Every so often, there will be someone who comments on the AS Facebook page—usually not someone there in good faith, as it turns out—why is a page about spirituality posting about politics? The short version of the answer to this question is that this page was set up to call people to be assertive about unhealthy versions of spirituality, including Christian nationalism, which has gone fully political. I plan to use this post to unwrap this and other aspects of this question, while sharing about a new free documentary film–For Our Daughters–that you can watch to more fully understand at least some of the answer.

I’m going to try too keep this particularly short for once.

My Background and Standpoint

As always, I’m coming at this as a former pastor’s kid in a right-leaning moderate church who went on to become a communication scholar. As I’ve discussed before, the people I grew up with implied that “going political” was a dirty word (I particularly discussed this here)—at the same time we were subtly trained to support right-leaning views and causes without that seeming to fit in that category.

This Is Personal for Me

As I’ve described many times before, I can see how my people’s conservative-leaning theological perspectives made them vulnerable to fascistic rhetoric and principles which I’ve also discussed many times. How even though they claimed that Christian nationalists and the type of scandals that surrounded televangelists were something “other” than us—something much much further to the right—how they weren’t nearly as far from home as I imagined.

Recently, as I’ve seen my previously more progressive-in-spots denomination get taken over by fundamentalists, it’s become clear that these vulnerabilities and existing faults in my denomination have had huge consequences. I can sadly no longer see how the denomination of my youth is any “better” or different than classic Christian nationalism–and those within it who strove to be healthier are actively being pushed out as I write.

Not So “Moderate,” As It Turns Out

The thing is that what’s happened is that the vulnerable spots in their theology—particularly around views of women and LGBTQ+ folks—have become indistinguishable with the talking points of right-wing politics in many, many ways.

In short, I’ve seen my denomination, which always had radically right-leaning tendencies that I dimly knew but have only recently become so clearly aware of, become extremely “political.” This movement has made it clear how very very political they really are now, and in some way always have been.

Threatening the Vulnerable

Let me be clear: this kind of Christian nationalism threatens those who are vulnerable. The theologies behind it are extremely rotten. We need to speak out against them.

And since the people associated with them are trying to set political policies that are actively hurting people, and seek to do more harm, I founded this page in part to speak out against these unhealthy spiritualities and the politics they have wedded themselves to.

An Important Free New Short Free Film to Watch: For Our Daughters

The new free short documentary film For Our Daughters (only half an hour long) does a great job in connecting the dots between Christian nationalism and the kinds of harms—up to and including sexual abuse—that we can expect if it’s allowed to move forward in taking over more of US policy.

If you’ve read the excellent book Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez (I’ve written about this book many times in this space, including here), this film is a short summary especially of the last chapter in the book connecting it to politics.

Connecting the Dots Between Rotten Spirituality and the Damage of Unhealthy Politics

I strongly recommend you watch this film if you want to see some of the existing damage in white Evangelicalism that will continue to spread across the country if Project 2025 is allowed to move forward.

Watching it also might help both new and old followers of this project understand a few of the reasons why Assertive Spirituality addresses so many seemingly disparate subjects: they all overlap and connect in disturbing ways.

What We Can Do to Spread the Word

Please watch and spread this film to others if they want to know why it’s so important to vote against Project 2025 in this year’s presidential election as well as up and down the ticket.

I promised this would be short so I’m leaving this there for now. The film can be found on YouTube—here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkES4X_qb6c

Please support it. Do be aware if you are sensitive to material about sexual abuse that important stories related to that topic are told in this short film.

A Final Charge

Go team #AssertiveSpirituality! Let’s continue to do what we can where we are with what we’ve got to speak up against the toxic crap toward a healthier world for us all. We can do this thing.

Want to help keep this work going? It’s been 5 years of this project, and I finally have tip jars set up at Venmo and PayPal so you can help keep the lights on and such (THANK YOU for whatever you can do!). Here’s the info:

Venmo: @assertivespirituality

PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=Q2QWKELCNATBE

Looking for more resources toward speaking up for what’s right and dealing with the conflict that results?

Boy, do we have got a free “Assertive Spirituality Guide to Online Trolls” for you. It actually helps you with conflict both online and off. To get it, sign up for our email newsletter (either in the top bar or by checking the appropriate box when commenting on this article). Once you’ve confirmed your email address, we’ll send you the link to the guide in your final welcome email. You can unsubscribe at any time, but we hope you’ll stick around for our weekly email updates. As soon as we feasibly can we’re hoping to offer more online courses and other support resources for those advocating for the common good, and if you stay subscribed, you’ll be the first to know about these types of things when they pop up.

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