JD Vance Goes Full Christian Nationalism

In early 2008, as Arizona Sen. John McCain was running in the GOP presidential primary, he snagged what his campaign believed was a key endorsement from Pastor John Hagee, the leader of a Texas megachurch. But Hagee, an extreme Christian fundamentalist, had a long history of anti-Catholic bigotry. He had denigrated the Catholic Church as “the great whore” and a “false cult system” and called the pope the Antichrist. At another time, he had claimed the Antichrist would be "a homosexual" and "partially Jewish, as was Adolf Hitler.” (There is no proof Hitler had Jewish ancestry.) Hagee also had asserted Hurricane Katrina was the act of a vengeful God to prevent “a homosexual parade” in New Orleans. These and other remarks sparked a controversy that eventually led to McCain disavowing Hagee’s endorsement.

At the same time, McCain gained the support of the Reverend Rod Parsley, a prominent televangelist who ran a supersize Pentecostal institution in Ohio. McCain called him “one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide.” Reporting on Parsley, I discovered that he referred to himself as a “Christocrat” and that he had founded an organization that called for prosecuting people who committed adultery and had compared Planned Parenthood to Nazis. He also had denigrated Islam as a religion led by a “demon” and proclaimed it had to be annihilated. He had declared “America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed.” In response to my reporting on Parsley, McCain renounced Parsley’s backing.

Yes, there was once a time when Republicans realized that embracing—and being embraced by—religious extremists who preached hate was bad politics, no matter how much they wanted to court Christian fundamentalists. That was then. Last year, when Nikki Haley launched her bid for president, her kickoff event opened with a prayer from Hagee. This past weekend, JD Vance went further and attended an event in Pennsylvania organized by Lance Wallnau, a Trump fanboy and Christian nationalist pastor who’s part of the New Apostolic Reformation movement, which aims to spark a spiritual war to Christianize America.

Wallnau has promoted a prophecy called the Seven Mountain Mandate. This is how the Religion News Service recently described it:

The Seven Mountains prophecy imagines every society as having seven major arenas of influence—religion, family, education, government, media, entertainment and commerce—and the prophecy commands Christians to conquer the tops of each of these mountains so that Christian influence can flow down into broader society. Put simply, the Seven Mountain Mandate is a prophetically derived, systematic program for Christian supremacy.

Christian supremacy—that’s the goal. And since 2016 Wallnau has preached that Trump was sent by God to lead this battle and implement Christian nationalism. Not surprisingly, his network helped organize Christian activists for January 6, and he has defended the attack on the US Capitol as “not an insurrection” but “an election fraud intervention.”

Wallnau has at times insisted he's not a Christian nationalist and does not apply a label to his Christian fundamentalism. But in 2021, he proudly declared he was indeed a Christian nationalist. During a 2011 talk, Wallnau advocated evangelicals playing down the goal of achieving Christian domination of society: “If you're talking to a secular audience you don't talk about having dominion over them. This whole idea of taking over and that language of takeover, it doesn't actually help. It's good for preaching to the choir and it's shorthand if we interpret it right, but it's very bad for media.”

Wallnau was recently in the news—and won this newsletter’s Dumbass Comment of the Week contest—for his assertion that the devil had intervened to help Kamala Harris win the debate against Trump:

When I say “witchcraft” I am talking about what happened tonight. Occult empowered deception, manipulation and domination. That’s what ABC pulled off as moderators, and Kamala’s script handlers set up the kill box. One sided questions and fact checking sealed the box. Witchcraft. It’s not over yet, but something supernatural needs to disrupt this counterfeit momentum because the same public that voted in Obama is voting again and her deception is advancing.

This was not the first time Wallnau earned a Dumbass Comment of the Week nomination. The day before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, Wallnau delivered an outlandish pro-Putin take that combined all sorts of crazy cherished by the far right, contending the conflict in Ukraine was the fault of Hillary Clinton, the CIA, and the gays. He asserted, “You want a clear villain in this story. It’s hard to make Putin the villain if you have all the facts because the CIA and Hillary Clinton tried to invade Russia to undercut Putin to bring the LGBT doctrine in…Putin locked it down and kicked them out…like a good dictator.”

More recently, Wallnau gained notice for casting Harris as a modern-day Jezebel. On his podcast, he said the vice president represents “the spirit of Jezebel in a way that will be even more ominous than Hillary [Clinton] because she’ll bring a racial component, and she’s younger.”

