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Moms for Liberty Summit: Trans-Bashing, Book-Banning and Christ-Washing American History
The past forty-plus years have given rise to numerous right-wing political and religious organizations that have impacted the politics of the country.
These include Paul Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation, Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, Beverly LaHaye’s Concerned Women for America, Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, the Tea Party, QAnon, Trump’s MAGA Army.
Outrage, moral absolutism, anti-government sentiment, attacks on the “other”, and the wielding of political power are the connective tissues to all these groups.
To paraphrase actress Gloria Swanson in the movie Sunset Blvd.: “America. Moms for Liberty is ready for its close-up,” and greater scrutiny then its been given thus far by the mainstream press.!
The recent Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors National Summit at a Marriott hotel in downtown Philadelphia was not only a display of the toxicity that will surround the 2024 election cycle, but also provided an example of Christ-washing American history. The overriding meme of the summit wasn’t so much “Make America Great Again,” as it was to “take our country back for Christ.”
Speaker after speaker railed about the breakdown of American society; “the whole society has decayed” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis: Donald Trump told the gathering that if Republicans lose in 2024, “there’s no coming back.” Other “contenders” for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination railed against “wokeism,” “transgenderism,” “critical race theory,” and “climatism.”
Among the prominent Christ-washers was Tim Barton, the son of the Christian Right’s favorite “historian” David Barton and current president of Wallbuilders, the Christian nationalist organization founded by his father. As Chrissy Stroop reported for Religion Dispatches, Barton told the crowd that, “The most influential source for the Founding Fathers was the Bible” and that America might not survive, “Because you removed the Biblical foundation that allowed freedom to work.”
Stroop, who grew up attending evangelical Christian schools, reported that “Appeals to divine authority and divine callings, as the right-wing organizers behind Moms for Liberty are well aware, can be an effective means of mobilizing people for political action—particularly in conjunction with the targeting of scapegoated ‘others’.
In addition to Tim Barton’s sacralized ‘history,’ their summit featured a ‘For Such a Time as This’ award ceremony—a reference to the Hebrew book of Esther, in which God uses a woman to save the ancient Jewish people, a story that evangelicals invested in ‘spiritual warfare’ commonly invoke as an example to emulate (much like they used the biblical story of the Battle of Jericho in the run-up to the January 6 insurrection).”
Trump, the multi-indicted and twice-impeached former president received “the most enthusiastic reception” and “used the most explicit God talk,” Stroop noted. He “referred to the ‘joyful warriors’ in the audience as victims of ‘demented persecution,’ spoke of the importance of religious liberty, bragged about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade thanks to justices he appointed, and claimed that Moms for Liberty’s political opponents ‘hate religion’ and ‘hate God.’”
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread...k-banning-and-christ-washing-american-history
The past forty-plus years have given rise to numerous right-wing political and religious organizations that have impacted the politics of the country.
These include Paul Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation, Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, Beverly LaHaye’s Concerned Women for America, Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, the Tea Party, QAnon, Trump’s MAGA Army.
Outrage, moral absolutism, anti-government sentiment, attacks on the “other”, and the wielding of political power are the connective tissues to all these groups.
To paraphrase actress Gloria Swanson in the movie Sunset Blvd.: “America. Moms for Liberty is ready for its close-up,” and greater scrutiny then its been given thus far by the mainstream press.!
The recent Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors National Summit at a Marriott hotel in downtown Philadelphia was not only a display of the toxicity that will surround the 2024 election cycle, but also provided an example of Christ-washing American history. The overriding meme of the summit wasn’t so much “Make America Great Again,” as it was to “take our country back for Christ.”
Speaker after speaker railed about the breakdown of American society; “the whole society has decayed” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis: Donald Trump told the gathering that if Republicans lose in 2024, “there’s no coming back.” Other “contenders” for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination railed against “wokeism,” “transgenderism,” “critical race theory,” and “climatism.”
Among the prominent Christ-washers was Tim Barton, the son of the Christian Right’s favorite “historian” David Barton and current president of Wallbuilders, the Christian nationalist organization founded by his father. As Chrissy Stroop reported for Religion Dispatches, Barton told the crowd that, “The most influential source for the Founding Fathers was the Bible” and that America might not survive, “Because you removed the Biblical foundation that allowed freedom to work.”
Stroop, who grew up attending evangelical Christian schools, reported that “Appeals to divine authority and divine callings, as the right-wing organizers behind Moms for Liberty are well aware, can be an effective means of mobilizing people for political action—particularly in conjunction with the targeting of scapegoated ‘others’.
In addition to Tim Barton’s sacralized ‘history,’ their summit featured a ‘For Such a Time as This’ award ceremony—a reference to the Hebrew book of Esther, in which God uses a woman to save the ancient Jewish people, a story that evangelicals invested in ‘spiritual warfare’ commonly invoke as an example to emulate (much like they used the biblical story of the Battle of Jericho in the run-up to the January 6 insurrection).”
Trump, the multi-indicted and twice-impeached former president received “the most enthusiastic reception” and “used the most explicit God talk,” Stroop noted. He “referred to the ‘joyful warriors’ in the audience as victims of ‘demented persecution,’ spoke of the importance of religious liberty, bragged about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade thanks to justices he appointed, and claimed that Moms for Liberty’s political opponents ‘hate religion’ and ‘hate God.’”
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread...k-banning-and-christ-washing-american-history
