02x07 - Radical Religion

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] A nation supposedly
founded on

the separation of
church and state.

We break and divide every
demonic confederacy against the

election, against America,
against that who you have

declared to be in
the White House.

It's outlined right in
the Constitution.

I don't care what you think
about fraudulent, sleepy Joe.

He's a sex-trafficking,
demon-possessed mongrel.

But that separation
is vanishing

in new and dangerous ways.

We have a responsibility to
preserve the foundations,

and they are religion
and morality.

And we have to preserve them
in public life.

What was once a simple
money grab by

a few unscrupulous
charlatans...

Whatever you do right now,
don't you stop tithing.

I just need more!
I just need more!

...has become a coordinated
accumulation of wealth

and political power...

Preachers began basing
their sermons around

economic and
political matters.

Backed by g*ns
and ammunition...

We need to stock up,
team up and train up

like we've never
done before.

To reshape the country.

God, country, constitution,

second amendment
and homeschooling.

I think it is fair to use
the 'F' word: "fascism."

It's a radical movement,
that thinks the only votes

that are legitimate are
those that support them.

Fight for Trump!

While those who still believe
in that separation of

church and state...
be damned.

God bless, America.

[Cheering]

For over 70 years, our leaders
have told us one thing

under the bright lights...

The protection of the lives
and property of Americans

is the responsibility of
all public officials.

I care, we're trying.

We have it so well
under control.

Help is here and we will not
stop working for you.

But for decades, America's
shadow government and its

powerful friends have spent
trillions of dollars on an

agenda that serves their
interests, not ours.

You guys paid for all this.

So, when the sh*t really hits
the fan, we're on our own.

This is not science fiction.

This is reality in
America right now.

The truth is, the rich
and powerful will do

whatever it takes to
save themselves...

While The Rest of Us Die.

[Helicopter chuff &
people shouting]

You only have to open your eyes
to witness how the teachings of

Jesus Christ have inspired
millions to help their fellow

Americans, both materially
and spiritually.

Our Goal is to serve the
community and,

we just praise the Lord for all
the opportunity he's giving us.

But in this nation first founded
by persecuted Christians,

members of that same faith
have used their beliefs

to justify the
persecution of others.

It's right there in the
founding documents of

one of America's
largest churches.

If you go back, they're
defending sl*very on
biblical

grounds and they're calling the
ownership of other human beings

as part of their sacred
rights and privileges.

That actually provides a
moral frame and actually

fuel to the fire that leads
to the, to the secession

of the southern states.

The endorsement of sl*very
by many prominent churches

helped create an
enormous wealth gap.

Families that owned human
beings were, on average,


families that did not.

The social and economic impact
on the African American

descendants of sl*ves
would continue

generation after generation.

But in 1954, the Supreme
Court issues a ruling that

many hope will begin
to shrink the gap.


want to integrate!

Brown vs.
Board of Education begins

desegregating
schools across the country,

opening the doors
to better funded,

once whites-only public schools
to Black students.

[Chanting]

In the South, the ruling is
seen as a direct threat

to the r*cist
power structure.

Education cannot thrive in a
climate such as what would

result from the mixture of
races in a public school.

I have said in every county in
Mississippi that no school in

our state will be integrated
while I am your governor.

In response, southern white
elites band together to form

what are known as
"white citizens councils".

The mission: block any form of
advancement of Blacks...

by any means necessary.

[Screaming]

White citizens councils were
made up of some of the south's

most prominent politicians,
judges, police,

and religious leaders.

[Applauding]

Some are members of the
historic Southern

Baptist Church whose
preachings helped justify

this r*cist ideology in the
south for more than a century.

I believe that we stand on the
verge of a historic moment!

The most famous southern
Baptist preacher

is Billy Graham.

I have no power to
forgive anybody.

I have no power to
change anybody.

A national celebrity who fills
stadiums with devotees hanging

on his every word.
An even larger audience

watches him on TV at home.

There will come a day
when men's hearts are

literally going to fail them
because of fear!

[Singing & chanting]

In the early 60s,
another religious leader

is also garnering a
mass following.

One day right down in Alabama
little Black boys and

Black girls will be able to
join hands with little

white boys and white girls,
as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

After the march on Washington
in August of 1963,

Billy Graham was asked to
comment on the march.

