When women point out that “pro life” legislation and Court decisions are really “anti-woman,” far too many men respond with verbal pats on the head. “Tut tut, little woman–don’t you think you are being a bit hysterical?
Well, it appears that Talking Points Memo has “brought the receipts.” The site has acquired a trove of documents from a secretive group aiming to restore White Christian heterosexual men to their “rightful” dominance.
A secret, men-only right-wing society with members in influential positions around the country is on a crusade: to recruit a Christian government that will form after the right achieves regime change in the United States, potentially via a “national divorce.”
It sounds like the stuff of fantasy, but it’s real. The group is called the Society for American Civic Renewal (the acronym is pronounced “sacker” by its members). It is open to new recruits, provided you meet a few criteria: you are male, a “trinitarian” Christian, heterosexual, an “un-hyphenated American,” and can answer questions about Trump, the Republican Party, and Christian Nationalism in the right way. One chapter leader wrote to a prospective member that the group aimed to “secure a future for Christian families.”
The documents spell out the aims and objectives of what TPM calls “a shadowy network occupying the commanding heights of business, politics, and culture, open only to a select, elite few, committed to reshaping the United States to align it with the group’s radical values. ”
The members of this all-male organization are all White, well-to-do, devout Christian traditionalists engaged in politics.
Until TPM began reporting this story several weeks ago, the membership of the group had remained largely secret. Its existence was known and has been previously reported on by The Guardian, but the details of the group’s mission, membership criteria, board, and internal communications remained outside of public view. Beginning late Thursday, some of the leading members of the group identified by TPM through our reporting came forward publicly to acknowledge their memberships in the organization and published an internal document that TPM had already obtained. They said they were doing so in anticipation of another story by The Guardian.
These aren’t the pathetic “Proud Boys,” assorted Incels, or other misfits we’ve come to expect. TPM identified members: the president of the Claremont Institute, several Harvard Law School graduates, and leading businessmen in communities scattered across America. (Evidently, the man who incorporated the group nationally is an “Indiana shampoo tycoon who refers to himself as “maximum leader” and blogs about Rhodesian anti-guerilla tactics and how the must-read dystopian fiction novel for white supremacists, The Camp of the Saints, is actually a vision of America’s present.”)
Group members hold a distinct vision of America as a latter-day ancient Rome: a crumbling, decadent empire that could soon be replaced by a Christian theocracy. To join, the group demands faithfulness, virtue, and “alignment,” which it describes as “deference to and acceptance of the wisdom of our American and European Christian forebears in the political realm, a traditional understanding of patriarchal leadership in the household, and acceptance of traditional Natural Law in ethics more broadly.” More practically, members must be able to contribute either influence, capability, or wealth in helping SACR further its goals.
“Most of all, we seek those who understand the nature of authority and its legitimate forceful exercise in the temporal realm,” a mission statement reads.
And of course, in the time-honored tradition of “follow the money,”
Once in the group, the statement says, members can expect perks: “direct preferential treatment for members, especially in business,” and help in advancement “in all areas of life” from other members.
The report–which you really do need to read in its entirety–traces how TPM uncovered the group’s existence and origins, and confirmed its core mission: “to create a mini-state within a state, composed entirely of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian men. It’s explicitly patriarchal, demanding that group members assume a dominant role at home, and celebrates the use of force and existence of authority.”
Two paragraphs ought to alarm any non-male, non-White, non-Christian, non-straight person who reads the extensive, linked report:
What sets SACR apart is that its members come from and are recruited from the upper crust of American society. They are wealthy — independent wealth is a requirement for membership, per documents TPM obtained. And they are credentialed.
SACR offers a redoubt for powerful people who take the culture war extremely seriously and believe in their bones that hemorrhaging church membership, the Obergefell decision on same-sex marriage, and the ebbing status of Christian men in American society are an existential threat to their vision for America, and who have the means to build a society on a different path.
Katie Britt would fit right in…..
This reads like a novel! We live in perilous times.
Scary rich white boys with holy books. These types can inflict real horror on others.
These paragraphs should alarm anyone male, White, Christian or straight, too.
Times are tough for satirists, and now for dystopian novelists.
Talk about a “deep state.” One element that is noticeable in Republican/MAGA rhetoric is that of projection – accusing their enemy of doing exactly what they themselves are involved in and planning.
