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Christian nationalists have a new plan for advancing their legislative goals in state capitals
RogueAltGov Retweeted: https://twitter.com/RogueAltGov
Under Project Blitz, an ambitious and well-orchestrated siege to privilege a single Christian interpretation, Christian Nationalists current overwhelm our legislative systems.
Link to tweet
Opinion
A Christian Nationalist Blitz
By Katherine Stewart
Ms. Stewart is the author of “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children.”
May 26, 2018
America’s Christian nationalists have a new plan for advancing their legislative goals in state capitols across the country. Its stated aim is to promote “religious freedom.” Not shy, they call it “Project Blitz.” ... “Blitz” accurately describes the spirit of the enterprise, but the mission has little to do with what most Americans would call religious freedom. This is just the latest attempt by religious extremists to use the coercive powers of government to secure a privileged position in society for their version of Christianity.
The idea behind Project Blitz is to overwhelm state legislatures with bills based on centrally manufactured legislation. “It’s kind of like whack-a-mole for the other side; it’ll drive ‘em crazy that they’ll have to divide their resources out in opposing this,” David Barton, the Christian nationalist historian and one of four members of Project Blitz’s “steering team,” said in a conference call with state legislators from around the country that was later made public.
According to research provided by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, more than 70 bills before state legislatures appear to be based on Project Blitz templates or have similar objectives. Some of the bills are progressing rapidly. An Oklahoma measure, which has passed the legislature and is awaiting the governor’s signature, allows adoption and foster care agencies to discriminate on the basis of their own religious beliefs. Others, such as a Minnesota bill that would allow public schools to post “In God We Trust” signs on their walls, have provoked hostile debates in local and national media, which is in many cases the point of the exercise.
....
In their guidebook for state legislators and other allies, the authors of the Project Blitz program have grouped their model legislation into three categories, according to anticipated difficulty of passage. The first category consists of symbolic gestures, like resolutions to emblazon the motto “In God We Trust” on as many moving objects as possible (like, say, police cars).
....
Katherine Stewart (@kathsstewart) is the author of “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children.”
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.
A version of this article appears in print on May 27, 2018, on Page SR6 of the New York edition with the headline: A Christian Nationalist Blitz.
A Christian Nationalist Blitz
By Katherine Stewart
Ms. Stewart is the author of “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children.”
May 26, 2018
America’s Christian nationalists have a new plan for advancing their legislative goals in state capitols across the country. Its stated aim is to promote “religious freedom.” Not shy, they call it “Project Blitz.” ... “Blitz” accurately describes the spirit of the enterprise, but the mission has little to do with what most Americans would call religious freedom. This is just the latest attempt by religious extremists to use the coercive powers of government to secure a privileged position in society for their version of Christianity.
The idea behind Project Blitz is to overwhelm state legislatures with bills based on centrally manufactured legislation. “It’s kind of like whack-a-mole for the other side; it’ll drive ‘em crazy that they’ll have to divide their resources out in opposing this,” David Barton, the Christian nationalist historian and one of four members of Project Blitz’s “steering team,” said in a conference call with state legislators from around the country that was later made public.
According to research provided by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, more than 70 bills before state legislatures appear to be based on Project Blitz templates or have similar objectives. Some of the bills are progressing rapidly. An Oklahoma measure, which has passed the legislature and is awaiting the governor’s signature, allows adoption and foster care agencies to discriminate on the basis of their own religious beliefs. Others, such as a Minnesota bill that would allow public schools to post “In God We Trust” signs on their walls, have provoked hostile debates in local and national media, which is in many cases the point of the exercise.
....
In their guidebook for state legislators and other allies, the authors of the Project Blitz program have grouped their model legislation into three categories, according to anticipated difficulty of passage. The first category consists of symbolic gestures, like resolutions to emblazon the motto “In God We Trust” on as many moving objects as possible (like, say, police cars).
....
Katherine Stewart (@kathsstewart) is the author of “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children.”
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.
A version of this article appears in print on May 27, 2018, on Page SR6 of the New York edition with the headline: A Christian Nationalist Blitz.
