Updates on Our Work
News Weekly Round-Up, August 26th – August 30th
News Weekly Round-Up, August 26th – August 30th, 2024.
The Weekly Roundup is a student-led initiative of the Meanings of Democracy Lab highlighting the latest news about Christian Nationalism and resistance to it.
Picking up from last week, the Meanings’ team followed stories on Christian resistance against Christian Nationalism and more. Here’s the latest on Christian Nationalism!
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IN THE NEWS
- Sojourners: How Christians Can Counter Christian Nationalism
- KUOW: Pride and Christian Nationalism in Yakima City
- WORT-FM 89.9: Christian resistance against Christian Nationalism
- The Oklahoman: Separation of church and state benefits both
Check out the previous round-up!
The Company You Keep
The Company You Keep is a living resource documenting organizations and individuals with ties to Project 2025 and resistance efforts to Christian Nationalism.
Last update: August 28, 2024
Undercover investigators from the Centre for Climate Reporting recorded a conversation with Russell Vought, a key author of Project 2025 and former appointee as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget under former President Donald Trump.
View the footage
Read the full story
“I want to make sure that we can say we are a Christian nation. And my viewpoint is mostly that I would probably be Christian nation-ism. That’s pretty close to Christian nationalism because I also believe in nationalism.”
Despite distancing himself from Project 2025, Donald Trump’s connections to the plan don’t end at Vought. Stephen Miller, head of America First Legal, served as a senior advisor for policy and White House director of speechwriting to President Donald Trump. America First Legal was a member of the Project 2025 advisory board until July.
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters is pushing Bibles into public schools. Americans United wrote on Walters’ connections to Project 2025 and Christian Nationalism, including Mary Vought, the wife of Russell Vought.
Much like the 900-page document, the Heritage Foundation’s partners are also publicly available. Here’s Project 2025’s more than 100 partners “in preparation for the next president”. Teddy Wilson is mapping the organizations and individuals behind Project 2025. Find out more here. Wilson previously produced a map of the January 6th Capitol riot. But the public stuff accounts for only phase one of Project 2025, leaving us to wonder and act in advance of the more secretive phase two Vought alluded to.
Resistance Resources
Americans United: https://www.au.org/project-2025-toolkit/
News Weekly Round-Up, August 19th – August 23rd
News Weekly Round-Up, August 19th – August 23rd, 2024.
The Weekly Roundup is a student-led initiative of the Meanings of Democracy Lab highlighting the latest news about Christian Nationalism and resistance to it.
This week, the Meanings’ team followed stories on Christian resistance against Christian Nationalism and more. Here’s the latest on Christian Nationalism!
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IN THE NEWS
- The Presbyterian Outlook: Amy Pagliarella reviews Jim Wallis’ The False White Gospel:
- Boise State Public Radio: Christian resistance against Christian Nationalism
- PR Newswire: Pacific School of Religion on AI and Christian Nationalism
- CBS News: Donald Trump’s connections to Project 2025
Check out the previous round-up!
News Weekly Round-Up, August 12th – August 16th
News Weekly Round-Up, August 12th – August 16th, 2024.
The Weekly Roundup is a student-led initiative of the Meanings of Democracy Lab highlighting the latest news about Christian Nationalism and resistance to it.
This week, the Meanings’ team followed stories on leaked Project 2025 videos and training tapes and more. Here’s the latest on Christian Nationalism!
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IN THE NEWS
- Faith and Leadership: Interview with our Ruth Braunstein
- ProPublica: Leaked Project 2025 training videos
- The Presbyterian Outlook: Rev. Haley Ballast explores three churches in the Seattle-area grappling with Christian nationalism
- Rollingstone: Project 2025 Co-Author says it’s time to ”Rehabilitate” Christian Nationalism
- The New Republic: Project 2025 author talks Christian Nationalism, Trump in leaked video
- The 74: Texas state education officials won’t say who wrote curriculum with Bible lessons
Check out the previous round-up!
Interview with Faith and Leadership
Director Ruth Braunstein was interviewed by Faith and Leadership on the Meanings of Democracy Lab’s Pluralist Resistance to Christian Nationalism project and Christian nationalism and resistance to it over the last decade. Thanks to a new $300,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, Braunstein will scale up this work through a podcast and interactive web platform where users can explore various resistance efforts.
Where did our work begin? While writing her first book, Braunstein studied two competing views of American democracy—the tea party and a progressive faith-based community organizing coalition:
“In the tea party, we saw early rumblings of what we are now calling Christian nationalism, or what I sometimes call a more colorblind Judeo-Christian nationalism. When I was spending time with the faith-based community organizing group, I saw that they were providing a direct rebuttal to that vision of American democracy, which they envisioned as a multiracial pluralistic democracy.”
