Faith Information Service is happy to announce a $300,000 grant from the Stiefel Freethought Basis to fund a three-year reporting challenge that can delve into the origins and goals of the white Christian nationalist motion and the risks it poses to democracy.
The grant will enable RNS to provide investigative tales exploring the motion’s aspirations and the menace it poses to democratic rule, settled legislation and the social order. It can additionally fund an internet site that includes sources and consultants for journalists to increase their protection of white Christian nationalism. Tales shall be distributed to RNS’ subscribing and companion information retailers, together with The Related Press and The Washington Put up, for republication.
“The hyperlink between faith and the latest threats to an open and inclusive democracy in the USA is likely one of the most pressing tales of our instances, and one Faith Information Service reporters are captivated with,” mentioned RNS Editor-in-Chief Paul O’Donnell. “This grant offers us the power to proceed to pursue this matter wherever it leads.”
American historical past took a pointy flip final 12 months when a mob together with many white Christian nationalists, invoking God, attacked the U.S. Capitol to attempt to thwart the certification of President Joseph Biden’s electoral victory.
However that was just the start.
The spiritual fervor of white Christian supremacy was on show within the manifesto written by an 18-year previous shooter who murdered 10 Black individuals in a Buffalo grocery store in Could. It’s on show in FOX TV host Tucker Carlson’s monologues concerning the “Nice Alternative.” And it has taken root amongst quite a few Republican Celebration candidates operating for workplace within the 2022 midterms.
This challenge will discover the foundations of Christian nationalist historical past in legislation and politics, its views on gun management measures and minority voting rights; the escalating violence amongst a few of its adherents, together with within the Jan. 6 rebellion; different acts of home terrorism; and the motion’s rising ties to the nativism of the Russian Orthodox Church and admiration for Vladimir Putin.
Extra broadly, the Stiefel Freethought Basis grant will enable RNS reporters to develop a complete image of how white Christian nationalists search to impose their beliefs on American society on the expense of minority faiths or individuals of no religion. It can have a look at methods white Christian nationalism has grow to be a part of a broader right-wing motion that features white supremacists with out an express Christian id, and the way all these teams are dedicated to instituting an ethno-culture that deems others as “un-American,” as Christian nationalists perceive that time period.
“Final fall I drove by a home flying an American flag and a Accomplice flag, with a Trump yard signal saying ‘God, Weapons & Nation.’ It clearly summarized white Christian nationalism’s harmful fusion of faith, militancy, and nationalism,” mentioned Todd Stiefel, president of the Stiefel Freethought Basis. “This donation to RNS will assist reveal the menace posed by those that imagine they’ve the divine proper to rule over the remainder of us.”
Deborah Caldwell, CEO of Faith Information Basis and writer of Faith Information Service, mentioned: “We’re grateful to the Stiefel Freethought Basis for permitting us to increase essential and vital protection of white Christian nationalism that can assist readers perceive probably the most complicated and consequential problems with our time. The partnership aligns with RNS’ mission to tell, illuminate and encourage public discourse on issues of religion and perception.”
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ABOUT RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
Faith Information Service is an impartial, nonprofit supply of world information on faith, spirituality, tradition and ethics, reported by a workers {of professional} journalists. Based in 1934, RNS informs readers with goal reporting and insightful commentary, and is relied upon by readers, listeners and viewers in the USA and world wide. Go to ReligionNews.com.
ABOUT THE STIEFEL FREETHOUGHT FOUNDATION
The Stiefel Freethought Basis is a 501(c)3 non-profit personal basis that fosters a world based mostly on love and cause. Its mission is to safe humanity’s future by making certain public coverage choices are based mostly on love and cause relatively than bias and dogma.
