A former senior legal adviser and attorney for former President Donald Trump who served as a special counsel for a conservative Catholic-led law firm is among the 19 individuals charged in connection to an alleged criminal plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
Jenna Ellis, a constitutional lawyer and outspoken conservative podcaster who has echoed the former president’s falsehoods of a stolen election, is charged with violating Georgia’s RICO Act and with Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer, according to a 41-count indictment returned Aug. 14 by a Fulton County grand jury.
Ellis, who joined the Thomas More Society as a legal counsel in July 2020 at a time when the Illinois-based public interest law firm was ramping up its « election integrity » initiative, is accused of meeting with legislators in swing states that President Joseph Biden won in November 2020, and laying out a plan to appoint false slates of electors to illegally overturn the election in those states.
Contacted by email, Ellis directed NCR to a statement she posted Aug. 15 on X, the social platform previously known as Twitter.
Ellis wrote: « The Democrats and the Fulton County DA are criminalizing the practice of law. I am resolved to trust the Lord and I will simply continue to honor, praise, and serve Him. I deeply appreciate all of my friends who have reached out offering encouragement and support. »
Ellis, an evangelical Christian, posted her statement along with a graphic that read, « even so it is well with my soul, » an excerpt from a 19th-century hymn.
The Thomas More Society did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Ellis’ indictment. The group, which is named for the 16th-century English lawyer and martyr, specializes in cases pertaining to religious liberty issues but has recently also branched out into election-related litigation efforts.
In 2020, Ellis was listed as a member of the leadership and advisory board for the « Amistad Project, » an initiative of the Thomas More Society that challenged election results in swing states that Biden won. In December 2020, Ellis and the president of the Thomas More Society told The Washington Post that she was not involved with the Amistad Project. They said her work as a special counsel for the Thomas More Society dealt with providing legal representation for churches challenging COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.
Ellis, Trump and 17 other individuals who worked on the former president’s behalf to challenge the 2020 election results, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman, were charged with criminal racketeering following a yearslong probe by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Trump — who according to several polls remains the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, despite now being indicted in four separate criminal cases — is facing 13 counts in Georgia, including allegations that he tried to pressure state officials to break the law and declare him the winner there.
In addition to meeting, calling and testifying before state officials in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and Georgia in alleged attempts to overturn Biden’s victories in those states, the Fulton County indictments accuse Ellis of making « false statements concerning fraud » in the election and for writing two memorandums that « outlined strategy for disrupting and delaying » the joint session of Congress that met on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify Biden’s victory.
Federal and state courts dismissed more than 60 lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and its allies alleging systemic electoral fraud, finding no evidence to back those claims.
In March 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court censured Ellis for violating that state’s legal regulations that prohibit attorneys from making « reckless, knowing, or intentional misrepresentations. » The court said Ellis violated that rule « when, as counsel to then President Trump and the Trump campaign, she made a number of public statements about the November 2020 presidential election that were false. »
On the feast of Mary’s assumption into heaven, Pope Francis entrusted to her people’s prayers for peace, especially in Ukraine.
« The din of weapons drowns out attempts at dialogue, » the pope told an estimated 10,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square Aug. 15 to pray the Angelus with him.
« The law of force prevails over the force of law » and respect for human rights, « but we must not be discouraged, » the pope said. « Let’s continue to hope and pray because it is God, it is he who guides history. May he hear us. »
While the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Mary’s assumption, body and soul, into heaven, the day’s Gospel reading focused on the Visitation, Mary’s decision to rush to visit her cousin Elizabeth when she heard the older woman also was expecting. The passage also includes the Magnificat, when Mary praises the greatness of God and all he has done for her.
« Mary ascends, and the word of God reveals to us what characterized her as she does so: service to her neighbor and praise to God, » Francis told people in the square.
« In other words, Jesus and Mary travel the same road: two lives that ascend upward, glorifying God and serving their brothers and sisters, » the pope said.
Mary’s journey from Nazareth to visit Elizabeth was not short, the pope said. Serving others has a price, which everyone experiences « in the effort, the patience and the worry that taking care of another brings, » whether it is traveling for work to support one’s family or sleepless nights caring for a newborn or volunteering to care for those who can offer nothing in return.
