the phone and called Dunn since Rollins has already served as CEO of another think tank Dunn has long financed and helped run: the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). Recall how Dunn is also one of the key mega-donors behind Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), another important Dunn-financed political influence ‘think tank’, and Brooks Rollins served as the TPPF’s CEO. Dunn has served as a board member since 1998 and still serves as the TPPF’s Vice Chairman. And let’s also not forget how Kevin ‘Second American Revolution’ Roberts at the Heritage foundation who has been serving as the public face for Project 2025 is also the TPPF’s former president. This is what an interlocking influence network looks like. The interlocking influence network likely guiding the Trump transition at this point. A transition that has already shocked with world with the low character of the nominees so far.
Pete Hegseth? Matt Gaetz?! It really does feel like Trump is trying to troll the nation with these picks. But Trump isn’t going to be making the tens of thousands of lower level picks to come following the mass firings. The Project 2025 teams are going to be doing that and they’ve been working on it since Trump’s 2020 loss. Four years of billionaire-financed organizing.
How will Donald Trump go lower than Matt Gaetz? Time will tell. But can be confident he’ll find a way. So as the horrors of Trump’s personal cabinet picks pile up keep in mind Trump is going to be delegating the picking process for the tens of thousands of federal workers he’s planning on firing to the same Schedule F/‘Project 2025’ team he started with, whether that personnel database is officially provided by the Heritage Foundation or its ‘competitor’ at the AFPI. And the priorities of far right billionaire mega-donors like Tim Dunn are going to be the priorities reflected by those mass hiring and firing decisions either way:
“The classes could easily have been the work of Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint and personnel project that was created by loyalists to Mr. Trump and that has been turned into a political cudgel by Democrats seeking to link its most radical prescriptions to the former president.”
Classes on how to plan for a second Trump term put on by a conservative think-tank. It sounds like Project 2025, and yet we are assured this is an entirely different operation. No, no, these were classes put on by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI). A completely separate endeavor, we are assured. That’s the narrative bizarrely getting pushed at this point despite the fact that, as we saw in those massive Axios articles by Jonathan Swan in July of 2022, the AFPI was very much on board with the broader Schedule F scheming long before the name “Project 2025” was even rolled out. AFPI’s CEO, Brook Rollins, was similarly named as one of the Schedule F organizers from the beginning. There is nothing at all surprising or remarkable about learning that the AFPI has been working on a version of Project 2025. That’s long been the case. What’s remarkable is how this is being portrayed as somehow separate from Project 2025. It’s like a Project 2025 rebranding effort, which makes this a good time to recall how one of the most remarkable aspects of Jonathan Swan’s initial pair of giant reports on the scheme back in 2022 was how extensively his sourcing for the reports came from the organizers themselves. It was their narrative Swam was reporting on. And now we find a new narrative about the same network being developed for public consumption. Is this a reflection of the poor branding of Project 2025 and a recognition that their agenda is deeply unpopular? Or was having two seemingly independent Project 2025 variants the plan all along?
And note how, convenient, this partitioning of the Project 2025 scheme from the AFPI’s efforts come at the moment when we are learning how the AFPI’s organizers also happened to be advising the Trump campaign. In other words, while the Trump campaign may claim that it had nothing to do with Project 2025, such claims can’t be plausibly made about the AFPI’s version. Hence, presumably, this absurd attempt to portray the AFPI as somehow completely separate from the rest of the Schedule F scheme its been involved with the start:
Similiarly, note how the AFPI put out its own Project 2025 handbook, just one not one nearly as detailed as the roughly 900+ ‘official’ handbook put out by the Heritage foundation that has terrified so much of the American public. Which, agains, begs the question: was the plan to put out two version of Project 2025 the plan all along? A highly detailed plan designed to grab all the attention and a much vaguer real plan that will actually get implemented? Or is a response to unintended bad press?