He said: "It will only be in
heaven that little Black

children will walk hand in hand
with little white children".

And so, in Graham's theology,
these are things that

we couldn't hope for on
this earth because

the problem was too
big to be solved.

And that is the way that white
evangelicals thought about

social action and political
action in the 1960s.

They should be praying.
They should not be marching.

They should not be engaged
in civil disobedience.

Don't ever say it's a
white man's religion,

or a Black man's religion.
It's a world religion!

The battle for civil rights,
led by the Reverend

Martin Luther King Jr.
and other Black ministers,

is largely waged
from the pulpits.

But few southern white
evangelical leaders

join the fight.

It is very hard for people to
call Billy Graham a r*cist.

But the fact of the matter
is, Billy Graham,

like many white male
evangelicals of his day,

felt that white men should be
in power before other people.

When you read people like James
Baldwin or Martin Luther King,

they're just mystified at
why white Christian churches

aren't standing up on the
side of civil rights.

King openly calls on his white,
religious counterparts to act.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s
letter from Birmingham jail

is just dripping with this.

He's writing that letter as
he's sitting in jail for

demonstrating for civil rights
to the so-called moderate

leaders in Birmingham.
And he says:

"Who are these white Christians,
sitting safely behind their

anesthetizing stained
-glass windows"?

Many southern pastors
were affiliated with

segregated
religious schools.

People like Bob Jones and,
he went so far as to call

segregation "God's
established order".

Like churches and other
religious organizations,

these private,
mostly whites only schools

were exempt from paying
federal taxes.

But many Americans begin to
publicly question why.

One of the key issues was
concern that racially

segregated academies,
religious schools would

have their tax privileges
taken away from them.

The Internal Revenue Service
proposed to make

private schools prove that
they are not practicing

racial discrimination or lose
their tax-exempt status.

So, all these pastors, you know,
they got together.

They were really concerned,
and they felt like they had

a right to segregate people
by skin color, but also,

to receive tax exemptions.

But by the 1970s,

America is becoming a
more inclusive country.

Overt racists find
themselves shunned.

Their beliefs mocked by
mainstream culture.

I think that, I mean, if God
had meant us to be together,

he'd have put us together.
But look what he done.

He put you over in Africa.

He put the rest of us
in all white countries.

[Laughing]

So, in the summer of 1979,

at a hotel in Lynchburg,
Virginia,

a group of influential religious
and conservative leaders,

including Jerry Falwell,
Paul Weyrich and

former Nixon aide,
Howard Phillips,

meet in secret to strategize on
how white evangelicals could

protect their agenda against
the rising tide of inclusion.

They knew the "stop the tax
and segregation" wasn't

really gonna be a very
appealing rallying cry for

this new movement that
they wanted to ignite.

They sort of went down a
laundry list of issues that

they thought might sort of
ignite a hyper-conservative

counter-revolution.
When they got to ab*rtion,

it was almost like a
light bulb went off.

And they were like,
huh, that could work.

This is like around


Roe v. Wade was passed.

The majority in cases from
Texas and Georgia said that the

decision to end the pregnancy
during the first three months

belongs to the woman and her
doctor, not the government.

When Roe versus Wade
was passed,

most Protestant Republicans
supported it.

The Southern Baptist Convention
had passed resolutions in


liberalization of ab*rtion law.

Ronald Reagan passed the most
liberal ab*rtion law in 1967.

It's like really amazing to
think about that now.

They used the ab*rtion issue to
sort of unite that new movement.

What single issue could say
more about society's values

than the degree of respect
shown for human life at its

most vulnerable,
human life still unborn.

[Applause]

Your membership and belonging
really hinges on that issue.

But it's really, it's a
modern creation.

And it was created for
political purposes.

Under Reagan,
the Republican Party,

historically concerned with tax
cuts for the wealthy and

corporations, uses the right to
life as political camouflage.

And soon, the GOP
solidifies the working class

white parishioners of
evangelical leaders

as its new loyal base.

Four more years!
Four more years!

And so, over time,
these pro-choice voices

were purged from the
Republican Party.

What we see today is
almost a new religion,

a pro-life religion.

The evangelical movement's
elites are now kingmakers

delivering state and
presidential elections to the

politicians willing to protect
their new religious benefactors.

