Bad Faith | |
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Directed by | Stephen Ujlaki and Chris Jones |
Written by | Alec Baer; Christopher Jacob Jones; Stephen Ujlaki |
Produced by | Stephen Ujlaki |
Starring | |
Narrated by | Peter Coyote[1] |
Cinematography | Pilar Timpane; Billy Yates |
Edited by | Alec Baer; Chris Jones |
Music by | Jeremy Grody; Lili Haydn |
Production companies | Heretical Reason Productions Panarea Productions |
Distributed by | Film Sales Company |
Release date |
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Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism's Unholy War on Democracy is a 2024 American documentary film directed by Stephen Ujlaki and Chris Jones. The film explores the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States and its opposition to American democracy, and the historic role of Christian nationalists in the conservative movement, beginning with Paul Weyrich and Jerry Falwell in the Moral Majority, and Weyrich's creation of the secretive Council for National Policy. They opposed secular and democratic institutions, supported using government to promote Christianity, and much later, their political influence led to the support for the candidacy of Donald Trump, the subsequent January 6 United States Capitol attack, and the policy blueprints for Project 2025.[2]
The film was conceived by Ujlaki after Trump won the 2016 election, forcing him to reconsider his knowledge about the election and to research the reasons that led supporters to vote for Trump. The documentary is based on a number of popular books about Christian nationalism, with the film heavily relying on the book Shadow Network (2019) by journalist Anne Nelson, and taking its title from the book Bad Faith (2021) by historian of religion Randall Balmer. The film was shot in 25 locations around the United States and Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic, and took several years to edit and complete. Reviews were overwhelmingly positive, with critics noting its educational value and its success at communicating its central thesis about the dangers of weakening the separation of church and state.