Megachurches manufactured political ideology that then flowed to Washington

Evidence

According to journalist Jeff Sharlet, who profiled New Life in Harper’s magazine in 2005, churches like New Life served as ideological crucibles for the Christian Right; ideas “forged in the middle of the country” soon enough made their way to the nation’s capital. In this respect, New Life was “not just a battalion of spiritual warriors but a factory for ideas to arm them.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 472

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘factory for ideas to arm them’ framing could anchor an essay on how cultural production (not theology) generates political militancy in religious movements.
• XREF: connects to: A 300,000-pamphlet church-lot leafleting effort flipped Iowa’s Senate race — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 126