The Christian Right's Cunning Rebranding: How Casey Means Embodies the 'MAHA' Agenda
Casey Means, Donald Trump's new pick for Surgeon General, has been making headlines with her unorthodox views on spirituality and medicine. The 32-year-old means favors a more New Age approach to wellness, often incorporating elements of mysticism and pseudoscience into her writing. This aligns perfectly with the Christian Right's latest strategy: rebranding its retrograde ideas under a veneer of woo-woo aesthetics.
Means' affinity for spirituality is not new, having previously expressed interest in full moon ceremonies and performing rituals to connect with nature. These practices, once fringe within American Christianity, are now being normalized by charismatic leaders like Tucker Carlson, who has been promoting a more supernaturalist approach to faith healing and miracle-working.
The Christian Right's embracing of paganism-esque language is not surprising, given its long history of exploiting fake science and conspiracy theories. In this case, Means is aligning herself with the Religious Right against a common enemy: feminism. By discarding her identity as a feminist in favor of embracing the "divine feminine," Means is reinforcing a patriarchal message that has been central to Christian conservatism for decades.
Means' appointment to Surgeon General highlights the Christian Right's willingness to co-opt mainstream institutions and use them to promote its agenda. Her brother, Calley Means, has secured a position as a special government employee assisting HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, who is using his appeal to people outside the Religious Right to launder far-right health policies.
Kennedy's latest move involves ordering the FDA to review the legality of mifepristone, a drug used for abortion. He claims this is necessary due to "new data" from a Christian right organization that falsely alleges abortion pills are dangerous. This is not new for Kennedy, who has a history of embracing fake science and ignoring real science.
The Christian Right's 'MAHA' agenda is built on the lie that Americans were healthier in the pre-vaccination era. This notion ignores decades of progress in public health interventions like vaccines and contraception, which have saved countless lives. Instead, the Christian Right is promoting a deeply anti-feminist message, tying naturalistic aesthetics to patriarchal gender roles.
Christian conservatives are not merely riding the coattails of charlatans like Kennedy or Means siblings; they are actively using "MAHA" packaging to claim that abortion pills must be banned under anti-pollution laws. This is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to exploit the environment for their own agenda, as Kristi Hamrick, Vice President of Students for Life of America, put it: "This is not because the environment was my first weapon of choice โ it's because it's the one we have now."
By employing this tactics, Christian conservatives are effectively using lies and conspiracy theories to replace science-based medicine. The perceived "sin" of abortion is being transmitted through water, a notion that defies scientific evidence and instead relies on magical thinking.
Casey Means, Donald Trump's new pick for Surgeon General, has been making headlines with her unorthodox views on spirituality and medicine. The 32-year-old means favors a more New Age approach to wellness, often incorporating elements of mysticism and pseudoscience into her writing. This aligns perfectly with the Christian Right's latest strategy: rebranding its retrograde ideas under a veneer of woo-woo aesthetics.
Means' affinity for spirituality is not new, having previously expressed interest in full moon ceremonies and performing rituals to connect with nature. These practices, once fringe within American Christianity, are now being normalized by charismatic leaders like Tucker Carlson, who has been promoting a more supernaturalist approach to faith healing and miracle-working.
The Christian Right's embracing of paganism-esque language is not surprising, given its long history of exploiting fake science and conspiracy theories. In this case, Means is aligning herself with the Religious Right against a common enemy: feminism. By discarding her identity as a feminist in favor of embracing the "divine feminine," Means is reinforcing a patriarchal message that has been central to Christian conservatism for decades.
Means' appointment to Surgeon General highlights the Christian Right's willingness to co-opt mainstream institutions and use them to promote its agenda. Her brother, Calley Means, has secured a position as a special government employee assisting HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, who is using his appeal to people outside the Religious Right to launder far-right health policies.
Kennedy's latest move involves ordering the FDA to review the legality of mifepristone, a drug used for abortion. He claims this is necessary due to "new data" from a Christian right organization that falsely alleges abortion pills are dangerous. This is not new for Kennedy, who has a history of embracing fake science and ignoring real science.
The Christian Right's 'MAHA' agenda is built on the lie that Americans were healthier in the pre-vaccination era. This notion ignores decades of progress in public health interventions like vaccines and contraception, which have saved countless lives. Instead, the Christian Right is promoting a deeply anti-feminist message, tying naturalistic aesthetics to patriarchal gender roles.
Christian conservatives are not merely riding the coattails of charlatans like Kennedy or Means siblings; they are actively using "MAHA" packaging to claim that abortion pills must be banned under anti-pollution laws. This is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to exploit the environment for their own agenda, as Kristi Hamrick, Vice President of Students for Life of America, put it: "This is not because the environment was my first weapon of choice โ it's because it's the one we have now."
By employing this tactics, Christian conservatives are effectively using lies and conspiracy theories to replace science-based medicine. The perceived "sin" of abortion is being transmitted through water, a notion that defies scientific evidence and instead relies on magical thinking.