Thank you and God bless you!
[Cheering]

And just as the 60s saw
church leaders playing a

transformative role on both
sides of the social upheavals,

the so-called "Greed Decade" of
the 1980s will see a new style

of Christian preacher transform
the relationship some

Christian Americans have
with their church.

- The blessing has landed.
- [Cheering]

So, I'm just telling you what I
believe God told me to tell you.

You don't like it,
talk to the boss!

Evangelicals take
to the airwaves

to deliver a new gospel.

I just need more!

And it will deliver unto them a
new kind of political strength.

You can't defeat me! You
cannot defeat a child of God!

[Cheering & applause]

Say it like you mean it.

We've all seen the gospel as
preached on television...

You may gain some
material things,

but what if you lose with God?
He controls the universe!

Joel Osteen has a
$10 million mansion,

practically across the street
from his $3 million mansion.

Jesse Duplantis, in 2018,

asked his followers to buy
him a $50 million jet.

You know, I've owned three
different jets in my life.

And I use them and just
burning them up

for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Kenneth Copeland and
his partner, Gloria,

are worth upwards
of $700 million,

and use their private jets
to go to

big game ranches
and ski resorts.

This is a preaching machine.

Wealthy televangelists
flaunting their possessions,

as a sign of God's
bountifulness, is not new.

You actually have
televangelists at this point,

who are competing with one
another over who can live

the most glamorous
lifestyles.

But these modern-day, ultra
-rich TV preachers aren't

just interested in acquiring
more and more money...

You understand
what I'm saying?

Whatever you do right now,
don't you stop tithing.

They are also interested in
the political influence

that money can buy.

[Laughing]

There has always been tithing:
giving money to your church

or temple to help others
less fortunate.

But in the 1980s, as cable
television delivered

hundreds of channels
into people's homes,

it created an opportunity for
a new kind of church.

From coast to coast,
live via satellite...

it's time to
praise the lord!

[Applause]

For these evangelicals
of the airwaves,

tithing was something you
did to help yourself.

What you give to God, God
returns to you a hundred-fold.

A believer in prosperity
gospel means that God

essentially is a
glorified piñata.

And if you strike at heaven
long enough,

riches and wealth will
come tumbling down.

It dovetails with the
ethos of the 1980s,

and the ways in which media
put out a lifestyle.

So, if we think about
television shows like Dynasty...

If the champagne is too
burned for your taste,

Miss. Devereaux,
don't drink it.

The caviar, I trust,
is not burned.

I really wouldn't know.
This is Osetrova,

and I prefer
Petrossian beluga.

That had a connection,
believe it or not,

to the ways in which
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker,

were living, with
air-conditioned dog houses.

And all of this promoted a
lifestyle of God and wealth.

If all the demons in hell and
all the bureaucrats in the world

could stop me from building
when I go to heaven,

he'd let me work
on mansions.

If that pastor is driving
around in a Rolls-Royce and

flying a private jet,
his wealth is a sign of

how much God wants
you to be rich.

This is pretty transparently
a con.

You can't defeat me. You
cannot defeat a child of God!

Congregants of prosperity
ministries were told to give to

God, but to send their money
to the preacher's address.

Failure to give enough was
seemingly the only sin

for which you'd be punished.

What keeps people in the pews
in prosperity gospel churches

is a sick downward spiral.

You think if you give more,
then you're gonna get more.

If you don't get more, you're
chastised by your pastor to

give more because you
aren't giving enough.

And so, for many people,

they don't know how to
break out of that cycle.

If you're wealthy,
you're one of God's chosen.

If you're poor, you're part
of the sinful masses.

It's a message viewers at home
would hear again and again.

You need to make a vow
of faith of $1000.

"Oh, Bob, couldn't
you say 25?" No!

I don't understand why, but
there's something happens

at a level... where people
step into faith and give

$1000 that don't happen
at other levels.

You're going to have a
breakthrough...

through this $273 seed.

By the 1990's, the most
egregious of the cable TV

prosperity ministers had
been brought down for

preying on their
parishioners.

Swaggart is stepping down from
his powerful TV ministry while

the Assembly of God Church
investigates him for having

an affair with a prost*tute.

