Katherine Stewart: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy

Lecture Series: Pastoral Leadership in a Time of Christian Nationalism

September 25, 2025

Investigative journalist Katherine Stewart delivered the lecture “Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy” on September 25, 2025, to close out the Pastoral Leadership in a Time of Christian Nationalism lecture series at Candler. Stewart has covered the rise of the anti-democratic movement for over 16 years. She has authored three books, including the recent New York Times bestseller Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2025) and The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism (Bloomsbury, 2020), which won first place in the nonfiction books category from the Religion News Association and formed the basis of the 2024 documentary feature God & Country, produced by Rob Reiner.

Here, Stewart speaks about her experiences investigating the stories that became her award-winning books.