Ministers of Propaganda (Scott M. Coley) -- A Review

MINISTERS OF PROPAGANDA: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious Right. By Scott M. Coley. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2024. 276 pages.

It seems as if whenever I turn on my computer and check my Facebook or Twitter (now X) newsfeeds, I discover someone I know sharing false information. These are good people—many of whom have been friends or acquaintances I’ve known most of my life. Nevertheless, I believe they have been conned by what Scott Coley calls the Ministers of Propaganda. While I might want to respond with a fact check, that doesn't work well. In recent years, facts have become malleable. We get to have our own alternative facts! One of the biggest contributors to the misinformation that gets shared are representatives of the Religious Right. Understanding why people accept misinformation, falsehoods, and lies, might prove helpful to those with ears to hear and eyes to see. But hearing and seeing is not easy when you have been sucked into a word marked by the anti-intellectualism Mark Noll revealed years ago in his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, along with social practices rooted in racism and sexism.

Our guide to the world of the Ministers of Propaganda is Scott M. Coley, a lecturer in philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University, who focuses his studies on the philosophy of religion, political philosophy, and moral epistemology. This book, his first, as far as I can tell, brings together all three of these scholarly interests, revealing a world that seems religiously oriented but is, in many ways, rather corrupt.

In Ministers of Propaganda, Scott Coley explores the forms of evangelical anti-intellectualism that Noll addressed in his book, which includes the growing presence of young earth creationism, along with social scandals such as white supremacy and patriarchalism. He points out that white evangelicals were among the last Americans to abandon racial segregation or acknowledge systemic racism. They have also opposed efforts to address matters of gender equality and the rights of women in church and society. Coley writes in his introduction that "American evangelicalism's social and intellectual infirmities are mutually reinforcing.” Thus, “social practices shape beliefs about what others deserve and which authorities are legitimate; those beliefs, in turn, shape social practices." He writes of a feedback loop, which is a form of ideology, that reinforces these practices. This ideology is then "facilitated by propaganda that manipulates political, intellectual, or religious ideals in order to preempt dissent and silence perspectives that threaten an ideology's legitimacy" (p. 2). In Ministers of Propaganda Coley focuses on both the propaganda and the "ministers" who utilize it for their own purposes. If you want to know why so many evangelicals have embraced Donald Trump despite his lack of morals, crudeness, vulgarity, and divisiveness, Coley's book will prove very helpful.

In Ministers of Propaganda, Coley begins by laying out the relationship between ideology and propaganda by focusing on the role gender hierarchy plays in the ideology of the Religious Right. The ideological foundation of this movement is an appeal to "common sense." It is a concept bandied about on Facebook or X. The idea here is that the Right’s moral, intellectual, and scientific judgments are based on common sense thinking. Why consult experts when you can use your common sense to interpret Scripture, which is said to be clear on its face and easily interpreted according to common sense, often using proof texts to prove the point. What is argued in support of gender hierarchy or patriarchy has also been used to support slavery. There is much to this discussion that lies beyond what I can share in a review, however, this is an important point that needs to be understood, because it affects how people read and apply the Bible to many aspects of life, including gender and racial hierarchies. In this first chapter, we hear about people like John McArthur and Albert Mohler, both of whom embrace fundamentalist views of the Bible. Believing the Bible to be inerrant, they read Scripture in a way that reflects an authoritarian mindset, which they then apply to their discussions of gender hierarchy. Thus, there are passages in Scripture that uphold gender hierarchy. Since the Bible is inerrant, we need to follow these dictates.

Coley moves his discussion from Gender Hierarchy to racial hierarchy in Chapter 2. The ideology at play here includes an appeal to white supremacy, even if it is not acknowledged. Most white evangelicals disavow racism, and yet they embrace ideologies that reinforce it. We see this, Coley notes, in appeals to colorblindness and merit, which are in turn used to support the status quo that supports white (male) supremacy. We see this at play in the current backlash against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, as well as changes to history curriculums that downplay slavery, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement. Proponents of racial hierarchy once appealed to the Bible to support their views, defending, for example, slavery. They often appeal to the curse of Ham or Canaan in Genesis 9 to explain white superiority. That is not as common, but it’s still there. More implicit defenses of racial hierarchy appeal to color-blindness and meritocracy, but whites remain in power.

One of the most important contributors to the anti-intellectualism of the Religious Right and its political efforts is the ideology of Young Earth Creationism, which has taken hold in much of evangelicalism. Coley discusses this movement in Chapter 3— "Creationism and Theological Propaganda." I found this chapter especially interesting since I once embraced it. I read the books and listened to the proponents make their case. They were compelling—that is until you discover that they succeed not on the facts but on their ability to confuse and distract with their debating skills. What Coley does in Chapter 3 is describe the origins and growth of a movement that has its roots in the visions of Ellen G. White, the founder of Seventh Day Adventism. Her teachings on creation were first propagated within SDA circles and then eventually passed on to representatives of evangelicalism, including Henry Morris, a professor of civil engineering, and fundamentalist pastor Tim LaHaye. From there it became a key component of evangelical theology, propagated by evangelical leaders such as Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Seminary, and John McArthur, a megachurch pastor in Southern California who has his own college and seminary.  While proponents argue that this is a biblical view of science, it is really pseudoscience that in turn undergirds evangelical responses to climate change among other policy concerns. While proponents argue that this is in line with traditional interpretations of both the Bible and Science, Coley makes the case that it is new and not old, such that old earth creationism was dominant until quite recently. Thus, Chapter 4 continues the discussion begun in Chapter 3 under the title “Creation Science and the Culture War Machine.” He reveals the methods of Creation Science, including what Kenneth Ham (a leading proponent) calls “historical science,” that roots everything in so-called flood geology, which argues that the apparent age of the earth is the result of a global flood several thousand years ago. There are important implications that emerge from this movement that help support the current culture wars. He writes that "the religious right's allergy to 'secular' expertise is thus a product of the tension between these fictional legitimizing narratives and facts that call those narratives into question." (p. 135).

