And that's all I'll say to set it up
But tell us about the story and where people can find it
Again, it's just another amazing piece of writing. And I have to read it again to fully wrap my head around it
Yeah, thanks so much. The story is the full piece is in Vanity Fair
And that's like the full opus of what I experienced, which was something
It was a lot. It was, you know, what really kind of like piqued my interest was that I had heard that a bunch of like Trump officials were meeting at a bar downtown close to the White House every Sunday for church
And I got a tip and they said, if you want to go there, you can see them
And I'm like, wait, they're meeting at a bar for church? What is going on here
and obviously there's all of the questions about like you know these theocracy this you know like
what's going on right now you saw that you saw the funeral of charlie kirk i mean it felt like
we are there already and and pete hegseth now having a national prayer breakfast at the defense
department and just like all the steps we're starting to see of like the integration of
the church and state and all happening under weirdly the administration of donald trump
But this group is now like 700 strong, like young staffers, all under 35
They're recruiting kids from universities like Liberty University, which is a very Christian church
to come to this church called King's Church that meets in a bar
It meets under disco lights every Sunday, 700 kids, so many of them that there's a group of men
that agreed to line the walls called King's Church Men's Stand or something like that
It's in my piece, but they are so eager to go. To me, I was just like, in my 20s
as a young journalist in Washington or just even as a young staffer
I don't think I'd be waking up early to go to church. They're all with their coffee cups, they're excited
And the thing that caught my attention while I was there was how big the networking aspect of it was
You know, Katie Britt's intern coordinator came and she brought all of her interns with her
This kid from Marjorie Taylor Greene's office went there with all the other kids in the office
because he said, everybody there goes. It's like there's almost a social pressure to go
I'm just sitting back in my chair and I'm hearing two kids behind me
talking about working at State. And it's like, I felt like I was in the cafeteria maybe
of one of these, either on the Hill or in one of the department offices
You know, it just felt like I was in the center of the action in Washington
And then, you know, I learned more about the founding pastors. I mean, they church planted in Washington, D.C
They said, these are my kind of people. We want to be around powerful people. I could see in their eyes that one of the founders was like I would like to be like the you know the minister to a president or something like that I mean he was talking at one point
about moving this to, extending to Berlin or Paris. It's like building these churches in the center of power
And I was actually kind of impressed partially by what they had built, really
I mean, it started with 50 people in a hotel conference room. Then they brought it to the spy museum
only in Washington, right? And then they were at a bar and now they're looking for space
But, you know, they say, oh, it's not political. It's like, yeah
everything in Washington is political. And from what I had really gathered
from a lot of the young people, like they saw the value in it. They had a very, very intense internship program
Like they have an internship mentorship program at the church. There's a lot of reason to be a part of it
And afterwards they were just like, you know, it felt like there was a lot of networking happening at church. So I thought
there were so many different angles and just being there. I mean, they were passing around
I couldn't help but like point out the irony. They're passing around little shot glasses filled
with what would be the blood of Christ for Catholics. I know Protestants don't call it
that. And I was called out on that. But, you know, and I was like, you know, they all took
shots of it at the same time. And I was thinking to myself, like, this is like a pious drink
game because we're in a bar. I mean, it was you could see the bar. It was it was really it's really
something else, only something you can see in D.C. And I'd be curious to hear what you think
about it, Steve. And like if these kind of movements concern you, is this like another
aspect of conservative ink where you're kind of it's like it's funneling people into the
conservative world? Or is this just, hey, these kids are lonely in D.C. They want a church
There's nothing wrong there. Okay, there's a little bit of networking and they help each other get jobs
I mean, one of the founders came from the Heritage and there were a lot of people from Heritage there
I mean, I met a girl who got a job at Heritage through going to the church. You know, it's a bit of a spiritual LinkedIn, you could say
Is there any crosses on the wall in the church? Are there posters of Trump or are there pictures of Trump
No, no. No, it's not that overtly like it's not overtly political, although Josh Hawley did speak there
But there are no there are no pictures of Trump. There are no crosses. That was weird to me, too
But in the backdrop. Yeah. They do they preach the message of Jesus Christ or is it something else
