Onward Christian Soldiers: Make It A Christian Town

Summary

Extremely American: Onward Christian Soldiers – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Onward Christian Soldiers: Make It A Christian Town
Release Date: June 26, 2024
Hosts: Heath Druzen and James Dawson
Podcast Series: Extremely American, Season 2
Focus: Examination of Christian nationalism through the lens of Doug Wilson’s influence in Moscow, Idaho.

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1. Introduction to Doug Wilson and Christchurch Church

The episode opens with Heath Druzen introducing listeners to Doug Wilson, the senior minister of Christchurch Church in Moscow, Idaho. As the church undergoes significant expansion, Wilson shares plans for a new building designed to seat 1,200 people, indicating the rapid growth of his congregation.

Notable Quote:

• [00:35] Doug Wilson: “It's currently slated to seat 1200 people, but we wouldn't fit if we built it. If it appeared tomorrow, we would have to be in two services there.”

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2. Expansion and Infrastructure Development

Wilson outlines the extensive developments underway, including a new festival fellowship hall, school building, gym, and football field. These projects signify Christchurch's intent to dominate the town's infrastructure and community life.

Notable Quote:

• [00:45] Heath Druzen: "The construction is a major expansion of Doug's church community... and a dark underbelly of abuse."

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3. Ideological Foundations and Governance

Wilson expresses his vision for Moscow, aiming to transform it into a theocratic community where Christian men hold primary power. He challenges democratic norms by proposing a household-based voting system dominated by male decision-makers.

Notable Quotes:

• [02:10] Heath Druzen: "In your ideal America, do non-Christians get to hold office?"
• [02:15] Doug Wilson: "No."
• [02:20] Doug Wilson: "She is unmarried or... if the husband and wife agree, you've just multiplied the whole tally by two."

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4. Building the Christian Empire

The narrative delves into Wilson's long-term strategy for expanding his influence beyond the church. This includes property acquisitions, business ventures, and the establishment of educational institutions like Logos School and New St. Andrews College.

Notable Quote:

• [03:23] Heath Druzen: "Doug Wilson is trying to take over Moscow and make it a church town... he sees Moscow as the precursor to radically changing the United States."

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5. Logos School: Foundations and Growth

Founded in 1981, Logos School started with humble beginnings and has grown to accommodate 650 students, representing a significant portion of Moscow's education system. The school emphasizes a strict moral code and integrates Christian teachings into every subject.

Notable Quotes:

• [16:50] James Dawson: "They found a church with an unfinished basement that was willing to negotiate."
• [17:56] Doug Wilson: "We wanted every subject to be different and every subject to acknowledge the lordship of Christ."

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6. New St. Andrews College: Expanding Educational Influence

In 1994, Wilson established New St. Andrews College to provide higher education rooted in classical Christian principles. The college aims to produce graduates equipped to influence various sectors of society, from law to the arts.

Notable Quote:

• [31:36] Doug Wilson: "We want alums who are threats to that fog [of secularism]. We want students making movies... writing novels that are best sellers..."

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7. The Christian Nationalism Movement

Wilson is portrayed as a leading figure in the Christian nationalist movement, advocating for America to transition from a secular democracy to a theocracy. The episode explores the broader implications of this movement, including its growing acceptance and influence within federal government ranks.

Notable Quotes:

• [35:08] Heath Druzen: "Research from Indiana University shows that 20% of Americans strongly embrace Christian nationalism..."
• [35:24] Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert: "The separation of church and state is a misnomer... it's not in the Constitution."

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8. Community Reactions and Resistance

Moscow residents exhibit mixed reactions to Christchurch's expansion. While some, like former mayor Nancy Cheney, express concern over the loss of the town's inclusive and diverse nature, others within the church community view the growth as positive and transformative.

Notable Quotes:

• [08:45] Nancy Cheney: "Directed change by so few people with such a singular focus is dangerous..."
• [21:51] Jason Scheibe: "The community's better. I feel like there's so many more Christians, like, everywhere you turn..."