So when we see narrative-establishing outlets like the New York Times portray the AFPI’s scheme as someone separate from Project 2025, and merely a smaller “transition project”, keep in mind that we’re seeing the establishment media basically play along with this rhetorical charade here. Who knows why the AFPI is being allowed to portray this as a disconnected project from the joint scheme they were all talking about to Axios back in 2022, before the label “Project 2025” was even announced. But that’s what’s happening. The press if going along with this ‘AFPI, not Project 2025’ narrative for some reason:
And that farcical ‘Project 2025 competitor’ narrative brings us to one of the most significant aspects of this story: the AFPI was formed by Texas Billionaire theocrat Tim Dunn. The same billionaire who built a political patronage network that has already captured control of most of Texas Republican Party. A patronage network that as its centerpiece not long ago the Defend Texas Freedom PAC whose director, Jonathan Stickland, hosted Nazi youth leader Nick Fuentes for a still-mysterious seven hour day of meetings at the headquarters of his political consulting business. Beyond that, Dunn is also one of the key mega-donors behind Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), another important Dunn-financed political influence ‘think tank’, and Brooks Rollins served as the TPPF’s CEO. Beyond that, Dunn has donated heavily to the Center for Renewing America, a think tank run by key Project 2025 operative Russ Vought. This is a close network of billionaire mega-donors and trusted operatives. That’s why the same names keep popping up, for both Project 2025 and its alleged AFPI ‘competitor’. They’re just two faces of the same oligarchic theocratic plot:
And don’t forget that this report was from less than two weeks before election day in the New York Times. That’s a subtle signal of what to expect should Trump win. And he won. The AFPI’s transition plan is running the show. At least for the decisions Trump isn’t personally making. Which is obviously the vast majority.
So while we can be confident that much of the madness emanating from the Trump transition team is personally delivered by Trump, as we move forward with the detailed dirty work of the Trump transition it’s going to be worth keeping in mind that that it’s going to be a scheme unfolding financed by the same theocratic billionaires who have been closely planning for this moment with Trump world for the past four years now, whether they call it Project 2025 or the ‘not Project 2025 competition’. It’s the same fascist network. Fascist theocratic billionaires who have zero interest in leaving. Much like Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago, except he’s much more flamboyant about it.
That didn’t take long: Matt Gaetz circus act has come to an abrupt end. He’s out of the running for Attorney General after it become clear Gaetz’s underage sex trafficking allegations were going to make his nomination untenable. There’s a new Sheriff-to-be in town: Pam Bondi.
It was an unsurprising pick on many levels. For starters, Bondi checks off all the boxes in terms of what Donald Trump is looking for: She’s a staunch Trump loyalist. There’s just one box, but boy does she check it.
But let’s not forget the other major reason we absolutely should have expected someone like Bondi getting tapped for this role: she’s deeply involved in the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme. Or rather, the ‘totally not Project 2025!’ scheme at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), one of the many entities that came into being following Trump’s 2020 loss for the expressed purpose of preparing for a second Trump administration. As we saw, the AFPI version of Project 2025 is now being put forward as the ‘not Project 2025’ template for Trump’s ‘reform’ plans. And Pam Bondi serves as the head of the AFPI’s legal arm. Bondi is basically going to be the Project 2025 point person for gutting the Department of Justice and staffing it was corrupt cronies.
As we’re going to see, beyond her work as the head of the AFPI’s legal arm, Bondi also serves at the co-chair of the AFPI’s Florida state chapter, alongside co-chair Omeed Malik. Keep in mind that Omeed Malik not only helped to launch Tucker Carlson’s latest media venture but he was one of the top donors to RFK Jr.‘s presidential campaign, along with Republican mega-donor Timothy Mellon. So if it turns out RFK Jr, as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, ends up being weirdly open to a slew of proposals emanating from the AFPI, try not to be shocked.
And that brings us to a third major qualification Bondi has for the job of Trump’s Attorney General: she’s corrupt. In fact, she was corrupt on Trump’s behalf even before he entered the political arena. Recall that incredibly corrupt $25k donation Trump’s charitable foundation made to her PAC back in 2013 at the same time Bondi was investigating Trump University? A donation that wasn’t just illegally made by a ‘charity’ but came after Bondi personally asked Trump for a contribution? It’s hard to imagine something that would have made her more qualified to be Attorney General in Donald Trump’s eyes.
