It has been frustrating to follow the media coverage of Dobbs, most of which fails to put the overturning of Roe in the context of the broader five-decade project of politically active Christianity. I challenged myself to summarize briefly the handful of most important things that are missing from our national post-Dobbs dialogue:

1. We continue to treat abortion arguments as if they are policy, ideological, or political disputes. If they were, we’d be where we were under Roe, talking about how to balance the interests of the mother and unborn child. But the minute the Christian right had the power, look how quickly the widely supported common sense exceptions (rape, etc.) fell away. All around the country we are seeing laws reflecting a Taliban-like religious fundamentalism under which a 12-year old pregnant by an incestuous rape, likely not to survive her pregnancy, still would be required by the state to carry her baby to term. Only the perversions of absolutist religion can lead to this kind of result. This is all about fundamentalist religion and the extent to which we allow it, and not prevailing morality reflected in sound public policy, to govern. Dobbs should have prompted a wide-ranging discussion of the role of religion in public life. As long as we are not having that conversation, we will be blind to what really is happening..

2. Like Trump’s “big lie” almost everything you hear from the right about the culture war is a direct inversion. The fight for “freedom of religion” is actually a fight to end freedom of religion. The argument to “let the states decide” is intended to disguise the actual goal of doing whatever it takes to implement the entire culture war agenda everywhere in the country. They harvest supporters by railing against “big government” but their agenda requires the intrusion of government into the most intimate corners of our lives.

3. The goal of the culture war is to require compliance by non-believers with the religious beliefs and taboos embraced by a minority of Americans. Why are they not content with the freedom to follow their own beliefs? Why do they feel compelled to impose them on others? Because the core group that is the driving force behind the Christian nationalist movement believes that an American nation compliant with the will of God (as conceived by them) is necessary to achieve the most important thing that will ever occur, the second coming of Christ.

4. The religious right now recognizes that authoritarian government is necessary to achieve their goals. With only 32-34% of the population in their camp, the Christian right understands they are likely to remain a minority and thus that their vision cannot be implemented or sustained over the long term if we remain a pluralistic democracy. The undermining of democracy became a particular priority as they understood the speed at which demographics were moving against them.

5. No one should think for a moment that the overturning of Roe was or is an end in itself. In regard to abortion, they will not stop until the ultimate goal is achieved: to stop the “killing of babies.” Anything else (e.g., leave it to the states) is a smokescreen. To achieve that goal, they will go as far as necessary, including criminalization of anything done by anyone anywhere in the US to facilitate the “killing of a baby” after conception. All that Dobbs does is to remove the federal constraint on whatever legislative craziness the red states wish to pursue. But if the right controls the instruments of federal legislative authority, then nation-wide criminalization will follow and, with the right of privacy/substantive due process gone, the Supreme Court will allow that legislation to stand.

6. The right has said out loud, to anyone who will listen, that banning abortion is only a first step (which no one can doubt following the high-profile admission in Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion). The Christian nationalist movement (now synonymous with the GOP) will use every tool at their disposal to achieve the balance of their self-declared agenda, which includes banning contraception, eliminating same sex marriage, recriminalizing sodomy, restoring anti-blasphemy laws, eliminating the concept of a “hate crime,” pulling out of the UN (and all other multilateral institutions), reinstituting Christian prayer in the schools, eliminating all federal education standards and requiring “equal time” for faith based curriculum (including creationism), and much else. If you want to see a concise compilation of the complete agenda, have a look at the text of “The Blessing” that appears in Chapter 12 of my dystopian novel, Christian Nation.

Looking back from the theocratic future, the narrator of Christian Nation writes, “[T]hey said what they would do, and we did not listen. Then they did what they said they would do.” Now is the time to listen. Attorneys-General now speak openly of taking legal action based on “God’s intention.” GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert didn’t mince words: “The church is supposed to direct the government.” When I wrote Christian Nation those holding these views lurked at the fringes of our national political life. Now they stand at its apex, in a plural marriage of convenience with Trumpist populism and traditional Republicans willing to make a Faustian bargain in pursuit of power. They control the Supreme Court. In 16 weeks they will probably control both houses of Congress.

What are you going to do about it?