The world of Wallnau’s is weird. He has been a supporter of a self-proclaimed prophet who goes by the name Joseph Z. When Harris picked Tim Walz as her running mate, Joseph Z commented: “It’s interesting how the spirit of antichrist just loves to pick these people that fit right in with the wicked overlord lizard mafia that is really driven by their goblin masters, and when you’re looking at this, I believe that’s exactly what we’re facing right now—a spirit of antichrist that wants to have its way.” That’s the type of Christian Wallnau rides with.

Wallnau is not merely a pontificator of far-right religious extremism. He’s also trying to be a political operative this campaign. He launched Project 19, an effort to mobilize Christians in critical swing counties to vote for Trump. This is, Wallnau says, “the battle for the mountain of government.” Part of this crusade is a road show called the Courage Tour that has featured other evangelical leaders, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and Arizona politician Mark Finchem, a QAnon-ish election denier. According to Right Wing Watch, “Scholar Matthew Taylor, who attended a Wisconsin stop, called the tour ‘the most targeted and tactical voter mobilization effort done by Christian nationalists ever,’ adding that ‘they’re doing it hand in glove in many ways with the Trump campaign.’”

It was a Courage Tour show in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, that Vance graced with his presence on Saturday. Wallnau was the emcee for the shindig, but Vance did not share the stage with him. Instead, he spoke about drug addiction with another pastor. The Vance campaign would not answer questions from reporters about Wallnau’s extremism.

For years, Trump has welcomed the support of Wallnau and other Christian nationalists. But Vance’s participation in the Courage Tour was one of the most prominent public signs of a blatant blending of the Trump campaign and Christian extremism. Vance’s culture warring has overlapped with the ideology of a band of pastors championing Christian nationalism who have been dubbed “TheoBros,” as Kiera Butler recently reported. (One of the masterminds of the infamous Project 2025, Russ Vought, is an avowed Christian nationalist.) This Vance appearance at Wallnau’s hoedown was a strong signal to these extremists that the Trump ticket is on their side. No doubt, it gave a boost to Wallnau’s Project 19.

While Republican candidates of the past usually did not want to fully identify with fringe Christian radicals, Trump and Vance have no such reluctance. Though Vance’s campaign stop at Wallnau’s Courage Tour was covered by the political press, its significance was not sufficiently explained. Neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post mentioned Project 19 or went into depth regarding Wallnau’s extremist views. Christian nationalism is a direct threat to Democratic pluralism. Trump and Vance have openly endorsed that threat. In an election full of peril, this danger warrants more attention.

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To start with, I don’t hate Washington. I’ve lived in the area for decades. It’s a city and environs full of smart people who care about politics and policy, a great cultural hub, a wonderful spot for food, loaded with interesting neighborhoods and marvelous parks. Indeed there are plenty of smug and self-absorbed ambitious folks—lobbyists, lawyers, consultants, politicos—many of whom achieve power and money by screwing the public interest. But there are a great many hardworking civil servants and earnest policy mavens striving away. Yet once in a while I am reminded of the awful clubbiness that infects the capital’s elite. And that happened recently.

The venue was the the Atlantic Festival, one of those ubiquitous ideas conferences that have popped up in recent years. This one featured conversations with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.), and Jamie Dimon, chair of JPMorgan Chase. What caught my interest was the chat with Republican strategist Karl Rove and Democratic strategist David Axelrod that was moderated by Elaina Plott Calabro, a writer for the magazine. At one point in the discussion of the 2024 campaign, Rove broke out his impersonation of Donald Trump—“Everybody should have IVF”— and the crowd erupted in laughter. Encouraged by the audience, Rove then imitated Bill Clinton: “Hillary is the most qualified person ever to run for president.” More belly laughs.

When I see a DC crowd being entertained by Rove, I cannot help but think this guy is responsible for George W. Bush reaching the White House. While there, Bush, with Rove’s assistance, deployed lies to launch the misguided and ineptly managed war in Iraq that resulted in the deaths of several thousand American service members and about 200,000 Iraqi civilians. Yet for Bush, Rove, and so many others who pushed that war, there have been no consequences. They’re still allowed to participate in US politics and policy debates. Some make a ton of money doing so. Some have gone on to be well-paid commentators at influential media outfits.

