"The organization was founded in 2021 to promote candidates who may not attend the church but who are committed to a shared vision of religiously infused far-right politics; it has since helped usher more than a hundred candidates into office. Nate Schatzline, the founder of For Liberty & Justice, is a living embodiment of the nonprofit's goal of Christianizing government: he has served both as a pastor at Mercy Culture and as one of the most conservative members of the Texas legislature."
"On a Sunday morning in February, about a thousand people filled the high-ceilinged sanctuary at Mercy Culture, a nondenominational evangelical megachurch in Fort Worth, Texas. A few hours later, the church hosted a more explicitly ideological gathering put on by For Liberty & Justice, the church's political arm."
Mercy Culture, a nondenominational evangelical megachurch in Fort Worth, Texas, has become a hub for political organizing following the erosion of the Johnson Amendment, which historically prohibited churches from endorsing candidates. The church hosts both religious services and explicitly political events through its political arm, For Liberty & Justice, founded in 2021. This organization promotes candidates aligned with a religiously infused far-right political vision and has helped elect over a hundred candidates to office. Nate Schatzline, the organization's founder, exemplifies this mission by serving as both a pastor at Mercy Culture and a conservative Texas legislator. The church regularly hosts candidate forums where political hopefuls present their platforms to congregants, blending religious community with partisan political activity.
#johnson-amendment-erosion #church-political-endorsements #evangelical-political-organizing #religious-nationalism #campaign-finance-and-churches
Read at The New Yorker
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