« It is tiring, but it is ascending upward, it is earning heaven, » Francis said.
The Gospel also makes clear how praise — especially of God but also of others — changes the quality of one’s actions and one’s life, he said.
« Praise increases joy. Praise is like a ladder: it leads hearts upward, » he said. « Praise elevates souls and defeats the temptation to give up. »
« Haven’t you seen how boring people, those who live on gossip, are incapable of praise, » the pope asked the crowd.
« Ask yourself: Am I capable of praise? » he suggested. « How good it is to praise God every day, and others, too! How good it is to live in gratitude and blessing instead of regrets and complaints, to raise our gaze upward instead of keeping a long face! »
After leading the recitation of the Angelus prayer Aug. 13, Pope Francis again assured the people of Hawaii of his prayers.
With some 15,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray with him, the pope said he was praying « for the victims of the fires that have devastated the Hawaiian island of Maui. »
The official death toll from the fires had risen to 96 Aug. 13 and the number was expected to increase as the search through burned out rubble continued.
In his public prayers and appeals after reciting the Angelus, Francis also made a strong appeal for serious efforts at immigration reform after 41 migrants were reported to have drowned in the Mediterranean in early August.
« Another tragic shipwreck happened a few days ago in the Mediterranean — 41 people lost their lives, » the pope said. « I have prayed for them. »
Four migrants from Africa were rescued by a merchant ship and brought to the Italian island of Lampedusa Aug. 9. They said they were on a boat carrying 45 people that capsized off the coast of Tunisia; using inner tubes and other makeshift flotation devices, they reached an abandoned boat adrift, only to discover it had no motor. They were rescued by a cargo ship and transferred to the custody of the Italian coast guard.
« Sadly and shamefully, » Francis said, « we must say that since the beginning of the year, almost 2,000 men, women and children have already died trying to reach Europe. This is an open wound on our humanity. »
The pope said he wanted to offer his encouragement and support to « the political and diplomatic powers that are trying to heal this in a spirit of solidarity and fraternity, » and he praised « the dedication of all those who are working to prevent shipwrecks and are aiding migrants. »
Francis also used the occasion to offer his support to a pilgrimage for peace Aug. 14, the eve of the feast of the Assumption, in Cameroon, which is « still afflicted by violence and war. »
« Let us unite ourselves in prayer for our brothers and sisters of Cameroon so that, through the Mary’s intercession, God might sustain the hope of the people who have been suffering for years, and open paths of dialogue so that peace and harmony might be achieved, » the pope said.
Since 2016, militias in the country’s two English-speaking regions have been fighting to break away and form a new nation they call Ambazonia.
Also Aug. 12, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, sent a message of condolence and concern to the archbishop of Quito, Ecuador, after the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
« In the face of the suffering caused by the unjustifiable violence, which he condemns unreservedly, His Holiness calls upon all citizens and political forces to unite in a common effort for peace, » the cardinal said.
(Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year A; This homily was given on August 13, 2023 at Saint Augustine Church in Providence, Rhode Island; See 1 Kings 19:9-13 and Matthew 14:22-33)
I find myself having a hard time keeping up with the Roman Catholic Church these days. As a Catholic theological ethicist with a feminist bent, no one is more surprised by this development than me. Well, except maybe for Phyllis Zagano.
Zagano has spent much of her theological vocation making the biblical, historical and even canonical case for a resounding theme arising out of the global synodal process on Communion, Participation and Mission: women’s full participation in the life of the church. And yet, as I read her latest book, Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women. I found myself wondering if even Zagano — a Vatican insider on most things related to women in the diaconate in light of her service on the first of Pope Francis’ two theological commissions on the subject — could imagine the dramatic changes in our current ecclesial reality since the book’s release earlier this year.
Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women
Phyllis Zagano
128 pages; Paulist Press
$17.95
We are just weeks away from the XVI General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in which, for the first time in the church’s history, more than 50 women will have the same voting status as their brother bishops on matters central to the church’s self-understanding in the new millennium.
