Are non profit evangelical Christian schools training grounds for would be insurrectionists? Dwayne Walker, the host of The Walkertown Report, reflects on the anti-democratic slant at his former Christian School, Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida. In an interview with Rick Perlstein, author of Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, Walker and Perlstein discuss Jerry Falwell’s multi-media presentation, America, You’re Too Young To Die, which toured Christian schools in the seventies.

These ‘dog and pony shows’, according to Walker, were used to convince evangelicals and fundamentlists that they needed to get involved in politics. Previously, Jerry Falwell had declared that Christians had no business getting involved in politics. This was in response to the activism of Martin Luther King, the famed civil rights leader and a Southern Baptist minister.

Rick Perlstein writes about the time America, You’re Too Young To Die, came to Trinity Christian Academy in the seventies. Walker is quoted at being alarmed at a teacher who, after seeing America You’re Too Young To Die, bragged about beating up gays at a local park.

From Perstein’s book: When a student complained to another teacher about this un-Christlike utterance, the concern turned on him, not the teacher: “Are you thinking of turning gay, Dwayne? A gay person cannot be saved.”

Falwell’s involvement paved the way for the religious right to embed itself with the Republican party, which culminated in the election of Donald Trump. Walker reflects on the anti-democracy bent during the podcast:. “Whenever someone would say something like, ‘That isn’t fair! Or, that’s not a democracy.’, the teacher would respond, ‘We are not a democracy.’”

“I used to think they were lamenting the fact that we weren’t a true democracy. Today, I wonder if we weren’t being indoctrinated with anti-democratic values.”

Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980:

https://www.amazon.com/Reaganland-Americas-Right-Turn-1976-1980/dp/1476793050/ref=sr

For more info:

http://walkertown.com/