The rebuttal receives comparatively little attention, which legitimizes Christian Nationalism and makes diverse, interfaith, and pluralist Christian communities that present an alternative view difficult to locate.
Braunstein asserts that this research needs to be better investigated, communicated, and visualized. There is significant and growing organizing for resistance, however, these efforts are consistently overshadowed for many reasons:
“Many of the efforts are local, many of the efforts are not public-facing, many of the efforts are not explicitly using the term “Christian nationalism,” and they’re quite diffuse across different kinds of networks and sectors that make it difficult to point your finger at one thing and say, ‘Oh, this is a resistance to Christian nationalism.’ Part of the project that my lab is doing, with support from the Luce Foundation, is trying to map that field of resistance as broadly as we can.”
Follow us online and @USDemocracyLab for the latest updates on the project.
Grant funding for this project comes from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Religion and Theology Program, through an initiative seeking to “Advance Public Knowledge on Democracy, Race and Religion in America.”
The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to deepen knowledge and understanding in pursuit of a more democratic and just world. Established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time, Inc., the Luce Foundation advances its mission by nurturing knowledge communities and institutions, fostering
News Weekly Round-Up, August 5th – August 10th
News Weekly Round-Up, August 5th – August 10th, 2024.
The Weekly Roundup is a student-led initiative of the Meanings of Democracy Lab highlighting the latest news about Christian Nationalism and resistance to it.
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IN THE NEWS
- UnHerd: Why are churches arming themselves?
- Media Matters for America: Project 2025 partner attacks surrogacy and IVF
- The Christian Chronicle: Who is Ryan Walters?
- The Guardian: Oklahoma schools and educators oppose putting the Bible in lesson plans
Check out the previous round-up!
News Weekly Round-Up, July 29th – August 2nd
News Weekly Round-Up, July 29th – August 2nd, 2024.
The Weekly Roundup is a student-led initiative of the Meanings of Democracy Lab highlighting the latest news about Christian Nationalism and resistance to it.
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IN THE NEWS
- wfdd: Multi-faith Greensboro revival against Christian Nationalism
- Sojourners: How does Project 2025 compare to the Beloved Community?
- Truthout: Mark Robinson and “state capture”
- The Hill: A Louisiana law mandating the Ten Commandments in public schools and a larger plan for Christian influence in education
- NPR: Impacts of the evangelical purity movement on sex education
Check out the previous round-up!
News Weekly Round-Up, July 22nd – 27th
News Weekly Round-Up, July 22nd – 27th, 2024.
The Weekly Roundup is a student-led initiative of the Meanings of Democracy Lab highlighting the latest news about Christian Nationalism and resistance to it.
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IN THE NEWS
- The Guardian: Trump tells Christian supporters to vote “just this time… you won’t have to do it anymore”
- The Guardian: Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts ties to Opus Dei
- Religion News Service: The rise of Catholic Christian Nationalism
- Americans United: A coalition of civil rights organizations including Americans United are requesting records for Oklahoma superintendent Ryan Walters’ mandate for bibles in public schools.
- NPR: Christian Nationalism, Christ Church, and abuse
Check out the previous round-up!
News Weekly Round-Up, July 15th – 19th
News Weekly Round-Up, July 15th – 19th, 2024.
The Weekly Roundup is a student-led initiative of the Meanings of Democracy Lab highlighting the latest news about Christian Nationalism and resistance to it.
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IN THE NEWS
- Kansas Reflector: Kansas, Missouri clergy on the threat White Christian Nationalism poses to democracy
- USAToday: Religion and the Republican National Convention
- The Guardian: Harmeet Dhillon was the target of online hate after giving a Sikh prayer at the Republican National Convention
- NPR: The troubling conflation of religion and politics after an assassination attempt on Donald Trump
- Rollingstone: Prominent Republicans and conservative thought-leaders proclaim “divine intervention” after Donald Trump survives assassination attempt
- Wisconsin Examiner: Interfaith leaders rally in Milwaukee to warn against white Christian nationalism as the Republican National Convention begins
Check out the previous round-up!
News Weekly Round-Up, July 1st – 5th, 2024
News Weekly Round-Up, July 1st – 5th, 2024.
The Weekly Roundup is a student-led initiative of the Meanings of Democracy Lab highlighting the latest news about Christian Nationalism and resistance to it.
