The Power Worshippers

by Katherine Stewart

  64. “Charter Schools Are Big Business. Who’s Making Money Off Public Education?” Arizona Republic, August 22, 2018.

  65. Karen Yi and Amy Shipley, “Florida Charter Schools Unsupervised: Taxpayers, Students Lose When School Operators Exploit Weak Laws,” Sun Sentinel (multipart investigation), http://interactive.sun-sentinel.com/charter-schools-unsupervised/investigation.html.

  66. Emmanual Felton, “Nearly 750 Charter Schools Are Whiter Than the Nearby District Schools,” Hechinger Report, June 17, 2018, https://hechingerreport.org/nearly-750-charter-schools-are-whiter-than-the-nearby-district-schools.

  67. https://www.mackinac.org/about.

  68. Mike Mullen, “TiZA, Islamic-Themed Charter School, Closes for Good,” Minneapolis City Pages, August 3, 2011, http://www.citypages.com/news/tiza-islamic-themed-charter-school-closes-for-good-6552473.

  69. See White House press release: “Remarks by President Trump at Parent-Teacher Conference Listening Session,” February 14, 2017, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/14/remarks-president-trump-parent-teacher-conference-listening-session; Valerie Strauss, “Who Was—and Wasn’t—Invited to Betsy DeVos’s Education Roundtable,” Washington Post, August 30, 2017.

  70. Ryan Dailey, “Superintendent Rocky Hanna Blasts Betsy DeVos Visit as ‘Insulting,’ ” Tallahassee Democrat, August 29, 2017.

  71. Deanna Pan, “14 Wacky ‘Facts’ Kids Will Learn in Louisiana’s Voucher Schools, Mother Jones, August 7, 2012, https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/08/photos-evangelical-curricula-louisiana-tax-dollars.

  72. Rebecca Klein, “Voucher Schools Championed by Betsy DeVos Can Teach Whatever They Want. Turns Out They Teach Lies,” Huffington Post, December 20, 2017.

  73. White House “Fact Sheet”: President Trump’s FY 2018 Budget: https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget18/budget-factsheet.pdf.

  74. “Indiana Lands $59 Million for Charter School Expansion,” Indianapolis Business Journal via Associated Press, September 28, 2017.

  75. D. James Kennedy, “A Godly Education,” 21.

  CHAPTER 10: THEOCRACY FROM THE BENCH, OR HOW TO ESTABLISH RELIGION IN THE NAME OF “RELIGIOUS LIBERTY”

  1. Eric Gutierrez, “Winter Garden Pastor Attended Trump’s SOTU,” West Orange Times & Observer, February 15, 2018.

  2. See video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_4b4Ad29PHBluf0lD4SLiUTqXRXIxcPX/view.

  3. Jeffrey Toobin, “The Conservative Pipeline to the Supreme Court,” New Yorker, April 10, 2017.

  4. Charles P. Pierce, “Alison Jones Rushing Is the Latest Conservative Wingnut to Join the Federal Court,” Esquire, March 5, 2019.

  5. Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg, “A Conservative Activist’s Behind-the-Scenes Campaign to Remake the Nation’s Courts,” Washington Post, May 21, 2019.

  6. Ed Whelan, “Mistaken Attack by Andy Schlafly on Leonard Leo,” National Review, December 9, 2016.

  7. Ryan Lovelace, “Trump Advisor Leonard Leo Details Plan to Overhaul Judiciary,” Washington Examiner, May 12, 2017.

  8. Rob Boston, “The Alliance Defense Fund Agenda,” Church & State, June 2004; Josh Israel, “The 800-Pound Gorilla of the Christian Right,” ThinkProgress, May 1, 2014, https://thinkprogress.org/the-800-pound-gorilla-of-the-christian-right-89b8cfca7051.

  9. Alan Sears and Craig Osten, The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today (Broadman & Holman), 147.

  10. Israel, “The 800-Pound Gorilla of the Christian Right.”

  11. P. Andrew Sandlin, “R. J. Rushdoony: Champion of Faith and Liberty,” Chalcedon.edu, April 01, 2001, https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/r-j-rushdoony-champion-of-faith-and-liberty.