I have sinned against you,
my lord.

Their fall from grace was a
wakeup call to other,

more mainstream preachers to
seek salvation not just

from God, but protection
against the laws of man

from elected officials.

Historians write about the
Regan administration,

what do you want them to say?

I guess maybe just that I
helped perpetuate

this great American dream.

In the new century,

prosperity ministries made
a comeback on TV.

One of my chandeliers costs
more than most people's house.

I got more than 22
chandeliers in the house.

But media reports raised
questions about whether these

preachers were paying their
fair share to the government.

All of it is tax exempt,
but should it be?

In 2007, prosperity gospel
preachers were investigated by

a senate judiciary committee
led by a Republican,

Chuck Grassley.

Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
sent letters to six well-known

TV churches across the country,
requesting financial records

on compensation, expenses
and amenities,

including use of fancy cars
and private jets that would

violate non-profit status
under the tax code.

Investigators are digging into
whether ministry resources are

being diverted into an array of
for-profit companies.

They thought, "Are these
pastors taking advantage of

their status just to enrich
themselves"?

Creflo Dollar, one of the
prosperity preachers named by

Grassley's committee,
defended his church.

I just believe that the people
that make an investment into

the ministry should be the
primary ones that we respond to

and that we open our books
up and we're transparent to,

versus the watchdog people.

And there was such an outcry,
at the time,

against these pastors getting
investigated at all.

He has the right to
have what he has.

This is America.

You are able to drive what
you want to drive,

live where you want to live.

The committee pulled back,
and they said, "Well,

we encourage these pastors
to, you know, self-reform".

Grassley had given the
ministries a month

to respond to the
committee's questions.

His requests were all
but ignored,

but some in the media continued
to press the issue.

How much did you pay
for Tyler Perry's

gulf stream jet,
for example?

Well, for example, that's really
none of your business, but...

Isn't it the business of
your donors?

I think what's troubling is,
not just that they're taking

advantage of their followers,
but they're taking advantage of

the rest of us through
their public subsidies

and tax exemptions.

In exchange for their lucrative
tax-exempt status,

religious institutions are
supposedly constrained by

The Johnson Amendment,
which prohibits non-profit

organizations from endorsing
partisan political candidates.

But as the wealth of these
churches grew,

their leaders saw the value in
using some of their

parishioner-supplied wealth to
exercise the political power

needed to protect themselves.

They're not just having these
sort of tax-exempt entities and

lack of transparency for a means
of amassing these fortunes,

but also engaging in partisan
politics at the same time.

Prosperity Gospel is now
talking about elections

as a matter of
demonic influence.

Democrats winning is a matter
of satanic influence.

You can hear it in the
televised sermons.

We break and divide every
demonic confederacy against

the election, against America,
against that who you have

declared to be in
the White House.

The media said
Joe Biden's president.

Ha-ha-ha-ha!
Ha-ha-ha-ha!

Using all the powers of
that con, that money con,

to now put into play
as a power con.

[Laughing hysterically]

But could this power
of the pulpit provide

religious leaders
protection from even

the darkest allegations?

Ask the Catholic Church.

You may not like who I am,
as much as you like

who you think I am.
[Audience laughing]

[Singing] Kennedy,
Kennedy, [repeating]

[narrator]
During John F. Kennedy's

run for the
presidency in 1960...

many believed his Catholic faith
would make him unelectable.

Anti-Catholicism
was widespread,

forcing the candidate
to face it head on.

The question is whether I
think that if I were elected

president, I would be
divided between

two loyalties - my church
and my state.

Let me just say that
I would not.

Kennedy was able to overcome
worries about him

being a puppet of Rome.

But in his home state of
Massachusetts,

where nearly half the population
identifies as Catholic,

the church exerted exactly the
kind of political influence

Kennedy denied existed.

For decades, the Catholic
leadership could act with near

impunity, with little to fear
from elected officials.

When it comes to holding
power to account,

the Boston Globe's Michael
Rezendes knew there was

no greater power in
the city than the one

wielded by the
Catholic church.

The city of Boston was
the most Catholic city

in the United States.
And also,

Boston was really a collection
of Catholic ethnic,

blue-collar people, who really
revered the Catholic Church.

The legislature responded to
the Catholic Church

whenever it
wanted something.