---

9. Controversial Ideologies and Public Perception

Wilson's rhetoric often includes violent metaphors and controversial stances on gender and governance. While he claims to reject fascism and racism, his policies and ideas raise significant concerns among critics and community members.

Notable Quotes:

• [34:46] Doug Wilson: "I'm a Christian nationalist. I'm a citizen of this nation, and I believe that we ought to do good things... defined out of my Christian framework."
• [37:13] Heath Druzen: "Christian nationalists want leaders like her, though, preferably men."

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10. Personal Stories and Impact

The episode features personal testimonies from individuals like Jason Scheibe, an alumnus of Logos School, who credits the institution with instilling strong Christian values and contributing positively to his professional and personal life.

Notable Quotes:

• [20:37] Jason Scheibe: "We had a Bible study in high school... trying to keep each other in line sexually..."
• [21:51] Jason Scheibe: "Our Christian community... people care about aesthetics, working hard, doing a good job, and caring for your neighbors."

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11. Conclusion and Ongoing Struggles

The episode concludes by highlighting the ongoing tension in Moscow as Christchurch continues its mission to reshape the town's cultural and political landscape. Survivors of abuse within the movement voice their concerns, underscoring the darker aspects of Christian nationalism.

Notable Quotes:

• [37:28] Intuit Representative: "It feels like an invasion... His overall influence is huge and dangerous."
• [37:54] Intuit Representative: "When the women that they have downtrodden and they've abused actually start speaking up..."

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12. Looking Ahead

Listeners are left anticipating the next episode, which will delve deeper into Christchurch's influence in downtown Moscow and the community's fears regarding its future.

Notable Quote:

• [38:15] Jason Scheibe: "I built huge Merry Christmas signs... someone said it was as close as you could get for Christmas decorations to be flipping someone off."

---

Key Takeaways

• Doug Wilson's Influence: Through strategic expansion of his church and educational institutions, Wilson aims to establish a theocratic community in Moscow, Idaho, reflecting broader Christian nationalist ambitions.

• Christian Nationalism: The movement seeks to interweave Christian doctrine with governance, challenging secular democratic principles and advocating for biblical rule.

• Community Impact: While some appreciate the moral and communal aspects introduced by Christchurch, others fear the erosion of Moscow's diversity and democratic values.

• Educational Endeavors: Logos School and New St. Andrews College serve as pillars of Wilson's vision, producing graduates poised to influence various societal sectors.

• Controversial Ideologies: Wilson's rhetoric and policies raise significant concerns regarding gender roles, governance, and the potential for abuse within the movement.

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This episode of Extremely American offers a comprehensive exploration of Christian nationalism through the case study of Doug Wilson and Christchurch Church, highlighting the complex dynamics between religious influence and democratic values in a small American town.

Transcript

[Intuit Representative]

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[Doug Wilson]

So this is the. This is the fellowship hall. The kitchen will be there, the meeting area will be here, the pulpit will be here.

[Heath Druzen]

We're touring a construction site with Doug Wilson. He's the pastor of a growing church in Idaho.

[Doug Wilson]

It's currently slated to seat 1200 people, but we wouldn't fit if we built it. If it appeared tomorrow, we would have to be in two services there.

[Heath Druzen]

The construction is a major expansion of Doug's church community. They're also building a separate festival fellowship hall, a new school building, a gym and a football field.

[Doug Wilson]

We're standing on the south end of a 30 acre parcel and the northeast end of it is Moscow Mountain. A view of Moscow Mountain.

[Heath Druzen]

The buildings are going in at the edge of Moscow, Idaho. On the surface, this construction site is pretty unremarkable. Here in Moscow, though, it represents an intense battle, a disagreement over the role of religion in public life and this church community. And the guy giving us the tour have people in the town on edge.

[Doug Wilson]

I'm the senior minister at Christchurch in Moscow, Idaho. I've been serving in that function since 1977. And you all have my permission to use whatever is recorded here.

