Idaho’s dark-money LOOPHOLE for churches!

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/L4UKCZXs9Mk

 

Weekly Roundup: Hegseth Turns the Military Into a Christian Crusader Army + Eric Schmitt, Jack Smith, and Crimes (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

In this episode of Straight White American Jesus, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller break down Pete Hegseth's State of the Force speech, which they argue recasts the U.S. military as a Christian crusader army defined by narrow standards of body, gender, and faith. They examine his flattened story of Western civilization, his "appeal to heaven" and "armor of God" language, and the plan to remove bureaucratic oversight from the Office of Religious Affairs.

Next, they turn to Senator Eric Schmitt's failed attempt to trap Jack Smith at a congressional hearing, and to Smith's statement that Trump committed serious crimes beyond a reasonable doubt, which got lost in the noise.

They then look at new data projecting that roughly 100,000 U.S. churches will close or be repurposed over the next decade, and what that means for claims of a religious resurgence and for Christian nationalism. Reasons for hope include a civic story of shared investment from Zohran Mamdani and the DOJ's 26th loss in its effort to obtain state voter rolls.
Interview: 

https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/hegseth-turns-the-military-into-a

Audio podcast:

 

YouTube video:

Religious groups ask judge to consider contempt over undercover ICE operation - POLITICO

It’s the latest moment of tension between President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts and religious institutions. In addition to the potential violation of a court order, the alleged incursion on a house of worship cuts against the administration’s message that any infringement on religious freedom — such as the anti-ICE protest that disrupted services in Minnesota — would be met with severe criminal consequences...

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/20/immigration-enforcement-churches-contempt 

History Minute: With few exceptions, most churches supported war with Mexico. (023)

Quoting:

"The churches, for the most part, were either outspokenly for the war or timidly silent. Generally, no one but the Congregational, Quaker, and Unitarian churches spoke clearly against the war. However, one Baptist minister, the Reverend Francis Wayland, president of Brown University, gave three sermons in the university chapel in which he said that only wars of self-defense were just, and in case of unjust war, the individual was morally obligated to resist it and lend no money to the government to support it."

Excerpt From

A People's History of the United States

Howard Zinn

Get your copy — Support your local bookstores by shopping Bookshop.org:

 

Churches are playing an AI-generated Charlie Kirk video during services

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiRZJN5Cfao

 

Trump BLINDSIDED as Churches FIGHT BACK

Trump’s immigration crackdown is targeting children, deporting them to the very places they fled in fear. Ken Harbaugh speaks with Pastor Doug Pagitt about a growing movement of more than 5,000 churches resisting the Trump administration’s cruel immigration policies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEpd4BtgGVA 

RWW News: Christian Nationalists Call On The Government To Seize 'Wicked, apostate churches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVEPZda09C8

 

Tax the Churches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37cZqx349xU

 

Maine churches continue legal fight to maintain taxpayer-funding bigotry...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJJOrf_P8Ls

Affordable housing in God’s backyard: Some religious congregations find a new use for their space

Despite the challenges, many houses of worship are constructing housing and changing the way people think about faith-based organizations' role in their communities...

https://theconversation.com/affordable-housing-in-gods-backyard-some-religious-congregations-find-a-new-use-for-their-space-226861

Feds arrest Idaho teen before he attacked churches in name of ISIS - The Washington Post

"Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, the defendant was taken into custody before he could act, and he is now charged with attempting to support ISIS's mission of terror and violence," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news release...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/04/09/mercurio-idaho-church-isis-islamic-state/

Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline

The younger generation just doesn't feel like they're being accepted in a church environment or some of their choices aren't being accepted...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-closing-religion-covid-christianity

IRS Looks Other Way as Churches Endorse Political Candidates — ProPublica

The Johnson Amendment does not prohibit churches from inviting political speakers or discussing positions that may seem partisan nor does it restrict voters from making faith-based decisions on who should represent them. But because donations to churches are tax-deductible and because churches don't have to file financial disclosures with the IRS, without such a rule donors seeking to influence elections could go undetected, said Andrew Seidel, vice president of strategic communications for the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State. 

 "If you pair the ability to wade into partisan politics with a total absence of financial oversight and transparency, you're essentially creating super PACs that are black holes," Seidel said.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/30/johnson-amendment-elections-irs

Trump has emboldened Christian nationalists and sparked a rise in Patriot Churches - The Washington Post

The new congregation is gathered in a barn in Lenoir City, Tenn., with a roof that has a 60-foot American flag painted on it. And they are praying for a Trump landslide. Standing in a circle, the dozen or so men and women, young and old, lay their hands on their pastor, Ken Peters, as he raises their requests to God. He prays that “communism and socialism and transgenderism and homosexuality and abortion will not have their way in this land.”....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/10/26/trump-christian-nationalism-patriot-church/

Trump Administration Creates Special Rules for Churches to Access Public Funds, Yet Again | American Atheists

... "With this religious exemption, Catholic churches may have broken PPP rules, fired workers, and yet their loans will still be forgiven," said Alison Gill, Vice President for Legal and Policy at American Atheists. "The Small Business Administration is putting religious organizations before workers. They should not receive a special privilege to fire workers merely because they are religious."...https://www.atheists.org/2020/10/paycheck-protection-program-church-affiliates/

Dozens of religious groups got highest tier of funds | Freethought Today

Under the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, at least two dozen religious organizations received the highest tier of funds (between $5 million and $10 million), according to Religion News Service. Of those dozens, two megachurches — Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago and Life.Church in Edmond, Okla. — were included.
https://www.freethoughttoday.com/vol-37-no-06-august-2020/dozens-of-religious-groups-got-highest-tier-of-funds

Televangelists take a slice as churches accept billions in US coronavirus aid

More than 10,600 religious organizations have taken at least $3bn in coronavirus financial aid from the US government, according to an analysis by the Guardian, raising concerns about the separation of church and state. The list of recipients of federal Paycheck Protection Program payments includes churches, synagogues, temples and private religious schools. Among them are the ministries of wealthy televangelists accused of fraud and one “secretive sect”.....
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/09/televangelists-churches-us-coronavirus-aid-billions

Hank Kunneman Says Christians Cannot Allow the 'Anti-Christ' Party to Defeat Trump - RWW News

Right-wing pastor Hank Kunneman says Christians must vote to reelect Trump because the "anti-Christ" party wants to murder babies and shut down churches.
https://youtu.be/TMGjaiEg_r4