Interesting, there’s another more recent Trump corruption scandal that Bondi is involved in: the scheme to take control of Ukrainian natural gas giant Naftogaz, with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman at the center: After leaving office due to term limits, Bondi worked for Brian Ballard, a lobbyist described as having deep ties to Trump. Both Bondi and Ballard showed in in the orbit of Parnas and Fruman. As we saw, Lev Parnas’s lawyers started effectively trolling the Trump team with photos showing how welcome Parnas was in MAGA world. That included a tweet made in January of 2020, after then-President Donald Trump announce Bondi was joining his legal team, where Parnas’s lawyer tweeted out a photo of Parnas and Bondi seated at a table together, their arms around each other’s shoulders. When asked by reporters about the photo, Trump insisted he didn’t “know who this man is,” despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Ballard, a lobbyist, appeared to know Parnas and Fruman by virtue of the fact that they were all attending these weird dinners with Trump as Mar-a-Lago were US foreign policy was effectively hashed out between Trump and these lobbyists. As we saw, Ballard’s role in this story didn’t appear to be directly related to the Naftogaz scheme. Instead, it was an April 20, 2018, gathering at Mar-a-Lago where Donald Trump met with a small group of donors — including Parnas and Fruman — where they discussed all sorts of foreign policy intrigue, including the Naftogaz scheme. Ballard attended the gathering, seemingly as part of the lobbying effort he was engaged in on behalf of a Syrian-American lobbying effort led by Rim Al-Bezem, a Pennsylvania cardiologist who is the president of the Syrian opposition group called Citizens for a Secure and Safe America. Al-Bezam donated a total of $18,800 to the Republican National Committee and its Senate campaign arm and raises money from other Syrian-American activists, which was basically the cost of getting into that dinner. Five days before the April 20 meeting, Brian Ballard, a top fund-raiser for Trump and the Republican Party, registered to lobby for Al-Bezem’s Citizens for a Secure and Safe America, which paid Ballard’s firm $350,000 in 2018 and 2019. This was two days after the April 13 US airstrikes on Syrian government airfields in retaliation for the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad government against the rebels (based on OPCW findings that were challenged by whistleblowers). Al-Bezem is heard on the video thanking Trump for the airstrikes and lobbying for a harder line against Assad and the need for his overthrow. Taken together, it’s hard to imagine both Bondi and Ballard don’t know A LOT more about the corrupt nature of Trump’s policy-making methods.
But as we’re going to see, there’s another rather interesting relationship between Pam Bondi and the AFPI’s ‘totally not Project 2025’ Project 2025 scheme: recall how the large donors to the AFPI included Trish Duggan, a wealthy Scientologist, which was extra interesting given that the AFPI was initially formed at the behest of Texan billionaire theocratic Tim Dunn. Well, it turns out Bondi has a more extensive history with the Scientologists. At least when it comes to political fundraising. Which, to some extent, isn’t a surprise. She’s a Florida Republican and Clearwater, Florida, is the Church of Scientology’s headquarters. So we shouldn’t be particularly surprised that she reportedly attended attended a fundraising event in 2014 — not long after that shady 2013 $25k donation from Trump’s charity — at the home of two wealthy Scientologist with a suggested minimum $1,000 donation. Trish Duggan was one of the guests. In other words, Trish Duggan, a major AFPI donor, has a personal donation history with Bondi too. So when the Church of Scientology needs a special favor from Attorney General Bondi, they’ll presumably not have too much difficulty getting her ear.
But let’s not conclude the GOP’s ties to Scientology is purely a Florida thing. Don’t forget that the ‘FairTax’ bill proposed by Republicans that year — that would replace the income tax, estate, and corporate taxes with a sales tax — was based on ideas originally promoted by a prominent Scientologist back in the 1980s. In fact, House Republicans were so in favor of the plan that Stephen Moore even collaborated with the Scientologist who was promoting the idea in order to dilute the Scientology taint. The GOP and the Church of Scientology have long been fellow travelers.
That’s all part of the utterly unsurprising selection of Pam Bondi as Trump’s Attorney General: She’s a Trump loyalists who is deeply enmeshed in the Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme that’s about to be made into reality. And she’s demonstrably corrupt. Pam Bondi has the right stuff:
“Though Bondi may prove another polarizing pick, she is likely to be at least somewhat less controversial than Gaetz, who had few qualifications for the job and whose primary experience with the Justice Department came when it investigated whether he engaged in child sex trafficking. He denied the allegations and was never charged. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R‑S.C.), a close ally of the president-elect, predicted that Bondi “will be confirmed quickly because she deserves to be confirmed quickly.””