[Heath Druzen]

Doug's church and its members have been increasing their influence in town. They keep buying more property, opening more businesses, and their schools and online learning ventures have been growing for years. What especially worries some people in Moscow is their ideas. And Doug has a lot of ideas. In your ideal America, do non Christians get to hold office?

[Doug Wilson]

No.

[Heath Druzen]

Okay. And can women vote?

[Doug Wilson]

It depends. So in our church, in our polity, households vote.

[Heath Druzen]

And in Doug's world, the head of the household is almost always a man. Okay. But that means ultimately it's the man's decision. Unless a woman's husband has died or.

[Doug Wilson]

She is unmarried or. Yeah, right. But keep in mind that the way we have it now is if the husband and wife disagree, all they do is cancel each other out. They might as well save the gas money. And if the husband and wife agree, you've just multiplied the whole tally by two. And if they disagree, their household is nullified.

[Heath Druzen]

Some people would call that democracy.

[Doug Wilson]

I call it democracy too, when households vote. So this would be a good example of how a Christian conservatism really is at odds with individualistic democracy.

[Heath Druzen]

So you might be wondering why we're talking to this pastor in a small Idaho town. It's because Doug Wilson is trying to take over Moscow and make it a church town, a place where Christian men hold most of the power and the Bible has the final say. Theocracy. On top of that, Doug wants the whole country to be like this. He sees Moscow as the precursor to radically changing the United States. Doug's ideas may sound fringe, but he has a growing fundamentalist Christian empire. Christchurch has affiliated congregations across the country. Doug's got popular Internet shows.

[Doug Wilson]

Welcome to Man Rampant. My name is Douglas Wilson. Let's talk about masculine Christianity, shall we? The subject is a fascinating one.

[Heath Druzen]

He has influential books on Christian nationalism. And Doug's constantly on the road doing the fundamentalist speaker tour.

[Doug Wilson]

This is not same sex marriage. It's same sex mirage.

[Heath Druzen]

And then there's the airtime he's gotten on national shows like NBC's Meet the Press.

[Intuit Representative]

So when you say wives should be submissive to their husbands, does this mean.

[Heath Druzen]

Why shouldn't they be equal?

[Doug Wilson]

Well, because God created us a certain way.

[Heath Druzen]

Doug is influencing a growing number of Christian nationalists across the country. People who want to turn America into a theocracy. And the more Doug and other Christian nationalists get out there, the more their ideas are spreading, even into the highest echelons of the federal government. Like the current speaker of the U.S. house of Representatives, Mike Johnson. The separation of church and state is a misnomer. People misunderstand it, of course. It comes from a phrase that was in a letter that Jefferson wrote. It's not in the Constitution. Because of this, some critics in Moscow and across the country are sounding the alarm. I just have so many negative things.

[Doug Wilson]

To say about Doug.

[Intuit Representative]

It feels like an invasion. It feels like they are trying to take take over. His overall influence is huge and dangerous.

[Nancy Cheney]

He told us exactly what his objectives were, and that was to, you know, overthrow the secular government.

[Intuit Representative]

He's creating these perfect victims that are completely unable to say no. I believe that Doug Wilson has created an empire far more evil than even he anticipated.

[Heath Druzen]

I'm Heath Druzen, and this is extremely American. Onward Christian Soldiers. This season we're telling a story about a pastor and his powerful church trying to take over Moscow, Idaho. But it's also about the growing chorus of people like Doug who want to essentially end American democracy as we know it. A movement called Christian nationalism. Episode 1 Make it a Christian Town. I've been a reporter for the last 20 years reporting on extremism in America, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and environmental issues. These days I mostly live in Boise, Idaho. My buddy James Dawson lives nearby. Everyone calls him Jimmy. He's a reporter at Boise State Public Radio who covers Idaho politics. And he's my co reporter for this season of Extremely American.

[James Dawson]

Yeah, I haven't been reporting as long as grandpa here. Only about 13 years, but at least I am taller than Heath.

[Heath Druzen]

I mean, to be honest, most people are. The other thing is you grew up near Moscow and spent five years in the town as a student and I.

