https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to AR-15 en https://religiondispatches.org/2023/03/14/ar-15-lapel-pins-are-more-political-provocation-theyre-symbols-violence-heart-white Violence has always been at the center of White Christian nationalism: the vow to impose order on those perceived as un-American, if need be with force, either by the police or by wielding a gun themselves. And while the absolute… Tue, 14 Mar 2023 06:25:02 EDT Annika Brockschmidt 34acd5de-b272-4725-8a29-8fd931ece5bd https://religiondispatches.org/2022/11/23/when-violence-inevitable-club-q-and-success-system Thirty people in a queer club were shot with an AR-15 by a man with a prior criminal record. Thirty people in a queer club were shot with the Christian Right’s revered weapon as Transgender Day of Remembrance 2022 dawned… Wed, 23 Nov 2022 03:53:22 EST Heron Greenesmith 62a758ba-3191-4656-a916-fac8b8f97419 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/11/14/shofars-hammers-spiritual-warriors-maga-are-reawakening-political-violence For two days in late October, I attended Clay Clarke’s MAGA-driven ReAwaken America Tour near my home in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Keynote speakers included a predictable Who’s Who of Trump surrogates, including Michael Flynn, Mike Lindell, Roger Stone, and Eric… Mon, 14 Nov 2022 04:07:16 EST Mark Clatterbuck f0233696-9d5c-4bd0-907d-393c56014327 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/10/10/marjorie-taylor-greenes-genocide-rhetoric-creates-permission-structure-right-permission Even for her, it was a chilling statement. “We’re all targets now though, for daring to push back against the regime,” Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed at a Trump rally in Michigan last Saturday. This is not the first time she… Mon, 10 Oct 2022 04:17:51 EDT Annika Brockschmidt 337bd1d8-d5a2-4150-82ed-c0364f7bbb5e https://religiondispatches.org/2022/08/18/media-fail-acknowledge-2024-hopeful-ron-desantis-catholic-biden We’re not used to thinking of Ron DeSantis , Florida’s rabidly culture-warring governor and a possible 2024 frontrunner for the Republican presidential candidate, as a Catholic politician. He clearly is one, although documenting the ins and outs of how DeSantis’s… Thu, 18 Aug 2022 10:05:24 EDT Chrissy Stroop db4912f2-0df5-4837-b413-0fd318e9628c https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/16/republican-lauren-boebert-jokes-about-ar-15s-and-jesus-and-yes-shes-real-christian In the aftermath of the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings —and the 54 mass shootings ( and counting ) that have happened since—America’s right-wing Christians have been busy defending their “ god-given ” right to own AR-15s. Like they always do… Thu, 16 Jun 2022 04:39:05 EDT Chrissy Stroop 7d022ced-e789-401b-9b60-ae36f0735bef https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/07/christian-nationalists-and-holy-gun-crusade In the wake of every mass shooting in this country, we have a brief moment where we talk about the guns used and the need for gun control. And then rapidly, the gun lobby, conservative politicians, Second Amendment absolutists, and… Tue, 07 Jun 2022 01:12:14 EDT Thomas Lecaque 82e36af2-096a-4be6-a863-ff2371c1f66d https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/26/buffalo-and-uvalde-both-appear-have-involved-ar-15-rifle-revered-christian-right For the second time in almost as many weeks, a mass shooter used an AR-15-style rifle to kill innocent Americans. On May 14, PG allegedly used a variation of the AR-15 to shoot 13 people, 10 of them fatally. Just… Thu, 26 May 2022 02:45:10 EDT Brad Stoddard 0f524573-3f00-455b-8bfa-211b5e59e394 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/10/gop-candidate-pa-governor-affiliated-far-right-gun-church-rod-iron-ministries-heres Pennsylvania State Senator and retired colonel Doug Mastriano has announced his candidacy for governor. And, in keeping with his participation in the Jericho March movement, the Stop the Steal Rally on January 6 th , and other appearances at Christian… Thu, 10 Mar 2022 12:03:28 EST Thomas Lecaque 0de76d50-8907-4ec3-ae08-8871f4b7493e https://religiondispatches.org/2019/09/12/jerry-falwell-jr-corrupt-liberty-us-problems-go-far-deeper Scathing new reports demonstrate that Jerry Falwell Jr. is unfit to be Liberty University’s president, but while Falwell’s departure is long overdue, it would only represent the removal of one rotten apple, while leaving the tree in place. Thu, 12 Sep 2019 04:18:20 EDT Will E. Young 3cf300bb-d480-4f1f-a9d6-d669f036d186 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/07/02/pence-defends-us-immigration-policy-guatemala-using-scripture After all the uproar over Jeff Sessions’ use of Romans 13 to defend the extravagant cruelty of separating migrant families at the U.S. border, you might be tempted to bet against