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How “Divine Providence” Is Christian Nationalism’s Poison Pill

And how to push back on these talking points with receptive, persuadable audiences

Tomorrow, 29 October 2025 at Noon eastern, please join me at Substack LIVE to discuss “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”
by Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

At 10am eastern tomorrow, 29 October 2025, I’m chatting with at . Catch our weekly Substack LIVE at LS. We’re talking about the cessation of SNAP benefits as part of Project 2025’s plan: To turn all welfare assistance into forced religious indoctrination in exchange for help. JOIN US.

Next month’s Democracy Book Club read is Strongmen by . Ruth will be joining us to talk about how autocrats are innovating. I’ll share the date and time of our discussion soon.

silver cross pendant on brown wooden surface

Photo by shahir shah on Unsplash

Yesterday, I wrote a newsletter about Christian Nationalism and the brainwashing term “Divine Providence.” Please catch up below if you missed it.

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has written reams about the nihilism of White Christian Nationalism and similar cults. Here’s one example.

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As the United States careens toward a recession or worse, the one commodity we have in abundance is hate, which has become normalized and weaponized by the Trump regime. While hate is nothing new, there has never been an American president who has used the kind of rhetoric we’re hearing now—much less one that has taken this kind of hateful…
Read more
a month ago · 193 likes · 23 comments · Jim Stewartson

In today’s newsletter, I approach this programmed nihilism from my own experience to show readers how radicalized, indoctrinated White Christian Nationalists hear terms like “the AntiChrist,” “the End Times,” and “Divine Providence,” and become like Raymond Shaw in the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate:

A brainwashed, un-empathetic nihilist who harms and murders without thought, guilt, or remorse.

Because this is a personal story I’m sharing by video, I’m paywalling it. Upgrade to paid to support this work.

Please remember as you listen to me:

  1. White Christian Nationalists, whatever sect, are indoctrinated to believe they can never question “Divine Providence.”

  2. They have heard this from various (usually white) men behind lecterns and pulpits for years or decades. They do not question the (usually white) men who say these things. They are programmed to never question.

  3. “Divine Providence” engenders all kinds of nihilism and lacking empathy. If “Divine Providence” (according to some white man who invokes it) means going to war and killing thousands or millions, God demanded it (so these usually white men say.) If people suffer to fulfill “Divine Providence,” it was part of God’s plan (these usually white men-posing-as-gods claim.) Like Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate, WCN’s deploy the term “Divine Providence” to absolve themselves of guilt, sorrow, or empathy.

  4. Anyone who says “I know what God meant here, and this is Divine Providence at work” is a liar, a charlatan, and a fraud. They are deploying that term as a means of power, money, and control, not because they have an intimate pathway to the mind or will of any god. Do not remain in their congregations or support their work.