Bad Faith (2024 film)

Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism's Unholy War on Democracy is a 2024 American documentary film directed by Stephen Ujlaki and Chris Jones. The film explores the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States and its opposition to American democracy, and the historic role of Christian nationalists in the conservative movement, beginning with Paul Weyrich and Jerry Falwell in the Moral Majority, and Weyrich's creation of the secretive Council for National Policy. They opposed secular and democratic institutions, supported using government to promote Christianity, and much later, their political influence led to the support for the candidacy of Donald Trump, the subsequent January 6 United States Capitol attack, and the policy blueprints for Project 2025.

The film was conceived by Ujlaki after Trump won the 2016 election, forcing him to reconsider his knowledge about the election and to research the reasons that led supporters to vote for Trump. The documentary is based on a number of popular books about Christian nationalism, with the film heavily relying on the book Shadow Network (2019) by journalist Anne Nelson, and taking its title from the book Bad Faith (2021) by historian of religion Randall Balmer. The film was shot in 25 locations around the United States and Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic, and took several years to edit and complete. Reviews were overwhelmingly positive, with critics noting its educational value and its success at communicating its central thesis about the dangers of weakening the separation of church and state.

Background
Co-director Stephen Ujlaki is a professor of screenwriting and former dean of the School of Film and Television at Loyola Marymount University, a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. The idea for the documentary came to him after Donald Trump won the 2016 United States presidential election and he found himself in a state of disbelief. Ujlaki realized that he was caught in a filter bubble, so he set out to learn as much as he could about the people who voted for Trump, focusing on the evangelical community, and reading many books on the subject and conducting interviews with key players. Out of his own personal research, the documentary eventually emerged. Major aspects of the film are based upon the book Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right (2019) by journalist Anne Nelson. The title of the film is adapted from the book Bad Faith (2021) by historian of religion Randall Balmer.

Synopsis
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) desegregated public schools, but it was opposed by the Southern United States, particularly by some Christian religious groups who continued to practice segregation in religious schools well into the 1970s. Conventional wisdom suggests that concern about abortion led to the creation of the politically-motivated religious right in America in the 1970s, but many historians and journalists believe this is a myth. Instead, Green v. Connally (1971) may have been the true catalyst for the formation of the religious right as a political force, as the court in that case decided that any organization that operates a private school that discriminates based on race is not eligible for tax-exempt status. When Roe v. Wade (1973) was decided, most non-Catholic, Christian evangelicals did not express opposition to abortion; it did not become a real issue for evangelicals until the late 1970s and early 1980s, many years after Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, with little public opposition in the Christian community. The film suggests that Paul Weyrich, a Republican political operative and Christian nationalist, galvanized the religious pro-segregationists and redirected their anger towards the federal government to create a Trojan horse, a new voting bloc to help the GOP win elections with the intention to subvert democracy and promote theocracy under the guise of concern about abortion. Towards this end, Weyrich and Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority and helped form a new political network, leading to the election of Ronald Reagan. Weyrich also reached across the aisle to harness and create a coalition with oil billionaires, who were not necessarily religious, but who wanted the shared benefits of lower taxes and less regulation, thereby helping to fund the Heritage Foundation, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and the secretive Council for National Policy. Combined, these groups waged a long term culture war against the United States, culminating in the weakening of democratic norms and institutions, the election of Donald Trump, the undermining of democratic elections with the January 6 United States Capitol attack, and the policy blueprints for Project 2025, which would fulfill Weyrich's 40-year goals, as expressed in his original manifesto: "Our strategy will be to bleed this culture dry...Make no mistake about it: We are talking about Christianizing America...We will weaken and destroy the existing institutions."

Production
Filming began during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, with shooting taking place in 25 locations across the country (as well as in Australia) with the help of local contractors. Location shooting included: Los Angeles, California; Norman, Oklahoma; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York, New York; Lenoir City and Nashville, Tennessee; Santa Fe, New Mexico, Park City, Utah; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Amarillo, Texas, Washington, D.C.; Durham, North Carolina; and Melbourne, Australia. The team spent several years editing the footage. Franklin Graham refused to allow the crews access, while Ken Peters of Patriot Church in Tennessee was more than happy to let them film. Ujlaki recalls: "I think that Pastor Ken...felt that all publicity is good publicity. He was very proud of what he was doing. He was absolutely confident that he was getting the word out. He was using us; I think that was his feeling. And he was always being very solicitous to make sure that we got what we needed."

Interviewees
People that are interviewed in the film include national security expert Elizabeth Neumann, formerly with the Trump administration; journalist Katherine Stewart; sociologist Samuel L. Perry; theologian Russell D. Moore; minister William Barber II; historian Linda Gordon; theologian Jim Wallis; Christian writer Lisa Sharon Harper; and Christian writer Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.

Release
The film held its premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on January 11, 2024, along with a Q&A panel. The film was also shown at New York's Cinema Village. The theatrical release took place in Los Angeles on March 29, and began streaming on April 26.

Reception
Owen Gleiberman of Variety reviewed the film positively, opining that it was one of the "scariest" films he has seen in recent years. Gleiberman acknowledged that the film made a "powerful case" demonstrating that Christian nationalism is constructed on false premises. "It's true to say that the Founders drew on the moral traditions of Judeo-Christian culture", Gleiberman writes. "Yet the freedom of religion in the First Amendment was put there precisely as a guard against religious tyranny. It was, at the time, a radical idea: that the people would determine how — and what God — they wanted to worship. In truth, Christian Nationalism undermines not only the freedoms enshrined by the Constitution but the very concept of free will that's at the heart of Christian theology. You can't choose to be a follower of Christ if that belief is imposed on you." Writing for The Humanist, David Reinbold gave the film a positive review calling it "simultaneously informative, sobering, chilling, frightening, but always with vestiges of hope". Reinbold notes that the filmmakers set out to both educate the audience and persuade them to register to vote. Jared Stacy of Premier Christianity also reviewed the film positively, noting that the film effectively shows how democracy in the United States is threatened by "moral hypocrisy and political idolatry within the evangelical faith". Stacy writes that at times, the film is "sensational and conspiratorial", but concludes that "it does provide a glimpse of how the evangelical faith justifies the corrupting pursuit of political power". Jerry Newcombe of The Christian Post reviewed the film negatively, defending Christian nationalism as a legitimate philosophy, while dismissing the film as a "propaganda" effort by the "left".