To understand not only what took place last week in DC, but the response of many Americans and the Republican party to it, it's absolutely essential to understand the role a certain kind of religion plays in US culture and politics. /1 #capitolsiegereligion

This kind of religion is most accentuated in its evangelical iteration, but is to be found in a lot of other sectors of religion in the US since, as Kristin Kobes du Mez shows in her book Jesus and John Wayne, evangelicalism has extended its influence all through US religion. /2

Some key reasons — rooted in a kind of religion that is deeply embedded in US culture and politics — many Americans and Republicans will keep lying boldly about what we can all see on the videos from last Wednesday: /3

a. The kind of religion on full display last week in the DC race riot lives in a world of alternative facts, and is proudly scornful of all information and news sources beyond that world. /4

b. The kind of religion we saw manifesting such malevolence in DC last week is ravenous for enemies. Its raison d'etre is the generation of an endless succession of enemies — the native peoples, "witches," "heretics," Jews, Commies, queers, women, liberals — to be overcome. /5