“Some Folks Need Killing!” So declared North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson on June 30. At a church. With the full endorsement of the church’s pastor, Reverend Cameron McGill, who explained how Robinson only meant the people ‘trying to kill us’ should be killed. Two days later, Heritage Foundation President and Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts made his now infamous “Second American Revolution” speech, warning that the revolution would remain bloodless “if the left allows it”. Days later, Donald Trump laughably disavowed knowing anything about Project 2025. And while Roberts’s comments have received ample attention, Robinson’s “Some Folks Need Killing!” comments have remained an under-explored topic. Because as we’re going to see, Mark Robinson has become quite a celebrity on the far right. With one very notable fan base: The American Renewal Project dedicated to recruiting conservative pastor to run for office and the Council for National Policy (CNP) figures behind it. Not only is Robinson the star of American Renewal Project events, but it turns out Reverend McGill is a recruiter for the group too. That project, formed in 2005 by political activist David Lane but with roots going all the way back to the formation of the CNP in 1981, is what we’re going to explore in this post. Because as disturbing as Robinson’s “Some Folks Need Killings” comments may have been out of of context, they are a lot more disturbing when placed in context. A Christian Nationalist dominionist context that warns of plans for a lot more than just ‘some’ killing.
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 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 and there’s even the CNP’s planned mass purges — starting with the government but not ending there — under the ‘Schedule F’/Project 2025 label. That’s all part of the grim context surrounding a series of reports around the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson that should raise serious questions about just how much influence the leading Christian Nationalist hold over new Speaker of the House. But thanks the House and Supreme Court aren’t the only government institution under Christian Nationalism sway. States Republicans are increasingly adopting Christian Nationalist laws, with Texas leading the way under the way under the vision of CNP pseudo-historian David Barton. It turns out Johnson and Barton are long-time allies who share the same vision for the future. A vision in line with the ‘discipleship’ form of authoritarian Christianity now mainstreamed in the CNP-dominated network of 47,000 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Which also happens to be a denomination grappling with a sex abuse mega-scandal hauntingly reminiscent of the Catholic Church’s mega-abuse scandal. A mega-scandal with a number of major CNP figures operating as abusers or enablers. It’s that broader intersection of Mike Johnson’s ties to Christian Nationalism with this growing SBC abuse mega-scandal that we’re going to look at in this post.
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