'Getting witchier': Right-wing Christians getting new inspiration from a surprising source

19 May

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On May 7, President Donald Trump nominated 37-year-old Casey Means — an ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and supporter of his Make American Health Again (MAHA) movement — for U.S. surgeon general. Means is known for her new age-like views and shares some of his more controversial opinions, including being a promoter of raw milk.

Neither Means nor RFK Jr. are known for having a longtime association with far-right evangelical Christian fundamentalism. Kennedy was a Democrat until 2023, and Means' father Grady Means was an assistant to the late Nelson Rockefeller — who epitomized the moderate northeastern Rockefeller wing of the GOP during his years as governor or New York State and later, vice president under President Gerald Ford.

But Salon's Amanda Marcotte, in an article published on May 19, explains why RFK Jr. and Casey Means have become useful to the evangelical Christian Right agenda.

"At first blush," Marcotte explains, "Casey Means seems like the last person Christian conservatives would want as the surgeon general. Donald Trump's new pick for the nation's top doctor, though she does not have a medical license, favors the occult-speak popular in the 'wellness' influencer world where she makes her money. As Kiera Butler and Anna Merlan at Mother Jones documented, Means veers 'in a more new age direction' in her 'medical' writing."

But Casey Means, Marcotte emphasizes, "is aligned with" the Christian Right "against an enemy they hate far more than Satan: feminists."

"Along with her shrines-and-moons talk, Means also wrote that she had shed 'my identity as a feminist,' giving up on wanting 'equality in a relationship' to instead embrace 'a completely different and greater power: the divine feminine," Marcotte observes. "It's woo-woo, but ultimately no different than the message promoted by conservative Christians: that a woman's role is as a man's helpmeet, not his equal."

Means and RFK Jr., according to Marcotte, have become unlikely but useful allies of the Christian Right and Trump's MAGA movement. And the Salon journalist points out that the Christian Right has been "getting witchier" in recent years because of "the rise of charismatic Christianity."

"Casey and her brother, Calley Means, are tight with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy, which is why she got the surgeon general nod and her brother got a position as a 'special government employee' assisting Kennedy," Marcotte observes. "Kennedy has exploited the false perception that he's a liberal Democrat to bamboozle some people into thinking far-right health policies, such as slashing Medicaid, are 'moderate' positions. Like the Means siblings, he's also using his appeal to people outside the Religious Right as a way to launder Christian Right views."

Marcotte continues, "Last week, Kennedy ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to 'review' the legality of Mifepristone, a drug used to abort pregnancies. He said this was necessary due to 'new data,' which is actually a non-reviewed 'study' by a Christian Right organization falsely claiming abortion pills are dangerous — a 'study' that was immediately debunked by experts. Kennedy has a long history of embracing fake science while ignoring real science, but this is his first foray into doing it to cape for a cause that's primarily, if not exclusively, associated with the Religious Right."

Amanda Marcotte's full article for Salon is available at this link.

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