Yesterday
Dr. Scott Coley: Ministers of Propaganda and the ideology of the Religious Right
Why does rhetoric in American evangelicalism often feel so self-serving, authoritarian, and antichrist? Scholars, theologians, and even some evangelicals are sounding the alarm on the internal dangers plaguing this subculture, dangers such as nationalism, abuse, and political despotism. Much of the pushback plays out on the battlefield of “what the Bible says” or theology. But when these problems are critiqued through the combined lenses of philosophy and political ethics, we discover what is keeping the dangers entrenched: propaganda.
Dr. Scott Coley is a philosopher, scholar, and consultant whose research interests include philosophy of religion, moral epistemology, and political philosophy. In his book Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious Right, Scott unravels the language and biblical prooftexting that support Christo-authoritarianism: an ideology that presses evangelical theology into the service of authoritarian politics. His historically-informed argument unsettles white evangelical orthodoxy on a range of issues and convictions; convictions not as unchanging as evangelical leaders would have us believe.
In the first half of this conversation, Scott walks us through a specific kind of propaganda common in white American evangelicalism: rhetoric that appropriates an ideal in order to perpetuate intellectual and social practices that wind up contradicting the ideal itself. He explains that we buy into propaganda because of motivated reasoning and ideology, at which point the Gospel becomes corrupted. Then, Mark and Scott discuss the embodiment of this propaganda in the real world, how it undermines the very institutions white evangelicals have built in service to themselves, and explore how we can decode this propaganda and, as we do, recover Jesus's teachings to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Purchase your copy of Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious Right
Read Mark’s review of Scott’s book.
Follow Scott on Instagram (scott_m_coley) and Bluesky (@scottmcoley.bsky.social)
Follow Mark on Instagram (markhackett.faith) and Threads (@markhackett)