Oh, no, they definitely preach the message of Jesus Christ. And in fact, it's definitely like a more almost like ancient ritual
They say the Nicene Creed. There are no stunts. It's very long and kind of boring
But they baptized 250 people over eight years. I mean, more than that, actually, at this point
And they see this as their conversion rate. Like they're building a real operation
It kind of impressive So I when I was when I was there it kind of brought me back to when I was a kid because there was an evangelical church Even though we grew up in Jersey there was an evangelical church about a mile or two away and they had a youth group And that is what the
evangelicals, I think, understand that the Catholics don't. Because Catholics, it's like
you go to church, you do your thing, you go back home, you run to your car, and then you get it over with. Now we're a week, done. But evangelicals, they make it a part of
your life. You become a part of a men's group, a women's group, a Bible study. There's youth groups
There's all sorts of ways to bring people in. And I loved the youth group. And I was a preteen
and I really wanted to be part of the youth group. I was like, I need to be baptized. I found Jesus
316. You have to baptize me. I'm crying. I'm begging my parents, like, please let me go to
the church. Please baptize me again. They're like, you've already been baptized. And I'm like
please, please, please. I want to go to the church. It's so much better than Catholics. And I'm in Catholic school. My parents are like, you're Catholic. No. And so they shut it down. And
by the time I got over it, I was in high school and couldn't care less anymore. But the funny
thing to me is that they moved to North Carolina and now they're evangelicals and they got baptized
and they're very like, they're really into it. I mean, really, really into it. They're part of
their men's group and their women's group. And my mom watches the kids and my dad helps people
And I think it's great for them. It's a little different. But there's, there's, you know
when I told my mom about the piece, the first thing she said to me was like, am I going to have to apologize to my pastor for this? And they talk about politics at church
You know, I mean, and it's sort of like stuck in my ear
It's like it's not explicit. They're not telling you what to think
I don't think it's the same way some churches really are more open politically. But there's just an implied like kind of conservatism to it
There's implied like, well, you know, you're pro-life. So I don't I don't know
I never I didn't need a single Democrat there, even though they claim that the Democrats went to the church
Well, that tells you something about it. It's a partisan church, means it's a political church
And what I would say about this is that I remember early in my career, I did a race in Kentucky
and I was totally fascinated by these rattlesnake handling churches where the pastors got the rattlesnakes up
And I went to one, and I stood in the back of it. In fact, if you look up on Wikipedia, fatal rattlesnake bites and where they where they happened, you can you can read through the decades, you know, pastor so and so picked up the rattlesnake worship service, bit him in the face
Right. And, you know, if you live in rattlesnake country, right, best way to avoid getting bit by one is don't touch one
Don't putt with the snake. And so I think that when you have a handmaid tale type of theology that Pete Hegseth supports his pastor that says that slavery was a good thing women shouldn have the right to vote in Jesus name That that is blasphemous and that people of faith should do it
I think, you know, Paula, Pastor Paula, the White House faith advisor, is a 10-star hustler, right
The insanity, the speaking in tongues. So the greatest invention, I believe, in American history was the peaceful transition of power
And hands down, the greatest idea in history is the separation of church and state
And so when you see people overtly trying to say to an incredibly ignorant country that the founders were evangelical Christians who signed the declaration to be closer to Jesus and people believe it, it's propaganda
It's a lie. And so when you see Religion Fused to politics
Where men Proclaiming God's name We have the power to do A, B, and C
Those are the most evil ideologies on earth And they are the deadliest and the bloodiest
And you see that playing out in Iran And the truth is That
We have talked in this country For many, many, many years About extremism
Through the Islamic lens But here's the deal And this is one of my deepest beliefs
A religious nut Is a religious nut Is a religious nut There are Christian religious nuts
And extremists And there are Jewish Religious nuts and extremists And there are
Islamic extremist Nuts They're all nuts They're all crazy They're all illiberal
They all are an affront to God But Christian nationalism On the scorecard
Has killed a lot more people Than all of the other Extremism
And the trick is, is that if you go back and you read the letters of Stonewall Jackson
or Jefferson Davis or Alexander Stevens, who gave the cornerstone speech of the Confederacy
that talked about, we are a nation under God that follows God's commandment, which is to
slave black people and anytime you hear a politician preaching that god wants them to subjugate one
group of people for not believing the dogma that they're pushing you know that you are in the present