The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart

The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism

by Katherine Stewart

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Theology & Faith

What first mobilized the modern religious right in the late 1970s? Not theology, in Stewart's account, but a fight to protect Bob Jones University's tax exemption, with abortion adopted afterward as the unifying cause. You come away seeing Christian nationalism as a funded, top-down coalition, not a grassroots backlash.

Core ideas
  • Courts first: Leonard Leo's work with the Federalist Society shaped federal court appointments, and the Trump administration adopted judicial candidates religious-right groups recommended.
  • Bills in bulk: Project Blitz floods state legislatures with model bills framed as religious-freedom measures, while school-choice efforts, with Betsy DeVos central, blur church-state lines.
  • Old roots, wide reach: She ties it to earlier opposition to abolition, the New Deal and civil rights, and to coordination abroad through the World Congress of Families.
Published2020
Pages352
ISBN9781635573435
ReadMar 2025

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