A6 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, MAY 17 , 2022
BY MICHELLE BOORSTEINstroudsburg, pa. — The
Thursday Night Group started in
early 2021. A few church friends
frustrated over vaccine and mask
mandates would meet every week
to gripe over what they saw as
their lost freedoms. Soon, they
said, meetings included “consti-
tutional classes” and members
were going to see a “constitution-
al life coach.” Someone made hats
that said: “Make the Constitution
Great Again.” Four or five people
grew to 30 or 40.
They quickly became the
Thursday Night Patriots and
talked about rumors that the cor-
onavirus vaccine seemed to be
causing cancer, which are base-
less, and their beliefs that Presi-
dent Biden’s election was suspect
and that racism was being over-
blown in public schools. They
began using a curriculum for
studying the Constitution that
emphasized self-defense, free en-
terprise and above all the belief
that America was founded to be —
and should remain — a Christian
country.
On a Thursday night in late
April they did a straw poll for the
state’s biggest political contest,
the race for governor. The tally in
the Poconos borough that night
was overwhelming: state Sen.
Doug Mastriano, 17. The other
seven GOP candidates together:
13.
Mastriano is a longtime Army
colonel, Iraq and Afghanistan vet-
eran, Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal”
marcher, 2020 election denier
and Trump endorsee. He leads the
polls going into Tuesday’s GOP
gubernatorial primary, proof of
the rising intensity of Christian
nationalism that has rooted itself
firmly in the Republican Party.
Along with Florida Gov. Ron De-
Santis (who urged Americans to
“put on the full armor of God” to
fight coronavirus restrictions and
anti-racism education in schools)
and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor
Greene of Georgia (who said aid-
ing migrants is “Satanic”), Mastri-
ano represents a brand of con-
servative Christian politics that is
different from Jerry Falwell Sr.’s
Moral Majority of the 1980s or
George W. Bush’s Compassionate
Conservatism of the 2000s and
that has gained momentum since
the presidency of Donald Trump.
With his motto “Free indeed!”
— an excerpt from scripture that
says freedom from sin is found in
Jesus — Mastriano is a hero to
some in this swing state who say
they are fed up with church lead-
ers as well as political parties they
perceive as weak-willed, and with
debates about religious liberty
and the advantages of a diverse
democracy. Fueled by a genera-
tion of religious leaders arguing
that Christianity is persecuted in
America, the new movement
wants to see a more explicit, con-
stitutionally approved domi-
nance of “Christianity” — which
to them means conservative polit-
ically, theologically and socially.
They see themselves in a spiritual
battle with Satan.
“The forces of darkness are
hitting us really hard right now,”
Mastriano told a few hundred
people last month at a church
parking lot rally in Pennsburg.
“We’re going to bring the state
back to righteousness, this is our
day, our hour to take our state
back and renew the blessings of
America.”
His wife, Rebbie, then told the
crowd that her husband’s oppo-
nents are not just challenging
another candidate but God.
“When you’re against God’s plan,
there is nothing that will stop it,
and they are very worried right
now that there is nothing that’s
going to stop this.”
Other speakers emphasized to
the crowd, which included a man
in a Minuteman costume holding
a flag, that this Christian vision is
what the Founders intended.
“The Constitution prevents the
government from imposing on
the church. It doesn’t say any-
thing about religion imposing it-
self on the state,” Rick Crump, a
Christian branding expert and
community organizer, told the
rally.
This ethos is very different
from earlier iterations of the Reli-
gious Right who were looking to
engage with — even win at —
mainstream politics, some ex-perts say.
“There is no evangelical Dad
vibe coming off Mastriano,” said
Yale sociologist Philip Gorski, co-
author of “The Flag and the Cross:
White Christian Nationalism and
the Threat to American Democra-
cy.”
Mastriano marks a shift from
the culture wars of Falwell, who
once went after one of the Tele-
tubbies because he thought it was
gay, to “trench warfare in a super-
natural realm with demonic forc-
es.”