Or whenever it sought to
block something.

Something the Globe's
investigative team, Spotlight,

learned when it began
looking into a lawsuit against

Father John Geoghan, a former
Boston Priest who was suspected

of sexually abusing nearly 150
young boys over decades.

In a civil lawsuit, there is a
process, known as discovery,

when both sides turn over
the evidence that

they've accumulated,
that they may use at trial.

But all of these documents
were sealed by the court,

at the request of the
Boston Archdiocese.

The head of the Archdiocese was
one of the most powerful men

in Boston,
Cardinal Bernard Francis Law,

was also a media savvy,
charismatic figure.

You may not like who I am,
as much as you

like who you think I am.
[Audience laughing]

Cardinal Law was a very,
very influential prelate.

Not only in the
Archdiocese of Boston,

but all over the United States.

And he often hoped that he
would become the first pope

from the United States
of America.

Cardinal Law was friendly with
the Reagan administration,

played a role in the fact
that Ronald Reagan won

the state of
Massachusetts twice.

Cardinal Law was
especially close to

George Herbert Walker Bush.
They had a friendship,

just really understood
how to play politics.

Cardinal Law's imposing
presence helped the church

remain off-limits to the city's
investigative journalists.

But in 2001, a new editor at
the Globe authorized the

Spotlight team to dig
deeper into the

Father John Geoghan case.

So, the first thing we did,
we just call all our sources

and asked them if they
knew anything about

the issue of
clergy sex abuse.

And pretty quickly, we came up
with the notion that there was

more than one bad priest. That
there were other John Geoghans.

But they needed more
than a notion.

They needed proof.
Enter Phil Saviano of SNAP:

the Survivors Network
of those Abused by Priests.

For Saviano, it was personal.

I was...

sexually assaulted.

I don't know.

I remember 5 or 6 times,
specifically.

Mostly when I was 12 years old.

The priest came to town on
a new assignment.

And the fact that I lived in
the neighborhood and that

I was the newspaper boy,
put me in contact

with this priest
quite a bit.

Saviano had spent years
cataloguing his own story and

amassing evidence
from other survivors.

Phil showed up in the
Spotlight office.

And he had a box of material
for us to read.

Several books, newspaper
articles, magazine articles.

One of the things in
his box was a disc,

And the disc contained expert
testimony in a clergy sex abuse

case from Texas, estimated
that only about half of

all practicing priests
were celibate.

Of that number, 6% of priests
were having sex with children.

Could the same be true of
priests in Boston?

The answer came from the
church's own documents.

The Boston Archdiocese,
like many other diocese,

publish a annual directory
of clergy.

So, you can look up a
particular priest and

see where he's
been assigned.

A lot of priests had
assignments that...

we didn't really understand.

Like some priests were assigned
to "emergency response".

Some were "sick leave".
Some were "on loan".

And eventually, we got the
notion that maybe these kind of

strange assignments were
euphemisms for priests

who'd been accused of
clergy sex abuse and

had been put on the shelf.

So, we came to understand
that, "emergency response",

meant that a priest was
confined to the rectory.

"Sick leave," often meant
that a priest had been

assigned to a facility
for a*usive priests.

So, all of these euphemisms,

we decided to put them all
together in one database.

If 6% of clergy were having
sex with children,


would have translated

to 90 priests.
And that, in fact,

was about the number that
turned up in our database

after we'd been through
the church directories.

They had a smoking g*n.
The pattern was clear.

Then, another breakthrough.

The Globe is successful in
lifting the confidentiality

order on the church's
sealed documents.

And the documents were
released to the public,

showing that Cardinal Law,
and his bishops,

all knew that John Geoghan
was a serial pedophile and

had molested more
than 150 children,

over 30 years in 6
different parishes.

We learned through the
Spotlight investigation that

there are a number of cases
that police knew about.

But they brought the
cases to Cardinal Law,

and he convinced them
not to tell anybody.

To keep it quiet.

It took Spotlight's tireless
investigation to finally

overcome the church's power
to protect its own.

Today, the thousands of
documents once confidential

both illustrate and underlined
the mistake and tragedy.

We kept writing stories.

We kept finding allegations
against more a*usive priests.

And finally,
Cardinal Law resigned

on December 13th of 2002.