  12. Katherine Stewart, “A Big Win for the Prayer Lobby,” New York Times, May 8, 2014.

  13. Playlist of public comments, uploaded by Central Florida Freethought Community: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9ig3lMG3B8Fiwt8AZ2c4OnAKRWo1E9Ih.

  14. “Joseph Richardson, Who Refused to Stand for the Pledge, Speaks to Media,” Orlando Sentinel, undated, uncredited video, https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/81282477-132.html.

  15. See documentation, Resolution No. 16-02: http://cwgdn.com/DocumentCenter/View/390/Resolution-16-02-Amended-Invocation-Resolution-February-10-2015-PDF.

  16. Hemant Mehta, “An Atheist’s Invocation Is Met with a Cry of ‘Fake News’ in LF,” Friendly Atheist, January 13, 2018, https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/01/13/an-atheists-invocation-request-is-met-with-cry-of-fake-news-in-fl.

  17. May 9, 2019, 30:31–31:40 of the Facebook video at https://www.facebook.com/cflfreethought/videos/2054621198165207.

  18. See Foundation Academy 2016–17 Student/Parent Handbook, Grades 7–12, page 8: https://fbcw.org/connect/foundation-academy, access date November 11, 2019.

  19. Ibid., 36.

  20. Ibid., 8.

  21. Valerie Strauss, “It’s National School Choice Week: What’s That? (Possibly Not What You Think),” Washington Post, January 21, 2019.

  22. Valerie Strauss, “Guess Which State Spends the Most Public Funds on Private and Religious School Education. Hint: Betsy Devos Has a House There,” Washington Post, March 1, 2019.

  23. Adam Chodorow, “The Parsonage Exemption,” UC Davis Law Review 849, June 13, 2017, https://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/51/3/Articles/51-3_Chodorow.pdf.

  24. Erik Eckholm, “Family Battle Offers Look Inside Lavish TV Ministry,” New York Times, May 4, 2012.

  25. Sarah Whitman, “Without Walls’ Randy White Talks of Moving Forward,” Tampa Bay Times, June 25, 2015.

  26. Sarah Posner, “Creflo Dollar’s Gulfstream for God?,” CNN, March 19, 2015, https://www.cnn.com/2015/03/16/opinions/posner-creflo-dollar-gulfstream/index.html.

  27. Supreme Court Justice Byron White dissent in Widmar v. Vincent 454 US 263 (1981).

  28. CASEBulletin, July 1990, as cited in email to the author from Rob Boston, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, July 22, 2011.

  29. See case details: Good News Club v. Milford Central School (99-2036) 533 U.S. 98 (2001), 202 F.3d 502, reversed and remanded, https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-2036.ZD1.html.

  30. Katherine Stewart, “An After-School Satan Club Could Be Coming to Your Kid’s Elementary School,” Washington Post, July 30, 2016.

  31. See position paper “Homosexuality, Marriage, and Sexual Identity,” General Presbytery of the Assemblies of God, session August 4–5, 2014: https://ag.org/Beliefs/Position-Papers/Homosexuality-Marriage-and-Sexual-Identity.

  32. See position paper “Can Born-Again Believers Be Demon Possessed?” General Presbytery of the Assemblies of God, session May 1972, https://ag.org/Beliefs/Position-Papers/Demon-Possession.

  33. Tom Porter, “Joel Osteen: Televangelist Whose Church Closed During Hurricane Harvey Tells Victims Not to Have ‘Poor Me’ Attitude,” Newsweek, September 4, 2017.

  34. “Bill to End Discrimination Against Houses of Worship Moves One Step Closer to House to Vote,” U.S. Congressman Chris Smith Representing New Jersey’s 4th District (U.S. House of Representatives website), December 1, 2017, https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400790.

  35. Rachel Held Evans, “Inside Mark Driscoll’s Disturbed Mind,” rachelheldevans.com, July 29, 2014, https://rachelheldevans.com/blog/driscoll-troubled-mind-william-wallace.