The Holy Roman Empire revisited – dictatorship under the shadow of the cross.
This sounds like Opus Dei meets the Federalist Society meets the Chamber of Commerce.
My internal question is what the heck are these men afraid of? Then I ponder how pathetic they are.
The word “Claremont” popped up when I checked on credentials of people who teach at Hillsdale College. There are several entities with “Claremont” in their name, not all involved in the right-wing effort to erase the history of The Constitution and replace it w/a christofascist ideal. From what I can tell the institution/entities do not advance actual history. This is the way in which one local politician calls himself a “constitutional conservative.”
“…who have the means to build a society on a different path.”
It sounds like a cult looking in the Deep South to build a commune, maybe in Texas. I wouldn’t want to be a female spouse of these cult members. Handmaid tales.
I thought ALEC was bad enough for the USA, but this cult might be even scarier. I wonder how many folks in Washington are SACR members.
Btw, Katie Britt lied about her border story. It actually happened a decade ago under GWB.
https://apnews.com/article/katie-britt-mexico-border-sex-trafficking-f74c95d1f7e3e5b9a660d9efc51ab214
Anita, I stopped by to say the same thing. This is why the radicalized far right has no difficulty believing the QAnon conspiracy theory, and other “deep state” conspiracies. As always, it’s simple projection.
Really, they tell on themselves: if the far right accuses the left of something “crazy”, it’s evidence that they are already doing something similar themselves.
Susan, it is fear. These pathetic men can’t conceive of a world where they share anything; they must dominate, they must win. Trump is a perfect example. To him, a compromise (in a negotiation, say) is a loss. They must keep everyone else oppressed, controlled and terrified. They fear the uprising, which is what they see happening around them. They have a slaver’s mentality.
Hmmmmm…the profile…rich white man …sounds like the roster for Indiana’s Republican gubernatorial race. Ok, there is one outlier on the R list.
How pathetically and horribly sad that this once great nation has to once again endure the specter of idiots who abuse their “power” because they have money. I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but until the Trump cult energy and philosophy is defeated soundly, it will only get worse for women, minorities and “hyphenated” people of all stripes.
Britt was not just pathetic, but since it was recorded before Biden’s speech, it stank of really bad, “hysterical” theater.
This is appalling but in no way surprising. These are the guys who have been running things for a century, at least. Now they have had to go underground because the evolution of our society is leaving them behind and they know it. They are just more desperate now that they cannot take their power for granted. Freedom of the press is the asteroid that is making these dinosaurs quiver in fear.
Trump’s craziness has infected, and emboldened, so many others who seem to identify with his “It’s all about me!” stance.
One of the major things that has made this country “great” over its relatively short history has been the separation of church and state, just what these sad folks want to do away with.
And, yes, projection is exactly the name of their game.
Oh boy, it’s the holier-than-thou old white guys yearning for the good old days in the fifties again, and by good I mean intolerant of everything progressive. I am astounded by the sheer numbers of sheep willing to travel counter to the majority in this country, ready to put aside all decency and common sense in order to comply with and follow a malignant narcissist in Trump. This pull on the curtain to reveal a cultish top of that chain is disturbing to say the least.
Time for Indiana Dems/Independents to get a Republican ballot and vote against every Trump endorsed candidate. Don’t turn Indiana into Texas. If politicians get Trump’s endorsement, we know where they stand. Organizations like this take energey from the apotheosis of Trump. Is this the new KKK?
What a relief it is to know that you don’t have to be a white, jobless rural guy to be a misogynistic racist! Equal opportunity lives!
I wonder how many of the members are also part of the Koch group.
The MAGA ecosystem builds on. The rest of us kvetch about it, build our own proud tribes and argue about whose issues are most important. “First they came for the women?”
I’m a straight, white, male, non-Christian and it a I’m alarms ME
I’m a straight, white, male, non-Christian and it alarms ME
From The Guardian today about SACR:
“Haywood has also expressed a desire to recruit “shooters” to help defend the “extended, quite sizeable, compound” he occupies on the western fringe of Carmel, Indiana. According to documents lodged with the city of Carmel, the latest construction project on Haywood’s compound is a six-bedroom faux-classical mansion with a central library room that occupies both of the building’s floors.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/11/claremont-institute-society-for-american-civic-renewal-links?