Despite the astonishment (or suspicion, or even reproach) over Pope Francis’ decisions to pull women and our concerns from the periphery into the center of the church in this synodal journey, Just Church demonstrates that these are not in fact out-of-left-field developments. Zagano’s concise overview of three sprawling topics — the church’s social tradition on justice, the ancient and yet re-emerging methodology of synodality and the modern history of women in ecclesial ministry — through the lens of women’s lived experience in the church simultaneously helps us understand how ordinary this turn of events ought to be and just how extraordinary an opportunity for rethinking women’s participation in the church it really is. She also equips all of us to be active participants in synodal discernments about — and including — women that will unfold in Rome in October.
In some ways, this accessible text reads like three « state of the question » summaries, akin to Paulist Press’ incredibly useful What are They Saying About series: what are they saying about women in Catholic social teaching, about women in modern synods (including this synod) and about women’s leadership and ordination, two particularly thorny issues that will surely flex the communal discernment muscles in the current synod. As such, it could serve as a quick study of the delegates to the general assembly or those who seek to engage it from our local contexts.
And while she is reluctant to identify herself as a feminist theologian, Zagano pulls no punches here employing a feminist hermeneutic in answering the question she poses at the outset of the book: « how can the church be just? » We can start with an ad intra application of Catholic social teaching by lifting up the lived experience of women (Chapter 1) both within and beyond the church. We can pay attention to the protagonism of women unleashed in the synods of Pope Francis’ papacy (Chapter 2). Finally, we can examine historical precedents and current developments around « lay-clerical tensions » in ecclesial governance and jurisprudence (Chapter 3).
« The hopes of women in the Church, however, cannot depend on one man. Popes come and go … circular arguments continue. »
→Phyllis Zagano
In her trademark no-nonsense style, Zagano mines the Catholic tradition for the insights that arise when we enter more fully into tensions and contradictions of our current reality — most notably the contradiction of women’s simultaneous peripheral status within the church despite the fact that we are its very center through our disproportionate presence in the pews and labor in serving its mission. Most important for me, as an emerging community organizer in the church, was Zagano’s « power mapping » of clericalism — e.g., its canonical sources, who is exercising it and how, Pope Francis’ own evolving sense of it and women’s motivations for interrupting it.
The text is not simply informative, it is formative.
I did find myself looking for more embodied, personal or narrative connective tissue among the three sections. Zagano’s analysis of where we are and where we could be headed as a global church would have been strengthened by including the experience of a particular group of women or the witness of individuals who illuminate the power of our collective stories in unleashing the kind of moral agency we’ll need to break the logjam of clericalism. For example, Zagano could have amplified some of her central claims by demonstrating ways that women themselves have advanced or amplified the tradition of Catholic social teaching or a bit more of the stories of the women who have joined the curia since Pope Francis launched his reform of it in Praedicate Evangelium in March 2022.
That said, the teacher in me will certainly use Just Church in my ethics and feminist theology courses, given how clearly and succinctly Zagano presents the fundamentals of Catholic social teaching and its implications for the feminization of all kinds of injustices, including ecclesial ones. And her chapter on synodality is a primer for all of us who are struggling to understand that « synod » is not some newfangled, jargony way of doing the same old thing but actually an ancient method of ecclesial self-reflection that can spark change through structural reform that animates from individual and collective conversations in the Spirit. It has already been an asset to me in evangelizing about the synod with fellow Catholics, particularly women who are understandably cynical when it comes to the church’s capacity for change.
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Again, I marvel to think that Zagano set this timely table for us only months before she and the rest of us learned that women will be included as voting delegates in the general assembly and before all Catholics were invited to engage with the 15 worksheets of the Instrumentum Laboris for the general assembly, designed to prompt us to pay attention to the Spirit’s call to more inclusive communion, broader participation and a mission that sends us out to the peripheries.
As we wait with great anticipation what may unfold in Rome, Zagano’s warning haunts me a bit: « The hopes of women in the Church, however, cannot depend on one man. Popes come and go … circular arguments continue. » Equipped with the historical perspective and power mapping she provides and buoyed by the contributions that more than 50 of our sisters will undoubtedly make by virtue of the Holy Spirit working in and through them this October, I am hopeful that the rest of us will be ready to see ourselves, and not only hierarchical leadership, in Zagano’s prognostication: « How can the synod on synodality affect, even change, the Church now and in the future? That depends on how its results are received and acted upon. »
Just Church gives us context, content and courage for that communal discernment.