[James Dawson]

Think maybe more importantly as a pizza delivery driver.

[Heath Druzen]

Exactly. You know the town better than most.

[James Dawson]

Anyway, I could go on for the whole episode about how great Moscow is. The perfect summers, restaurants that punch way above their weight. DM me if you ever need recommendations. But I do have to clear one thing up right away. It's Moscow. Not like that less well known town in Russia. Moscow. It's a common mistake. The town is right next to the Washington border and home of the University of Idaho. Moscow is often described as a blue dot in a sea of red. A lot of pride flags and Black Lives Matter signs on display around town.

[Heath Druzen]

Hello, Pride, and welcome to Moscow. I know one of the great things about pride is that it really covers the Palouse.

[James Dawson]

And so if you are visiting, City council member Sandra Kelly is opening the town's annual three day Pride Festival in 2023.

[Heath Druzen]

One of the best, best things about our town is the diversity that we have and the great personalities that are here.

[James Dawson]

That's what a lot of Moscowites pride themselves on being. Welcoming and embracing diversity. You know those coexist bumper stickers? The one made up of a bunch of different religious symbols and a peace sign? Yeah. Very popular here. But as the Christchurch congregation has grown, people feel like the town is changing for the worse. Former mayor Nancy Cheney is one of them.

[Nancy Cheney]

Change unto itself is not a bad thing, but directed change by so few people with such a singular focus is dangerous to a community that has been built on being different, being inclusive, being relatively diverse, and welcoming everyone to this place.

[James Dawson]

Depending on who you talk to, Doug is either ruining Moscow, Idaho or saving it. Some people see him as a kind of fundamentalist supervillain.

[Doug Wilson]

Yeah, I sometimes get 20% of a wave.

[James Dawson]

Just to be clear, he's talking about one of the five fingers. You know, the middle one, Doug is 70. He's got a big white beard and thick hair. He's a big guy, dresses business casual. You'll often see him in jeans and sweaters. Part of the reason Doug gets the finger sometimes is because he preaches that The Bible should be the guiding force of society.

[Doug Wilson]

We believe that Jesus is Lord, Christ is Lord. And a lot of churches have been willing to sort of subsume their faith under the big tent of America. Right? We'll just take our little corner here and think our religious thoughts inside our head, inside this room. But we think the Christian faith is public. And I think that unsettles people.

[James Dawson]

Doug wants all of Moscow to believe what he believes. He wants to take it over and make it a Christian town. It says so right on Christchurch's website. Our mission at Christchurch is summed up by the phrase all of Christ for all of life under the grace of God. This means that our desire is to make Moscow a Christian town. To that end, Christchurch and its members have been making a concerted effort to increase their influence here. Doug characterizes it as improving the town.

[Doug Wilson]

We're not interested in any kind of top down takeover or we're not interested in that kind of forceful or coercive takeover. But we are interested in evangelizing and preaching and seeing the churches grow. And we do want Moscow to become a Christian town, but we want it all to happen voluntarily. By people moving here and being converted and bringing up their children here.

[James Dawson]

That still unsettles people. But that's now to understand how Doug and Christchurch even got to this point and arrived at this mission, we've got to go back 50 years, back to when Doug started building his Christian empire.

[Doug Wilson]

We wanted every subject to be different and every subject to acknowledge the lordship of Christ.

[James Dawson]

That's coming up after the break.

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[Heath Druzen]

Be Back in the mid-1970s, Doug Wilson was just getting established in Moscow. He'd recently married Nancy, and Doug says they were dirt poor and renting an apartment. Doug was putting himself through school on the GI Bill. He preached at a local church for 100 bucks a month. Doug says this was when he began his crusade to make things more Christian around him, including making Moscow a Christian town. And the first thing Doug had to do was get more people to listen to his preaching. Doug doesn't have recordings of his preaching from those days. If Doug's early sermons survive, they're hiding somewhere on cassette tape. But plenty of his later sermons are recorded, including this one from July 2023.