  36. Bruce Ware, “Gender Moves?,” Acts 29, June 4, 2015, https://www.acts29.com/gender-moves.

  37. From “Membership Matters Course” pamphlet, City on a Hill Church, 8–9.

  38. Robert Lewis Dabney, “Anti-Biblical Theories of Rights,” Presbyterian Quarterly (1888), 23.

  39. City on a Hill Church, “Membership Matters Course,” 49.

  40. See “Brookline Brownstone Walkthru #2” on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/15743954.

  41. Katherine Stewart, “The Movement to Put a Church in Every School Is Growing,” The Nation, January 14, 2015, https://www.thenation.com/article/movement-put-church-every-school-growi
ng.

  42. Jamie Grosshans, “Missionary, Ambassador, Lawyer,” Christian Lawyer (Fall 2016): 5.

  43. See Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal: https://www.5dca.org/Judges/Judge-Jamie-R.-Grosshans.

  44. Steven Lemongello, “Appeal Court Judge Jamie Grosshans Among 11 Nominees for Florida Supreme Court Seats,” Orlando Sentinel, November 27, 2018.

  CHAPTER 11: CONTROLLING BODIES: WHAT “RELIGIOUS LIBERTY” LOOKS LIKE FROM THE STRETCHER

  1. Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, 6th ed. Copyright 2009, 2018, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, http://www.usccb.org/about/doctrine/ethical-and-religious-directives/upload/ethical-religious-directives-catholic-health-service-sixth-edition-2016-06.pdf.

  2. Ibid.

  3. “Health Care Denied: Patients and Physicians Speak Out about Catholic Hospitals and the Threat to Women’s Health and Lives,” American Civil Liberties Union, May 2016, downloadable report at https://www.aclu.org/report/report-health-care-denied?redirect=report/health-care-denied.

  4. Kira Shepherd, Elizabeth Reiner Platt, Katherine Franke, and Elizabeth Boylan, “Bearing Faith: The Limits of Catholic Health Care for Women of Color,” Public Rights Private Conscience Project, Columbia Law School, https://www.law.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/microsites/gender-sexuality/PRPCP/bearingfaith.pdf.

  5. Marian F. MacDorman, Eugene Declercq, Howard Cabral, and Christine Morton, “Is the United States Maternal Mortality Rate Increasing? Disentangling Trends from Measurement Issues,” Obstetrics & Gynecology 128, no. 3 (2016): 447–55, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5001799/.

  6. Shepherd, Reiner Platt, Franke, and Boylan, “Bearing Faith,” 34.

  7. Cydney Henderson and Bree Burkitt, “Arizona Walgreens Pharmacist Denies Mother Miscarriage Medicine Because of Moral Objection,” Arizona Republic, June 24, 2018, story and video at https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/nation-now/arizona-walgreens-pharmacist-denies-mother-miscarriage-medicine-because-of-moral-objection/465-2c135b07-099f-419e-9ae7-89fb44b4e806.

  8. Nina Shapiro, “The Final Conversation: Are Patients Considering the ‘Death with Dignity Act’ Getting All the Information They Need?” Seattle Weekly, February 25, 2015: 6.

  9. “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.”

  10. “Rise in Catholic-Sponsored Hospitals Threatens Women’s Health, New Report Finds,” MergerWatch.org, December 18, 2013, http://www.mergerwatch.org/mergerwatch-news/2013/12/18/rise-in-catholic-sponsored-hospitals-threatens-womens-health.html; Katherine Stewart, “At Catholic Hospitals, a Right to Life but Not a Right to Death,” The Nation, October 8, 2015.

  11. Ronald Mann, “Opinion Analysis: Justices Unanimously Uphold ERISA Exemption for Church-Affiliated Pension Plans,” SCOTUSblog, June 5, 2017, https://www.scotusblog.com/2017/06/opinion-analysis-justices-unanimously-uphold-erisa-exemption-church-affiliated-pension-plans.