I met Flamy Grant, a Christian drag queen musician who recently topped the Christian charts on iTunes for her No. 1 song « Good Day (feat. Derek Webb) » and No. 1 album « Bible Belt Baby, » at the Folk Alliance International conference earlier this year. I was charmed by Flamy’s warmth, kindness and humor, and enamored with her voice and songwriting. Flamy’s music empowers listeners to deconstruct harmful elements of religion and stand in their truest selves in the love of a God who accepts them as they are — all while adding some tongue-in-cheek humor, adorned in full drag.
Flamy’s album « Bible Belt Baby » released in October 2022. The album had not had large exposure until Christian nationalist preacher Sean Feucht, who infamously gathered large groups of unmasked people to worship together during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, launched Flamy and her collaborator Derek Webb into the media spotlight through a Twitter exchange. Feucht tweeted that Flamy’s presence in Christian music was a sign of « the last days, » taunting that hardly anyone listens anyway.
In response to his comments, Flamy called on her fans to challenge the notion that no one listens. Subsequently, both the song and album each climbed their way to the #1 spot on the iTunes charts within 24 hours — making her the first drag queen to top the Christian charts.
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I sat down to interview Flamy (whose given name is Matthew) about the recent unexpected media spotlight, the story behind writing the album « Bible Belt Baby » and how they navigate their identity as a queer drag performer who still identifies as a Christian.
Jessica: I thought it would be good to open with a « Drag 101 » for Catholics and Christians who may not know much about drag culture. What is a drag queen?
Flamy/Matthew: Drag is an ancient art form. It was happening in Shakespeare. William Dorsey Swann (born in 1860) was the first to self-identify as a drag queen. Drag is performance art, like theater, and it can incorporate comedy, lip sync, dance, fashion, the artistry of what you do with body and face, creating an elevated, enhanced and exaggerated look.
Flamy is distinct. She’s an act. She’s an extension of me, but she’s an act. Matthew the they/them nonbinary human, that’s how I walk around in the world.
Drag is playing and toying with the concept of gender, because we have this binary structure in American society that there are men and there are women and there are roles for each of them. The gender binary doesn’t serve all of us, and some of us need to exist outside of that. That’s one of the purposes of drag; the other is to entertain.
It really flourished in queer community because we didn’t have spaces to perform, and we had to hide our relationships and identities because we were shamed for being ourselves. So it developed in secrecy, and that’s why it has such a stigma.
What messaging did you receive growing up in your church about queerness, drag queens, etc.?
I didn’t receive any messaging. Drag wasn’t on the radar of anyone at my church. I grew up at a Plymouth Brethren fundamentalist evangelical church in Appalachia. I don’t have distinct memories about anyone calling out gay and lesbian people until high school, but from an early age, cultural gender stereotypes were enforced.
I have pictures of myself running around in my mom’s clothing and I got in trouble for breaking one of her tubes of lipstick. For me those behaviors were innate and instinctual, a kid being a kid. I certainly wasn’t being groomed to do that. I got groomed to fulfill more masculine stereotypes.
The pressure to stay and conform was enforced by fear. If you leave, « hell’s gonna getcha. » That’s why it took me 30 years to start exploring drag and my gender identity.
‘If I can move the needle, I hope to help people navigate their fear around queerness.’
—Flamy Grant
How did you overcome that messaging to reach a place where you could step more fully into yourself, while also maintaining a relationship with your faith identity?
I wouldn’t say there was one pivotal moment; it was long and drawn out. When I came out to my college best friend, I couldn’t even say, « I’m gay » or « I struggle with same-sex attraction, » I just pointed to Romans 1 then ran across the room and bawled. At 19, I saw myself as same-sex attracted and struggling, and I was trying to change because I thought that’s what God wanted and what was required to stay in my church community.
I enrolled in Exodus, the world’s largest conversion therapy program globally, where they’d send « problematic » queer congregants to try to change them straight. I spent five years there wondering, « How long will this take? How long til I’m straight? »
After five years, I accepted I couldn’t change my orientation, but I was still not ready to say being gay is OK with God. I wanted to continue the conversation in my church community. But it was never talked about so I decided, I have to leave the church, there’s not a place for me here.