[Doug Wilson]

All of Christ for all of life. So, depending on the context, some might add for all of Moscow or for all of the world. But the summary pithy statement is all of Christ for all of life. And I want to talk a little bit today about what is why. Why do we summarize what we're attempting with those words?

[Heath Druzen]

This gives you a flavor of his style. And it worked. People listened. His congregation grew. So step one, find a congregation. But almost simultaneously, step two was to start a school. Doug's schools would get really big. They would eventually include tens of thousands of students across the country. It would change Christian education in America. But it couldn't have started any smaller. It began because Doug and Nancy had a toddler daughter, Rose Rebecca, and they had a problem. There were no fundamentalist Christian schools in Moscow, and there was no way the Wilsons were sending their kid to a public school.

[Doug Wilson]

And my wife said to me, doug, I can't. What are we going to do about education? I can't see handing Becca over to someone we don't know and say, here she is. Teach her about everything. Teach her about God, life, the whole shooting match. So I reassured my wife, I said, don't worry. By the time Becca hits kindergarten, we'll have a Christian school started.

[Heath Druzen]

So that's what he did. He started a school with no teaching experience and no education degree. Early on, Doug says, he approached his friend Tom Garfield to help him form the school. Garfield had a degree in education and was on his way to becoming an art teacher. Instead, Doug asked him to run a school, a school that didn't yet exist and had no promise of success. But Garfield agreed, and in 1981, the school opened. Doug named it Logos, which is a name or title for Jesus Christ. It was a K through 12 school.

[James Dawson]

Garfield didn't respond to requests for interviews, but here he is during a recorded roundtable discussion recounting the early days of Logos, when they struggled to find a building.

[Advertisement Voice]

We actually seriously considered a barn.

[James Dawson]

They didn't end up in a barn, but it was a pretty humble start. Garfield said they found a church with an unfinished basement that was willing to negotiate.

[Advertisement Voice]

And so we worked out a deal where we would finish the basement, they would provide the funds, and we would pay them back. And that's how we got rolling.

[James Dawson]

According to Doug Wilson, they barely had enough kids to fill that basement.

[Doug Wilson]

At the beginning, we had 19 students and four teachers, I think it was. For the first two years, the teachers worked without pay, no set salary. It was simply donations. Whatever came in Logos was different even.

[James Dawson]

For a Christian school, and not because they weren't paying their teachers for one. They didn't just do Bible class. The Bible was the foundation for every class.

[Doug Wilson]

We wanted every subject to be different and every subject to acknowledge the lordship of Christ, where a teacher could feel free to bring up the lordship of Christ in a math class or in biology class or in English. And you don't want to just adopt the government school curriculum and tack on a Bible class and call it good.

[James Dawson]

Another thing that set Logos apart was its strict moral code. A few things in the parent handbook stood out. Here are some of the offenses that can get a student expelled without the usual student romances, Disobedience to parents, love of worldliness, a surly attitude, and any other ongoing attitudes reflecting a clear disregard of scriptural standards. End quote. This is from the current parent handbook, but we asked Doug Wilson, and he says the guidelines were pretty similar back then, too.

[Heath Druzen]

Expelling a kid for romance or worldliness might sound harsh, but Logos was onto something. There was a demand for fundamentalist education.

[Doug Wilson]

The second year, we had 50 students. The third year, 90. The fourth year, 120.

[Heath Druzen]

Several decades in, Doug says they have 650 students. It's impressive growth, especially in a town the size of Moscow. To put things in perspective, There are nearly 2,300 students in the Moscow public school district. So Logos is now more than a quarter the size of the city public school system. According to this ad for the school Logos is growing a spiritual army.

[James Dawson]

What do we mean when we say education is warfare? We mean raising our kids to be unashamed of Christ and sharply at odds with modern values.

[Heath Druzen]

The narrator goes on to say, the goal of Logos is to get Christ back in school, the opposite of secular education.

[James Dawson]

Our kids are not peons groomed by public schools to be an offering for the corporate machine. We mean raising sharp, faithful, dangerous kids who will grow up to be future men and women, world changers, the leaders of tomorrow.