  12. “New Report Reveals 1 in 6 Hospital Beds Are in Catholic Facilities That Prohibit Essential Health Care for Women,” American Civil Liberties Union, May 5, 2016, https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/new-report-reveals-1-6-us-hospital-beds-are-catholic-facilities-prohibit-essential.

  13. Emmarie Huetteman, “At New Health Office, ‘Civil Rights’ Means Doctors’ Right to Say No to Patients,” KHN: Kaiser Health News, March 5, 2018, https://khn.org/news/at-new-health-office-civil-rights-means-doctors-right-to-say-no-to-patients.

  14. Jacqueline Thomsen, “Trump Expands Federal Contractors’ Ability to Cite Religious Freedom in Discrimination Cases,” The Hill, August 17, 2018.

  15. Tara Isabella Burton, “Jeff Sessions Announces a Religious Liberty Task Force to Combat ‘Dangerous’ Secularism,” Vox, July 31, 2018.

  CHAPTER 12: THE GLOBAL HOLY WAR COMES OF AGE

  1. Casey Michel, “The Latest Front in Russian Infiltration: America’s Right-Wing Homeschooling Movement,” ThinkProgress, January 17, 2019, https://thinkprogress.org/americas-biggest-right-wing-homeschooling-group-has-been-networking-with-sanctioned-russians-1f2b5b5ad031.

  2. Casey Michel, “How Russia Infiltrated the World of American Religious-Right Filmmaking,” ThinkProgress, February 8, 2019, https://thinkprogress.org/how-russia-infiltrated-the-world-of-american-religious-right-film-making-movieguide-ted-baehr-alexey-komov.

  3. Alexander Reid Ross, “Steve Bannon’s Fascist Far Right Christian Army Is Marching on Liberal Europe—and on the Pope,” Haaretz, April 22, 2019.

  4. Sarah Posner, “The End of City on a Hill,” Type Investigations, March 11, 2019, https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2019/03/11/european-american-christian-conservative-alliance.

  5. Claire Provost and Adam Ramsay, “Revealed: Trump-Linked US Christian ‘Fundamentalists’ Pour Millions of ‘Dark Money’ into Europe, Boosting the Far Right,” openDemocracy, March 27, 2019, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/revealed-trump-linked-us-christian-fundamentalists-pour-millions-of-dark-money-into-europe-boosting-the-far-right.

  6. Jason Horowitz, “The ‘It’ ’80s Party Girl Is Now a Defender of the Catholic Faith,” New York Times, December 7, 2018.

  7. Michel, “The Latest Front in Russian Infiltration: America’s Right-Wing Homeschooling Movement.”

  8. Courtney Weaver, “God’s TV, Russian Style,” Financial Times, October 16, 2015.

  9. Ken Ham, “Child Evangelism Fellowship Leaders at Museum,” Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham Blog, December 21, 2015, https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2015/12/21/child-evangelism-fellowship-leaders-museum.

  10. Wess Stafford, introduction to Luis Bush, The 4/14 Window: Raising Up a New Generation to Transform the World (Compassion International, 2009).

  11. See CEF World Day of Prayer 2018 booklet, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ae1da515ffd205aac4e25bc/t/5bbfce050852293cf2f967cc/1539296776297/World+Day+of+Prayer+2018+booklet+%281%29.pdf. Last accessed July 15, 2019.

  12. “Child Evangelism Conference Opens in Accra,” GhanaWeb.com, July 8, 2004, https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Child-evangelism-conference-opens-in-Accra-61246#.

  13. See CEF World Day of Prayer 2018 booklet, p. 25. Last accessed July 15, 2019.

  14. Kev Murdoch, “How Can a God of Love Send People to Hell?” http://www.eustonchurch.com/exploring.

  15. “Nigeria: Anglican Primate Attacks Gay Marriage, Homosexuality,” Virtueonline.org, September 20, 2011.

