https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to project blitz en https://religiondispatches.org/2024/05/23/reporters-guide-new-apostolic-reformation-revised-2025 The story of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) lives at the epicenter of the intersection of politics and religion in the US—and reporting about it is as essential as it is challenging. The story of NAR is happening in the… Thu, 23 May 2024 04:58:12 EDT Frederick Clarkson, André Gagné 718434ec-a88e-45dd-910b-153d686ea9bf https://religiondispatches.org/2023/01/10/celebrating-religious-freedom-day-taking-back-revolutionary-meaning-religious-freedom Religious freedom has been at the center of American history since the founding. (And by the founding , I mean of the United States of America , not including the roughly century-and-a-half of colonial era.) There’s a story of religious… Tue, 10 Jan 2023 12:09:48 EST Frederick Clarkson 53ffc929-a1d7-4534-854e-e4b4545b0011 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/10/11/when-it-comes-societal-dominion-details-matter-reporters-guide-new-apostolic-reformation This is the second of a three-part series. Read Part I: Christian Right Denialism is More Dangerous Than Ever: A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation & Part III: Call it ‘Christian Globalism’ The apostles of the New Apostolic… Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:18:30 EDT Frederick Clarkson, André Gagné c7951cc4-b8e4-4774-b257-c81cb59ecce0 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/08/31/link-between-texas-law-requiring-god-we-trust-signs-schools-and-january-6-insurrection A Texas law requiring public schools “to assert the country’s collective trust in God” by displaying signs that declare “ In God We Trust ” in every public school classroom has come under scrutiny over the past couple of weeks… Wed, 31 Aug 2022 05:12:50 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 306b591e-6e01-4b7b-bbce-18ac801aabeb https://politicalresearch.org/2022/08/05/hes-mission-god-pennsylvania-gop-candidate-doug-mastrianos-war-world Pennsylvania’s Republican candidate, Doug Mastriano, is deeply embedded in the Christian Right, and it shows. Fri, 05 Aug 2022 10:16:30 EDT Frederick Clarkson 319ccf43-3810-4d77-8461-03df2591365d https://politicalresearch.org/2022/07/27/project-blitz Project Blitz is an influential movement comprised of a coalition of Christian Right groups. In 2018, PRA’s Fred Clarkson found a legislative playbook with model bills, that provided a roadmap and sample language for Christian Right legislators to propose legislation… Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:00:00 EDT Political Research Associates d0ba04b7-e4ca-4419-a4fd-f0938d1e6493 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/26/whos-really-politicizing-school-shootings You know it’s coming. Every time a mass shooting captures the American public’s consciousness, leading to demands for sensible gun control, one or more Republicans will attempt to “ shut that whole thing down ” with demands that we stop… Thu, 26 May 2022 03:35:56 EDT Chrissy Stroop 124edbd4-1f12-4583-b602-7b5d8ecbf9df https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/16/right-wing-slant-religious-freedom-slippery-slope Christian Right legislation that has often seemed to be aimed at undermining or rolling back LGBTQ rights in the name of religious freedom, has also often been about much more. This has become particularly clear in state legislation affecting adoption… Wed, 16 Mar 2022 04:40:34 EDT Frederick Clarkson 1ef2d025-14ef-4bac-bf14-a5bc27ab9144 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/11/28/baby-we-were-born-war-dominionist-christian-groups-no-election-too-small-and-colorado “Man, as many people as we have in this school here, we ought to take over Woodland Park.” Thus spake theocratic leader Andrew Wommack at a political mobilization conference in April at the Charis Bible College he heads. He hasn’t… Sun, 28 Nov 2021 07:48:59 EST Frederick Clarkson a6f362c1-0e46-4cb6-9eb7-34aa525e583f https://religiondispatches.org/2021/09/24/setting-low-bar-religious-entities-praised-treating-covid-religious-exemptions Last week, AP published a small, albeit important article, “Many faith leaders say no to endorsing vaccine exemptions,” noting that the leadership of certain Eastern Orthodox churches, Catholic dioceses, mainline Protestant denominations, Mormon leadership, Orthodox Jewish and Muslim organizations, and… Fri, 24 Sep 2021 05:33:39 EDT Chrissy Stroop 349470be-0d05-4a42-aa0c-1e22d313d648 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/09/07/bill-mill-ennialism-arkansas-end-times-politics-may-be-coming-state-near-you It was the best of the end times. It was the worst of the end times. It was the age of Trump. It was 2019. Trump was compared with the greatest of God’s biblical champions. Things would never be the… Tue, 07 Sep 2021 02:43:35 EDT Frederick Clarkson 77201a1d-2b34-4fdf-a065-5f9e082fb830 https://politicalresearch.org/2021/07/16/christian-right-bill-mill-project-blitz-hasnt-gone-away Project Blitz remains an active project on the Christian Right after receding into secrecy in 2019, but this time cloaked in the guise of secular intentions. Fri, 16 Jul 2021 04:16:02 EDT Frederick Clarkson 7c35328d-2b8a-449b-96fc-122f9aa60b53 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/07/12/exclusive-christian-right-bill-mill-project-blitz-hasnt-gone-away-its-just-gotten-more In the Fall of 2019, the