In 2017, Cardinal Law died in
Rome at the age of 86.

But the sex-abuse scandal
that he came to symbolize

persists to this day.

The Catholic church in America
alone has now paid something

like $4 billion to the victims
of clergy sexual abuse.

This is a very deep problem
within the Catholic church.

A problem the church saw a
solution to in 2020.

Rezendes was reporting for the
Associated Press when news of

the federal government's
pandemic relief,

Paycheque Protection Program

was announced by
President Trump.

I asked Congress to pass the
Paycheque Protection Program,

giving small businesses
emergency economic relief.

For many Catholic parishes,
this program,

designed to help struggling
businesses make payroll at the

height of the pandemic,
was heaven sent.

We know that President Trump
met with more than 600

Catholic officials in a
teleconference situation.

And during this meeting,
President Trump explained that

they were all gonna be
eligible for the paycheck

protection program. And he
also reminded everyone

that we were approaching
an election.

And what we noted is that a lot
of the dioceses that had made

big payments to survivors,
in some cases dioceses that

had filed for bankruptcy,
they were awarded

paycheck protection funds
that allowed them to

essentially replenish
their coffers.

This story and many other
stories by many other reporters

really do reflect the enduring
power of the Catholic church.

Someday, the Associated
Press won't exist.

Someday, The Boston Globe
won't exist.

But the Catholic
church will endure.

Religious institutions have
long wielded their political

influence through generally
accepted democratic norms.

But some evangelical leaders
have taken a decidedly

anti-democratic approach
to gaining power.

How many of our Christians
want everybody to vote?

I don't want
everybody to vote.

At stake is the very
soul of our nation.

Barrett is a devout Catholic
who's taken conservative

stances on ab*rtion,
g*n rights, and immigration.

The human rights campaign
has called her a, quote,

"absolute threat to
LGBTQ rights".

October 2020.

The Senate is set to debate the
third Supreme Court Justice

President Trump will place
on the court...

conversative Christian,
Amy Comey Barrett.

Well, we're pleased today to
welcome Judge Barrett.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
takes the floor to expose the

dark forces he says are
behind her nomination...

We look forward working with
you, Republicans in the Senate.

...and a larger plot to
undermine democracy.

This is a conservative activist
behind-the-scenes campaign to

remake the nation's courts,

and it's a $250 million
dark money operation.

The Senator paints a grim
picture of the state

of our union arguing a
shadowy group of

conservatives are
leveraging their wealth to

take over the courts
and overturn popular

policies supported by
the majority of Americans.

They want judges to
rule to reverse Roe,

to reverse the Obamacare
cases, and to reverse

Obergefell and take
away g*y marriage.

That is their stated
objective and plan.

Why not take them at their word?

While Christians make up


only one in four Americans
identify as evangelicals.

That's still a voting block of
one hundred million strong.

And with 70% of those potential
voters claiming to be

conservative, evangelicals
have often been the deciders

in this country's elections.

When you accept
Christ as the saviour,

it changes your heart,
it changes your life.

...using their power to endorse
politicians that will protect

and promote a biblical
worldview.

Our saviour died on his cross
so your sins can be forgiven,

and he doesn't want you
to be quiet about it.

He wants you to
share the gospel.

And share it with everyone.

The right-wing Christian power
elite and its donor base have

long dreamed of seeing the
government adopt

its religious values
as public policy.

The plan to make this
dream a reality

first came together
four decades ago.

August 1980 in Dallas, Texas,
the biggies of conservatism

have come together
to make speeches.

And Ronald Reagan is appearing
in front of evangelicals.

This book'll teach you
about your economy.

James Robison, a famous
Dallas evangelist,

said to Reagan,

you should say this when
you get up onstage.

Now, I know this is a
non-partisan gathering,

and so I know that you
can't endorse me,

but I only brought that up
because I want you to know that

I endorse you and
what you're doing.

[Applause]

And the crowd went wild.

So that married evangelicals to
a potential presidential

candidate who looked out
for their interests.

But getting evangelicals to
vote for sympathetic candidates

is only the first part of their
plan to reshape America.

The next speaker would
reveal just how far

they are willing to go.

The second thing that
happens that very same day

is a speech by Paul Weyrich.