[Heath Druzen]

Hi, Jason. Can you hear me?

[Jason Scheibe]

I can. Can't see anything. There we go.

[Heath Druzen]

Jason Scheibe was in one of the earliest classes at Logos, and he stayed there through high school.

[Jason Scheibe]

At the time, it was just great. You know, I thought, I have great friends. The teachers care about me. When my grade is not doing well, you know, in math, I wasn't that great. The teacher would come find me and say, hey, we gotta. We got to do something here. What are you not understanding? And so they'd approach you and try to help you through it.

[Heath Druzen]

Jason was born and raised in Moscow and says his parents were friends with Doug Wilson. They attended Christchurch and were drawn to Logos for its strict religious education. Jason says he occasionally strayed from the rigid Logos morality codes, like watching pornography as a teenager. But he says his Logos peers would check on him and bring him back to his Christian principles.

[Jason Scheibe]

We had a Bible study in high school, just boys in various grades, you know, where we were just, like, trying to keep each other in line sexually with pornography and other things, just saying that, hey, this. This affects everyone.

[Heath Druzen]

Jason is 41 now and works as a building contractor in Moscow. He says he's watched as his Logos peers have gone on to become prominent community members. And he says they've changed the town for the better.

[Jason Scheibe]

Obviously Christians, and, you know, not. Not, not just saying Christians, but like, in the community, this, our Christian community, you know, people care about aesthetics, working hard, doing a good job, and caring for your neighbors, right? And making things wonderful. And so, you know, if you look around the town, they've beautified the town. Like, there's just. The community's better. I feel like there's so many more Christians, like, everywhere you turn, like, oh, you're finding out, oh, wow, you go to church. Oh, you send your kids to Logos. I would have never pegged you for that.

[Heath Druzen]

It made enough of an impression on him that he's sending his three boys there now. He says one big reason he's sending his kids there is the kind of accountability you rarely see at public schools, teachers holding students to a high standard, things he didn't necessarily appreciate as a kid.

[Jason Scheibe]

I realized how valuable that was and I'm seeing that even more so now with my kids. It's very challenging, very difficult.

[Heath Druzen]

School Doug says he expected God's blessing at the beginning of Logos, but he had no idea it would mean that kind of multi generational success.

[Doug Wilson]

So when I look at where Logos School is now, I'm very grateful. So we always believed that God was going to do something with it, but we had no idea what it would look like. In the details.

[Heath Druzen]

After the break, Doug Wilson doesn't stop there. His Christian industrial complex keeps growing and he sends his Christian soldiers out into the world.

[Nancy Cheney]

Doug Wilson seems to be gaining traction and you know it's not him. He now has family members and others in church leadership who are pushing very hard to change the culture of Moscow and do away with things like separation of church and state.

[Heath Druzen]

Foreign.

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[Heath Druzen]

Life in Moscow revolves around the University of Idaho. About a third of Moscow residents are college students, about 9,500 of them. U of I is a bricky 19th century campus with the requisite old clock tower. Some of the trees in its leafy lanes were planted by presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Just about every business in town relies on the university's presence, either directly or indirectly. As Idaho's flagship public school, it offers a secular education. Students go there to learn, and if they want to take care of spiritual needs, that's separate from class. Doug Wilson actually went to U of I. But this separation is exactly what he hates about public education.

[Doug Wilson]

By excluding the lordship of Christ and the existence of God and the fact of creation from the classroom, you're not saying nothing about that subject. You're saying, kids, as we study this historical period, whether or not there's a God is not important to this question. We're not saying that your Christianity is wrong. We're just saying that if it's right, it's trivial.

[Heath Druzen]

And so creating a K12 Christian school was just the start. Next, he started a college, despite living in a town with a major university. In 1994, the first logos class was approaching graduation and they needed a godly place to continue their education. Specifically, Doug's daughter Rebecca needed a place to go.