“It’s not Ralph Reed like a
general sitting somewhere be-
hind the front with electoral
maps and polling data and voter
files,” Gorski said, referring to theveteran political consultant and
first leader of the Christian Coali-
tion. “Mastriano represents this
heroic figure, standing alone in
defense of freedom, breaking all
the rules.”
Mastriano’s use of religion and
politics is similar to Trump’s in
that neither look to big denomi-
nations or established clergy or
church sermons for influence.
They instead tap into how disaf-
filiated Americans are becoming
from organized religion. (Less
than half of Americans belong to
a congregation, and three in 10
say they have no religious affilia-
tion altogether.) Religious identi-
ty and practice are becoming hy-
per individualized, with no need
for a denomination or clergy
member to validate a person’s
beliefs. People can be devoutly
Christian whichever way they
choose, including by following a
political candidate’s message.
Mastriano speaks in stark
terms about good and evil, said
Pete Begley, a musician and early
member of the Thursday Patriots
Group who is running to be a
county GOP chairman, because
“he sees the culture boldly hold-
ing Christianity in contempt.”
“We’re not talking about get-
ting people to commit to hours of
Bible study or church. We’re talk-
ing about having enough influ-
ence to get [people] to see they
shouldn’t accept policies filling
children’s minds with ideas that
they are victims,” Crump told
Mastriano’s supporters at the
Pennsburg rally. “Don’t allow
porn in children’s libraries. Don’tturn a blind eye to corruption in
companies or to government
overreach that enslaves them.
Pastors are using common excus-
es: ‘Oh, we’re not supposed to be
involved in politics.’ If that’s the
way your church is, you’re in the
wrong church.”'Spiritual warfare’
The Founders had varying
views about the role of religion in
general and Christianity in par-
ticular in public life. But since the
1980s, there has been a pro-
nounced and organized effort by
some conservative Christians,
White evangelical Protestants in
particular, to cast U.S. history as
less religiously diverse and secu-
larly minded, and then to argue
for a kind of orthodoxy — or
“originalism” — that would set
these interpretations of the past
as the mold for the future.
Many conservative Republican
leaders seem in recent years to be
using more exclusionary and
sharper religious language, some
experts on U.S. religion say. As
institutional religion has slipped
in stature in a more secular Amer-
ica, rhetoric from the independ-
ent fringe of charismatic faith —
where life is about a real, daily
battle between Satan and God —
has risen to the fore.
“Things like: ‘You are the devil,
you don’t belong in this country
and I’m going to elect people who
are on God’s side.’ This kind of
rhetoric is incapable of discourse.
There is no distinction between
political argument and spiritual
warfare. That is new,” said John
Fea, chair of the history depart-
ment at Messiah College near
Harrisburg. Of Mastriano, Fea
said: “I don’t think Pennsylvania
has ever had a ‘God and country’
candidate like this.”
Chris Nicholas, a longtime Re-
publican consultant in Pennsyl-
vania, said the GOP is attracting
more blue-collar Protestants and
pro-labor Catholics by being
more positive about fracking and
the energy industry, and more
accepting of religion and those
who oppose abortion than Demo-
crats, he said.
“[Mastriano’s] hardcore sup-
porters have a fervor that is very
much like a religious movement,”
he said. “But a lot of these folks
don’t understand the Constitu-
tion. You have to remind them
there is no religious test in the
Constitution. You have a lot of
folks who are hardcore super
MAGA Trumpers and they have
merged that with their Christian-
ity, and its become one and the
same.”
Baylor University’s Religion
Survey from 2021 found that
16 percent of Americans “strongly
embrace the idea that Christiani-
ty should be fused with American
civic identity.” Among Republi-
cans, that group jumps to 33 per-
cent. That group is about 71 per-
cent White and an average age of
58.
