If you've been following the news over the last year, you've likely heard about the rise of the Christian nationalism movement. Today on The Sunday Story, Ayesha Rascoe sits down with journalist Heath Druzin, creator of the Extremely American podcast series, to take a closer look at one group of Christian nationalists. Druzin interviewed leaders of an influential far-right church in the small town of Moscow, Idaho: Christ Church. There, Pastor Doug Wilson has been building what Druzin and his co-reporter James Dawson call a "Christian industrial complex." And its influence reaches far beyond the boundaries of Moscow, Idaho. You can listen to the latest season of Extremely American here, or download the full series wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Aisha.
I'm Aisha Roscoe, and you're listening to THE Sunday STORY from Up first, where we go beyond the news to bring you one big story.
So if you've been following the news over the last year, you've likely heard about the rise of the Christian nationalism movement.
Today on THE Sunday Story, we take a closer look at one group of Christian nationalists and hear their vision for the country in In Their Own Words.
I'm here with journalist Heath Druzen.
He's the host and creator of the Extremely American Podcast series from Boise State Public Radio and the NPR Network.
The podcast series provides an inside look at how a national movement traces back to a church in Idaho.
Heath, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks.
So I know that you've immersed yourself in reporting on Christian nationalism in America.
Talk to me about what this very, very broad category means to you.
Right.
So Christian nationalism is a pretty broad movement.
It can mean a lot of different things, but there are some unifying ideologies in the movement.
One big example is something called Dominionism.
Now, that's sort of a jargony term, but really what it means is that Christianity should rule all aspects of life and that Christ's teachings should be the foundation for all of society.
And, you know, I've been covering extremism since 2018, just looking at how extremism is interacts with politics.
And a lot of my early coverage was about militias.
I covered the COVID lockdown pushback, which was really strong in Idaho especially, and even, you know, elected officials pushing conspiracy theories.
Eventually, my reporting turned to Christian nationalism.