Rove, of course, has been enjoying the good life in Washington for nearly two decades since the Bush presidency. And now he gets to do stand-up at an ideas festival and be celebrated. That is how DC works. There’s no cost to be paid for destroying a part of the world and so many lives.

True, this short interlude at a conference not seen by many was not that significant. Perhaps I’m too sensitive. It did bring to mind the time that George W. Bush, while president, made jokes at a fancy media dinner in early 2004 in Washington about not finding WMDs in Iraq. While most people there guffawed along with him, I sat in stone silence. Afterward I wrote a column noting that Bush was having a laugh on the graves of thousands: “This was a callous and arrogant display. For Bush, the misinformation—or disinformation—he peddled before the war was no more than material for yuks. As the audience laughed along, he smiled. The false statements (or lies) that had launched a war had become merely another punchline in the nation's capital.” It became one of my most popular columns. (Here is a copy not behind the Nation’s paywall.)

Certainly, I was being self-righteous. But I believed we needed accountability for a debacle that was orchestrated with dishonesty. Alas, that was a battle that was never won. Bush was reelected. These days, he’s more popular than he was when he left office, and Rove is welcomed as an elder statesman of politics. And everybody laughs.

Looking to preserve and even expand its slim majority in the House, the Republican Party has been touting its candidates for contested seats that are vacant or held by at-risk Democratic incumbents. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the arm of the GOP devoted to House elections, supports and promotes these contenders through what it calls its Young Guns program. That name has a mixed legacy. The “Young Guns” label was originally applied a dozen or so years ago to Reps. Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, and Eric Cantor—each of whom were ultimately chased out of the House by far-right GOP extremists. The current batch of Young Guns—some of whom are not that young—includes many anti-abortion radicals trying to run from their past positions, promoters of the Big Lie and other conspiracy theories, underfunded aspirants, and oddball contenders who might more accurately be labeled potential duds. I recently did a quick review of these GOP candidates. If you want to see how the NRCC is championing extremists as the right stuff of the Republican Party, check it out.

Indoor Safari, Nick Lowe. Since the 1970s, Nick Lowe has worn many hats in his long history as a rock ’n’ roller: a pioneer of British pub rock, a purveyor of power pop, a knight of new wave, a connoisseur of country and cowboy music. And this: the Jesus of Cool. That was the title of his first solo album, which was released in England in 1978. His American label would not abide by that moniker and renamed the disc Pure Pop for Now People. By that point, Lowe was already established as a major figure in the post-super-group Brit-rock scene that was adjacent to punk rock. He had fronted a band called Brinsley Schwarz, for which he had written the tune “(What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love, and Understanding,” which would become a major hit for a lad named Elvis Costello, whose first five albums were produced by Lowe. He was also in Rockpile, a great band led by Dave Edmunds. He went on to produce albums for Graham Parker and Carlene Carter, Johnny Cash’s stepdaughter, whom he married (and later divorced). He played with John Hiatt on his wonderful breakthrough album, Bring the Family. In a way, Lowe is rock royalty. And he has scored a few hits of his own, including “Cruel to Be Kind,” while putting out over a dozen albums. I’ve always been a fan of his “7 Nights to Rock.”

After an 11-year hiatus in recording his own stuff, Lowe has just released a new album called Indoor Safari. For this project, he teamed up with Los Straitjackets, who are known for playing what’s been called “surf-and-spy guitar instrumentals” and for performing while wearing Mexican wrestling masks. On this disc, their rockabilly-ish sound meshes well with Lowe’s country-ish crooning and roots-rock sensibility. The songs are the usual witty compositions one can expect from Lowe. The subject matter is generally the main topic of pop tunes: love—unrequited, lost, or found. And Lowe seems to be aiming for emulations of Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, or the Everly Brothers. Those are not bad targets.

On “Crying Inside,” he’s a tough guy trying to hide his sadness over his loneliness. “Trombone” captures a similar sentiment: “Trombone, come play your song / Make it the one about your love gone wrong / I’m so blue and all alone / So blow something sad and slow for me, trombone.” Yet on “Raincoat in the River,” the narrator tosses his rain gear in the water, throws his umbrella in the sea, and sings, “It ain’t gonna rain on me no more / ’Cause my baby’s coming back to me.” Nothing too deep, these are sad songs and fun songs that demonstrate Lowe’s hook-driven and wry songwriting chops remain strong.