A recent fundraiser from the 1776 Project Foundation promotes Christian nationalism and deploys spiritual warfare rhetoric that goes far beyond the public image promoted on the group’s policy-oriented website. Its leader, Ryan Girdusky, is a right-wing activist who has been supporting right-wing school board takeovers through his 1776 Project PAC.
The 1776 Project Foundation website says its mission is “to create and disseminate policies that will promote academic achievement and revitalize our educational system for families and students across the nation.” Its recent online fundraiser says its mission is “to fight godless communist propaganda in our schools.”
The foundation’s website includes a platform that promotes “classical education,” “parental rights,” “school safety,” “education technology,” and “anti-ideology.” Regarding that last category, the website says, “Students deserve to have an education free from intentional, ideological pedagogy in the classroom.” Presumably that doesn’t apply to the kind of right-wing ideology he promotes, which includes his denial that systemic racism exists in the U.S. His PAC promotes school board candidates “that want to promote a patriotic vision of U.S. history.”
The language on the foundation’s website is radically different from its spiritual war battle cry:
We need a WARTIME FAITH. A faith that doesn’t hide behind closed doors, but steps out onto the battlefield.
The fundraising pitch opens with a picture of President Donald Trump seated at his Oval Office desk, hands folded and head bowed, with Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Mario Rubio flanking him, each with a hand on his shoulder. “THIS IS WORSE THAN WWII.”
According to the fundraising pitch, Trump had announced that “we are under attack spiritually and physically.” It cites Trump saying that “introducing communism into the United States” is “the biggest threat” to the U.S. since its founding, including both world wars and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
It quotes similarly hyperbolic statements from Vance and Rubio on the supposed agenda of the American left, followed by Girdusky’s response:
Three of the most powerful men in the United States government.
One unified warning. And one unified act of FAITH.
Because this battle is not just political. It is SPIRITUAL. Eventually and inevitably it turns PHYSICAL!
In every communist revolution in history — from Lenin's Russia to Mao's China to Castro's Cuba to Pol Pot's Cambodia — the FIRST thing they did was remove God from the public square. The FIRST institution they seized was the schoolhouse.
The FIRST minds they targeted were the children.
And that is EXACTLY why the 1776 Project Foundation is on the front lines of this fight — protecting the next generation from this godless propaganda before it poisons another soul.
Girdusky quotes Rubio claiming that the “radical left” is using schools to turn children away from their parents, adding:
But God's Word has something to say about that. And it has been saying it for THOUSANDS of years:
"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."
— Proverbs 22:6
That is YOUR mandate, patriot. Not the government's. Not the teachers' union's. YOURS. God gave that command to PARENTS.
He entrusted the spiritual formation of the next generation to MOTHERS and FATHERS — not to bureaucrats and ideologues.
God didn't say "let the school system handle it." He didn't say "hope for the best." He said IMPRESS His commandments on your children.
Talk about them when you sit down and when you rise up. Make them the FABRIC of your family's life.
The radical left knows this. That's WHY they're targeting the schools.
Because if they can sever the bond between parent and child — if they can replace Scripture with socialism, prayer with propaganda, and faith with fear — they win.
Girdusky quotes an over-the-top claim by Trump that “HARCORE GODLESS COMMUNISTS” want to “restart the war on Christians and churches, and they want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life.” He goes on:
Patriot — if these words have reached you today, we do not believe it is by accident.
We believe the Lord placed this message before your eyes for a PURPOSE.
Just as He raised up Moses to deliver His people from Pharaoh, just as He raised up David to face Goliath, He has raised up President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Secretary Rubio to sound the alarm in this hour.
But leaders cannot fight alone. God is now calling on ORDINARY, FAITHFUL Americans — people like YOU — to rise up and answer.
…
The 1776 Project Foundation is on the front lines of this spiritual and cultural battle — fighting every single day to protect the youngest and most impressionable Americans from godless communist propaganda before it poisons another generation.
The hour is late, patriot. But with God, it is NEVER too late.
"I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children."
— Isaiah 49:25
There are so few patriots left with the conviction to STAND, and we PRAY with everything in us that you are one of them.
We only ask that you make your voice heard — RIGHT NOW.
The fundraiser then goes into survey mode, beginning with the question, “Do you agree with President Trump that the godless communist indoctrination in our schools is the single greatest threat to America today – worse than any foreign war?”
Another question asks whether the reader supports a Trump proposal to cut all federal funding to schools “that push woke ideology and attempt to separate children from their parents’ values.”
“Do you believe America was founded as a Christian nation whose liberties are a gift from God?” asks one question. “Do you support restoring prayer, the Bible, and the Ten Commandments to America’s classrooms?” asks another.
The 1776 Project Foundation actually sent more than one version of this fundraising pitch. An alternate version carried similar messages, with slightly different survey questions. They asked whether America was founded as a Christian nation, whether public funds should be diverted to religious schools, and whether “transgender ideology is an affront to God.”