RogueAltGov Retweeted: https://twitter.com/RogueAltGov
In what might be an unexpected victory, Christian Nationalists and their legal activists found greater influence not by influencing the legal system but by becoming the legal system under the Trump administration
Link to tweet
Conservative Christian lawyers gain influence under President Trump
• Conservative Christian lawyers have seen their influence grow under President Trump, from private practice to public office.
• Texas firm First Liberty has only a few dozen employees, but has made its mark on the state's attorney general's office and on Trump's federal government.
• The ascent of firms like First Liberty has helped propel a wave of anti-LGBT legislation and so-called religious-freedom laws in statehouses nationwide.
Published 11:01 AM ET Mon, 28 May 2018
Lawyers who espouse a conservative Christian agenda have found plenty of opportunities in Texas, suing on behalf of Bible-quoting cheerleaders and defending a third-grader who wanted to hand out Christmas cards that read in part "Jesus is the Christ!" ... But for the First Liberty law firm, the last few years have been especially rewarding: Their attorneys have moved into powerful taxpayer-funded jobs at the Texas attorney general's office and advised President Donald Trump, who nominated a current and a former First Liberty lawyer to lifetime appointments on federal courts. Another attorney went to the Department of Health and Human Services as a senior adviser on religious freedom.
It's a remarkable rise for a modest-sized law firm near Dallas with only a few dozen employees, and it mirrors the climb of similar firms that have quietly shifted from trying to influence government to becoming part of it. The ascent of the firms has helped propel a wave of anti-LGBT legislation and so-called religious-freedom laws in statehouses nationwide.
"First Liberty just struck gold with a Republican president and the Texas attorney general. It's pretty incredible and definitely unusual," said Daniel Bennett, a professor at John Brown University in Arkansas and author of a book on the conservative Christian legal movement.
Since 2015, First Liberty and another conservative Christian law firm, the Alliance Defending Freedom, have moved prominent lawyers to top jobs in attorney general's offices in Texas and elsewhere. In the process, they have shifted from outsiders suing government to insiders pushing religious-freedom issues. Their influence is widening under the Trump administration as it attempts to deliver on his pledges to evangelicals and other religious supporters.
• Conservative Christian lawyers have seen their influence grow under President Trump, from private practice to public office.
• Texas firm First Liberty has only a few dozen employees, but has made its mark on the state's attorney general's office and on Trump's federal government.
• The ascent of firms like First Liberty has helped propel a wave of anti-LGBT legislation and so-called religious-freedom laws in statehouses nationwide.
Published 11:01 AM ET Mon, 28 May 2018
Lawyers who espouse a conservative Christian agenda have found plenty of opportunities in Texas, suing on behalf of Bible-quoting cheerleaders and defending a third-grader who wanted to hand out Christmas cards that read in part "Jesus is the Christ!" ... But for the First Liberty law firm, the last few years have been especially rewarding: Their attorneys have moved into powerful taxpayer-funded jobs at the Texas attorney general's office and advised President Donald Trump, who nominated a current and a former First Liberty lawyer to lifetime appointments on federal courts. Another attorney went to the Department of Health and Human Services as a senior adviser on religious freedom.
It's a remarkable rise for a modest-sized law firm near Dallas with only a few dozen employees, and it mirrors the climb of similar firms that have quietly shifted from trying to influence government to becoming part of it. The ascent of the firms has helped propel a wave of anti-LGBT legislation and so-called religious-freedom laws in statehouses nationwide.
"First Liberty just struck gold with a Republican president and the Texas attorney general. It's pretty incredible and definitely unusual," said Daniel Bennett, a professor at John Brown University in Arkansas and author of a book on the conservative Christian legal movement.
Since 2015, First Liberty and another conservative Christian law firm, the Alliance Defending Freedom, have moved prominent lawyers to top jobs in attorney general's offices in Texas and elsewhere. In the process, they have shifted from outsiders suing government to insiders pushing religious-freedom issues. Their influence is widening under the Trump administration as it attempts to deliver on his pledges to evangelicals and other religious supporters.
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Nowhere does it say that the change needs to be good for all of us. The original idea was that factions and self-interest would cancel out, towards the ultimate good of the polity. The sort of focussed combination we're seeing now (and have been seeing since Mr Reagan and the "Moral Majority"
was not foreseen.
-- Mal
