At the Vote Pray Stand Summit, Christian Parents and Their “Rights” Take Center Stage
“ ‘We need strong men,’ Gaines said to a chorus of applause. ‘We need men to be willing to fulfill their Biblical role, which is to protect and provide.’ That devotion to gender essentialism has always animated the Christian right; what’s new is the intensity with which it is now focused on trans people. And as that focus intensifies, the rhetoric itself is darkening. I lost count of the number of times speakers mentioned demons or the ‘demonic agenda’ they believe is at work on the left. Fred Clarkson, who has long studied the Christian right for Political Research Associates, said that’s a significant departure from five years ago, when you hardly heard about demons at all. He sees it as evidence of the mainstreaming of a fast-growing strain of far-right Christianity called the New Apostolic Reformation. As Clarkson has written, many adherents of this strain believe that nonbelievers are literally infested with demons.”