Earlier generations of leaders
who promoted “Christian values,”
such as Falwell and Bush, Fea
said, were making more cogent
arguments about the role of faith
in a diverse society and were
engaged in public debates with
real opponents.
Mastriano, by contrast, makes
it a badge of honor to not deeply
engage with anyone but his sup-
porters. GOP operatives in Penn-
sylvania say Mastriano often
didn’t even return calls about
participating in debates earlier in
the contest, and his staff declined
to even tell mainstream news
outlets about major events like
his campaign announcement.
Mastriano’s spokespeople did
not return multiple messages forcomment. Security staffers with
him at the Pennsburg rally re-
fused to let the The Washington
Post near the candidate, and his
assistant turned down an inter-
view request.'Unabashed Christianity’
In Pennsburg, Mastriano sup-
porters had been rallying in a
baking parking lot for four hours
when Mastriano arrived. Tall,
bald and broad, wearing a tight
T-shirt and jeans, he strode on-
stage. “Our promised land is
Pennsylvania,” he said with a
smile. “Only biological women
can participate in sports, day one”
of his administration. “CRT is
done, boom, day one.” People
laughed and cheered.
There were “Drill, baby drill,”
signs leaning on lawn chairs and
promises from Mastriano on the
podium to strip regulations on
energy production.
“We drive down energy costs
and guess what, life gets a little bit
cheaper,” he said with a chuckle.
A lot of people who came to see
him that day and who attend the
Patriots meetings in Stroudsburg
had not been very politically en-
gaged before. In both places, the
mood was upbeat, with many
talking excitedly about how they
were running for the first time for
public office, or at their first polit-
ical-organizing event. There was
the buzz of the newly affiliating,
with small groups of health-care
workers excitedly talking about
getting religious exemptions
from vaccines, and young parents
who had just pulled their children
out of public school and were
home schooling. There were lots
of references to the Constitution
and liberty and freedom, but
when asked for specifics, people
cited things like a child’s profes-
sor teaching them about Black
Lives Matter or someone they
knew who ran a day care and
came into contact with LGBT
parents or a child who was nonbi-
nary.
For Begley, of the Thursday
Patriot Group, Mastriano inter-
prets American religious history
correctly. One day last month, he
was flipping through Mastriano’s
official state Senate Facebook
page, where the lawmaker inter-
sperses photos and tributes to
fallen soldiers with updates about
his policy efforts on things like
school choice and abortion and
posts about religion in American
government. One post in particu-
lar caught Begley’s eye: an image
of a gold-colored, crucified Jesus
that hangs in the Pennsylvania
Capitol in Harrisburg.
“This painting in the Senate is
based on John 3:16: “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his
only Son, that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have
eternal life,” Sen. Mastriano
wrote to his constituents.
“This is what our country was
founded and based on — we can-
not let anyone take it from us!
Faith!” wrote one commenter.
“Amen!” others added.
Begley wrote: “The Pennsylva-
nia Capital Building is remark-
ably beautiful and seeing un-
abashed Christianity displayed
there is very encouraging.”
“The word ‘religion’ in the First
Amendment dealt with Christi-
anity, and that’s not an opinion. It
would be strange if our institu-
tions didn’t presuppose Christi-
anity,” he said later. “The princi-
ples of a conservative have always
been the same: that our rights are
from God, truth is absolute, mo-
rality is absolute, the Bible is the
founding principles on which to
base your life. And Mastriano
publicly asserts these things. He
kind of pulls it all together.”Christian nationalism shaping Pa. primary — and GOP
PHOTOS BY CAROLINE GUTMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Pennsylvania state Rep. Doug Mastriano, top, who is a Republican
candidate for governor, attends a S hield of Truth Network rally at
Morning Star Fellowship in Pennsburg last month. Mastriano, who
espouses the dominance of Christianity, is seen as a hero to some.(202) 919-9209 (301) 778-4222 (703) 650-