Well, at least she’s not Matt Gaetz. Not that Bondi is without controversy, but they aren’t child sex trafficking allegations. It’s an improvement, at least from a political purely optics standpoint. Still, what about that incredibly corrupt $25k donation Trump’s charitable foundation made to her PAC back in 2013 at the same time Bondi was investigating Trump University? A donation that wasn’t just illegally made by a ‘charity’ but came after Bondi personally asked Trump for a contribution? It’s not child sex trafficking, but it’s still the kind of track record that should preclude someone from serving as the Attorney General:
Also note how Bondi, as Florida’s AG, not only ended the practice of the attorney general weigh in on the side of consumers in battles against utilities, but also fired the employees in her office responsible for investigating mortgage fraud. The more we learn about Pam Bondi’s career, the more unqualified she gets. It’s not a lack of qualifications over her knowledge of the law. It’s a lack of qualifications over character:
And then we get to Bondi’s very interesting employer after leaving office as Florida’s AG: lobbyist Brian Ballard. Again, recall the fascinating ties both Bondi and Ballard have with the Lev Parnas/Igor Frumman Ukrainian natural gas scheme to take control Naftogaz and create a highly lucrative US-to-Ukraine LNG export business. First, recall how, in January of 2020, after then-President Donald Trump announce Bondi was joining his legal team, Parnas’s lawyer tweeted out a photo of Parnas and Bondi seated at a table together, their arms around each other’s shoulders. When asked by reporters about the photo, Trump insisted he didn’t “know who this man is,” despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Now, As we saw, Ballard’s role in this story didn’t appear to be directly related to the Naftogaz scheme. Instead, it was an April 20, 2018, gathering at Mar-a-Lago where Donald Trump met with a small group of donors — including Parnas and Fruman — where they discussed all sorts of foreign policy intrigue, including the Naftogaz scheme. Ballard attended the gathering, seemingly as part of the lobbying effort he was engaged in on behalf of a Syrian-American lobbying effort led by Rim Al-Bezem, a Pennsylvania cardiologist who is the president of the Syrian opposition group called Citizens for a Secure and Safe America. Al-Bezam donated a total of $18,800 to the Republican National Committee and its Senate campaign arm and raises money from other Syrian-American activists, which was basically the cost of getting into that dinner. Five days before the April 20 meeting, Brian Ballard, a top fund-raiser for Trump and the Republican Party, registered to lobby for Al-Bezem’s Citizens for a Secure and Safe America, which paid Ballard’s firm $350,000 in 2018 and 2019. This was two days after the April 13 US airstrikes on Syrian government airfields in retaliation for the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad government against the rebels (based on OPCW findings that were challenged by whistleblowers). Al-Bezem is heard on the video thanking Trump for the airstrikes and lobbying for a harder line against Assad and the need for his overthrow. Bondi and Ballard both have experience with the kind of corrupt behind-the-scenes haggling that defined much of Trump’s first term. Experience that will presumably be put to extensive use as Trump’s AG:
And when we see prominent theocrat Ralph Reed touting Bondi as being someone who is “She is uniquely qualified to restore the rule of law and put the blindfold back on Lady Justice and the Department of Justice”, it’s a reminder that Bondi, as co-chair of the AFPI, is serving in a key role for the larger CNP-backed Schedule F/Project 2025 scheme...even if the AFPI is being disingenuously peddled in the media as some sort of ‘not Project 2025’ alternative. Of course Ralph Reed is excited to see Pam Bondi as AG. She’s an ideological fellow traveler of theocrats like Reed:
Now, of course, as we’ve seen, Bondi herself is a key player in AFPI’s ‘not Project 2025’ scheming as the leader of the AFPI’s legal arm. And as the following article from a year ago also note, Bondi is also the co-chair of the AFPI’s new Florida state chapter, alongside co-chair Omeed Malik. Keep in mind that Omeed Malik not only helped to launch Tucker Carlson’s latest media venture but he was one of the top donors to RFK Jr.‘s presidential campaign, along with Republican mega-donor Timothy Mellon. Other prominent AFPI figures mentioned in the article include Linda McMahon, now the nominee for Secretary of Education, where she is expected to gut the department. How many more AFPI figures will we see joining the Trump administration? Time will tell, but as we see Bondi tapped to be Trump’s next Attorney General, don’t forget that putting an AFPI figure like Bondi in a position like Attorney General is very much in keep with the broader Schedule F/Project 2025 agenda, if even we’re maintaining the ‘not Project 2025’ AFPI pretense:
“Former State Attorney General Pam Bondi will be the Chair of the state branch of the national think tank based near Washington. It started in 2021, founded by former officials with Donald Trump’s administration to further promulgate “America First” values.”
Pam Bandi isn’t just the head of the AFPI’s legal arm. She’s the co-chair of group’s Florida branch, along with Miami-based entrepreneur Omeed Malik. As we saw, Malik not only helped to launch Tucker Carlson’s latest media venture but he was one of the top donors to RFK Jr.‘s presidential campaign, along with Trump mega-donor Timothy Mellon. The quest to reelect Trump through any means necessary included the financing of RFK Jr’s campaign. And it worked:
But while Bondi’s ties to the AFPI or that corrupt fundraising Trump Foundation episode should be seen as highly alarming to the public’s interests, there’s another chapter in Bondi’s political background with a very interesting AFPI tie-in: It turns out Pam Bondi has a history of attending fundraisers hosted by and for wealthy Scientologists. It’s unclear how often she’s held these fundraisers, but we know she attended at least one fundraiser held for her campaign at the home of prominent Scientologists Liz and Michael Baybak back in 2014, with a number of other wealth Scientologist in attendance and a suggested minimum donation of $1,000 to Bondi’s campaign. Keep in mind 2013 was the year Bondi solicited $25k from Donald Trump at the same time she was investigating Trump University. So this fundraiser would have taken place around this same period.
