{"id":6737,"date":"2025-03-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2025\/03\/01\/burning-down-the-house\/"},"modified":"2025-03-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T00:00:00","slug":"burning-down-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2025\/03\/01\/burning-down-the-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Burning Down the House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025), by Katherine Stewart.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In her new book, Katherine Stewart builds a well-researched argument that democracy is under attack from an unlikely alliance of ultrawealthy financiers, intellectuals, and right-wing influencers. Stewart displays her skills as a veteran investigative journalist as she exposes the root causes and key players of this antidemocratic movement, which continues to gain traction among the disaffected and frustrated\u2014those who feel left behind by America\u2019s ever-widening economic divide. \u201cThe movement described in this book isn\u2019t looking for a seat at the noisy table of American democracy,\u201d writes Stewart. \u201cIt wants to burn down the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart constructs her case meticulously. In gathering information for her book, she attended conferences, rallies, and religious gatherings across the country. She explored the history and agendas of some relatively unknown but influential think tanks whose leaders wield money and power. Her extensive research allows her to connect the dots between seemingly disparate groups, with apparently unrelated goals, and show the hidden purposes that link these organizations. She provides the reader with an insider\u2019s perspective on the efforts of these groups to fuel what is a profoundly antidemocratic movement.<\/p>\n

Stewart categorizes the players in this movement into a few key groups. There are the \u201cFunders\u201d\u2014the super-rich who have invested in manipulating the masses through misinformation and other subversive tactics, with the goal of maintaining their wealth. According to Stewart, while many Funders don\u2019t identify with Christian nationalist ideology, they have been willing to fund ultraconservative Christian groups. Their aim, says Stewart, is to replace democracy with authoritarianism to further their own interests, and to this end they\u2019re willing to spend more than $1 billion each year to fund a variety of causes.<\/p>\n

The second group, the \u201cThinkers,\u201d are the professional elite, many of whom are heavily financed by the Funders. Many Thinkers subscribe to an ideology Stewart describes as the New Right. This is an ideology, she says, that\u2019s focused on eliminating the \u201croot cause\u201d of what ails modern society, namely the agenda of the \u201cwoke\u201d elite. The Thinkers tend to disseminate their ideas through their work with and for institutions such as the Heritage Foundation or the Claremont Institute\u2014a little-known but powerful organization that Stewart\u2019s book explores in detail.<\/p>\n

Last, there are the \u201cInfluencers,\u201d who Stewart labels as the Sergeants and the Power Players. The Influencers are the boots-on-the-ground culture warriors, including pastors at many local evangelical churches along with well-known leaders of the Christian nationalist movement. These Influencers\u2014also financed by the Funders and implementing many strategies developed by the Thinkers\u2014have been effective in mobilizing their base through rallies and conferences such as the \u201cPray, Vote, Stand\u201d summit.<\/p>\n

Stewart argues that the players in the antidemocratic movement often have vastly different end goals, but they\u2019re willing to form alliances and, at times, use each other to further their various agendas. Ultimately, what unites these groups is something Stewart calls \u201creactionary nihilism\u201d\u2014the aim of tearing down existing institutions.<\/p>\n

Stewart also highlights how the merging of Christian nationalism and the New Right has marked a shift from social conservatism toward fascism and authoritarianism. Stewart points to Project 2025\u2019s<\/span> Mandate for Leadership<\/span><\/i>, written by a consortium of organizations led by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. This document provides a blueprint for how the incoming administration can save the country from the \u201cwoke liberal agenda.\u201d With undertones of Christian nationalist ideology throughout, <\/span>Mandate for Leadership<\/span><\/i> proposes ways to eliminate CRT, DEI, and other \u201cwoke\u201d initiatives. Another of its stated goals is the destruction of the administrative state. Yet, as Stewart points out, the document makes clear that the New Right is comfortable with the administrative state so long as it\u2019s being used by them as a tool against their adversaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stewart also addresses the role that a new form of Christianity\u2014the New Apostolic Reformation\u2014has played in the rise of Christian nationalism. She describes this increasingly influential movement, with its deep roots in Pentecostalism, as \u201ca revolutionary political party that imagines itself destined not just to win elections but to rule the earth one day in the name of God.\u201d It is a religious movement that promotes authoritarianism while attacking the ideals of democracy.<\/p>\n

Reading Stewart\u2019s book can feel, in many respects, like a journey toward despair, but it concludes on a note of hope. Stewart argues that the antidemocracy movement is, in reality, the work of a divided minority. Those who wish to counter this movement, she suggests, should focus on preserving meaningful separation of church and state, as well as tackling the vast material inequities that define today\u2019s society.<\/p>\n

Stewart has brought to Money, Lies, and God<\/i> many years of in-depth investigative reporting on the rise of Christian nationalism and the New Right. It\u2019s a book that will not appeal to everyone, but for many it will be a wake-up call; a call to recognize and respond to a movement that threatens to both undermine democracy and distort American Christianity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025), by Katherine Stewart. In her new book, Katherine Stewart builds a well-researched argument that democracy is under attack from an unlikely alliance of ultrawealthy financiers, intellectuals, and right-wing influencers. Stewart displays her skills as a veteran investigative journalist as she exposes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[364],"tags":[196],"class_list":["post-6737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-march-april-2025","tag-march-april-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}