He later teamed up with some conservative Southern Baptists who claimed their denomination had become too liberal, especially making videos about the “woke invasion” with Michael O’Fallon, an activist who also organized cruises for Calvinist Christian nationalists.
In 2023, conservative activist Charlie Kirk interviewed Lindsay at a Turning Point USA event for pastors, claiming he’d traveled the country with the atheist activist, trying to convince Christians to fight liberals.
Lindsay, who did not respond to a request for an interview, has now turned against what he calls “The Woke Right,” which he described on his podcast as conservatives using “woke methods” to promote conservative values.
The term “woke” was popularized during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd, as a way of saying that people were aware of systemic racism. That led to a conservative backlash, including from some evangelical groups who objected to any mention of social justice in religious circles.
By 2022, some conservatives had begun to turn the phrase on their own, accusing others in their ranks of being divisive extremists who seek out conflict.
“If the first words out of their mouth, for instance, are ‘establishment’ and ‘globalists,’ you can rest assured they are not very thoughtful and they are probably about to lie to you,” U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas, told the Texas Tribune in 2022. “I’m just sick of it because it’s manufactured division.”
Neil Shenvi, a popular blogger and critic of critical race theory, labeled Christian nationalists such as Stephen Wolfe, author of “The Case for Christian Nationalism,” as part of the “woke right” for promoting the idea that conservative Christians — especially white Christians — are being oppressed by liberals.
Lindsay has taken up the fight, putting him at odds with the American Reformer and groups like it. Stephen Wolfe has also been among his targets, as has former Trump administration staffer turned Southern Baptist critic William Wolfe, Gab founder Andrew Torba, Candice Owen, Tucker Carlson and Joel Webbon, a Texas pastor known for his antisemitic takes, claims of “anti-white discrimination” and his hopes to ban women from voting.
The American Reformer hoax set off a social media feud between Lindsay’s allies and the supporters of those he criticized — with Lindsay’s post on X about the matter receiving 1.9 million views and 666 comments as of Thursday morning (Dec. 5).
While the American Reformer’s editors were fooled by the hoax, some of its readers were not. Within days of the article’s publication, readers noticed something was off and suspected plagiarism. “So, as an old commercial would go, is the above article real or is it memorex?” wrote a reader in the comments.
This article originally appeared here.