Book Review: The Power Worshipers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism

In her insightful book, Katherine Stewart explores the ways in which religious nationalists are hijacking America’s systems of government and education.

This book had been sitting on my shelf for a while. I’m not sure why I took so long to pick it up and start reading it. Perhaps because, on some level, I was afraid of what I’d read. I tend to get a bit stressed out when I read these kinds of books, because they remind me of how organized the religious right is, and how dangerous they are to me and other queer people.

However, now that I’ve finished it, I have to say that The Power Worshipers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, is one of the most important books published on religion and political life in American in the past 10 years. It’s exhaustively detailed and researched, and yet it was one of those books that I simply couldn’t put down. It’s absolutely necessary reading for anyone interested in learning about the ways in which Christian nationalists — those who wish to see the United States become, in essence, a theocracy governed by biblical literalism — have become increasingly powerful over the last twenty years and why they stand poised to achieve…