  16. Although GAFCON has adopted a voluntary moratorium on the ordination of women, the issue remains a topic under dispute. See “Analysis: A Dilemma for GAFCON,” Living Church, March 6, 2018, https://livingchurch.org/2018/03/06/analysis-a-dilemma-for-gafcon. The Church of England has approved women’s ordination since 1992: John Bingham, “Women in the Church of England: A Century of Waiting,” Telegraph, January 26, 2015.

  17. John W. Howe and Sam C. Pascoe, Our Anglican Heritage: Can an Ancient Church Be a Church of the Future? (Wipf and Stock, 2010), 194.

  18. David W. Virtue, “GAFCON Chairman Hails First Ordination of Priests to the Anglican Mission in England,” VirtueOnline, December 12, 2017, https://virtueonline.org/gafcon-chairman-hails-first-ordination-priests-anglican-mission-england.

  19. Isabel Hardman, “Conservative Anglicans’ Emergency Plan to Escape Women Bishops,” Spectator (UK), September 2014.

  20. www.citytocityeurope.com/values.

  21. Denny Burk, “5 Evidences of Complementarian Gender Roles in Genesis 1-2,” March 14, 2014. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/5-evidences-of-complementarian-gender-roles-in-genesis-1-2. Accessed July 15, 2019.

  22. Dr. Andrew Sach, “Talk: Does Science Contradict Christianity?,” Euston Church, March 16, 2016, http://www.eustonchurch.com/archive/2016/5/22/does-science-contradict-christianity.

  23. “John Smyth, the School Predator Who Beat Me for Five Years,” Telegraph, February 5, 2017.

  24. “Police Investigate Alleged ‘Brutal Lashings’ by Christian Leader,” BBC Channel 4, February 2, 2017.

  25. “Chris
tian Lawyer Who ‘Beat Boys’ Was Charged over Zimbabwe Death,” BBC Channel 4, February 3, 2017.

  26. P. J. Smyth, “Open Letter from PJ Smyth,” Covenant Life Church, February 4, 2017, https://www.covlife.org/blog/open-letter-from-pj-smyth. Last accessed April 24, 2019.

  27. P. J. Smyth, Quick-Start Parenting, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/567931fc4bf118d6ee53d8cb/t/58ff0c045016e163f205e4e7/1493109769395/Quick+Start+Parenting+-+PJ+Smyth.pdf. Last accessed April 24, 2019.

  28. Ibid., 14.

  29. Ibid., 16–17.

  30. Ibid., 15.

  31. Andrew Haslam, Grace London Newsletter #3, February 23, 2016.

  32. Andrew Haslam, February 15, 2014, https://andrewhaslam.net/profound-provocative-prophetic. Last accessed April 1, 2018.

  33. Libby Anne, “Doug Wilson: Women Who Reject Patriarchy Are Tacitly Accepting ‘the Propriety of Rape,’ ” Patheos, March 14, 2016.

  34. Andrew Haslam, February 15, 2014, https://andrewhaslam.net/profound-provocative-prophetic. Last accessed April 1, 2018.

  35. Jonathan Merritt, “The Gospel Coalition and How (Not) to Engage Culture,” Religion News Service, June 6, 2016; Douglas Wilson, “One of Those Circus Ponies,” Blog and Mablog, June 23, 2013, https://dougwils.com/books/one-of-those-circus-ponies.html.

  36. Andrew Haslam, “Are Christians Cherry-Picking Their Morals?” Salt, January 25, 2019.

  37. Dave Chambers, “Son of Lawyer in ‘Spanking’ Documentary Heads US ‘Megachurch’ Embroiled in Sex Scandal,” Sunday Times (South Africa), February 2, 2017.

  38. Tiffany Stanley, “The Sex-Abuse Scandal That Devastated a Suburban Megachurch,” Washingtonian, February 14, 2016, https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/02/14/the-sex-abuse-scandal-that-devastated-a-suburban-megachurch-sovereign-grace-ministries.

  39. https://adfinternational.org/who-we-are/locations.

  40. https://adfinternational.org/advocacy.

  41. Dan Sabbagh, “Ban on Anti-Abortion Protests in London Clinic Disproportionate, Court Hears,” Guardian, June 7, 2018.