How many of our Christians
have what I call the

goo-goo syndrome:
good government?

They want everybody to vote.

I don't want
everybody to vote.

"We don't want
everyone to vote!"

Elections are not won by
a majority of people.

They never have been from the
beginning of our country,

and they are not now.
As a matter of fact,

our leverage in the
elections quite candidly

goes up as the voting
populace goes down.

And this is something that
has been part and parcel of

how evangelicals think
about voting, too.

As long as they can get the
votes out for candidates who

support their issues, then
voting should not be extended

to people who won't vote the way
that they want them to vote.

The views expressed more than


Dallas would prove
to be prophetic.

Today, a new agenda is being
set by an elite group of

Christian power brokers that
seeks to replace our secular

democracy with so-called
Christian nationalism,

where Americans
regardless of their faith

would be governed in accordance
with the Christian bible.

It's an ideology that's
being pushed by

a new brand of
religious radicals.

I don't care what you think
about fraudulent sleepy Joe.

He's a sex-trafficking,
demon-possessed mongrel.

He's of the left. He ain't
no better than the Pope and

Oprah Winfrey and
Tom Hanks and

the rest of that
wicked crowd.

God is gonna bring
the whole house down.

It's not just
political theater.

Influential church leaders,
highly funded think tanks,

and secretive religious
organizations are trying to

transform the very fabric of
American society.

Our society is inherently,
irreducibly pluralist. So,

to assert that only members of
a certain sort of elect group

should dominate all aspects of
government and society...

is extraordinarily
divisive and unfair.

One of the most effective
groups quietly pushing a

religious agenda in Washington
is a shadowy entity

known as The Family.

The Family is the oldest and
still the most influential

Christian nationalist
organization in Washington.

What it tries to do is to
gather those whom it feels are

placed in power by God
senators, congressmen,

military leaders,
business leaders

tries to gather them into
a biblical worldview,

exporting American power
around the world.

From its inception, The Family
has had a fondness for mixing

Christianity with
authoritarian power.

Abraham Vereide, the founder
of The Family in 1935,

he sees working people
organizing to get better

working conditions and rights
as a threat to his vision of

Christian unity and a
Christian nation.


German fascism and

saying that's the future.

After World w*r II, they would
arrange for delegations of

US congressmen to travel to
Germany so they could

get the sage advice of
these former Nazis.

The idea that America could
learn from n*zi Germany was

embraced by the Family's
next leader: Doug Coe,

an elusive figure seen here in
a rare piece of video.

Jesus said, "You have to put
me before other people.

And you have to put me
before yourself."

Hitler, that was the demand
to be in the n*zi party.

You have to put the n*zi
party and its objectives

ahead of your own life, and
ahead of other people.

Doug Coe, this long-time leader
and adviser to every president,

Democratic or Republican,
since Eisenhower.

And Time magazine, in fact,
once named him

one of the most powerful
religious leaders.

One of Coe's most enduring
legacies is the Family's

annual event: The National
Prayer Breakfast.

The President of the United
States and the First Lady...

On its surface,
it appears apolitical.

But what the public sees is
far from the full story.

The National Prayer Breakfast
in Washington happens

in February of every year.
The president always speaks.

My special thanks to...

Bob Stomp and Doug Coe.

Doug Coe and all his associates,
I'm grateful to you.

In fact, the Prayer
Breakfast represents

a week-long
lobbying festival.

It's about influence.

What is the end goal of all
of these shadow campaigns

by the well-heeled
religious elites?

And how would they
reshape the country?

I think it is fair,
at this stage, to...

to use the 'F' word: fascism.
Christ has been displaced

by the world of the
strongman figure.

You would certainly look at the
loss of reproductive rights,

the loss of LGBTQ rights.

Men being in places
of authority.

You would see white supremacy
strengthened even more.

If you look at all the voter
suppression bills now that

are being pushed and...

calling into question a
fairly decided election.

Frankly, I don't want to use
the word conservative.

It's a radical movement.

The president's saying new
laws in more than 16 states

are part of a painful pattern
aimed at denying minorities and

women the right to vote.

You can see the anti-democratic
nature of the movement.

It's a movement that,
for some,

has given way to visions of
a coming apocalypse.

It's nearly impossible to
determine exactly how many

people have relocated to the
region as part of this movement.

