Christian Right Observer Weekly (Volume 7)
Christian Right Observer Weekly (Volume 7)
CROW's 7 stories on the Christian Right that you need read this week.
1. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts Says That Some Parts of Project 2025 Are Secret
Project 2025 is a plan spearheaded by Heritage Foundation, a Christian Right juggernaut, for controlling (and in some cases dismantling) federal agencies in the event that a Republican wins the presidency. In a video that we unearthed last week, Heritage president Kevin Roberts told Sebastian Gorka that some parts of Project 2025 are secret: “There are parts of the plan we will not share with the Left.”
Project 2025’s secretiveness is unacceptable because voters deserve to know what’s at stake in the next election. Although the public portions of Project 2025 expressly mention eliminating the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of the abortion pill, they are silent as to whether Project 2025 also plans to withdraw FDA approval of hormonal birth control (which Heritage opposes), fertility drugs for IVF (which Heritage opposes), and gender affirming care (which Heritage calls “abuse”).
If Project 2025 gives Heritage and its partners control of the FDA, they could eliminate access to these drugs nationwide. Meanwhile, most voters would not have known that this was a possibility before they cast their votes in the 2024 presidential election.
2. Heritage Foundation (Leader of Project 2025) Celebrates Alabama’s Anti-IVF Decision
Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos (fertilized eggs that have not been implanted in a uterus) created during in vitro fertilization (IVF) have the same rights as children and that destroying them implicates Alabama’s “Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.”
The decision renders IVF unfeasible because some of the embryos created through IVF are non viable, necessitating the extraction and attempted fertilization of multiple eggs per cycle, using fertility drugs to ensure that multiple eggs are released. This often results in extra embryos that are either destroyed or frozen. If embryos have the same rights as “children” (as the Alabama court ruled), then destroying them could constitute “murder” and freezing them could constitute “child abuse.”
The Alabama decision has thus prompted multiple Alabama fertility clinics to stop offering the fertility treatment, sparking outrage among voters across the political spectrum who support access to IVF.
Project 2025 leader Heritage Foundation, however, celebrated the Alabama decision with a tweet stating that, “The Alabama Supreme Court got it right: the sanctity of human life extends to children created outside the womb.”
The tweet is a terrible omen for those who support access to IVF because Project 2025 strives to give Heritage and its partners control of federal agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has authority to approve and withdraw approval of drugs. If Heritage-selected officials were to withdraw the FDA’s approval of IVF fertility drugs, this would effectively end IVF in every state.
3. Fox News Promotes Letter Assailing Journalist Who Exposed Project 2025’s Christian Nationalist Agenda
On February 20, Politico journalists Alexander Ward and Heidi Przybyla reported that Project 2025 co-author Russ Vought has said that he’s proud to work with former Trump official William Wolfe on “scoping out a sound Christian Nationalism.”
The Politico piece garnered national attention, including an MSNBC interview of Przybyla, sending Project 2025 leaders into an apparent panic. According to Fox News, the Family Research Council (a Project 2025 partner) and Catholic Vote (also a Project 2025 partner) have co-authored a letter demanding an apology from Przybyla. Fox News seems sympathetic to FRC and Catholic Vote, which it implies are innocuous “Christian groups” whose members were “disturbed” by Przybyla’s comments.
The demand letter to Politico has also been amplified by the National Review, Daily Wire, and others in a seemingly coordinated campaign.
In reality, however, it is Wolfe, FRC, and Catholic Vote who should apologize to the American public for promoting militant Christian extremism. Wolfe, for example, has said that “We are getting close” to Christians taking up arms, as initially reported by Right Wing Watch. (You can listen for yourself here.) Wolfe has also tweeted that he supports an end to no-fault divorce and reducing access to birth control, positions well outside the American mainstream, which likely explains why he deleted the tweet. Americans deserve to know these things because, as revealed by Politico, Wolfe has been collaborating with Project 2025 co-author Russ Vought. Wolfe will likely also seek a position in a second Trump administration if Trump wins (God forbid).
FRC is similarly extreme. Last year, it tweeted that, “Abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a mother.” It also seems to oppose birth control and has released a tweet with an embedded video celebrating the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision that effectively ended IVF in the state. FRC president Tony Perkins has admitted that he and his far right Christian colleagues are “trying to take over the world.”
On the issue of militancy, FRC has promoted the Black Robe Regiment of Virginia, a militant pastors group led by pastor William Cook who wore an Oath Keepers shirt while delivering remarks during the December 2020 Jericho March (“Hear the Church Roat” rally). In a similar vein, FRC Vice President Jerry Boykin has said that when Jesus returns, he’ll be carrying an assault rifle, as reported by Right Wing Watch. “I believe that sword he’ll be carrying when he comes back is an AR-15,” Boykin said.
As for Catholic Vote, its president (Brian Burch) has reportedly worked for (or partnered with) United in Purpose, a Christian data mining nonprofit tied to a massive voter data leak in 2015, as reported in Forbes. UIP’s president, convicted embezzler Bill Dallas, has said that UIP seeks to transform culture in “‘what some people call the Seven Mountains.” The so-called “Seven Mountains Mandate” is a dominionist ideology also embraced by the Chief Justice of the Alabama Court in its recent anti-IVF ruling, as reported by Media Matters.
Jenny has previously reported on UIP, the Seven Mountains Mandate, and the Black Robe Regiment for the Bucks County Beacon.