[Doug Wilson]

But then we were getting all these mailers from from Christian schools and from the material they were sending out. You would think that the purpose of Christian higher education was to make lifelong friends, eat pizza and ride horses.

[Heath Druzen]

Sounds pretty fun to be honest, but not really Doug's thing. He wanted his children to have a more serious rigorous education. So he founded a Christian college in Moscow and called it New St. Andrews.

[Doug Wilson]

The first year of New St. Andrews was in a friend's dining room. We had four students. All the faculty were volunteers.

[Heath Druzen]

It was a little like the beginning of Logos, except this time Doug had more experience. He'd become a kind of self taught educator through his work at Logos. Like Logos, the college is what Doug calls a quote, classical Christian education. Biblical teachings are the foundation for every class. There's an emphasis on rhetoric and logic that reflects an older educational approach. In fact, Doug based new Saint Andrews curriculum on Harvard universities. But from the 17th century, Doug is pretty nostalgic about early America and pretty down on the modern version. And the guy who runs his college agrees and says secular universities promote ideas that are bad for society.

[H]

I think that abortion would be a good example of where our college campuses have pushed people in a direction that has a horrific moral component.

[Heath Druzen]

New St. Andrews president Ben Merkel is Doug's son in law. He's married to Doug's daughter now Rebecca Merkel.

[H]

The new one right now is definition of gender, distinguishing between gender and sex. You can be one sex, but a different gender, that kind of stuff.

[Heath Druzen]

Ben Merkel says New St. Andrews is a counterweight to all that. And the college doesn't take federal money, which means they can set their own rules without any government restrictions. In 2002, Christchurch wanted New Saint Andrews to expand, so they bought an historic building in the heart of downtown. This new building allowed New St. Andrews to graduate a lot more students, from a student body that could fit around a dining room table to the current 283. Bev. Bathus says her move to downtown was a big red flag for a lot of Moscowites. She runs a coffee shop nearby. And then once those students started graduating, it was adding to the church because they were encouraged to stay here and raise families and start a business. And then all those businesses had to find a place to be. That's when we started seeing more and more businesses. And that's exactly what Doug wants. It's part of Christchurch turning Moscow into a Christian town. New St. Andrews president Ben Merkel agrees.

[H]

I mean, I think that's one of the things that I love to see about Moscow and see our graduates shaping culture. And it's in the multiple churches that have been started. It's in the families are all over raising these kids to love God, serve him, and be obedient to his word. It's in these really interesting entrepreneurial businesses all over the place. When you do that for a while, it becomes infectious and it spreads and it draws other people to it.

[Heath Druzen]

And here's where Doug's mission also grows. He wants to weaponize new St. Andrew students to change society well beyond Moscow.

[Doug Wilson]

We want to treat NSA like a munitions factory, okay? We want alums to go out into the world who are dangerous to the prevailing paradigm. Secularism is resting on America like a dense fog. And we want students who are threats to that fog. We don't want to just graduate 25 alums who go out and who really bowl everybody over at Toastmasters, as fun as that might be. We want students making movies. We want students appearing before the Supreme Court as attorneys. We want alums who are writing novels that are best sellers that help shape the worldview of hundreds of thousands of kids who are reading those books and so on. So that's what we mean by shaping culture.

[Heath Druzen]

These students are some of Doug's Christian soldiers. Christian nationalists, nationalism. It's a broad term. We are a majority Christian nation. But Christianity is on the decline. In America. And yes, Christianity greatly influenced the founders of the United States and its constitution. But that's not far enough for Christian nationalists. They aren't content to have a nation that's simply influenced by Christianity. It's not enough to have many politicians talk about God on the campaign trail and at the Capitol, like Doug Wilson's been saying, they believe that all Americans should live under biblical rule. Doug cites New Testament verses as backup for his vision. He says Revelations 15 and 16 refer to Jesus authority over nations. From his mouth comes a shot sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them. With a rod of iron he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Some Christian nationalists have repeated anti Semitic and racist tropes. Others have called for ideas that sound an awful lot like fascism. But Doug says he's not a Christian nationalist in those scary ways. There aren't examples of Doug Christchurch or its affiliates actually being violent. But Doug does use violent metaphors and references to warfare. Doug says he rejects fascism, though plenty of critics disagree. And he says racist policies have no place in a Christian nation, though he has some controversial ideas about slavery.

