Journalist and UA alumnus Scott Latta discussed his new book “Gods of the Smoke Machine: Power, Pain, and the Rise of Christian Nationalism in the Megachurch” with UA journalism professor George Daniels at Ernest and Hadley Booksellers on Tuesday.
The book, which was released on Oct. 28, investigates the power of American megachurches, defined by Latta as churches with over 2,000 members, around the time of the 2024 election.
Diving into the issues of these institutions through the stories of people who have left the church, some of whom he calls “survivors,” and those fighting against their hold on modern Christianity, Latta, an Alabama native, lifts the veil on some of the most well-known churches in the country, including Church of the Highlands, the Birmingham megachurch that now has 27 campuses across Alabama and Georgia, including one in Tuscaloosa.
“I think they have thoroughly conquered religion in the state of Alabama,” Latta said. “My familiarity with them, having grown up in Birmingham, I think it was just natural for me to use them as a kind of through line, because they really just exemplified a lot of these issues that you see in large churches.”
Many of the issues that Latta found in the churches he investigates in the book come from the way the institutions, and those in charge of them, wield power. Whether that be through monetary means, control of real estate, lack of accountability or pastoral restoration, the process of restoring a pastor who has a moral failing or scandal, Latta uses firsthand accounts of former church members, researchers and local pastors of more traditional churches to unpack the influence these megachurches have on the country.
Despite the number of people who regularly go to church in the United States decreasing, megachurches are growing rapidly, a surprising statistic that led Latta to write “Gods of the Smoke Machine.” In the book, Latta attempts to explain why this phenomenon is occurring and finds that a lot of megachurch growth stems from the targeting of young people to join their congregation.
“I think that was probably what I was most fascinated by, was how megachurches are intentionally targeting college students,” Latta said.
Beyond just targeting college campuses, Latta reveals in “Gods of the Smoke Machine” that almost all of the country’s largest megachurches are creating their own colleges, such as Church of the Highlands’s Highlands College, that have become only further proof of their corruption.
“Some are accredited, some of them are not accredited. Some of them are accredited by scam accreditation organizations,” Latta said. “There’s no external accountability in all of that.”
Though Latta branches into somewhat controversial topics, his main hope for the book is to do right by those who have shared in it their stories of being personally wronged by the corruption of these institutions, through recounts of sexual abuse, grooming, assault and more. Many of the stories in Latta’s book are firsthand accounts of sexual abuse, bullying and mistreatment by members at the hands of their churches and those in charge of them.
“I just met people who have really, really profoundly painful experiences in those spaces,” Latta said about his process for writing the book. “I hope that the book normalizes conversations about pain in the church.”
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