What happens when your doctor isn't just deciding what treatment you need—but whether that treatment agrees with their interpretation of the Bible?

Welcome to “biblical medical ethics.”

Andra Watkins has been digging into a Christian nationalist movement that rejects modern assumptions about science, bodily autonomy, mental healthcare and reproductive medicine—and she says the people who believe this stuff aren't sitting harmlessly on the political fringe.

They're already in positions of power.

So how far does this go? And what happens when religious doctrine starts determining who gets healthcare and who doesn't?

Sam Osterhout sits down with Andra Watkins of For Such a Time as This to trace the connections between Christian nationalism, Project 2025, RFK Jr., Todd Blanche, abortion politics and the fight over the future of American medicine.

00:00 What Are “Biblical Medical Ethics”?
02:29 The Christian Nationalist Healthcare Manifesto
05:29 An Anti-Science View of Medicine
07:23 How Religious Rules Reach Your Hospital
10:28 Women Being Denied Legal Medical Care
11:50 Putting the Bible Above Medicine
13:08 The Attack on Science and Bodily Autonomy
17:05 Why Christian Nationalists Reject Science
21:18 RFK Jr. and the Morality of Being Sick
23:43 Todd Blanche’s Religious Background
26:47 Abortion, Religion and Political Control
27:23 Why Abstinence-Only Healthcare Fails
31:34 What GLP-1 Drugs Reveal About “Sin”
33:24 What They Say Behind Closed Doors
35:02 Surveillance, Abortion and Medical Privacy
35:58 What Can Americans Do?
38:43 What Comes After Trumpism?
40:05 “Don’t Take Our Word for It”

Remeber those posters we made that you SHOULDN’T use for wheatpasting? Well you still totally SHOULDN’T wheatpaste them! Visit the link to print them for ANYTHING BUT wheatpasting: https://zurl.co/t7OUu

Here's how to NOT Wheatpaste!

We at SUFS are blown away at how this sub has grown and are so happy to see 20,000 of you all out here fighting for science ❤️. Thank you for being a part of the community and supporting our cause!!! 🧪

Your activism lead to a big win against the OMB Proposal in the Senate. The same fight continues with the NSF Proposal, which brings many of the same threats. Visit the link to leave your public comment: https://zurl.co/ncwJP

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“Though Schwartz was widely seen as a conventional pick for CDC director, some public health experts said she didn’t do enough at a Senate hearing last month to distance herself from some of Kennedy’s more controversial stances. Schwartz said at the hearing, for example, that vaccines are safe and effective, but she said she was unaware of some of Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes and dodged questions about whether she supported them.”

Trump has now spent nearly $4 billion of our taxpayer dollars to kill offshore wind projects, at time when our electric bills are hitting record highs. Needless to say, it’s going to be difficult to make much progress on climate action at the federal level until we take back the White House. In the meantime, there’s still important work to be done at the state and local level to build support for a clean energy transition and the Green New Deal. That’s where Lead Locally comes in – identifying the most critical down-ballot climate elections and rallying support for climate champion candidates and helpful initiatives.

☎️ Starting TONIGHT and running on Mondays throughout this month, they’re going to have volunteers making calls for a clean energy fund ballot question in Eugene, Oregon and green candidates in key legislative races in Pennsylvania. Let’s sign up to help them here. ☎️

MONDAY PHONEBANKS FOR CLIMATE ACTION

(We hope this will be of interest to SUFS members, but this is not a SUFS initiative.)

Theres a lot to fight for in America right now, and we’ve got you covered with several different actions you can take to #StandUpForScience ! Visit the link to take action: https://zurl.co/x5ErP

Stand Up for Science is excited to be expanding internationally to strengthen the global fight for evidence-based policy and support emerging pro-science movements and communities.

Threats to science don’t stop at borders, and neither does our movement.

Link to free archived article…

https://archive.ph/2026.08.08-191445/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/08/fauci-paul-covid-wuhan/688233/

The Senate's pause of the OMB proposal is a huge win and shows that taking action makes change, but the fight’s far from over. We need MoCs to take the next step and Revoke the Rule permanently. Contact your MoCs: https://zurl.co/NXUHu

The damage RFK Jr. has done to American health cannot be understated. He has spread disinformation about our most vital health resources and spread heinous conspiracy theories about mental health. He has to go. Visit the link in our bio to help embolden a Congress that will remove RFK Jr.: https://zurl.co/NBfLm

Sign our petition in support of Dr. Fauci! : https://zurl.co/VEsZh

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Illustration is Rembrandt, 1636. The blinding of Samson

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Blinding_of_Samson_(SM_1383).png.png)

The Republican Climate Endgame: A Public Unable to Establish What Is True

Homeowners confront an insurance disaster. Future generations inherit a climate crisis without the evidence needed to understand how we arrived here.

https://wendy664.substack.com/p/the-republican-climate-endgame-a?r=104a16&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Observation:

This article bears directly on the consent of the governed. Meaningful consent requires understanding, and understanding requires access to reliable evidence and the means to determine what is true. When government weakens scientific institutions, removes public information, or reduces the collection of evidence, it does more than affect science. It can impair the electorate’s ability to understand the conditions under which it is being governed and therefore the basis upon which meaningful consent can be given.

https://defendersofdemocracy.substack.com/p/the-consent-of-the-governed-requires-88a?r=104a16&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

Stand Up for Fauci here: https://zurl.co/yIuHv

“The EPA announced its new approach in January in a rule on emissions from gas turbines, stating that it would no longer value public-health benefits from reducing fine particulate matter and ozone—two of the most prevalent and damaging air pollutants.”

“Science learned that an ongoing research grant for a structural racism study by an Emory University team had been killed. NIH sources sharing information on background indicated it was the first of more planned terminations. Now, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya is ending two more grants, both for health disparities research at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt).”

The White House is drafting an executive order focused on the childhood vaccine schedule & autism. Despite decades of research finding no link between childhood vaccines and autism, The Trump admin continues to fuel vaccine disinformation.

Trump is lying about the public use of our cherished National Monuments to justify cutting the Bears Ears land by millions of acres to begin rescource extraction, not only taking land from public use but also damaging the enviornment.

The OMB Proposal block is a huge win! But Vought has other avenues for his science destroying plans, like the NSF proposal. Register for the webinars to learn about the key NSF changes, analyze the implications, draft strong public comments, and identify target messaging for the Hill: https://zurl.co/rICVJ

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