To some extent, this episode could be seen as a ‘Florida Man’ story for Florida Republicans. Clearwater, Florida, is the Scientology headquarters, after all. Of course the Scientologist are going to get involved with political lobbying. And as we saw back in 2017 during Trump’s first term when the GOP majority in Congress passed his budget-busting ‘tax reform’ bill, the ‘FairTax’ bill proposed by Republicans that year — that would replace the income tax, estate, and corporate taxes with a sales tax — was based on ideas originally promoted by Church of Scientology back in the 1980s. The GOP’s Scientology situationship isn’t just a Florida thing.
And let’s also not forget the Scientology who is cited as one of the AFPI’s major donors: Trish Duggan. As we’re going to see, Duggan was at that 2014 fundraiser. And here she is today, a major donor for the AFPI, the ‘not Project 2025’ entity poised to implement Project 2025, with Pam Bondi as the new Attorney General. So while we don’t how much in total Bondi has raised from Scientologists, it’s clear at this point that was money well spent:
“Bondi is aware Scientologists are staging the event, said campaign spokeswoman Christina Johnson. She said Bondi first connected with Scientologists in 2010 when she and other elected officials toured some of the church’s Clearwater facilities. Bondi spoke then to a group of Scientologists about human trafficking and the evils of pill mills, a topic that resonated because Scientologists sponsor what they tout as the largest antidrug program in the world.”
As we can see, Pam Bondi wasn’t somehow tricked into attending a fundraiser hosted by a wealthy Scientologist couple, Liz and Michael Baybak. Also keep in mind that this 2014 fundraiser followed Bondi’s 2013 $25k donation from Trump’s charity while she was investigating Trump University. Bondi had some really interesting fundraising ethics:
And keep in mind that it’s not like the Baybaks were the only wealthy Scientologists to attend. The other organizers — couples Brett Miller and Jill Hagan and the Sigals — also show up on Scientology donor lists. This was a Scientology fund-raiser for Bondi. And look who else was reportedly in attendance: AFPI mega-donor Trish Duggan:
“Our tipster tells us that Scientology’s whales have been invited to the event, which is being organized by OT 8s Brett Miller and Jill Hagan. (The Sigals are also high on the Bridge.) Besides the Baybaks, Trish Duggan is also expected to attend. (Bob and Trish Duggan are by far the biggest donors to Scientology, having given what we estimate to be more than $50 million.)”
Yep, even Trish Duggan was at the fundraiser. The same Trish Duggan listed as one of the deep-pocketed donors who has been funding the AFPI. An entity started shorted after Trump’s 2020 defeat at the behest of billionaire Texas theocrat Tim Dunn. And now, as a team, they are poised to enact sweeping changes across the US under a plan they’ve been co-developing for years. A plan co-financed by a radical Christian Dominionist and a prominent Scientologist. So while it remains to be seen how exactly that plan will manifest, we can be confident it’s going to be extremely corrupt and extremely cultish. Which, again, is why Pam Bondi is absolutely perfect for this moment.
It’s trolling, but it’s not just trolling. There’s a strategy at work: The America First Legal Foundation (AFLF) just sued Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Yep. But this isn’t a personal lawsuit directed specifically at Roberts. No, it’s another power grab. One that goes beyond the ongoing Unitary Executive power grab. Because while the Unitary Executive power grab has effectively been a renunciation of the system of checks and balances between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, the new AFLF lawsuit is an assertion of executive branch power over the judiciary. It’s like the Unitary Executive theory on steroids.
And while it’s the AFLF, and not the Trump administration itself, that is waging this lawsuit, it’s pretty obvious that the AFLF is operating as a Trump administration proxy. The AFLF is Stephen Miller’s baby, after all. Miller is, of course, currently serving as Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff. Beyond that, the lead attorney in the lawsuit, Daniel Z. Epstein, currently represents President Trump in his personal capacity in another joke lawsuit that nonetheless appears to be on the cusp of a victory: the legally specious lawsuit against CBS over an October 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Yes, President Trump’s personal attorney is leading this suit against Chief Justice John Roberts.