administration members citing scripture. Mon, 02 Jul 2018 10:35:49 EDT Daniel Schultz d94aa403-3dbc-4c64-a642-390033428fcc https://religiondispatches.org/2018/04/10/open-carry-racism-right-wing-fever-dream-predates-trump The idiosyncratic pantheon of Trump administration staffers continues its exodus, a stream of comic book villains exiting stage right. The combination of venality, incompetence, and pathological narcissism, however, remains. And the world lives in the Trump era’s bubble of strangely… Tue, 10 Apr 2018 12:24:11 EDT Jason C. Bivins 75ef01a6-0d43-488b-89a4-805f79987ec1 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/03/05/pro-born-former-evangelical-single-issue-politics-white-christians Abortion is murder. That refrain played in my head as I closed the curtain in the polling booth, the sounds of the social hall echoing around me. The same refrain played every time I convinced myself I’d vote for John… Mon, 05 Mar 2018 03:00:57 EST Bradley Onishi e72747a1-b6ce-40dc-b902-d34382a67f35 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/12/20/youre-fcked-how-pouncing-mistakes-helps-right-escape-moral-accountability “If you make a mistake, another mistake, there is a very severe possibility that you’re both going to get shot,” says a cop to the man and the woman lying face down on the floor of a hotel hallway. It’s… Wed, 20 Dec 2017 12:16:41 EST Jonathan Malesic 13f717a0-c65e-4b84-a5d9-c20b690d9d69 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/11/06/can-government-solve-evil-mass-shootings-response-mollie-hemingway Yesterday’s shootings at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas were horrific and especially cruel given the tight-knit nature of a small community. It was more than a little surreal to see Christianity Today report that, what is now… Mon, 06 Nov 2017 01:29:10 EST Daniel Schultz 9050ea24-d8e6-4043-a668-25c41dbcc0c2 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/10/03/no-way-out-ballot-box-why-partisanship-trumps-morality-gun-control-debate So here we are again, after Newtown, after San Bernadino and Orlando. This time the rampage is in Las Vegas, with more dead, more people hospitalized, more deep trauma inflicted, but with the same shitty debate over prayer-vs-action and same… Tue, 03 Oct 2017 02:34:30 EDT Daniel Schultz 9bb505be-e94f-4b64-8b21-96dd439c90d0 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/06/13/emanuels-pulse-plea-black-church-lgbtiq-solidarity Early Sunday morning I woke up, my phone abuzz with news. Reading about the shooting in Orlando, worry and fright overcame me. Still in a semi-wake, semi-sleep, semi-dream state, I thought it was Charleston all over again. Emanuel AME redux… Mon, 13 Jun 2016 09:41:45 EDT J. Kameron Carter 7ab0aa14-204a-4cb3-90bf-fa6693979243 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/06/13/post-orlando-trump-reveals-his-soul There’s a post at Eclectablog with an interesting insight about the 2016 campaign, inspired by this pro-Clinton ad: As the post explains, this ad discusses a Trump attack on a disabled journalist, and the effect it has on the parents… Mon, 13 Jun 2016 01:34:36 EDT Daniel Schultz e69b44b5-cd50-4fe7-9755-4d4f3c7d0076 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/09/14/listening-right-wing-fringe-gay-marriage-edition When you’re part of a group called “missionaries to the preborn” the rights of living people may not be your highest priority. Sat, 14 Sep 2013 03:29:43 EDT Candace Chellew-Hodge bd651ceb-e123-4d74-8d31-6801f18882b5 https://religiondispatches.org/2009/10/20/eliminationists-how-hate-talk-radicalized-american-right President Obama averages 30 death threats per day, preachers pray publicly for his death, and right-wing pundits speak openly of military coups. Dave Neiwert, author of The Eliminationists, gives some insight into the relationship between extreme rhetoric and acts of violence. Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:41:52 EDT Frederick Clarkson 4737b1c5-b6d4-4680-b447-6c691c0b19de https://religiondispatches.org/2009/09/03/american-brokenness-lament Conservatives in this country are undergoing an existential crisis, but this is not the time for liberals to sit by smugly and watch. Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:13:29 EDT Daniel Schultz e9c41ee7-9068-4323-a7ca-f01ec8ce4674 https://religiondispatches.org/2009/09/01/i-pray-barack-obama-die-and-go-hell-story-media-missed When an Arizona man brought guns to an Obama speech the story went unnoticed by a media prone to seeing such people as lone nuts. A look at the sermons of his virulently anti-gay pastor who’s been praying for Obama’s death, however, reveals similarities to a far right theology associated with militias, radical prolifers, and proponents of theocracy. Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:48:47 EDT Frederick Clarkson 608ae3fa-27ff-4d83-85d7-1a5853a21ffd