secretive Christian Right state legislative campaign, Project Blitz, became even more of a secret. When RD first reported on Project Blitz in April 2018 the website featured their annual state legislative playbook of model… Mon, 12 Jul 2021 04:39:07 EDT Frederick Clarkson 6c54e30d-1e42-45b1-bdd3-9e471c13c6dd https://religiondispatches.org/2021/05/25/convergence-far-right-anti-democratic-factions-northwest-could-provide-model-rest-nation The city of Spokane, Washington sits at the eastern edge of the state—a mountain range and a cultural world away from the Pacific coast. It looks eastward to Idaho and Montana, and south to Eastern Oregon, where far right secessionist… Tue, 25 May 2021 10:41:18 EDT Frederick Clarkson, Cloee Cooper 9dcc3174-38a6-4d3a-8ce7-a207551dabe5 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/01/07/we-survey-damage-yesterdays-violence-what-will-christian-nationalist-politics-look-2021 This week, amid Democratic victories in Georgia’s Senate runoffs and a Christian nationalist attempt to overturn former Vice President Joe Biden’s victory in November’s presidential election, the advocacy organization American Atheists released its State of the Secular States report… Thu, 07 Jan 2021 02:06:12 EST Chrissy Stroop 080178ca-9b47-43fc-b936-fa083539211d https://religiondispatches.org/2020/12/10/americas-national-conversation-about-christianity-fundamentally-unserious-not-way-you As I’ve argued before, the United States, an ostensibly secular country, has a de facto Christian public sphere. When conservative, mostly white Christians make headlines for doing something illiberal, like raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the legal defense… Thu, 10 Dec 2020 12:58:50 EST Chrissy Stroop 0cdb2c37-1542-431e-b6c5-71decabccd1b https://religiondispatches.org/2020/07/10/state-director-christian-right-legislative-group-project-blitz-calls-lynching-rep-ilhan UPDATE, July 27, 2020: Rev. Dale Witherington recently returned to the scene of his Facebook crime and wrote that he would be taking time away from Facebook and deleting his app. This was three days after the political blog Bluestem… Fri, 10 Jul 2020 12:47:36 EDT Frederick Clarkson 218525b6-8435-479d-9383-68b7ea110127 https://religiondispatches.org/2020/06/01/lying-name-war-lord-jane-roes-fake-conversion-feature-not-bug-extreme-christian-right The late Norma McCorvey, aka Jane Roe, is back in the news , thanks to the report of her “death bed confession.” In a new documentary about her life, McCorvey, the plaintiff in the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe… Mon, 01 Jun 2020 01:40:26 EDT Frederick Clarkson 61710caa-afed-4bd3-b5d8-0d59a5dc9b35 https://religiondispatches.org/2020/04/02/new-study-christian-nationalism-texas-should-be-warning-whole-country “Our Fathers intended that this nation should be a Christian nation, not because all who lived in it were Christians, but because it was founded on and would be governed and guided by Christian principles.” ― David Barton, The Myth… Thu, 02 Apr 2020 11:38:44 EDT David R. Brockman 63477e6b-ed32-4b52-a569-b333b462da3e https://religiondispatches.org/2020/02/07/battle-bible-against-christian-nationalism-seeks-continue-historic-campaign Some may be surprised to learn that Wendsler Nosie Sr., former chairman of the San Carlos Apaches and a non-Christian, was at the center of an event that may someday be seen as a quiet turning point in the history… Fri, 07 Feb 2020 11:11:40 EST Frederick Clarkson dd6f2638-6264-40c4-89cf-5de9b87616cb https://religiondispatches.org/2020/01/13/dont-let-bigoted-campaigns-sour-you-revolutionary-idea-religious-freedom On January 16 we celebrate Religious Freedom Day to commemorate what may be the most revolutionary and liberatory idea in the history of civilization. It was the reason many joined the American Revolution. It’s the first freedom in the First… Mon, 13 Jan 2020 04:02:44 EST Frederick Clarkson 68541640-7158-45f8-bcf4-6c43880d36ac https://religiondispatches.org/2019/08/28/religious-motto-isnt-religious-how-god-we-trust-remains-constitutional-part-2 It turns out that Christian activists are perfectly willing to let federal judges desecrate their religion, so long as the desecration also allows them to promote their religion. Wed, 28 Aug 2019 03:47:04 EDT Andrew L. Seidel b473f717-612e-4480-96c8-4ff9fd1c4f7a https://religiondispatches.org/2019/08/27/story-god-we-trust-our-christian-nationalist-motto-part-1 This story should sound familiar, especially given the blame thrown at godlessness in the wake of mass shootings and the “thoughts and prayers” offered as a “solution.” Tue, 27 Aug 2019 02:28:20 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 903a3df0-91d6-49bf-a1fc-4ac53a1d1a4c https://religiondispatches.org/2019/08/26/latest-attempts-get-god-we-trust-schools-coordinated-christian-nationalist-push-part-3 Project Blitz and legislators like Reed, who are willing to nationalize Christianity, threaten our Constitution. Mon, 26 Aug 2019 11:50:18 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 80f9eb61-2ddb-482f-a168-9d8888fd8bab https://religiondispatches.org/2019/06/24/recent-local-controversy-reveals-theocratic-heart-project-blitz The Christian nationalist intentions of Project Blitz have also received much attention, but a remarkable episode in Minnesota this past state legislative session may be a harbinger of a more profoundly theocratic politics on the horizon. Mon, 24 Jun 2019 12:26:03 EDT Frederick Clarkson 517979ff-f650-4f79-bbe0-e3fa3dfcdd3d