Evangelicals and Moore: A Thread.
1. A couple of years ago, I wrote a story about sex abuse by the powerful leader of a conservative evangelical ministry. Read it here: talkingpointsmemo.com/theslice/dugga…
1. A couple of years ago, I wrote a story about sex abuse by the powerful leader of a conservative evangelical ministry. Read it here: talkingpointsmemo.com/theslice/dugga…
2. The women did not talk to a journalist lightly. They had internalized years, in some cases, decades of shame, self-blame, and self doubt.
3. As the spokeswoman for one of the women who spoke to the Post said, going public about this does not in any way enhance her life.
4. The subject of my story, the evangelist Bill Gothard, was 80 years old when *decades* of abusing women and teenaged girls finally brought him down -- but not even completely.
5. You see, men like him, and Moore, are seen as authority figures that women are expected to submit to. Yes, *submit* to.
6. He would groom young women (sound familiar) and get them to come work for him. One told me of this grooming, and that Gothard wanted to "counsel" her about her rape as a child: 
7. Gothard's homeschooling materials, widely used by homeschooling families, including the Duggars of 19 Kids and Counting fame, taught this about sexual assault:
8. Recall that Josh Duggar's fall from grace was a result of revelations that he had sexually abused his own sisters.
9. Gothard's take on this may be one of the most extreme views, but certainly idea that women, and even teenage girls, invite their attackers is more commonplace than you'd imagine. Or that they'd lie about it. Or conspire with liberals to lie. Or conspire with the media.
10. So when you ask, will evangelicals abandon Moore over this? Some will. But Trump admitted assaulting women and still 81% of white evangelicals voted for him. White evangelicals remain his strongest base of support.
12. Also: don't underestimate Bannon's role here. He knows that he can manipulate existing anxieties on the Christian right -- that they are under siege by secular liberals -- to fulfill his dream of blowing up the GOP, and American politics along with it.
14. In other words, he knows how powerful the "spiritual warfare" narrative is in the Christian right, and he's going to do everything he can to manipulate and capitalize on it.
15. So you see the weird, horrifying perfect storm here: Roy Moore is the GOP's most extreme, outspoken example of Christian right moralist-warrior, and yet. Bannon has swooped in to undergird his persecution claims. GOP in turmoil.
16. Moore has long been a hero to Christian right for standing up to big bad government liberals secularists gays trying to order him--a godly judge!--around.
17. I think people don't appreciate how embedded that admiration is, and how knee-jerk the reaction of "liberals out to get Roy Moore again" is.
18. Still, it's hard to imagine this is the hill the national GOP wants to die on. But lots of things have been hard to imagine since, say, June 2015.
19. I have a lot of other work to do today. Thanks for listening. /fin for now
20. Addendum: via @ICT_Pinup, Moore has spoken at the law school founded by Gothard, Oak Brook. "A Speech on the Moral Foundations of Law." store.iblp.org/product/JLGP3.…
