American Values Coalition

We developed and delivered our pilot Pastors Conferences to equip conservative faith leaders to combat Far-Right Extremism within churches.AVC's two in-person Pastor Conferences were a huge success and hosted at Redeemer Christian Church in Amarillo, Texas. At the first conference, in April, nearly 60 pastors and lay leaders assembled to learn from our three speakers, all of whom are thought leaders in this space.Christian talk radio host Carmen LaBerge spoke about America's information crisis as a spiritual problem. Political scientist and AVC board member Daniel Bennett taught about the problems of political polarization and conspiracy theories as they relate to misinformation. Former DHS Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism Elizabeth Neumann described right-wing extremism and violence, and strategies pastors can implement to counter them. In September, we returned to Amarillo with three new speakers to tackle the same problem from different angles. The turnout was even better, with 70-80 participants during the day and over 120 attendees at the evening keynote speech delivered by David French. In addition to French, the conference featured Bonnie Kristian and Jeffrey Bilbro. In surveys of the attendees, we conducted before and after the event, we found high levels of concern about misinformation, extremism, and incivility in their own churches, which increased to even higher levels after the event.But the good news is that these participants left the event more hopeful and confident to address these problems in their churches.AVC produced six informative webinars with impressive thought-leaders to provide tools and information regarding Far-Right Extremism.Our robust webinar series featured the following leaders: Former DHS Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism Elizabeth Neumann explained how information disorder can lead to violent extremism. Political scientists Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead discussed their book on the new conspiracism and its assaults on our democracy. Sociologists Samuel Perry and Philip Gorski discussed Christian Nationalism Political Scientist Paul D. Miller discussed Christian Nationalism After the tragic shooting in Buffalo, New York, historian Jesse Curtis spoke on the origins of the racist replacement theory espoused by the shooter. And our last webinar highlighted our newest board member, Bonnie Kristian, who talk about her new book, Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community. Replays of our past webinars can be viewed on our AVC YouTube channel.AVC produced six informative webinars with impressive thought-leaders to provide tools and information regarding Far-Right Extremism.Our robust webinar series featured the following leaders: Former DHS Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism Elizabeth Neumann explained how information disorder can lead to violent extremism. Political scientists Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead discussed their book on the new conspiracism and its assaults on our democracy. Sociologists Samuel Perry and Philip Gorski discussed Christian Nationalism Political Scientist Paul D. Miller discussed Christian Nationalism After the tragic shooting in Buffalo, New York, historian Jesse Curtis spoke on the origins of the racist replacement theory espoused by the shooter. And our last webinar highlighted our newest board member, Bonnie Kristian, who talk about her new book, Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community. Replays of our past webinars can be viewed on our AVC YouTube channel.Our popular weekly newsletter allowed us to regularly engage our audience on issues related to combating Far-Right Extremism.AVC's newsletter, courtesy of editor Ian McLoud, helps our supporters stay up-to-date on news and research related to the spread of misinformation and political extremism. You can read past issues of the newsletter on our blog here.AVC conducted important research to better understand the impact of misinformation among conservative Americans.In March and April, we commissioned a poll, through Change Research, of 855 independent and Republican voters. The results confirmed our theory of change. Misinformation is a major problem among those in the right-wing bubble, or who get their news and information from only right-wing sources. Those with the highest misinformation scores (4) were more likely to get their news and information from sources like Fox News (53%), Newsmax (43%), OANN (32%), and social media (38%). But conservatives with a broader media diet are more open to our messaging. Those with the lowest misinformation scores (-4) mostly got their news and information from places like national network news (48%) and local TV news (44%). Almost one in three (31%) checked CNN, NPR, and national newspapers such as The Washington Post, USA Today, and The New York Times. AVC will continue to reach these conservatives and empower them to be the change agents in their communities and circles of influence.AVC was honored to partner with key organizations in 2022 to participate in empowering events for conservative leaders combating Far-Right ExtremismPrinciples First Summit At the end of February, we were an event partner for the Principles First Summit, a conservative alternative to the CPAC conference (which abandoned conservatism for Trumpism many years ago). Napp Nazworth was on a panel discussing faith along with Pete Wehner and Elizabeth Neumann.Aspen MastermindIn April, Napp Nazworth was the featured speaker at Aspen Mastermind, discussing The Fight Against Misinformation and Disinformation in the Evangelical Community.Pastors' LunchIn October, we co-hosted an event for pastors with John Brown University's Center for Faith and Flourishing to provide tools and to hear from more faith leaders regarding the challenges they are facing in their communities.Anti-Defamation League & Matthew 5:9In December, we co-hosted an event with ADL and Matthew 5:9 for pastors and lay leaders, The Landscape of Extremism, where we discussed the complexity of right-wing extremism, and the ways leaders can communicate about the problem without giving the extremists more visibility.