Show Notes
Who's behind a mysterious mass-text that invoked faith and economic justice to promote data centers?
A few weeks ago, residents of Prince George’s County, Maryland, received a text message telling them about the benefits of data centers: jobs, investment, economic opportunity.
The message wasn’t signed. It didn’t say who had paid to send it. But it linked to a website belonging to something called the Interfaith Action Movement.
Sounds like a coalition of religious leaders. But the leaders, followers, and houses of worship were not disclosed by the IAM contact.
And the timing was interesting. Less than a week earlier, Prince George’s County had imposed a two-year moratorium on hyperscale data centers. Residents were already fighting over the environmental costs, the economic promises and who would ultimately benefit.
So who was behind this “interfaith” campaign?
RNS reporter Aleja Hertzler-McCain followed the anonymous text to a Seventh-day Adventist faith leader and political consultant with connections in Maryland, New Jersey—and a campaign-finance scandal in Bermuda.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from Complexified
Religion has always been part of American politics.
Televangelist Jim Bakker is dead at 86. And whatever else can be said about him, he was a true American original.
Soldiers are trained for physical combat. But war also confronts them with death, killing, grief, guilt and questions of meaning.
Across YouTube, podcasts and church conferences, a new group of pastors and influencers is promoting an openly racist and baldly antisemitic vision of Christian America. They present themselves not as extremists, but as respectable religious leaders defending truths that others are afraid to say.
Republican leaders across Texas are repeatedly warning that Sharia is an urgent threat to the state- making it a rallying cry as we head into the midterm elections. The Muslim community, who has long stayed quiet, is now organizing and speaking out.