Eventually, I got involved with an LGBTQ-inclusive, affirming church and served there for eight and a half years as a worship leader.
Did « Bible Belt Baby » start out as a concept album or did it come together because of a common thread in the songs you were writing?
I was starting to see potential for Flamy as a musician, to meld my drag art and my music. During the pandemic lockdown, I went to my roommate Ben Grace of « Story & Tune » with the idea of making a drag record about recovery from religious trauma.
I launched a Kickstarer that raised over $10,000 so we could do a whole record. I dug back through my repertoire to find songs to add, that were probably Flamy songs all along. Before we knew it we had 10 songs.
The concept became overcoming shame from religious trauma, and that developed in tandem with the community I was building online.
In « Esther, Ruth, and Rahab: We See Our Paths by Someone Else’s Shine, » how do you hope to see your shine help others find their own paths? Who is this song for?
It’s for queer people. Particularly those who came from traumatic religious upbringing. It’s for those who are navigating other people’s fear of us or about us. If I can move the needle, I hope to help people navigate their fear around queerness. It’s not my responsibility, but I’m well-suited to do it without internalizing consequences, now after therapy and healing.
The song is for queer kids growing up in church, to know and see that they have options. Even if their church or parents are grooming them to conform, if they can see that there is a Christian drag queen, I feel like that would have given me hope as a kid.
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Additionally, it’s inspired by my sibling’s own gender journey. And of course it’s for all women. It’s a feminist anthem.
You covered Amy Grant’s « Takes A Little Time » on the record. What made you fall in love with her music and inspired you to choose your drag queen name?
I wasn’t allowed to listen to anything I couldn’t buy in a Christian music store. Amy Grant was the diva of my world. I genuinely love her music.
Her « Behind the Eyes » record is my favorite because it got dark and brooding. Her music gets emotional, and it was the first time I heard a song without a resolution. Christian music always resolves with a little bow. But hers was unresolved.
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I chose to cover « Takes A Little Time » because it fits the theme of my journey on the record, and it added new meaning to perform it with Semler, the two of us queer Christian artists, slowing it down, making it contemplative.
And Flamy Grant just came to me. I liked word play in some of my favorite fellow drag queens’ names. Amy Grant was my idol and Flamy Grant just fit me.
Your song « Holy Ground » seems like a song about giving up, letting go of life on earth, though the earthiness of the lyrics makes me think of the words of Psalm 139 « made in the depths of earth. » Like a death into life. What does this song mean to you?
It’s my favorite song on the record. I love the different interpretations of it. I wanted to make it a place where people can sit and feel for an almost uncomfortable amount of time. I intentionally chose its place on the album to be transitional between sides A and B. I appreciate that comparison of death and birth both being dark places.
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« Desire of Your Heart » is a poignant love song. It sounds like the « you » is a lover, another friend who has been through what you have, your younger self, also God?
It’s a love letter to my inner kid who was so heavily shamed that drag went into the closet for 30 years. Flamy is singing that song to little Matthew. The « years we spent apart » lyric was like « You don’t know I exist, but I’m there. »
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Finally, your worship song « Good Day » just topped the charts! Will you share the story behind this song?
This song has new meaning because it charted as #1 Christian song. Hearing that my lyrics « So I’m here to stay and I’m sitting in the front row, ‘Cause it’s a good day to come out of the shadow » are No. 1 is making me weep.
The song came to me when I was ministering as a worship leader at an affirming church, but I didn’t want to use the word Christian to describe myself. I was grumpy. I got dragged to a queer small group at my church and the icebreaker question was: « How do you reconcile your faith and sexuality? »
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I responded « I don’t! I don’t call myself Christian anymore, there’s nothing to reconcile. »
Then everybody else shared stories, and there was a common thread among them: They stay because there are other queer kids in church and they want them to have someone to look up to. After hearing all those shares, I felt convicted, humbled and small.
I went home and the song just poured out of me. We sang it at my church the next week. It’s a song for the people who stay. I’m not advocating that everyone stay. Some folks need to get out and live their best life outside of a church. It’s not our obligation as queer people to stay. But it does make a difference.