I’m all in, if we get to wear robes.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t just yearning for an idealized Eisenhower-era world that existed only on TV where women and people of color knew their places in the social order. The Claremont Institute and its ilk are interested in returning to the days of kings, of emperors, of Caesars. They think that democracy as a model of government and pluralism as a social ideal have failed. They are interested in authority and authority figures. They appear to be working to undermine the US model of democratic republicanism.
Sadly today’s effort opened with “far too many men respond with verbal pats on the head. “Tut tut, little woman–don’t you think you are being a bit hysterical?”
Would “some” be “far too many”? How many would be acceptable to relieve a substantial portion of men from this degrading statement? No indication is given in the body of this report of how many men are members of the elite saviours of the white male Christian nationalist groups ready to defile women.
Recently I did some role playing with a very liberal woman in Southwestern Indiana. I asked her to be a Trumpster and tell me what was distressing about the left wing of the Democrats. She thought for a while and said, “They are too shrill.”
Isn’t that what Democrats think about the right wing of the Republicans? Maybe if we reduced the intensity of our opposition to the “other,” we could understand more about them and ourselves.
Much of mankind has progressed a great deal but a few are stragglers. Death will reduce their number over time.
Pete, that is what my father (male, white, Christian) said in the 1960s about men older than him who were anti-Civil Rights. When they died off, we would get Civil Rights for our country. Sadly, 60 years later, we still have far to go.
Todd, thanks for providing the link to The Guardian article. It’s chilling, indeed—and to think that the chief mastermind is here in Indiana. A latter-day D.C Stephenson?
It’s almost comical that sad men like Haywood actually think they will manage to overpower women and turn back the clock. His group’s type of BS could be what eventually brings about a second civil war in this country.
Shame on the wives or girlfriends of the men in that group. They are as guilty as the men if they stay with them in order to enjoy the perks of the wealth and they are even more guilty if they have also agreed to be subservient to their men.
The Republican message: a woman’s place is in the kitchen.
SACR’S mission statement is to “seek those who understand the nature of authority and its legitimate forceful exercise in the temporal realm.” That’s a terrorist statement, and an antiquated idea of what “authority” is. The US does have a legitimate place for those types of men; it’s serving in the armed services. There they could practice discipline, deference and follow chain of authoritarian command in a legitimate way. This is another reason to make sure US Commander in Chief genuinely respects the oath of office, and safeguards Democracy.
I find it chilling that Charles Haywood founded this group in 2020 and I am just learning about the group now. I found several articles about Haywood and SACR from 2023 online today. I do not know how I missed them, especially the red flag that he is from Carmel. He wrote and published “The Foundationalist Manifesto: The Politics of Future Past” on June 17, 2021 https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/06/17/the-foundationalist-manifesto-the-politics-of-future-past/
This mindset is growing. I have been following Christian Nationalism for about two weeks after reading the Heritage Foundations Project 2025 and attending an online panel organized by Red, Wine, and Blue. The intentions of Christian Nationalists were another secret of our country that I did not know much about. I subscribed to a newsletter on substack: https://crownewsletter.substack.com/ Things are getting out of control in our country. Read this draft authored by James Silberman Dusty Deevers. James Silberman is a contributor to The Federalist Foundation. He is the “communications director for Free the States, an abolitionist lobbying organization working to reform the Christian response to abortion, supporting bills of total and immediate abolition. James is also a host on The Liberator Podcast, where he discusses the principles and applications of immediate abolitionism as opposed to pro-life incrementalism.” Duster Deevers is a pastor and has served as a member of the Oklahoma Republican Senate since December 2023. https://www.statementonchristiannationalism.com/ The Christian Nationalism & Gospel (CN&G) are on X and also YouTube https://youtube.com/watch?v=AspU8g22tJ0
This has been in the works for decades, and I’m wondering if SACR is an off-shoot of The Family, most noted for it’s sponsorship of The National Prayer Breakfast. This is the trailer for the documentary “The Family” on Netflix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7knN2TXQPzw
I am white, I am Christian (not Evangelical), I am straight, but I am non-male. Those paragraphs terrify me!!!