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IN THE NEWS
- Media Matters for America: Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, declared “We are in the process of the second American Revolution” after the Supreme Court immunity decision
- The New Republic: Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee for governor in North Carolina, exclaimed “Some folks need killing!” in a speech at a small-town church
- The New York Times: The blurring of lines between church and state and how faith is used as a tool and weapon in politics
- Truthout: Christian Nationalism poses a threat to public education
Check out last week’s round-up!
Resources
The Company You Keep is a living resource documenting organizations and individuals with ties to Project 2025 and resistance efforts to Christian Nationalism.
Last update: August 28, 2024
Undercover investigators from the Centre for Climate Reporting recorded a conversation with Russell Vought, a key author of Project 2025 and former appointee as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget under former President Donald Trump.
View the footage
Read the full story
“I want to make sure that we can say we are a Christian nation. And my viewpoint is mostly that I would probably be Christian nation-ism. That’s pretty close to Christian nationalism because I also believe in nationalism.”
Despite distancing himself from Project 2025, Donald Trump’s connections to the plan don’t end at Vought. Stephen Miller, head of America First Legal, served as a senior advisor for policy and White House director of speechwriting to President Donald Trump. America First Legal was a member of the Project 2025 advisory board until July.
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters is pushing Bibles into public schools. Americans United wrote on Walters’ connections to Project 2025 and Christian Nationalism, including Mary Vought, the wife of Russell Vought.
Much like the 900-page document, the Heritage Foundation’s partners are also publicly available. Here’s Project 2025’s more than 100 partners “in preparation for the next president”. Teddy Wilson is mapping the organizations and individuals behind Project 2025. Find out more here. Wilson previously produced a map of the January 6th Capitol riot. But the public stuff accounts for only phase one of Project 2025, leaving us to wonder and act in advance of the more secretive phase two Vought alluded to.
Resistance Resources
Americans United: https://www.au.org/project-2025-toolkit/
Looking to keep up with the latest documentary films and podcasts about Christian Nationalism? There is so much creative and insightful content being created about Christian Nationalism, its history, and the real people working to both spread and resist it. We’ve screened it all so you don’t have to. Here are the docs we recommend most. Let us know if you have any suggested additions to the list!
BAD FAITH: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy
Looking to keep up with the latest news on Christian Nationalism? There is so much incredible work being done in the ecosystem of reporting and resistance efforts, our Twitter list is an amazing place to start! It brings together the insights of experts, authors, community leaders, organizations, and more to help you stay informed. Follow us on social media @USDemocracyLab and search our hashtag #PluralistResistance.
As our team works to build a comprehensive database of the groups and leaders combatting (White) Christian Nationalism, we have compiled a YouTube playlist of videos created by those involved in this effort. Many of the videos feature experts on Christian nationalism in the US and discuss how people are working to resist its influence nationally and in local communities.
As our team begins its work to build a comprehensive database of the groups and leaders combatting (White) Christian Nationalism, we have compiled a list of books that are part of this effort. Some of these have been written by groups and leaders engaged in this work. Others are referenced in public discussions about the dangers of WCN for American democracy and Christianity. Finally, others are academic texts that expand our understanding of the history and current nature of WCN in the US.
NOTE: This is a working document, and we invite you to submit suggestions for additions to Dr. Ruth Braunstein at ruth.braunstein@uconn.edu.
The Syllabus
(Alphabetical by author last name – last update: June 10, 2024)
Braunstein, Ruth. 2017. Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide. Oakland, California: University of California Press.
Brockschmidt, Annika. 2021. Amerikas Gotteskrieger: Wie Die Religiöse Rechtedie Demokratie Gefährdet. Originalausgabe ed. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag.
Butler, Anthea D. 2021. White Evangelical Racism. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Explore the #PluralistResistance
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If you’ve seen our work and/or you’re interested in learning more, we’re tracking the latest news on Christian Nationalism. Follow our findings with #pluralistresistance!
While recent years have seen a marked resurgence of Christian nationalism, less is known about the diverse set of organizations working to combat it. Check out our interview with @RuthBraunstein of The Pluralist Resistance to Christian Nationalism project: https://faithandleadership.com/ruth-braunstein-more-organizations-are-recognizing-the-threat-christian-nationalism?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fl_twitter
Interested in learning more? We’re tracking the latest news on Christian Nationalism. Follow our findings with #pluralistresistance!
Perhaps you’re looking for something a bit more digestible, check out our playlist!
https://democracy.lab.uconn.edu/2024/03/20/the-pluralist-resistance-syllabus-2/