Heath Druzin
speaker
61 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard Jan 2025
Heath Druzin’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Are we your enemy, though?
Statistically speaking, there's a good chance they think of you as the enemy, too. If you're Muslim, atheist, agnostic, Hindu, Mormon, Catholic, Buddhist, you'd be out. Christian nationalist strategy isn't just ideological, though. It's practical. Remember, America is rapidly becoming less Christian— Demographics are death for Christian nationalists right now.
And finding support from people they want to disenfranchise seems unlikely.
That's Indiana University professor Andrew Whitehead. Andrew studies Christian nationalism and has written two books on the subject. But there's a workaround for not getting support in a democracy. If Christian nationalists get rid of entire voting blocs that might oppose their theocracy, voting blocs like women, non-Christians, anyone in the LGBTQ plus community, that starts to solve the problem.
being in the minority isn't as much of an issue if the majority can't vote.
And one thing we noticed at Fight, Laugh, Feast, Christian nationalists are trying to create a parallel society where as many goods and services as possible are provided by Christians. Leaders of Christian companies hawk their services on stage in between speakers. There's Christian crowdfunding in email, Christian Netflix, and a publisher putting out Christian children's books.
This parallel structure, parallel society, is trying to pave the way for a Christian America. And these guys are patient.
Yeah, in the view of the Christian nationalists I talk to, it's an extremely narrow view of what Christianity can be. It's a Protestant view of it. And even more than that, really, if you're outside of the sort of Calvinist Baptist umbrella, then they don't really consider you Christian.
So if you're Catholic, if you're Mormon, you're still in the out group in their very narrow view of what a Christian America would look like.
Yeah, it's a pretty white movement. And Doug Wilson, who leads Christchurch, he co-wrote a pamphlet called Southern Slavery As It Was, which very much whitewashed the evils of slavery and painted the Confederacy as the victims. So there's some serious baggage there. And there's some real infighting and a bit of a civil war going on within the Christian nationalism movement.
I've gone kind of down the rabbit hole and seen some people go to some dark places, mostly on the platform X, where there are elements of Christian nationalism who have really embraced anti-Semitism and racism. They've basically just, like, embraced alternative theories about the Holocaust and slavery. And then there's people...
It's a weird thing to say, but the moderate Christian nationalists... They're a little more moderate.
And they're pushing back like, whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't like being quote-unquote woke, but you guys are going too far and you're putting a stain on the movement. There is a big battle going on inside the movement between... The folks who see not being woke as actually being racist and the other people who are like, no, that's not what we're about. You guys need to get your head straight.
How far can they reach? The limitation they have is that their ideas are broadly unpopular in America. but they're gaining influence, and they're gaining influence at the top of power. To many, it seems as though the theocrats are now on the doorstep of power. You've got the architect of Project 2025, Russ Vogt, who's been tapped to lead the White House Budget Office again.
So Vogt was actually caught on a secret recording saying he wants to, quote, rehabilitate Christian nationalism. And in a speech last year for a series called The Theology of American Statecraft, he said he wants to use biblical principles to instruct government. So he's been pretty explicit about his plans. Doug Wilson, who leads Christchurch, also spoke at that event.
You've got Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, who's been nominated to be secretary of defense. Well, he's a member of a church connected to Doug Wilson's Christian nationalist group. And he sends his kids to one of Doug Wilson's schools. And he's talked about his writings, too.
So I think we're seeing it right there in that what's sort of ingenious about the influence campaign that Doug Wilson, sitting in Moscow, Idaho, has orchestrated, is it's this kind of intangible influence, right? What he's created is an entire ecosystem from school to church to entertainment. So if you get sucked in, all you're hearing is that ideology. And I think that's really powerful.
My home state of Idaho has been sort of a lab for extremism in the last few years. So I think it actually can be kind of instructive as to what might be coming nationally. There's some examples where the legislature has passed laws that have really become blueprints for the rest of the country.
Idaho had an early anti-trans bill that was used as a blueprint for later anti-trans bills that passed in other states. They also recently passed a really restrictive library bill that basically leaves libraries open to lawsuits if they are found to have harmful materials available to minors.
Now, the definition of harmful materials is very much in the eye of the beholder and some possibilities there when it comes to books about people of color, about LGBTQ themes, things like that. And so I think what we're seeing in Idaho, it might be indicative of the kinds of pushes we're going to be seeing in this next administration.
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