They're guarded by
their very nature.

As a growing Christian army
seeks to take over a small

corner of the US, what does it
mean for the rest of us?

Far from the nation's capital,
a new army of Christian

conservatives is assembling
here in western Idaho

and across the northwest,
arming themselves with

a new theological dogma.

And, according to
local reports,

they're arming themselves with
an increasingly lethal arsenal.

g*n and a*mo manufacturers
driven out of other states

by restrictive
g*n legislation.

There are now 180
in Idaho alone.

There's been a
huge increase of

conservatives
moving into Idaho.

We kind of consider ourselves
the last of the Mohicans.

They call this newly imagined
state the American Redoubt.

The American Redoubt consists
of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho.

And then, eastern parts of the
states of Washington and Oregon.

The term American Redoubt
was coined by

James Wesley Rawles,
in 2011.

Rawles is a former US
intelligence officer

who went off the deep end.

And he started a popular
survivalist blog

some years back.

Breaking news...

protesters are on the streets
of Los Angeles

It isn't hard to find Rawles'
apocalyptic rhetoric online.

When the big machine stops,
and things fall apart...

it's gonna get very,
very ugly

in the big cities
and the suburbs.

And the only places with
relative safety are gonna be

in lightly populated
food-producing areas.

Rawles believes in a sort of
Christian theocratic idea of

what the United States
should be.

That modern liberal
society is unstable.

That life in our decadent urban
centers is going to fall apart.

And so, Rawles started
telling people,

"Get yourself a whole bunch of
g*ns and join with your fellow

patriots out here to be ready
for the coming collapse".

It's a call to arms that has
been heated by a growing number

of radical Christians from
across the country.

The core of this movement
is to help like-minded,

conservative Christians
move to the Redoubt area.

Rawles is clearly showing
that he expects a w*r.

[g*nf*re]

He expects the
American Redoubt

to have to defend
itself with arms.

A group of professionals is
helping train new arrivals.

Even providing them with
homes that are ready-made

for riding out
the apocalypse.

I've seen the
underground homes,

the ones that people have,
like, dug.

And or they've built on top
of the ground,

but then buried the
structure. [Laughing]

So, you can't see
it from the road at all.

It's nearly impossible to
determine exactly how many

people have relocated to the
region as part of this movement.

They're guarded by
their very nature.

A secessionist movement like
the American Redoubt is born

out of a Christian nationalist
ideology that seeks to

consolidate power for a small
group of believers.

Everything that Americans have
held near and dear for

generations, they are trying to
systematically destroy.

To be self-reliant, and to be
proficient with firearms.

[g*nshots]

That is your duty.
That is your responsibility.

But this spiritual migration
may only serve to destabilize

the foundations of
the country, itself.

The end game of the
American Redoubt

is the world's gonna end.

And people up here are
gonna be, you know,

fighting Mad Max style
battles in the hills.

I, honestly, think that some
people want that to happen.

And the movement here is
growing, or perhaps, mutating.

It was a packed house Saturday
morning in Roseburg...

In May 2021, 5 Oregon counties
voted to secede from their

state and join a newly imagined
one they call "Greater Idaho".

They want to expand
the state of Idaho.

Portland and Salem
politicians just don't have

the same values anymore,
that we do, here.

The message from these
radicals is clear...

there's safety in numbers.

Apocalyptic ideology is
incredibly effective because

it turns into something of a
democratic k*ll switch.

...and only by the grace of
Jesus Christ are we awakened.

In which, when they
don't win elections,

when they do not have control
over governmental bodies,

they can claim that an
apocalypse is nigh.

We're going to the capitol!

For some white evangelicals,
January 6th was just another

moment in the ways in which
they think that the government

should be put aside for a
leader that they believe

should be the
real president.

We have evangelicals right now
who are being radicalized...

evangelicals who are some of
the highest number of people

who believe that the pandemic
was a scam. And their support

of g*ns, God, and babies
has allowed them to

pardon themselves against
many of the things that are

enshrined in law in
America right now.

[Shouting & screaming]

They are not the people who
they believe themselves to be.

That is, the holders up of the
soul of the nation.

Rather, they are the
people who are

driving the
nation's soul apart.

[Shouting]
USA! USA!