I am sharing my remarks given at the Parliament of World Religions on August 15, 2023. (And welcome to the new subscribers from PoWR!)
Transformative nonviolent movements have galvanized millions in the last century and a half to bring about an end to apartheid, segregation, colonial rule and repressive regimes around the world and in the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Religious beliefs that are rooted in the concept of universal human dignity and freedom were inspirational in these movements. These are testaments to the power of religious principles driving progress for humanity and the planet.
But today, aided by global communication and social media, autocrats are manipulating religion to shore up autocratic power and control. And Illiberal religious entrepreneurs are capitalizing on such exploitation by teaming up in surprising ways across national boundaries to erode human rights frameworks, multilateral institutions and ultimately support for democracy itself.
U.S. Christian nationalism is one of the more disruptive and globalized religious nationalist efforts. In the late nineties, the American Christian Right began exporting their culture war polarization strategy under the guise of the World Congress of Families. Their policy advocacy has resulted in increased violence against LGBTQ community, threats to global health and violations of women’s and children’s rights. It is also a key driver of the deluge of democratic backsliding around the world.
I was among the first to write about their heightened organizing when they flooded a United Nations meeting on Women’s Rights with 300 lobbyists. I eventually wrote Born Again: The Christian Right Globalized and led interfaith coalitions to counter them, making a very vocal feminist, faith-based case for the rights of all people. Then, having pioneered some ways to counter the religious right, I went on to found and lead Faith in Public Life from 2005-2022.
You can imagine my horror when in 2016, on the heels of an election in the US that brought a xenophobic leader to power, I came across an article by Casey Michael in Politico called “How Russia became the Leader of a Global Christian Right.” The same World Congress of Families and its founder Alan Carlson were reportedly the leaders of this dynamic that turned the American Right’s greatest foe into an ally.
What happened? Around 2012, Putin began embracing Russian Orthodoxy to build a unifying national identity to replace communism, working closely with Metropolitan Bishop Kirill who had an affinity for the World Congress of Families agenda.
Using legislation drafted by the American Christian right, Putin began cracking down on LGBTQ freedoms, abortion access and Muslims. This made him a hero to many on the Christian right.
In fact, in 2014 the three time presidential contender and famous culture warrior Patrick Buchanan wrote a glowing review of Vladimir Putin. In a watershed April 2014 Town Hall Blog post called Whose Side is God on Now, Buchanan suggested God had abandoned the US and was now on Russia’s side because Putin was banning “homosexuals,” abortion and “sacrilegious insults to religious believers.” He explained, “In the culture war for the future of mankind, Putin is planting Russia’s flag firmly on the side of traditional Christianity, “ and asserted the view that “Moscow is the Godly City of today and command post of the counter-reformation against the new paganism.” Pat Buchanan. The old Christian right culture warrior had now placed his hope in the autocrats to bring order to a morally bankrupt pluralistic West.
Since 2014 the relationship between Christian right groups and the Kremlin as well as other autocratic, ultra-nationalist world leaders, has only deepened. The World Congress of Families has now held over fifteen world conferences, often sponsored by autocrats, in just about every region of the globe. After each conference a fresh barrage of anti-LGBTQ, anti-child and anti-women’s rights legislation emerges and autocrats shore up their power through fear based, factionalizing politics.
Make no mistake, underneath the focus on issues of sexuality is a xenophobic agenda. This illiberal movement focuses on the danger of declining birthrates and a potential demographic collapse, blaming these on abortion and LGBTQ people, but a close look at the rhetoric of their xenophobic speakers reveals that their true fear is that whites are being replaced by immigrants and refugees. This line of thinking is known as "replacement theory," and it is rooted in white supremacy historically tied to antisemitism.
This coalition has a stunning ability to tap into the deep well of xenophobia and sexism by manipulating religion to turn people away from democracy, human rights, pluralism and freedom.
Just to illustrate the depth of this tectonic political shift, in 2013 a conservative evangelical lawyer, a righteous American, found his way into supporting a former KGB agent turned Russian president. That man was my dad. I was in Atlanta for Christmas. As my dad came through the door, I wasn’t surprised to see him in his motorcycle riding jacket covered with travel badges. But I was surprised to hear one of my brothers ask, “Dad, what is that pin there?” It looked like the Russian flag. My dad sputtered, then chuckled, and changed the topic. My Dad could be a bit eccentric, so I chalked it up to his odd sense of humor. If my Dad was wearing the Russian flag, it had to be a practical joke.
My Dad had passed away by 2016, but I thought about that moment and searched his social media and belongings, where I found more badges, one that bore the crest of the Russian Ministry of the Interior’s riot police and one that read: “Military Branch of the Moscow Patriarchate.”
Unfortunately my dad is not an outlier, he is a window into tectonic political shifts as well as a testimony to the success of Christian right organizing and Russian disinformation. A recent examination of polling data led by Samuel Perry revealed that since 2016, Americans’ attitudes toward Russia and Vladimir Putin have shifted, with Republicans becoming far more supportive of both. And though condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 remains bipartisan, many Christian-right leaders still support Putin and Russia.1 Perry’s data revealed that American warmth toward Putin and Russia is reinforced by an ideology that seeks to institutionalize America’s mythical Anglo Protestant ethno-culture—Christian nationalism.
These sympathies are even expressed by high profile political leaders and top GOP presidential candidates.
What can we do?
First, we need to speak boldly from our specific faith traditions to counter the rhetoric of religious nationalists even as we model a respect for all faiths. We cannot cede the language of faith to autocrats who perpetuate this outrageous lie that human rights and democracy are antithetical to faith rather than the fulfillment of our religious values.
To accomplish this, we need to better understand and use global communications strategies, including social media, to link our resistance and our advocacy.
Second, recognize that autocrats concentrate power and control by creating social hierarchies and in-and-out groups based on sex, gender, race, religion and class.
Do not let them divide us, no matter your stance on issues of sexuality or religion. Link hands as far and wide as you possibly can and directly support groups under attack– no matter your differences. Build relationships across ideological divides where possible.
German pastor Martin Niemöller at first supported the Nazi regime because he opposed the leftist politics of his time. He later repented of this when he realized Nazis had tapped his phone. He realized he too needed to resist, going to prison because of it.
His quote is on the wall of the U.S. Holocaust Museum. It begins, “First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out….”
In these times this quote might read this way:
First they came for the LGBTQ people, and I did not speak out—because my community was not comfortable with LGBTQ issues.
Then they came for the women, and I did not speak out—because there were more important priorities;
Then they came for the immigrant and the refugee, for Black voters for the Jews, the Muslims, the Sikhs and I did not speak out—because I was in the Majority.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Regardless of our political or religious differences, we must never criminalize or discriminate in the name of faith. An attack on one is an attack on all.
As I say in my recent book, Who Stole My Bible: Reclaiming Scripture as a Handbook for Resisting Tyranny, our faith traditions were born out of times of great tyranny and oppression. Each tradition has within its sacred texts and histories a radical vision of dignity and equality for all and care for creation.
In these troubled times may we light up the world with the true expressions of our faith that others may look at us and say they did what their faith required of them.
Samuel Perry et al. The Religious Right and Russia: Christian Nationalism and Americans’ Views on Russia and Vladimir Putin Before and After the Ukrainian Invasion. Forthcoming at the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
I was fortunate to have heard this in person. Thank you Jennifer!!