As a prominent figure in the right-wing Christian dominionist movement, Lou Engle teaches that the faithful must work to take control of the cultural levers, from the entertainment sphere to the judiciary. He did not respond to a request for comment for this series.
“We’re dreaming dreams of revolution, nothing less. … I’m not saying total dominion. I’m saying when Christ returns it will be total dominion, but until then we’re in a massive war in establishing the kingdom and learning to rule right now as kings and priests with Christ,” he told the young audience at The Ramp in 2006.
Throughout the Trump presidency, Christian dominionists and right-wing legal organizations pushed him to appoint anti-abortion judges. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal organization, set the stage for a case challenging Roe v. Wade at the U.S. Supreme Court by working with Mississippi lawmakers to pass a 15-week abortion ban. ADF did not agree to an interview for this series, saying in a pre-written statement that it ‘worked with legislators in Mississippi to protect life because, at the end of the day, life is a human right.”
White supremacist groups have long opposed abortion—at least for white women. In the 19th century, anti-abortion sentiment grew among white Anglo-Saxon Protestants in reaction to the arrival of Irish and Italian Catholic immigrants, who they did not consider white at the time. White supremacists feared that, with their large families due Catholicism’s opposition to contraception, the Catholic immigrants would demographically overtake white Protestants.
Since 2017, the Texas-based Patriot Front, a white nationalist group, has taken part in the annual anti-abortion March For Life. Last month, March For Life President Jeanne Mancini said her group condemns“any organization that seeks to exclude a person or group of people based on the color of their skin or any other characteristic” because they are “counter to our mission which recognizes that all human lives are equal from the moment of conception: equality begins in the womb.”