But as we’ve seen, the AFLF isn’t just some independent MAGA-themes entity created by Stephen Miller in 2021 to keep the MAGA flame lit. The AFLF is effectively the legal arm of a much larger multi-institutional radical conservative movement, largely orchestrated by the powerful theocratic Council for National Policy (CNP) through the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI). In fact, as we’re going to see in the second article excerpt below, the constellation of institutions financed by the CPI was part of a vision of taking the Heritage Foundation model and breaking it up into seven separate think tanks, each focused on a particular domain but all working together. Other CPI-financed groups, like the Center for Renewing America (CRA), help devise MAGA policies while the AFLF leads the charge in the courtrooms. That’s how this multi-institutional next-generation Heritage network was supposed to operate and, sure enough, that’s what’s happening. Even as the Trump administration executes Project 2025 in real-time.
So what is this AFLF lawsuit arguing? Well, it’s making the claim that, while judges might remain independent of the executive branch, the staff that play key roles in the functioning of courtrooms do fall under executive branch authority, and, therefore, the Trump administration has the right to make key staffing decisions for the US court system. This claim includes what observers describe as a kind of ‘protection racket’ threat when it points out that the staff that would fall under executive branch authority includes facility management and security. In other words, if the Trump administration decides to pull the security details for courtrooms it has the power to do so.
At least that the AFLF legal claim. Observers point out that this appears to be a joke lawsuit designed to allow the Trump administration to effectively display defiance towards the Supreme Court as part of the ongoing efforts to resist and ignore the Supreme Court’s rulings on high-profile showdowns like the court order to facilitate the return of a wrongly removed Salvadoran man and the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. But, as we’ve seen with the CBS lawsuit, it’s not like it matters if the underlying legal pretext is a joke. This is a time when the joke is on us.
And as we’re going to see in the third article excerpt below — an article from 2022 about the AFLF’s emerging legal strategy — there’s another key element to the AFLF’s strategy to keep in mind as this plays out: judge shopping. Yes, the AFLF has specialized in waging its court battles in highly sympathetic courtrooms. Texas courtrooms, in particular. Yes, the AFLF has as big focus on Texas legal fights. Because it knows that where it can find the MAGA-oriented judges that will rule in its favor. Beyond that, the AFLF has crafted a number of lawsuits that effectively expands the power of Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott and state attorney general Ken Paxton.
We’re also learning that the AFLF’s Texas-centric strategy happens to rely on coordinating with Jonathan Mitchell, the former solicitor general of Texas who helped devise the novel legal strategy behind the state’s 2021 near-complete abortion ban. As we’ve seen, Mitchell’s legal philosophy doesn’t just convenient ban the right to abortions. It bans ALL rights EVER gained through a Supreme Court ruling. The ONLY legitimate rights, according to Mitchell, are those explicitly laid on in the US Constitution. ALL other commonly accepted rights that have been won through court rulings over the decades are to be rescinded. So if you’re wondering what the AFLF’s end goals look like, just imagine almost all rights ever won through the courts being rescinded.
But when we look into the AFLF donors list, there’s another end goal we should keep in mind: in addition to donations from the Koch-backed DonorsTrust dark money outfit, AFLF has also received funds from Citizens for Self-Governance one of the main groups behind the ongoing push to rewrite the US Constitution. And don’t forget how one of the Citizens for Self-Governance co-founders was none other than Texas theocratic billionaire Tim Dunn. So if there’s an upcoming legal fight over whether or not the Convention of States 34-state threshold has been reached, expect the AFLF to get involved.
That’s all part of the context of the AFLF’s new lawsuit designed to assert President Trump’s powers over the judiciary’s staff. It’s technically the AFLF’s lawsuit, but it’s clearly being done on both the Trump administration’s behalf. But also on behalf of the CNP and its oligarchic benefactors, most especially those in Texas:
“In a little-noticed lawsuit filed last week, the America First Legal Foundation sued Chief Justice John Roberts and the head of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.”