4. Intentional Communities for Christian Nationalists: Big Plans for Tennessee
The Washington Stand, the Family Research Council’s online propaganda mill to push its biblical worldview politics, invited Josh Abbotoy onto its podcast to discuss “Creating Intentional Christian Communities and Institutions.” He made headlines in January when The Guardian revealed he was spearheading efforts to create a “Christian nationalist ‘haven’ in Kentucky.”
Abbotoy talked about one of his projects by Kentucky’s Cumberland river, which The Guardian covers with much detail. However, he used the podcast to announce that he has a bigger project planned for Tennessee – where he has already raised a lot of money and is raising more – though he is keeping the location and any revealing details under wraps. What he did say suggests he may be taking over an entire town.
“We are buying both a lot of acreage and commercial buildings so we’re going to have a meaningful presence in the downtown, in a small town, and we’re gonna be renovating old buildings, recruiting tenants, and at the same time we’ll be developing land,” he said.
Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers, explained to The Guardian why we are seeing developments like this.
“This is typical of the far-right’s emotional need for a ‘safe space’,” said Stewart. “It’s not just that some members of this extremist cohort disagree with liberals, feminists, or any number of people who don’t share their views; it’s that they really can’t stand having those people anywhere nearby.”
5. Christian Right Conference Roundup: From Trump at the NRB to the “Courage Rally” Tour Kickoff
It's been a busy flurry of conference action in the Christian Right arena starting with a notable appearance from aspiring dictator Donald Trump at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Conference. Trump's speech was streamed by Christian Dominionist Jack Hibbs Real Life Network who in a later post said he was with Trump the night of the conference. Trump said “We will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, and in all of our airwaves. We will protect God in our public square.” Many major Christian Dominionist leaders were networking at the NRB Conference including Apostle Doug Stringer, Apostle Jim Garlow, Evangelist Mario Murillo, and Apostle Lance Wallnau.
Murillo actually constructed his Living Proof Crusades tent for interviews at the NRB Conference in order to promote his and Wallnau's Courage Rally Tour dates to attendees. Their first Courage Rally tour stop is Scottsdale, Arizona from April 21-24. The Courage Rally Tours will be partnering with Turning Point and other major Christian Right orgs to target 19 key counties for the 2024 elections. Turning Point also is pairing with Dream City Church for the Strong Church Dream Conference.
Theonomy seeking City Elders founder attended the Dream City conference this week to hand out his City Elders training manual on how to start chapters in pastors’ counties. Last week he also participated in New Apostolic Reformation prophet Lou Engle’s 222 conference at Radiant Church in Colorado Springs which featured speakers Apostle Dutch Sheets and Prophet Cindy Jacobs. Engle released a new video at the Conference of the commissioning of Apostle Jenny Donnelly Million Women on the Mall March.
6. My Elected Official Used the Words “Spiritual Warfare.” What Does That Even Mean?
You may have heard a local candidate on the news use the Bible verse “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Or maybe you heard Sidney Powell on FlashPoint mention the Armor of God right before January 6th.
There are three kinds of spiritual warfare to keep in mind as we move toward the 2024 election:
1 - Ground Level involves casting demons out of people sometimes involving exorcism.
2 - Strategic Level involves getting rid of or binding demonic spirits in a larger geographic territory.
3 - Occult Level targeting organized “anti Christ” spiritual wickedness like the occult and false religions
Here are our recommended resources on understanding what spiritual warfare is:
Dr. Andre Gagne YouTube Videos
Conquering for Jesus: The Politics of Spiritual Warfare Part 1
Conquering for Jesus: The Politics of Spiritual Warfare Part 2
Conquering for Jesus: The Politics of Spiritual Warfare Part 3
7. Texas AG Ken Paxton Creating an Enemies List of Transgender Texans?
Erin Reed on her Substack Erin in the Morning published an article Thursday that offers further proof of Texas’s slide toward fascism: "Retaliation": Texas AG Paxton Demands PFLAG Provide Names, Addresses Of Trans Members
Reed writes:
“In a legal filing Thursday, PFLAG National sought to block a new demand from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that would require the organization to identify its Texas transgender members, doctors who work with them, and contingency plans for anti-transgender legislation in the state. The civil investigative demand, issued on Feb. 5, calls for extensive identifying information and records from the LGBTQ+ rights organization.”
“The Attorney General’s demand of PFLAG National is just another attempt to scare Texas families with transgender adolescents into abandoning their rights and smacks of retaliation against PFLAG National for standing up for those families against the State’s persecution,” said Karen Loewy (she/her), Senior Counsel and Director of Constitutional Law Practice, Lambda Legal.
PFLAG has been active in its opposition to Texas’s anti-transgender laws which has led to many families fleeing the anti-LGBTQ state. It is unclear what Texas AG Paxton will do with this list and the personal information of transgender Texans, including children, but the fear is targeting and retribution.
“Targeting PFLAG National as an organization and its members invokes the historical targeting of civil rights organizations that assert the dignity and equality of their members in the face of government oppression,” said Harper Seldin (he/him), attorney at the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “The Attorney General’s Office is attempting to use its powers to intimidate both PFLAG National as an organization and its members in direct opposition to their constitutional speech and association rights. We will never stop fighting for the safety, dignity, and equality of transgender youth and their families in Texas and across the country.”
Read Erin Reed’s comprehensive report here:
And follow Erin on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/ErinInTheMorn