Book Review: Power-Hungry Christian Nationalists Continue to Scale the Dominance of American Society

The second book by Talia Lavin Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America (next Culture War Leaders: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy) begins with a bold assertion: “The United States is and always has been a Christian nation.” And while she acknowledges religious freedom as a cornerstone of America’s founding mythology, a deep dive into this idea, she writes, reveals cracks between the ideal of separation of church and state and the reality.

While Christian dominance has waxed and waned over our nation’s nearly 250-year history, Lavin reports that we are currently seeing a rising tide of Christian nationalism. Some evangelical adherents of this nationalism have won seats in Congress, positions on the Supreme Court, and positions in state and local government.

“All around you,” she writes, “laws are unfolding: laws about schools, laws about teachers, laws about wombs, laws about doctors, laws about abortifacients, laws about the gender of children. There are also laws about the way history is taught, so that nothing comes between growing minds and the great, grandiose story of a land chosen by God to be the fertile ground for his own battle between good and evil.”

Wild Faith examines these policies, focusing on the doctrines that bind evangelical Christian nationalists. Among the most powerful is a belief in Satan, whose deepest desire is the sexual exploitation of children, making him a literal devil who tempts us with pornography, drag shows, and queer and trans pride parades. This is why, Lavin writes, the evangelical right works hard to dominate what she calls the Seven Mountains of Social Influence: Arts and entertainment, business, education, family, government, media, and religion.

For these true believers, this is nothing less than a broad effort to bring about “a massive social transformation of the world into the kingdom of God,” Lavin writes. Turning the United States into an openly Christian theocracy is just one step on this journey. Making lots of money—the idea that God rewards his (yes, God is always male) loyal followers with financial prosperity—is just one necessary principle. Other principles are political: opposing abortion by any means necessary; opposing marriage equality and queer humanity; opposing no-fault divorce in favor of hard-to-break “covenant marriages”; opposing heterosexual sex outside of marriage; and opposing government welfare programs like Social Security, food stamps, and Medicaid.

Fervent support for Israel is also fundamental to Christian nationalists, who see the country’s creation as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. “Christian Zionists have spent more than $65 million supporting continued Israeli settlements in the disputed territories of the West Bank,” Lavin writes. Palestinians are seen as an annoying nuisance, “an obstacle to the apocalypse”—an impediment to the imminent return of Jesus, in other words.

Perhaps this is why Christian nationalist support for the Gaza genocide is nearly universal, without a word about the ongoing destruction that has left more than 40,000 dead and countless others injured and traumatized. The somewhat obscure reason for this is based on the evangelical belief that Israel will play a central role in the resurrection of Christ: “Before the Messiah can return, the nation of Israel must be restored; Jerusalem must become a Jewish city; and the Temple, the center of worship and sacrifice in the ancient Jewish world, last destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, must be rebuilt,” Lavin writes. But here’s the rub: To rebuild the Temple, the Jewish people must be “purified with the ashes of a red heifer.”

Yes, really.

And that’s not all. Trump has strong support among evangelical Christian nationalists, many of whom see him as God’s chosen one. Despite his obvious flaws, they compare him to King Cyrus, who in 538 B.C. followed God’s command to rebuild the Second Jewish Temple. Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem bolstered their support for him. As a result, this religious right-wing cohort—14% of the American electorate is evangelical—is expected to vote for the Trump-Vance team.

It’s a terrifying prospect.

Equally terrifying is Lavin’s description of the ways in which evangelicals are trained to live in scrupulous obedience to a vengeful and punishing God. Patriarchy is writ large, with a swarm of predominantly white male “leaders” demanding female submission, strict adherence to homeschooling of children, and using corporal punishment to beat sinister impulses out of their children, from toddlers to teenagers.

The result, Lavin reports, is that psychological independence is undermined. The step from accepting the authority of the family to accepting the authority of a minister and the political leaders they support is a small one.

Although Wild Faith fails to address the array of right-wing think tanks, policy and legal organizations that promote an openly Christian nationalist agenda—and which align themselves with the family and church’s enforcement of conservative political ideology—this is a minor omission in an otherwise chilling account of contemporary efforts by the religious right. Pundits and media prognosticators tend to ignore evangelical Christian nationalists because their thinking is so out of sync with the mainstream, but we ignore them at our own political peril. Lavin offers a compelling reminder of the high stakes of this rejection.

Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America
By Talia Lavin
LegacyLit Books, 288 pages; available for pre-order
Release Date: October 15, 2024

The Independent is located in New York City newspaperwebsite and weekly radio program. All of our work is made possible by readers like you. Please consider making a recurring or one-time donation donation today or subscribe Sign up for our monthly print edition and receive each copy directly to your home.