“Extremists raised more than $6.2 million on crowdfunding websites from 2016 to 2022,” USA Today reports.
“Researchers tracked campaigns across 10 different crowdfunding sites. Most were housed on GiveSendGo, a ‘Christian crowdfunding’ website founded in 2014. GiveSendGo campaigns accounted for $5.4 million of the total fundraising tallied by the group.”
Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust,” saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church, the AP reports.
Said Francis: “Being homosexual isn’t a crime.”
“Pope Francis warned Vatican bureaucrats on Thursday to beware the devil that lurks among them, saying it is an ‘elegant demon’ that works in people who have a rigid, holier-than-thou way of living the Catholic faith,” the AP reports.
“Francis used his annual Christmas greeting to the Roman Curia to again put the cardinals, bishops and priests who work in the Holy See on notice that they are by no means beyond reproach and are, in fact, particularly vulnerable to evil.”
“Christians now account for less than half of the UK population for the first time in census history,” The Telegraph reports.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday it will support a bill to codify the right to same-sex and interracial marriage, Axios reports.
Texas Tribune: “At one point, churches fretted over losing their tax-exempt status for even unintentional missteps. But the IRS has largely abdicated its enforcement responsibilities as churches have become more brazen.”
“In fact, the number of apparent violations found by ProPublica and the Tribune, and confirmed by three nonprofit tax law experts, are greater than the total number of churches the federal agency has investigated for intervening in political campaigns over the past decade, according to records obtained by the news organizations.”
A new PRRI poll finds that 31% of Americans believe that “God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world.”
Derrick Van Orden (R), who is running in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional district, said that “leftists” cannot be Christian at a prayer breakfast, the La Cross Tribune reports.
Said Van Horden: “There are many God-fearing Christians who are Democrats, there’s not a single God fearing Christian that is a leftist, because those two things are incompatible.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced that Diwali will become a public school holiday in New York City starting next year, Axios reports.
New York Times: “The Senate race in Georgia has become an explicit matchup of two increasingly divergent versions of American Christianity. Walker reflects the way conservative Christianity continues to be defined by its fusion with right-wing politics and tolerance for candidates who, whatever their personal failings or flaws, advance its power and cause.”
“Mr. Walker has wielded his Christianity as an ultimate defense, at once denying the abortion allegations are true while also pointing to the mercy and forgiveness in Jesus as a divine backstop.”
A new University of Maryland poll finds that 61% of Republicans supported declaring the United States a Christian nation — even though 57% of them also believe such a move would be unconstitutional.
“The United States has long prided itself on people’s freedom to choose whatever religion they like. The majority has long chosen Christianity,” the Washington Post reports.
“By 2070, that may no longer be the case, according to the Pew Research Center. If current trends continue, Christians could make up less than half of the population — and as little as a third — in 50 years.”
“Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated — or ‘nones’ — could make up close to half the population. And the percentage of Americans who identify as Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and adherents of other non-Christian faiths could double.”
Miami Herald: “The Republican governor, a strategic politician who is up for reelection in November, is increasingly using biblical references in speeches that cater to those who see policy fights through a morality lens and flirting with those who embrace nationalist ideas that see the true identity of the nation as Christian.”
“He and other Republicans on the campaign trail are blending elements of Christianity with being American and portraying their battle against their political opponents as one between good and evil.”
Said DeSantis: “Put on the full armor of God. Stand firm against the left’s schemes. You will face flaming arrows, but if you have the shield of faith, you will overcome them, and in Florida we walk the line here. And I can tell you this, I have only begun to fight.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) proposed a “biblical citizenship” test in the United States.
“When I said that I’m a Christian nationalist, I have nothing to be ashamed of, because that’s what most Americans are.”
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), speaking at CPAC.
David French: “Hispanic Americans also tend to possess strong religious values… That’s exactly why a politics focused on mobilizing by race/ethnicity will not reach them, especially when identity politics is paired with hard-left cultural positions and hostility for traditional religion. Hispanic voters will find a religious connection with many, many white Republicans, and that religious connection can prove far more culturally and politically consequential than any effort to create a politics based on ethnic or racial identity.”
“The disproportionate secularization of white Democrats represents a danger for the Democratic Party, for the country, and for American religion. The danger for the Democrats is clear. America may be more secular than it’s been in generations, but it is still a quite religious country. It’s far more religious than any European nation. It’s far more religious than Canada or the rest of the anglosphere nations. And it’s going to remain extraordinarily religious for the foreseeable future.”
“A party that’s culturally disconnected from (or perhaps even scornful of) traditional religious faith is going to alienate itself from tens of millions of voters it could otherwise reach.”
Arizona congressional candidate Jerone Davison (R) declared on a right-wing television show that he is running for office because the Antichrist is “being birthed and manifested through the Democrat Party.”
New York Times: “Mr. Mastriano’s ascension in Pennsylvania is perhaps the most prominent example of right-wing candidates for public office who explicitly aim to promote Christian power in America. The religious right has long supported conservative causes, but this current wave seeks more: a nation that actively prioritizes their particular set of Christian beliefs and far-right views and that more openly embraces Christianity as a bedrock identity.”
“Many dismiss the historic American principle of the separation of church and state. They say they do not advocate a theocracy, but argue for a foundational role for their faith in government. Their rise coincides with significant backing among like-minded grass-roots supporters, especially as some voters and politicians blend their Christian faith with election fraud conspiracy theories, QAnon ideology, gun rights and lingering anger over Covid-related restrictions.”
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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