Right-wing extremism expert discusses the nature of Christian Dominionism

Dr. James Aho has studied the patterns of white supremacists and radical fringes of Christian Nationalism for decades. He explains what it is now.

Dr. James Aho began examining religious and political extremism decades ago. During the 1990s, his expertise was featured in many outlets as he had studied the Aryan Nations Church, where he interviewed several of its members, including Randy Weaver, who became newsworthy after federal officials surrounded his home in an attempt to apprehend him and killed some of his family members in the process. That event came to be known as Ruby Ridge, and it was a flashpoint during the Clinton Administration over how the government should respond to and treat these groups.

Aho's new book, Maelstrom: Christian Dominionism and Far-Right Insurgence, was published last year. Christian Dominionism is a segment of right-wing politics and religion that is apt to violence and white supremacy. Long on the fringes of society, it’s started to become mainstream in the last few years with the rise of the Make America Great Again movement.

In his book, he discusses how globalization has led to an explosion of fundamentalist movements. People have connected more quickly, so those leading these movements have recruited more followers. Aho also argues against the commonly held perception that people partaking in these causes are dumb or unsophisticated. He paints fundamentalists as people who find themselves in movements, often for understandable reasons that could happen to anyone.

“Some are born into it, so to speak,” Aho said. “Others are recruited into it through friendships, others through love relationships and so on and so forth.”

“One of the most startling and sort of alarming things I learned is that some of these people really are well educated, and some of them have doctorate degrees. I don't mean MD degrees, but PhD degrees, like in history and other kinds of studies. And there is no sign that I could tell or no record of these people being crazy.”

Earlier in his career, Aho spent time interviewing members of the Aryan Nations Church. Randy Weaver denied being a member, but they worshiped there. When Aho interviewed the family, he discovered his wife Vicki Weaver was college-educated and worked in a bookstore.

Many of the women in that group were attracted, as many women are, to older men who are more sophisticated and educated. Unlike most average men, though, those they dated and mated with believed in racial superiority and a traditional—to the point of oppression—view of gender relations. The women embraced those views the longer they stayed within those groups. Then, they had children with whom they instilled the same beliefs.

There are historical examples of white supremacist movements that support Aho’s theories. The most successful white supremacist movement in the 20^th century was in Germany, with the rise of Nazism in the 1930s and 1940s. Germany had been the most sophisticated nation in the world before that, and it is an example of how even the most intelligent people can sometimes not realize that they’ve joined these movements or have rationalized their views in a sophisticated way.

It's very easy in reproductive politics and in liberal circles to dismiss the intelligence and cunning of people in right-wing circles. How could they be as intelligent as us if they hold those views? However, that severely underestimates the ability to plot and develop conspiracies to commit violence and the savvy with which they build movements. It’s not that they’re stupid. It’s that they’re using their intelligence, which is on par with ours, to advance agendas that promote intolerance.

While we may enjoy comedy sketches on The Daily Show that lampoon these people, we must realize that when you get a fuller picture of the person—which is what journalists and scholars are supposed to do—you’ll find that they’re more complicated than portrayed by a comedian who simplifies them through tropes.

It’s also essential for political leaders not to treat the opposition as mentally inferior. While politicians like Marjorie Taylor-Greene may seem absurd with some of the things they say on social media, and her misspellings are ridiculed, it’s also coupled with the fact that she and others were intelligent enough to become the most influential people in conservative circles.

Christian Dominionism also ties into the antiabortion movement. There’s a segment that believes in the Great Replacement Theory, which posits that the American Medical Association and other groups are driven by Jews who want to replace white people with people of color. I’ve written about that in a newsletter published several years ago.

The most obvious example that comes to mind is Canadian author Malcolm Ross’ book, The Real Holocaust: The Attack on Unborn Children and Life Itself. Ross depicts on the cover a Semitic-looking figure digging a grave for fetal remains outside an abortion clinic. According to Ross, abortion was an attack on Christianity. He wrote that Jewish doctors were terminating pregnancies to replace white Christians with groups they could control.

These groups embraced the Dobbs decision, but many didn’t think it went far enough. They want fetal personhood or the belief that fetuses have the same rights as those who were born into the world.

One of the more controversial theories that Aho puts forth is that right-wing extremism peaks every 30 years. He goes back to the founding of the country. Thirty years after that, he said there was an anti-Masonic and anti-Mormon movement. In the 1860s, the Civil War happened. Thirty years later, there was a wave of anti-Catholicism as immigrants entered the country. In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan peaked nationally. In the 1950s, we saw McCarthyism. In the 1980s, it was antiabortion terrorism. And 30 years later, we saw the rise of the Tea Party and MAGA.

Aho thinks these movements eventually wane because their members get older, bored, and cynical about how much change they can effect. Movements that grow in response also gain steam and serve as a political pendulum. Later movements are driven by younger people who felt these ideas were new and edgy.

“If the past is any basis for prediction, that's what's going to happen to the MAGA movement,” Aho said.

Is that happening now? Has the Dobbs decision galvanized a counter-movement to MAGA? Are these right-wingers losing their grip or gaining power?

As a writer and leader in the reproductive rights movement and liberalism, I don’t know the answers to those questions. It’s hard to say it’s losing steam when it controls all three branches of government and has growing cultural power. Even influential celebrities like Joe Rogan and Bill Maher, who had heretofore been staunchly Democratic, have either endorsed or met with Donald Trump. So, is this a case of intelligent people not recognizing what they’re drifting toward? Do they not realize who surrounds them and influences what they say and think?

We’ll see as the next few years play out. But it’s imperative not to dismiss the intelligence of people involved in these movements. It could be catastrophic if we don’t.