Having laid out the various forms of right-wing efforts to undermine expertise when it comes to reading scripture or doing science, Coley next addresses the rise of authoritarianism in the West. Even in the United States, we are seeing a developing appreciation for the authoritarianism of people like Vladimir Putin and Victor Orban, an ideology that is embraced by Donald Trump and his supporters, many of whom look to Orban as their model of “Christian” leadership. So, Chapter 5, which is titled "Race, Reagan, and the Twilight of Democracy," explores the intersection of conservative views of race, Reagan's ascent, and the current challenges to democracy. Standing at the center of this reality is what he calls the conservative dilemma of recruiting enough popular support to win elections while serving the interests of a small portion of the electorate (the wealthy). The efforts used in support of this agenda include voter suppression as well as appeals to culture war issues, such as abortion, which distract from the economic elements of the movement. In this chapter, Coley discusses Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the political developments that led to the current situation. So, we hear about Barry Goldwater, George Wallace, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and their descendants who have backed Donald Trump, which have led to efforts to connect culture wars with economic austerity.

What is introduced in Chapter 5 is developed further in Chapter 6— "Christo-Authoritarianism." In this chapter, Coley discusses the attempts to describe the founding of the United States as a Christian nation by developing an image of a mythic past where the founders were all good evangelicals. This is combined with a sense of victimhood, such that white evangelicals embrace a politics of grievance, arguing that the wider culture is discriminating against them. This is an idea Donald Trump has willingly embraced and fostered, turning himself into a martyr for the cause. The message that elites and Progressives are standing against evangelicals is proclaimed by folks like Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, and pseudo-historian David Barton, among others. He points out that this effort is sustained by international organizations like the Edmund Burke Foundation and Victor Orban's Danbury Institute. He shows how a growing number of American conservatives have embraced the authoritarian ideology of Orban, including people such as Rod Dreher and Tucker Carlson, who have become emissaries for Orban's version of Christo-authoritarianism.

So, having heard the bad news about the efforts of the Ministers of Propaganda on the Right, is there any hope for a different future? In response to that question, Coley offers us a final chapter focused on "Resisting Christo-Authoritarianism" (Chapter 7). In this chapter, he seeks to offer an alternative to Christian nationalism and authoritarianism, which is undergirded by anti-intellectualism and social hierarchy, with Christian morality as the key. That he would suggest we embrace Christian morality as a response to Christian nationalism and its related efforts, but he offers it as a response to the calls for a return to morality by the Religious Right. What he has revealed throughout the book, and reiterates in the final chapter, is that this movement’s ideology has little to do with morality, at least Christian morality. That goes for its propagandists as well. In essence, he suggests that the movement leaders have embraced an amoral ideology and then couched it in terms of a Christian moralism that allows for social hierarchies, including slavery, to exist, as well as excuse amoral political figures such as Donald Trump. While Coley doesn’t believe that he is going to convert the mass of evangelicals to the alternative vision of morality that he offers in this chapter, he wants to demonstrate how Christian faith can inform our moral sensibilities as well as our political views. He starts by arguing that many conservative evangelicals are moral relativists, even if they don't think they are. But he points out that "in the hands of ecclesial authorities who've insulated themselves from expert critique, sacred texts become a vehicle for legitimizing all manner of ungodliness, injustice, and abuse, in the name of an Authority that is transcendent and therefore unavailable for interrogation" (pp. 192-193). There is much to this response, but the key is: "When we are no longer concerned with legitimizing the established order, we are free to abandon theological narratives that the religious right uses to legitimize that order—along with any antagonism toward expertise that poses a threat to those theological narratives. Thus, the antidote to Christo-authoritarianism is the pursuit of justice over against the pursuit of social arrangements that reinforce my own power and privilege" (pp. 211-212).

One need not give up Christian morality to respond to the rise of the Religious Right. We would be wise to return to the teachings of Jesus, with their emphasis on justice. Scott Coley offers us an important resource that uncovers the ideological roots that have led to the current divides in our society, divides that threaten our democracy and way of life. It threatens the future of our world by undermining modern science, including climate science. Coley covers a lot of territory in relatively few pages. He touches on gender and racial hierarchy, along with the increasing reach of young earth creationism, along with the rise of authoritarianism in our midst. There is great depth to what he shares in the book, but Scott Coley’s Ministers of Propaganda is quite accessible. One can tell from reading the book that Coley is both a devout Christian but he is not only concerned about the nation but the church as well. Whether what he has written here will convert people who have embraced the Religious Right is unclear, but he does offer us important tools to understand our neighbors. There is always hope that at least a few folks will read it and see a different future for themselves, the church, the nation, and the world.