How a Data-Driven Christian Nationalist Machine Helped Trump in Power | US news

By his own account, Bill Dallas grew up in an unhappy family. Her mother had been sexually assaulted by her father and had her first pregnancy at age 17. Papa Dallass was an alcoholic and depressed who died at 51. Dallas was an intense and obsessive child, pursued by a feeling of inadequacy. You could say it was wired for the bitter scheme of the religion of sin and salvation.

But despite his difficult beginnings in life, he had clear talents. He attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, known for its extensive academic offerings. He dreamed of becoming an actor and after graduating with honors, he moved to San Francisco. Endowed with photogenic appearances, he modeled for a large retail chain. Soon, Dallas was at the center of an energetic social whirlwind. He and his friends rented stretch limousines and people gave him the nickname Mister GQ. Soon, his relationships began to bear fruit and to be tempted. Dallas found its way into real estate, then money started pouring in. But even as he accumulated outward signs of success, Dallas could not shake the anxieties of his heart. Then things really collapsed.

Dallas has publicly provided few details of his crimes, but has been found guilty of embezzlement and robbed of jail. He was fined $ 772,000 for illegal contributions to six candidates for the Oakland municipal offices.

As Dallas tells the story, he spent time in Susanville then San Quentin prisons, moving into a cell on the fourth floor of the North Block. This is where his life started to change.

His prison experiences launched him into a network of thousands of pastors, on the Project Blitz steering committee, and in the cockpit of tax-subsidized Christian nationalism, a data-driven voter turnout machine.

When Dallas got used to life in prison and with the help of some lifers he met there, he deepened his connection to God. He got a job at the prison TV station, becoming a producer and host on the air.

When he left prison, he said, he was in the best mental, physical and spiritual form of his life. But he still hadn't paid his debts. Dallas was liable to several fines and taxes, only one being close to $ 750,000. He immediately looked for ways to make a living.

In March 1998, Dallas had a holy visit, telling him to start a satellite network offering ministry training programs to churches across the country. And he designed a national network of evangelical pastors and other church leaders. It turns out that this was exactly what the growing Christian nationalist movement needed.

With the help of Silicon Valley businessmen, including Reid Rutherford and venture capitalist John Mumford, the Dallass Church Communication Network has grown at an exponential rate.

But Dallas had a bolder vision. Working with thousands of pastors has enabled him to reach literally millions of the faithful and potentially millions of voters. With marketing and communications increasingly driven by data mining, he knew there had to be a better way to mobilize conservative Christian nations.

Dallas quickly established a successful partnership with George Barna, the California evangelical pollster. It was a match made in paradise. Dallas realized that its vast network could collect data and use it to create more efficient messaging. And now he had the resources to get there.

Dallas created United in Purpose (UiP) and, by November 2016, it had thousands of conservative churches close at hand. According to Barna, all attached to the idea that politics was one of the spheres of life in which their faith should have an influence, they strategically supported support for a variety of pro-life, pro-government candidates -family and limited in swing states.

The initiative has catapulted Dallas into the upper echelons of power. He appears on the list of members of the Southern Poverty Law Centers 2014 disclosed for the Council for National Policy. When Donald Trump met privately with evangelical leaders in June 2016, Bill Dallas helped organize the event.

The inner circle of organizations included familiar names. These included David Barton, who acts as director, contributing two hours a week to the cause but earning no salary according to UiPs form 990s. Another director is Jim Garlow, the politically connected preacher. And Seasoned Republican Robert D McEwen, commonly known as Bob, was paid $ 18,000 for two hours a week in 2017.

It is not surprising to see the name of David Bartons appear here: it is the Wheres Waldo of the Christian nationalist movement. Garlow is recognizable from the Californian right-wing political scene; a key force behind the adoption of the 2008 amendment against marriage equality in California, known as Proposal 8.

Bob McEwen is a revealing addition. His lobbying work has placed him in the business and on the payroll of a number of international politicians. He has long-standing ties to the Fellowship Foundation, also known as Family, who organizes the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual gathering of about 4,000 participants, organized by members of Congress. This breakfast has long served as a back door to American power, according to Jeff Sharlet, who produced a Netflix documentary on the family. Family representatives (dispatch) to build relationships with foreign leaders, says Sharlet. The more invisible you can make your organization, the more influence it will have.

In December 2015, Chris Vickery, an information technology specialist who researched data breaches as a hobby, stumbled upon a huge database of 191 million American citizens. It contained data belonging to registered voters, from cell phone numbers to evidence of possession of firearms. A second breach contained even more detailed information, including income levels, whether the person was a Nascar fan, had a biblical lifestyle, or had an interest in hunting or fishing.

After a few detections, Vickery thought he had a clear idea of ​​where it all came from. He was linked, he said, to Pioneer Solutions Incorporated, a company managed by Bill Dallas. He was also linked to a campaign called Champion the Vote, led by UiP.

But the real significance of Vickerys' discovery was the number of voters on whom UiP had access to information.

We have about 200 million files, so we have pretty much the entire voting population in our database, said Dallas. What we do is we check what will cause someone to vote one way or not to vote at all.

UiP assigns points to each individual in its database for characteristics that match the conservative religious voting models. Individuals receive points if they are members of conservative churches or if they educate their children at home. They also get points if they seem to oppose marriage equality or abortion rights, or if they hunt, fish or follow Nascar.

