Christian Nationalism and the 2026 Midterms: Why Leaders Must Reject Dominionism with Dr. Keri Ladner

Abuse of power rarely announces itself. Sometimes it hides behind sacred language, promises of miracles, and a mandate to take dominion over every part of society.

Lori Adams-Brown sits down with Dr. Keri Ladner, author of American Dominion: The Rise and Radicalization of a New Christendom, to trace how a radical strand of American evangelicalism moved from the margins into the centers of political power, and why its patterns of coercion matter for leaders in business, government, academia, and faith communities around the world. Airing days before the US elections, this is a conversation about power, belief, and the courage to name harm, wherever you lead and wherever you vote.

In this episode:

• How living in Amman, Jordan, and earning her PhD in Edinburgh reshaped Keri's understanding of faith, Christian Zionism, and humanitarian need

• Why a book that began as research into evangelical gun culture after the Columbine shooting became a history of Dominionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

• Keri's argument that Dominion theology has long served as a cover for abuse, and why she calls faith healing the "jet fuel" of these movements

• The Seven Mountain Mandate: why Keri sees the push for dominion over government, business, education, and media as deliberate, not accidental

• What an exit path looks like for people leaving coercive systems, and why Keri calls for "radical holy empathy"

About the guest: Dr. Keri Ladner earned her PhD at the University of Edinburgh and studies the intersection of fundamentalist religion and American politics. She is the author of American Dominion (Bloomsbury) and End Time Politics: From Moral Majority to QAnon, and her writing has appeared in The Christian Century, Religion Dispatches, and Good Faith Media.

Resources mentioned: American Dominion by Keri Ladner; the Heaven Bent podcast; Jesus and John Wayne and Live Laugh Love by Kristin Kobes Du Mez.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Cold open

• 00:45 Why this conversation matters for leaders

• 03:15 Jordan, Edinburgh, and breaking with conservative evangelicalism

• 07:00 From gun culture to Dominionism: Columbine and the New Apostolic Reformation

• 13:10 Doug Wilson, Pete Hegseth, and the neo-Confederate thread

• 17:10 When Dominion theology becomes a cover for abuse

• 21:25 Faith healing as the movement's "jet fuel"

• 27:15 Dominionism and misogyny

• 30:45 "Shame must change sides"

• 35:20 The Seven Mountain Mandate beyond the church walls

• 38:00 The exit ramp: radical holy empathy

• 41:35 Where to find Keri

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Lori Adams-Brown, Host & Executive Producer

A World of Difference Podcast