One of the many “religious” Trump crackpots who descended on Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021, at the behest of the sore loser of the 2020 election. This image can be seen in the 2024 documentary Bad Faith.

If you feel disgusted by the turn things have taken in this country, see where it all began in Bad Faith, a 2024 documentary about the Christian Nationalists who helped elect the current numbnuts president.

Lake Superior Freethinkers believe this movie is so important that they are offering three free screenings at Zeitgeist Zinema — 1 pm Sunday, April 13; 7 pm Tuesday, April 15; and 4 pm  Thursday, April 17.

But, be warned – it will make your blood boil that we Americans let it come to this. Bad Faith makes it so obvious where we went so wrong, and it all goes back to Reagan, the original useful idiot.

The film begins with a definition of Christian Nationalism in text against the backdrop of Washington, D.C.:

“A political movement that believes America was founded as a ‘Christian Nation,’ privileging Christianity over all other faiths. Masquerading as religion, this ideology exploits scripture and sacred symbols to achieve extremist objectives.”

One of the subjects in the movie references Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale as the perfect example of Christian Nationalism.

Even though most of them do not wear Klan robes in public, Christian Nationalists echo the diseased spirit of the KKK. Theirs is an ignorant and fear-based world view.

I’ve always been puzzled about why Trump has so much support from the rabid right “christians.” 
That is one of the many revelations in Bad Faith, for it explains these are evil and ignorant people who are intent on overthrowing democracy in favor of a theocratic christian nation.

They do not care about Trump’s moral turpitude because he has proven himself to be their perfect vessel, the useful idiot with no belief system of his own who unwittingly falls in line with their agenda and delivers their political goals. He is their instrument. 

In other words, Trump is the ultimate tool.

Two words I hadn’t heard in decades were prominently used throughout – the Moral Majority, the political movement that helped put and keep Reagan in office for way too long. A couple of the reprehensible bastards who led the movement are featured in Bad Faith, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

Their beliefs are described in the documentary as rooted in Calvinism and devoted to the acquisition of wealth. Their ultimate goal is to “christianize” America and make lots of money doing it.

No thanks!

People may be shocked by Elon Musk buying votes for Trump, but Bad Faith points out the long American tradition of letting billionaires spend money to win elections and have access to the halls of power, where there is even more money to be made. 

Every decade has had its own set of rapacious billionaires influencing elections and legislation. But things are different this time because one of them is president and another is co-president.

There were potions of this film that I was unable to watch, and that is when Trump is center stage. I can no longer look at his ugly mug or hear his whiny voice without feeling disgust. He is such a gross and odiferous alleged human being that I can smell his stench through the screen. There is nothing that idiot can say that I want to hear. Fortunately, his screen time in Bad Faith required only a few fast forwards. 
While Bad Faith lifts the curtain on the idiot Trump’s string pullers, the movie also talks to actual christians who are disgusted by the co-opting of their faith by what one describes as “pretend” christians.

The Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, put it another way: “They don’t have my Jesus because he already told us what he stands for.”

Jesus, Barber says in the film, was not a founding member of the NRA.

“The problem is Jesus,” he says. “They don’t get it.”

Later in the film Barber is addressing folks at an outdoor gathering: “This is not Jim Crow. This is James Crow, esquire. He went to school, got a law degree and he has come back to try to take out every progressive voice in this nation.”

The film describes the late conservative political activist and Moral Majority co-founder Paul Weyrich as the architect of the ultra-conservative religious takeover of politics. The goal is to bring down the federal government as we know it.

We also hear from Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove, a South Carolina native who was on the path to become one of the religious right political operatives. He explains he was born in 1980, the Sunday after Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Jimmy Carter for the presidency, and they loved Reagan in South Carolina.

“I wanted to do everything I could for Jesus,” he says, “including becoming president.”

At the age of 16, he became a page in South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond’s office.
“He was an old-school racist,” Wilson-Hargrove says.

“We were told to vote for people like him because they were pro-life,” he said. 

But he became disillusioned by the political shenanigans in Thurmond’s office. The Senator chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“They seemed more interested in serving the military contractors,” he said. “I  began to question whether biblical values really mattered much to those folks.”

His life took a different path when at age 17 he met Rev. William Barber.

”He began to introduce me to the long tradition that he was part of, a tradition of people who took their faith very seriously, but always connected that with work for justice in the world.”
Wilson-Hartgrove, author of Revolution of Values: Reclaiming Public Faith for the Common Good, which explores how religious culture wars have misrepresented Christianity at the expense of the poor, does give some hope for the future when he says of the Christian nationalists,  “It is not the majority.”

You might be a Christian nationalist if… 

• You think America’s founders were evangelical Christians.
• You want your church to fly an American flag in the sanctuary.
• You think America is God’s chosen nation.
• You call yourself an evangelical, but you don’t go to church.
• You think it’s wrong to criticize America. 
• You think government zoning laws should allow churches to be built, but not mosques. 
• You think immigrants aren’t as good as those who were born in this country.
• You believe the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are divinely inspired. 
• You have a burning desire to don a white sheet and pointy hood.