North Coast congressman Jared Huffman, whose district currently includes Sebastopol and West County, doesn’t really need to log any additional frequent flyer miles beyond his bi-monthly, coast-to-coast flights between his U.S. Capitol office and his Northern California home district. But he’s about to do just that as he sets off on a national book tour for his first published book, No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism.
Huffman opened his tour last Saturday at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa with an event sponsored by Copperfield’s Books that featured questions and conversations with author-actor Peter Coyote in front of a sold-out audience of 250 people. Before Congress reconvenes next month, and continuing on weekends thereafter, Huffman is scheduled to promote his book on stops as far apart as Washington, D.C., and Alaska, and Boston, Phoenix and Kansas City, with more events being planned.
Huffman’s book, No Prophets (220 pages, $28.99, W.W. Norton & Company), took him two-and-a-half years to research, write and secure a publisher and editor.
The book project is an outgrowth of the congressman’s longtime Humanism and his adamant belief in the democratic principle of the separation between church and state. Also at the center of his book are several of his own eyewitness accounts of the rising militancy of America’s Christian Nationalism movement, including the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The book is written in a very journalistic style with background research, rich details of news events and first-person quotes from hundreds of interviews. Anticipating a question, Huffman told the Sebastopol Times following his Copperfield’s event that, “No, I did not use a ghost writer.”
“After Jan. 6, I’m afraid, as a nation, we went back to sleep” about the anti-democracy threats of radical Christian Nationalists, Huffman told his Santa Rosa audience. “We have a huge blind spot. The assault on our democracy and the separation of church and state is much advanced. I fear we have a lot to do.”
Before embarking on his book tour, the seven-term Democratic congressman from San Rafael already has a full legislative and constituent services agenda, including many natural resources and environmental issues relating to his district’s rugged coast, vast timberlands and energy and climate issues. Huffman serves as the ranking member of the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee.
Huffman is running for re-election in the November 3 election, in a newly configured district, which excludes Sebastopol, but includes much of far West Sonoma County up to and across the northernmost part of the state to the Nevada border. He has won all his previous congressional elections by winning more than 70 percent of total votes cast. The presence of some lightly populated, but deep-red counties in the far northeast of his new district may take that down a few points.
Huffman’s book is carefully divided into nine chapters that tell about the history and rise of Christian Nationalism. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, offers a forward that honors Huffman for his “deep well of decency and compassion” and his “moral clarity to confront hard truths without flinching.” The book includes 18 pages of notes and citations as proof of the years of scholarly research completed by Huffman, aided by his wife Susan. The book also lists several suggested writings for further reading.
The book’s dust jacket quotes novelist Sinclair Lewis from 1935: “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
“If I wanted to run for higher office,” Huffman said in response to one of Coyote’s questions from the weekend, “this is the last book I would write.”
In 2017, Huffman became the first U.S. Congressman to declare himself a “Humanist” and non-believer in a god or other higher power. (At his talk, he said if other people want to call him an atheist or an agnostic, that’s OK with him, but that’s not what he calls himself.) In 2018, Huffman joined with Rep. Raskin to form the Congressional Freethought Caucus to protect the separation of church and state and to offer a framework for members of Congress to share their moral, ethical and personal religious beliefs in a non-political way. The caucus currently has 37 members.
Huffman was born in Independence, Missouri, to a family of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As he grew up and went away to college at UC Santa Barbara, Huffman tells how he ventured toward a non-Christian, non-religious belief system based on “facts, reasons and evidence.” As he told Coyote during the interview, “That’s how I became a Humanist. I do not believe in any prophets, especially the theocratic or self-declared ones.”
The philosophy of Humanism developed as a part of the European Enlightenment in the 18th Century. “Humanism is a progressive and non-religious worldview that places the highest value on human dignity, reason, and potential rather than supernatural or divine beliefs,” according to the Humanist Association of America, which named Huffman their Humanist of the Year in 2020.