[Doug Wilson]

But if there's a benchmark outside the world that evaluates our behavior, then yeah, I'm a Christian nationalist. I'm a citizen of this nation, and I believe that we ought to do good things, not bad things. And how I define good is going to be defined out of my Christian framework.

[Heath Druzen]

And Christian nationalists are having a moment. Research from Indiana University shows that 20% of Americans strongly embrace Christian nationalism and about 1/3 support it to some degree. That's a pretty large potential voting bloc. What may seem fringe is becoming more mainstream.

[Intuit Representative]

The church is supposed to direct the government.

[Heath Druzen]

Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert said this during a church service in 2022. It was recorded by Cornerstone Christian center in Colorado.

[Intuit Representative]

The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it. And I'm tired of this separation of church and state junk that's not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.

[Heath Druzen]

Christian nationalists want leaders like her, though, preferably men. Because in the view of Christian nationalists like Doug Wilson, women typically should be subservient to men. In their mind, men are natural leaders of both families and government. Doug Wilson has ended up as a leading voice of the Christian nationalist effort. He's built a nationwide network of Christian schools. He's got a major publisher. It pumps out popular books on subjects ranging from how to raise Christian boys to blueprints on installing religious government in America. And he and his allies have a formidable national media operation. That's why we'll be spending time in Moscow, Idaho, taking a look at Doug and the Christian industrial complex he's created. This season, we go inside the Christian nationalist movement. You'll hear from the fundamentalists trying to turn America into a Christian nation.

[Doug Wilson]

So theocracy is an inescapable concept.

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Pride parades absolutely would be illegal.

[Heath Druzen]

When you say women's suffrage, it sounds like you're saying it was a mistake. Do you think that they should not have the right to vote, period? We talked at activists fighting against Christian nationalism.

[Intuit Representative]

The risks seem to be getting bigger as Christian nationalism grows and their connections grow. It gives me such panic to think that my sons could continue in that same line of thought process, that they are above their wife, that they're the head that their wife needs to obey.

[Heath Druzen]

And we'll hear from abuse survivors sounding the alarm about what they say is the dark underbelly of the Christian nationalist movement.

[Intuit Representative]

I think there's probably nothing scarier from all of the people in that community when the women that they have downtrodden and they've abused actually start speaking up and telling their stories.

[Heath Druzen]

Next time on Extreme Extremely American. Onward Christian Soldiers. It's back to Moscow. As CHRISTCHURCH members set their sights on downtown and Moscowites fear for the future of their city.

[Jason Scheibe]

I built huge Merry Christmas signs, like 12 foot letters that I think one person said it was as close as.

[James Dawson]

You could get for Christmas decorations to.

[Heath Druzen]

Be flipping someone off.

[Intuit Representative]

It's like, are you Christchurch? Are you not? And whenever any new business open, that's the biggest question.

[Heath Druzen]

We want this to be a Christian.

[Advertisement Voice]

Town because God wants this to be a Christian town.

[Heath Druzen]

Extremely American was created by me, Heath Druzen. This season was written and reported by me and James Dawson. Story editing by Morgan Stanley Springer. Mixing and sound engineering by James Dawson. Fact checking by Naomi Barr. Additional reporting and special thanks to Mary Ellen Pitney, who was a big help early on and throughout the project. Big shout out to Madeline Beck, Sasha Woodruff and Rachel Cohen, who lent us their ears while we were writing this season. Music from Artlist. Boise State Public Radio is our partner for this podcast with distribution by the NPR Network. This podcast is made possible through a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. If you're enjoying this season, check out season one of Extremely American. It's an inside look at armed militias and how they're influencing mainstream politics. Thanks for listening.

[Intuit Representative]

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