Last March, The Guardian reported on documents detailing the inner workings of the Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR), a shadowy organization that has been building its presence across the United States since 2020, and UWF trustee Scott Yenor’s role in it. The expose offers a rare glimpse into how modern Christian nationalist networks operate in today’s America.
Secrecy: At its core, SACR operates as a men-only organization with a rigid hierarchical structure that emphasizes absolute confidentiality. Members are vetted through a process that examines their commitment to Christian nationalism, their views on traditional patriarchal values, and their potential influence in their communities.
- SACR’s apparent inspiration: the Afrikaner-Broederbond, a secretive organization that played a significant role in apartheid-era South Africa. The organization’s leadership, including key figures like Skyler Kressin and Professor Scott Yenor, appears to have studied this historical model carefully while developing their own framework.
Scott Yenor Connection
The involvement of Scott Yen-or, a Boise State University Professor, Claremont Institute scholar and UWF trustee, adds an intriguing academic dimension to SACR’s development. Yenor’s role appears to go beyond mere membership. His email exchanges, including those about the Afrikaner-Broederbond book, suggest he played a key role in conceptualizing the organization’s structure and approach.
- His efforts to coordinate SACR’s activities with other initiatives, including work on “Christian marriage,” suggest an attempt to bridge national conservatism and non-mainstream Roman Catholicism with American politics.
Documents show his careful attention to language and presentation when reaching out to potential members, including coordinating visits from out-of-town collaborators and organizing events at local Christian institutions. His son Jackson’s input on changing recruitment language from “ambitions” to “goals” to better appeal to “goal-oriented business people” reveals a sophisticated understanding of their target demographic.
DeSantis’ Pick
At his press conference in Jacksonville last Friday, the Florida Phoenix reported Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed Friday that he wasn’t familiar with Yenor’s views that women should put motherhood first.
- “I’m not familiar with that. I mean, obviously, I think if you look at the state of Florida, we probably have a higher percentage of women enrolled in our state universities than we do men, and that’s probably grown under my tenure,” DeSantis said.
He added, “But what I don’t do, what I don’t like is cherry-picking somebody saying this, and then trying to smear them.”