Huffman’s book traces the rise of the current Christian Nationalism movement from the 1980s Moral Majority led by the Rev. Jerry Falwell and others. He cites how the Far Right conservative and religious movement morphed into more militant factions, with violent outbursts such as Ruby Ridge, the Branch Davidians and the Timothy McVeigh bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building at the end of the 20th century.
The center pages of No Prophets include a photo gallery that includes several photos from the Jan. 6, 2021, protest and clashes at the U.S. Capitol, which Huffman calls a “violent insurrection.” The photos and eyewitness descriptions by Huffman give evidence of the under-reported origins of the Jan. 6 events as a detailed Christian Nationalist coup attempt to keep Donald Trump in power. Huffman fears even the great majority of his Democratic colleagues are in denial of the far-right religious movement’s anti-democratic goals.
“We can’t look away,” Huffman said, “this has already gone too far.”
“This is not a ‘love thy neighbor’ Christianity, folks,” Huffman told his Santa Rosa audience. “These current Christian Nationalists are seeking to destroy and take over our government.”
At one point, Coyote, who has won two Emmy Awards for his TV documentary work, read a brief passage from Huffman’s book, leading the congressman to gush that “It’s really cool to have Peter Coyote read part of my book out loud.”
No Prophets is a very solemn telling and raises urgent warnings about today’s Christian self-declared prophets and their followers. Huffman shares first-hand experiences of current House Speaker Mike Johnson’s “extremism,” reminding everyone that he is “only two heartbeats away from the presidency.” The liberal humanist also calls a J.D. Vance presidency “very dangerous,” and he predicts the upcoming midterm elections will be “a very rough ride.” However, he predicted a Democratic Party takeover of the House majority in the November elections, winning very loud applause from the Copperfield’s event audience.
Asked for advice on how to counter the rising threat of Christian Nationalist extremism, Huffman urged everyone to become more informed about the theocratic threats, to read and share his book and to work across the many religious divides to help save America’s democracy.
“The vast majority of Americans all want religious liberty for all,” said Huffman. “They are beginning to see Trump as a theocrat and a threat. We have a big challenge because we have a U.S. Congress right now that thinks it works for Trump and not us.”
No Prophets also tackles the myths surrounding the founding of the United States as a Christian nation, instead of a more ecumenical or secular government. The book also chronicles how the two Trump presidencies have become more and more infiltrated by Christian Nationalist influences, including prayer meetings in the Pentagon and the creation of a Commission on Religious Liberty dominated by conservative Christian members.
As he moves ahead on his national book tour, the North Coast congressman and former environmental lawyer told the Sebastopol Times he’s not sure how his public agenda and time demands may be changed by his book. “I already feel like I’ve been drawn into this battle to preserve the separation of church and state.” But if the congressman scores an appearance on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” or the New York Times Best Seller list, his frequent flyer miles may go off the charts.
You can get a copy of No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism at Copperfield’s Books and online.
I was at this event, and what struck me, besides everything reported here, was the age of the audience: I'm halfway through my 40s, and everyone I saw in the crowd looked older than me; the only younger folks I saw were part of the staff working the event. Anyway, it was my first time seeing Rep. Huffman in person, and I came away mostly impressed. The book is relevant not just to non-believers (like me), but also to Christians and people of any religious persuasion who are troubled by the weaponization of God by the so-called Christian Right.
Meanwhile, every Friday, cut to all the cars honking to support (paid) Pro-Islam "protesters," at the corner of Main and Bodega, chanting for the death of Israel, death to the US and carrying pro Hamas signs, eager to usher in Sharia law as all the tone-deaf virtue signalers in their Subarus blindly lend their support. See Dearborn Michigan to know all you need to know about where that rabble wants to lead the nation and all the bumper sticker virtue signalers honking in support? And of course, the Subarus all drive home on the worst roads in the US without any concern about crumbling infrastructure and decaying parks where coddled junkies lay around all day and out-number kids playing, while they use more public tax dollars than working families. But yah, let's all worry about the Christians...sure.