Project Blitz is a coordinated effort by Christian Nationalists to inject religion into public education, attack reproductive healthcare, and undermine LGBTQ equality using a distorted definition of “religious freedom.”
In order to achieve these goals, the Project Blitz campaign arms state-level politicians with model bills, proclamations, and talking points through its legislative guide.
The Project Blitz guide receives yearly updates. The 2017/2018 playbook contained 116 pages and included 20 model bills.
In 2018, over 70 Project Blitz-related bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country. In late 2018, the playbook was expanded to 148 pages, and we expect even more Blitz bills to be introduced in states across the nation.
In 2019, Project Blitz went underground, making the guides no longer available to the public. The secretive 2019-2020 and 2020-21 playbooks were uncovered in 2021.
Project Blitz’s Dangerous Model Bills
The guide instructs Christian nationalists to work in three phases.
First, they are supposed to pass bills that are expected to receive the least opposition. These “religious heritage” bills encourage or force public schools to offer Bible classes and display “In God We Trust,” as well as mandate the creation of “In God We Trust” license plates.
This first seemingly innocuous phase is meant to build enough momentum to pass “religious history and freedom” bills, which purport that America was, is, and will always be a Christian nation. Examples include “Year of the Bible” and “Christian Heritage Week” bills.
After grabbing this “low hanging fruit,” Christian nationalists move on to more dangerous bills that undermine equality by allowing discrimination in child welfare and religious refusals in health care.
Teaching the Bible in Public Schools
National Motto Display Laws
National Motto License Plate Funding
Religious Freedom Day Proclamations
Discrimination in Foster Care and Adoption
Religious Refusals in Healthcare
The Extremist Groups Behind Project Blitz
The Project Blitz guide is a joint effort of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation (CPCF), Wall Builders, and the National Legal Foundation (NLF).
The Project Blitz guide first appeared on the CPCF’s website in 2017 but has since gone underground.
This Christian nationalist group organizes state and federal legislators in so-called “prayer caucuses.” Rather than simply promoting prayer, legislators in the American Prayer Caucus Network push the discriminatory bills contained within the Project Blitz guide. Currently, there are 33 state caucuses.
Wall Builders is a Christian nationalist advocacy group, whose leader David Barton rejects the separation of church and state.
NLF is a law firm that brings cases to undermine religious freedom.
Project Blitz’s Attack Method
As Project Blitz’s name indicates, the campaign is meant to pump out as many bills as possible in order to overwhelm lawmakers and advocates and put them on the defensive.
According to the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation’s Faith Impact Guide, “the passage of [these] measures has spiked dramatically since the resources in [the Project Blitz guide] were first provided.”
The CPCF’s own graphic (right) claims two 800% increases in Project Blitz bills from 2016 to 2018.
Moving forward, we expect state lawmakers to continue to introduce Project Blitz bills in legislatures across the nation.
Project Blitz Today
The coronavirus pandemic, in addition to lawmakers’ other legislative priorities, have limited Project Blitz’s ability to introduce and pass as many bills as in previous years. In 2020, 92 bills were introduced and 8 passed. In 2021, so far 74 have been introduced and 14 have passed.
The table below lists the 17 types of bills based on the Project Blitz models that have been introduced and passed in the last two years.
| Project Blitz Model Bill | What It Does | Introduced 2020 | Passed 2020 | Introduced 2021 | Passed 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bible Literacy Act | Encourages Bible classes in public schools | 11 | 1 | 3 | 0 | |
| Campus Free Speech + FORUM | Encourages discrimination and undermines free speech in higher ed | 11 | 0 | 13 | 2 | |
| Civic Literacy Act | Encourages teaching of select Christian nationalist history | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Licensed Professional Civil Rights | Allows health care providers to refuse care and discriminate | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Child Welfare Act | Religious exemptions in foster care | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |
| Total | 92 | 8 | 74 | 14 |
Project Blitz in the News
Since the launch of BlitzWatch last year, more media outlets are exposing the work of Project Blitz and its supporters. The press have increasingly connected state legislation attacking civil rights protections for LGBTQ people, access to reproductive healthcare, and public education to Project Blitz’s coordinated campaign.
The BlitzWatch Coalition
BlitzWatch is a project of a coalition of national civil rights and religious freedom organizations committed to protecting equality for all Americans. BlitzWatch is a campaign to monitor, track, and defeat attempts by Christian Nationalists to implement their distorted view of religious freedom.
