Thank you Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, Michael Catlett, An Mcgreevy, Maureen Drews, Bud Jones, and many others for tuning into my live video with author Andra Watkins this afternoon. Andra was raised in a Southern Baptist Christian nationalist church, got out 30 years ago. In addition to writing best-selling books (historical fiction, personal memoir) she is decoding for the general public the Christian nationalism in Project 2025 and American politics at her substack. Did you know, for example, the words “liberty” and “freedom” mean their exact opposite in the Christian nationalist context?
We covered a lot of ground: besides her own story of breaking out of the movement and discovering that America was founded not in Christian dogma but in the Enlightenment, we talked about the origins of the Christian right’s profound sexism and the problem of unchallenged sex abuse in the churches; the long arc of Christian nationalist efforts to control the media; the twisted effects of the cult’s obsession with sin and sex on the mental health and behavior of the adherents, and of course the powerful men and women now pushing the project nationally.
Honestly, talking to Andra was one of the best conversations I have had on a substack LIVE this year. Listen or watch here and subscribe to her work at For Such a Time As This.