If (your score) totaled more than 600 points, then we realized that you were very serious about your faith, explains Dallas.

The primary mission of the UiPs is to ensure that all 600 pointers are registered to vote. For the 2012 electoral cycle, it aimed to register 5 million conservative Christians, a number that Dallas believed could decide on the presidency. In 2008, as he pointed out, key states such as Florida, North Carolina and Missouri were decided by low margins. The registration of conservative Christians could make a difference.

To do this, Dallas was able to access an army of willing volunteers, many of whom were recruited from organizations such as the Family Research Council or conservative churches.

All major political operations now rely on big data and activist networks in electoral campaigns. A key difference, however, is that the UiPs' voter turnout machine is at the top of a long pyramid that operates largely in the religious sphere, almost entirely exempt from taxes and Sheltered from public view.

So where does UiP get its funding and other forms of support? UiP president and multimillionaire technology Ken Eldred is undoubtedly a source of support. Eldred has given generously to Republican campaigns, including those of Rick Perry and Alabama's former disgraced hope, Roy Moore. At a breakfast hosted by the UiP in 2018, Eldred said the next midterm elections would be for judges, judges, judges before leading the audience in prayer for the Lord Jesus Christ be the King of America again.

According to UiPs documents, their main funder is by far only one individual: Gen. From Division Vernon B Lewis Jr. Lewis had a brilliant career in the military and, upon his retirement, he co-founded two companies. The first military training and education company was fined $ 3.2 million to resolve allegations of false workloads on a contract to support the US military in Afghanistan.

Lewiss' other company, Cypress International, consults with the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal government agencies and claims to have a deep understanding of business opportunities in the defense and homeland security sectors.

Lewis also founded the Lone Star Eagle, which offers syndicated content from the Breitbart News Network and the Daily Caller. His contributions to the political arena are notable. He was one of the main sponsors of the 2019 Values ​​Summit of Faith, Family and Freedom Gala Dinner. At the dinner, Trump delivered a long address with the usual mix of lies, bragging and 39; invective, and was received with several standing ovations.

On March 7, 2016, Dallas and Eldred appeared with Marcus and Joni Lamb on a Christian broadcast network, to deliver a clear message to viewers: vote the right way.

The lamb cut what it meant. Recently, same-sex marriage has become the law of the land, he said, frowning. And that mainly happened because Christians did not vote in the presidential election, and very liberal Supreme Court judges were appointed to the bench.

Dallas was the guy with the numbers and a plan: 90 million Christians, OK, and 39 million are not involved, he said. If they got involved, the scent of this country would end up having a scent similar to that of Christ.

In response to a question about what churches can do, Dallas continued: They can go to championthevote.com. Help the pastor to determine who is registered or not in his congregation. Referring to the special UiPs toolbox for pastors, Dallas says: We supply as I make my brownies, just add water tools. Contact us! We have a ministry consultant who will work with each church to help them get their people to vote on election day.

The IPU pastors-centered initiative, Project 75, aims to mobilize 75% of church members for VOTE. The program includes a Church Voter Consultation Tool, which promises to run your church database in one go. It provides reports on what percentage of a congregation is registered to vote, what percentage actually voted in the last election, and after each election, they provide a follow-up report to track progress.

UiP was at the epicenter of a dense network of faith-based initiatives aimed at transforming conservative Christians for Trump and Pence. The religious right is not a single organization, and yet it is surprisingly well organized. It can be perceived as a popular movement, not responding formally to a hierarchy of command and control. But it is the great strategists who, to a largely underestimated degree, act as architects and engineers.

As the 2018 midterm elections approached, Dallas appeared on the Andrew Wommacks Truth & Liberty Coalition to discuss the Trump-Russia scandal.

Christians, we have no right to sit and not to commit. We have a duty and a responsibility, said Dallas. It is so important to know how to lay the groundwork for judges, both at the level of the Supreme Court and at the federal level, in order to establish the right judges. Referring to a Christian nationalist voter awareness event, which would take place at Wommacks Charis Bible College, Dallas said: It is the Super Bowl where Christians are going to come together in our country.

At one point in 2018, the United in Purpose website was cleaned up. There was only one home page left. Nevertheless, his profile within Christianity nationalist the movement continued to climb. UiP was co-sponsor of the 2018 Values ​​Voters Summit in Washington DC, alongside the Family Research Council and other prominent organizational actors.

UiP also distributes awards to leaders of the hard right. At a ceremony in 2017, which took place at the Trump International hotel in Washington, the winners included the Federalist Societys Leonard Leo; Frank Gaffney, who warned against a Muslim Brotherhood plot to infiltrate the conservative movement; and Hillsdale College president Larry Arnn. Other prizes were awarded to Sean Hannity and Richard Viguerie. The awards were presented by Virginia Ginni Thomas, the president of Liberty Consulting and the wife of Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas. In 2018, it was Fox News host Mark Levins to collect the prize for the exceptional impact of the UiPs.

It remains to be seen whether the visibility of the UiP outside the Christian nationalist greenhouse will increase as the 2020 presidential election approaches. In early 2018, before its removal, a question appeared on the UiP site: is it possible to transform American culture by bringing together conservative Christian organizations to act in unity to achieve their common goals? The answer was a resounding YES. And, he said, it was just beginning The transformation through unity is a reality that is gaining momentum as we look to 2018, 2020 and beyond.

This is an edited excerpt from The Power Worshipers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart (Bloomsbury, $ 28.00) March 3