11 Questions: Money, Lies, and God by Katherine Stewart
Money, Lies, and God is a deeply reported and researched account of the years (indeed the decades!) of formidable and well-funded organizing efforts that are behind today’s terrifying headlines. Katherine Stewart spent time with both the leaders and the rank and file of the 21st-century Religious Right, and returned with this urgent account of who they are, what they’re up to, and what we can expect in the days ahead. It’s essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what we’re up against. We’re grateful to get Stewart’s behind the scenes perspective on her book as part of KtB‘s ongoing 11 Questions series.
Describe your book in three adjectives!
Investigative, investigative, investigative.
What is one of your favorite sentences from the book?
Lady Behave! (Referencing the 1938 film by Lloyd Corrigan that ran afoul of the Hays Office.)
Name a book or writer that inspired or guided you as you wrote.
Wayne Barrett [Editor’s note: Barrett was a legendary investigative journalist known as New York City’s “foremost muckraker”]
What is something you discovered in the process of writing this book?
My capacity for procrastination knows no bounds.
What was challenging about the process?
Grasping the extent to which misinformation is permeating our political culture.
What was sustaining about it?
My editors’ support.
What’s a song that would be on the book’s soundtrack?
“Blue in Green” by Miles Davis
Who are some of the people you wrote this book for?
The pro-democracy base; people in the political middle/center right; the politically disengaged. Everyone should understand the stakes.
What are some of the communities that shaped it?
Sixteen years ago, when I started covering the rise of the religious right as a political force, there were just a handful of people doing meaningful work in the field. Now it’s a thriving community, with lots of interesting neighborhoods.
What kinds of work do you want your book to do in the world? What are your hopes for its afterlife?
My hope is that one day it will seem irrelevant.
What are you doing next?
At some point in the future I’d like to spend a year simply reading for pleasure.
Briallen Hopper is editor of KtB, and author of Hard to Love: Essays And Confessions (Bloomsbury, 2019). She teaches writing at Queens College, City University of New York, and holds a PhD in English from Princeton. Learn more at her website, www.briallenhopper.com, or follow her on Twitter @briallenhopper.