MOSCOW, Idaho (FāVS News) — Joann Muneta expected to be angry, as she usually is when a major news outlet turns its cameras on pastor Doug Wilson and the Christian nationalist movement growing in her backyard. But after watching CNN’s latest documentary air Sunday night (March 22), the 90-year-old Moscow activist felt something she hadn’t expected.
“I was so sad after it was over,” said Muneta, who has lived in Moscow for 65 years and is chair of the Latah County Human Rights Task Force. “Usually I get angry. But this time I was just so sad.”
CNN anchor and chief investigative correspondent Pamela Brown’s hourlong documentary, “The Rise of Christian Nationalism,” aired on “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.” It was Brown’s second major report on Wilson, whose reach now extends from his Christ Church pulpit in Moscow to the halls of power in Washington. For many in Moscow’s surrounding Palouse region, their reaction was familiar even when the emotions were not.
The episode included accounts from women who are former members of Christian nationalist congregations, sharing stories of religious trauma, rigid gender roles and, in some cases, abuse. For Muneta, it was those women whose stories cut deepest.
“I’m sad for those women who are traumatized,” she said. “I’m sad for the children being brought up. And I’m sad for our country that has to put up with this when we have better things to be doing.”
She …