John Roberts just got MAGA-sued. This might not be how he was hoping the Conservative movement’s long-desired sacking of US institutions would go, but this is how it’s going. With Stephen Miller’s America First Legal Foundation (AFLF) leading the way. But, of course, this isn’t really an AFLF lawsuit. This is a President Trump lawsuit, being waged on his behalf by AFLF. Stephen Miller’s power is derived the fact that he speaks and acts for Trump and everyone knows it. Similarly, while it’s basically a nuisance lawsuit given the speciousness of the legal claim that’s not the point. It’s a show of defiance and power. President Trump’s defiance and power. The blatant speciousness is the point. That’s why we shouldn’t be surprised to see language in the AFLF claim that seems to almost have a ‘protection racket’ feel, with the observation that, “Federal courts rely on the executive branch for facility management and security. Federal judges, as officers of the courts, need resources to fulfill their constitutional obligations.” A protection rocket feel is what they’re going for given that the AFL’s protection racket threats are really President Trump’s protection racket threats:
And note how the original FOIA request from July 2024 that evolved into the current executive branch power-grab only began in response to Democrats in Congress investigating the gross corruption of Supreme Court justices Thomas and Alito that had been reported on so extensively by ProPublica. And Daniel Z. Epstein, Donald Trump’s person attorney in the CBS-interview power-grab nuisance lawsuit, is the attorney who filed this power-grab ‘FOIA request’. The faux-righteous indignation in this lawsuit is ultimately President Trump’s faux-righteous indignation:
Except, as the following Nation article from May of 2024 reminds us, while the AFLF is clearly closely aligned with Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda, Donald Trump is not the AFL’s exclusive master. The dark money mega-donor network that has long financed and directed the conservative movement in the US — the agenda of the Koch network, the Council for National Policy, and Leonard Leo — is financing and guiding the AFLF too, with the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) taking the dark-money lead. And as the article describes, when we’re looking at the actions of the CPI and the many new MAGA-themed institutions its heavily financed in recent years, we are effectively looking at a strategy of splitting the Heritage Foundation into 7 separate ‘think tanks’ that are all ‘independently’ working towards the same goal and frequently joining forces. It’s like Heritage Foundation Voltron:
“This sort of self-dealing is quite common in the age of dark-money financing of political initiatives—but it’s more striking in the CPI’s case because of the group’s gatekeeper role in bringing traditional conservative causes in line with the priorities of MAGA world. The CPI’s director and founder is Jim DeMint, the former South Carolina senator and previous head of the Heritage Foundation, the multimillion-dollar right-wing think tank that has helped shape the GOP policy agenda since Ronald Reagan came to power. In his role at the CPI, DeMint has effectively broken down and expanded the Heritage model into a network of issue- and tactic-specific satellite operations, ranging from personnel recruitment shops to litigation clearinghouses. The seven groups under the CPI umbrella maintain their own executive boards, staffs, and missions, but remain focused on realizing key elements of the MAGA agenda.”
Former Heritage head — and CNP member — Jim DeMint has effectively broken down and expanded the Heritage model into a network of issue- and tactic-specific satellite operations, ranging from personnel recruitment shops to litigation clearinghouses. Heritage Voltron. Each of the think tanks working in concert, playing their role, with the AFLF arguably serving as the Voltron ‘head’ because its the one tasked with being the legal voice:
And with Russ Vought — key Project 2025 architect — now playing a leading role in implementing the plan as a core focus of President Trump’s governmental blitzkrieg, it’s important to keep in mind that much of the policy agenda AFLF is fighting for in the courts was an agenda heavily crafted by Vought’s Center for Renewing America (CRA), a key policy arm of the CPI network. It’s a dark-money billionaire-financed group effort, with both Russell Vought and Stephen Miller playing leading roles:
And as the article also notes, the CPI’s overall strategy includes more than just breaking the Heritage Foundation model into a set of think tanks. Another core element of this strategy is relying on the courts in Texas, where the judge-shopping is particularly easy those with a MAGA agenda. Especially when that agenda is crafted to advance the agenda of powerful Texas Republicans like Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. The CRA knows which fights to pick and where to pick them:
And that brings us to the following December 2022 Washington Post piece about the Texas-based strategy behind the AFLF’s ‘anti-white bigotry’ legal crusade. A crusade that included nuisance lawsuits like the lawsuit to end an aid program for minority farmers because it excluded “white ethnic groups that have unquestionably suffered ethnic prejudice,” referring to Irish, Italian, German and other European immigrants and Jews. A lawsuit waged on behalf of Sid Miller, Texas’s white Republican Trump-endorsed Agriculture Commissioner. It’s trolling, or was at the time. Now it’s policy:
“AFL-backed suits helped doom a $29 billion program that prioritized struggling female and minority-owned restaurants last year, and last week, a council created by the Department of Education that conservative parents groups viewed as partisan. AFL has won in part by consistently filing lawsuits in a conservative-friendly judicial district in Texas and taking advantage of a larger federal court system revamped by Trump’s predominantly conservative nominees.”
