Thread by @TaylorMatthewD

Amid the many crises & distraction-chaff of Trump 2.0 we're all reeling, but you should pay attention to what Trump announced today at the Nat'l Prayer Breakfast.

He not only aligned his admin w/ Christian nationalism, he's plans on enforcing it. 1/

apnews.com/article/trump-…

The 2 big announcements at the Prayer Breakfast were

1) He's creating a WH "Faith Office" & appointing his personal pastor Paula White (Cain) to lead it.

Not surprising. In fact, having written a whole book chapter on PWC & Trump, I'd be surprised if he chose anyone else. 2/

Other presidents have had faith offices, so no huge departure from precedent, though it remains to be seen how this office will actually operate.

Typically, these offices serve as a point of contact b/w the Pres & relig leaders. Paula White played a similar role in Trump 1.0. 3/

But Paula White herself pointed to the far more concerning announcement:

2) Trump is creating a "Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias."

This was something Trump (vaguely) promised repeatedly in the campaign: ending Christian persecution. 4/

https://x.com/Paula_White/status/1887574884139868380

Let's be clear: roughly 2/3 of the US pop IDs as Christian.

Christians are THE dominant religious majority in America, & evangelicals (i.e., Trump's MAGAest supporters) have more political clout than any other religious group.

So where's all this persecution coming from? 5/

Read the full text of Trump's exec order creating "Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias" here:



The examples Trump gives of "persecution" are telling:

A) "violence, theft, & arson" against "Catholic churches, charities, and pro-life centers." 6/whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…

I work on educating around religious bias & bigotry. This is what we know for sure: Such attacks, claimed by any religious community, are intrinsically hard to count.

Catholics make up 23% of the US pop (13% white, 8% Hisp, 2% other).

By comparison: Jews = 2%, Muslims 1%. 7/

Yet the number of attacks on Catholic churches & charities in the US is absolutely dwarfed by the stats on attacks on Amer mosques & synagogues (both rising precipitously after the Hamas attacks on 10/7/23).

Where's the exec order on eradicating antisemitism & Islamophobia? 8/

B) Trump cites "prison sentences against nearly two dozen peaceful pro-life Christians for praying & demonstrating outside abortion facilities."

Whether these particular sentences were fair or not, the anti-abortion protesters WERE the instigators. 9/

apnews.com/article/lauren…

These anti-abortion protest incidents got physical: illegally blockading abortion clinics & fighting w/ employees & patients.

Even if the protesters want to claim it was "civil disobedience," Trump already pardoned them.

Where's the ongoing problem? 10/

abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/t…

C) Trump cites an FBI memo asserting that "Catholics were domestic-terrorism threats."

The FBI agents were right! Some Catholics are threats. FBI arrested a man gathering explosives & weapons in Richmond, & discovered he was deep into "Rad-Trad" Catholic extremist networks. 11/

You can read the FBI report in question here:



It's jargony, but harrowing!

There are deep connections forming between Rad-Trad Catholic networks & neo-Nazi groups. This parallels other developments we're seeing of uniting forces on the far-right. 12/judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subs…

So if the evidence of anti-Christian bias is flimsy, at best, what's the upshot of this new Task Force? Won't they just find there's little to change & disband?

Here's where the whole thing gets scary.

It's a dangerous phenomenon sociologists call "vulnerable majorities." 13/

Basically, when there's a majority of a national population that's shrinking (whites = 75% in 1990, 58% in 2020; Christians = 90% in 1990, 66% today), members of the maj. see their impending loss of power & fight back hard:

See the 2016, 2020, and esp. 2024 elections. 14/

To take a parallel example: Even though Hindus make up a (marginally declining) supermajority of ~80% of the Indian population, there are rampant cries of "Hinduphobia" in the Indian public square. 15/

hindusforhumanrights.org/en/blog/on-cri…

These shouts of "Hinduphobia" (which, to be clear, is a real phenomenon when Hindus are in the severe minority, as in the US) in India, are weaponized, & contribute to stirring up the frequent Hindu extremist mob attacks on Muslim minorities. 16/

lemonde.fr/en/internation…

Put simply: Get worried when "vulnerable majorities" start proclaiming their victimhood.

Here's what worries me:

I study the people involved here. I wrote a whole book on the Christian leaders who surround Trump, including Paula White. 17/

broadleafbooks.com/store/product/…

What these Christian leaders around Trump understand to be "anti-Christian bias" is what most sensible people would call mild criticism of the surging Christian nationalism on the right or even other Christians (like me) challenging Christian extremism. 18/

Conserv Christians are not disempowered in the US! They are the ones driving the bus.

I fear that Trump's new task force -- promises kept to his rabid far-right Christian base! -- is the pretext for ACTUALLY persecuting, prog Christians, secularists, & religious minorities. 19/

When you couple that w/ the draft legislation that was recently passed by the House, empowering Treasury Dept., by fiat, to declare a non-profit a "terrorist-supporting organization," and strip it of its 501(c)(3) status... 20/

apnews.com/article/nonpro…

... we could see an unparalleled weaponization of the US govt by the Christian right against their enemies.

Want to know what that could look like? See: Trump's vicious attacks on Rev Mariann Budde, who publicly pleaded for mercy for the vulnerable. 21/

politico.eu/article/donld-…

Now imagine that Trump handed that complaint off to his new task force, which includes Treasury & DOJ, to investigate Rev. Budde for "anti-Christian bias."

Beware of vulnerable majorities, esp. when they're supporting an ambitious autocrat with a unified gov't behind him!

22/