Yes, AFLF has won, in part, by consistently filing lawsuits in one particular judicial district in Texas. It’s hardly judge shopping at this point because they already know where to do. It’s judge binging, on cases that will have national implications. A demonstrably potent strategy capped off with a compliant Supreme Court court right-wing majority:
And as we can see, these AFLF legal challenges were effectively trolling operations even back in 2022 when it was the Biden administration’s policies they were opposing. Like suing to end a program for minority farmers on behalf of Sid Miller, Texas’s white Trump-endorsed agriculture commissioner who apparently feels that “white ethnic groups that have unquestionably suffered ethnic prejudice,” while simultaneously pointing to a 2 percent African American ancestry that he argues should qualify him for the program too. It’s trolling. But the fact that all this trolling is taking place in Texas, where they know they will have sympathetic judges, makes it more than just trolling. It’s judge shopping too, on such an epic scale that the lawsuits can double as trolling operations and still stand a good chance of winning:
That Texas-based legal victory of the minority farmers fund was followed up with a suit against a $29 billion pandemic relief fund for restaurants that gave women, minorities and veterans a head start to submit applications. The AFLF filed a lawsuit in a Texas federal court, winning and killing the fund entirely after arguing that it discriminated against white restaurant owners:
And as we can see, part of this Texas-focused strategy involves partnering with Jonathan Mitchell, the former solicitor general of Texas who helped devise the novel legal strategy behind the state’s 2021 near-complete abortion ban. As we’ve seen, Mitchell’s legal philosophy doesn’t just convenient ban the right to abortions. It bans ALL rights EVER gained through a Supreme Court ruling. The ONLY legitimate rights, according to Mitchell, are those explicitly laid on in the US Constitution. ALL other commonly accepted rights that have been won through court rulings over the decades are to be rescinded. That’s the legal philosophy guiding the AFLF’s Texas-based strategy:
And as we can see, while Russell Vought has been doing extensive work on behalf of this agenda through the Center for Renewing America, he’s also an AFLF board member. Which one reaons we shouldn’t be surprised so see the AFLF suing to prevent the Biden administration from removing Vought — and Sean Spicer — from the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors. Which is a rather ironic lawsuit given Vought’s central role at Project 2025, a project dedicated to giving presidents maximum powers to hire and fire federal employees at will. This is a power project. Not an integrity project:
And note how the financing for this CPI universe of political activity doesn’t just include a donations from groups like the Koch-backed DonorsTrust. It also receives donations from Citizens for Self-Governance, one of the main groups behind the ongoing push to rewrite the US Constitution. And don’t forget how one of the Citizens for Self-Governance co-founders was none other than Texas theocratic billionaire Tim Dunn along with Mark Meckler. In other words, don’t be shocked if AFLF starts getting involved with constitutional overhaul legal battles if a Convention of States gets underway:
Finally, note how the AFLF agenda described in these pieces is the Project 2025 agenda. Which makes the fact that it was Stephen Miller who apparently heavily influenced Donald Trump in his decision to endorse far right candidates in the 2022 mid-terms, an election cycle where Republicans had a historically poor showing for the out-of-power party in the congressional elections. It’s that fundamentally unpopular agenda that is now being made a reality under Project 2025. So, on the one hand, Project 2025 is kind of doing the AFLF’s job for it. But on the other hand, the AFLF’s legal threats are going to be more important than ever to keep those ideological gains and extend them further. The Project 2025 era is the AFLA era. They are the same team working towards the same agenda:
And while we have yet to see how the AFLF’s power grab lawsuit targeting the judicial branch will play out, we can be confident Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, and the rest of the Project 2025 co-schemers are feverishly working on their next power grab. Maybe it will be another swipe at the legislative branch’s independence. Or maybe a new constitution. Either way, it will be about handing more power to President Trump. And, ultimately, the oligarchs behind him who will be wielding that power under a new puppet long after Trump has shucked off his mortal coil. Donald Trump won’t live forever. But the damage he is doing to the US constitution and system of checks and balances just might endure, thanks, in large part, to the tireless efforts of Stephen Miller’s AFLF and the rest of its Heritage Voltron think tank fellow travelers. Although Voltron fought evil and defended the weak. It’s more of an anti-Voltron giant monster situation.
@Pterrafractyl–
Oh well, I’m sure Brainworm Bobby, Tulsi Gabbard, Amaryllis Fox et al will save the day for us.
Along with Anna Paulina Luna.
Brilliant work, as usual.
Terrifying and sad.
Best,
Dave