Why we investigated Wisconsin Pastor Matthew Trewhella

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Why we did this investigation

In the fall of 2022, I noticed a pastor and his church appearing in local news coverage for their anti-LGBTQ+ protests . Looking closer revealed Pastor Matthew Trewhella’s startling history. And digging even deeper, I noticed an untold story: his broader influence on modern Republican politics .

Key takeaways

• A few decades ago, Wisconsin Pastor Matthew Trewhella was known as a militant anti-abortion activist. Today, he’s got a different reputation: thought-leader on the far right, increasingly welcomed by Republicans.
• Trewhella helped to rehabilitate his reputation through his 2013 self-published book, which uses a 16th-century Protestant doctrine to argue that government officials have a God-given right and duty to defy laws, policies or court opinions deemed “unjust or immoral” under “the law of God.”
• He’s preached this doctrine to county Republican parties and local groups across the country, even to the National Sheriffs’ Association, a preeminent law enforcement organization.
• His book has influenced Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions. At least 10 measures across the country specifically refer to lesser magistrates. One of the earliest, issued in 2019, was authored by a county commissioner who has described reading Trewhella’s book as a “turning point” for him.
• A prominent booster of debunked election claims is using Trewhella’s book to disrupt future elections.

Some important context

• In the cast of characters who might influence the upcoming election, he’s not rallying crowds like Steve Bannon, the former Donald Trump strategist, or Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA. Trewhella is more behind the scenes, providing a religious justification for some far-right policies and causes.
• Trewhella says that he promotes nonviolence. But after an activist killed an abortion provider in 1993, he signed a document describing the murder of these doctors as “justifiable.”
• In a brief interview, I asked Trewhella about his reputational shift over the decades. He responded: “Most people will always only care about three things in life: me, myself and I … It’s only because of their mundane, self-absorbed lives that they would think someone like me is an extremist. That’s my answer.”
• Trewhella did not respond to over a dozen attempts to set up a second interview. He did not answer written questions by email and refused a certified letter containing them.

The big picture

Trewhella’s rise helps illustrate the growing influence and power of the Christian right in Republican politics.

Key quotes

“All of those county commissioners and mayors and whatnot who are entertaining this stuff, they’re putting people’s lives and the entirety of civil order at risk by playing footsie with Matt Trewhella.”

— Frederick Clarkson, senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, which studies threats to democracy and human rights, who has tracked Trewhella for decades

“I think that the public needs to know that he’s a dangerous theocrat, who would fundamentally alter the United States in irreparable ways that would harm many, including women, people of color and the LGBTQ community.”

— Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, which tracks the far right

What are some details that didn’t make it into the story?

• Trewhella has given sermons about violence, saying that pacifism is “heresy” and that “violence is a tool.” After the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, he gave a sermon entitled “A Gathering of Patriots” where he said: “Tyrants must be confronted with force or violence at times because that is the only way to defeat them and to cause their harm and their injustice to others to stop.”
• Timothy Bachleitner, a member of Trewhella’s church, serves as the chair of the Republican Party of Fond du Lac County. Reached by phone, Bachleitner said Trewhella gave his blessing before Bachleitner sought the position and that he has brought the doctrine into his role.
• Trewhella is focused on counties. He organized a conference called “County before Country” with the goal of “expanding God’s Kingdom through Christian localism.”

This story took a lot of research. What else do you want to share about this subject?

Some Republican operatives in Wisconsin questioned why we were doing this story. They said that Trewhella was old news from the ‘90s. That’s not what our reporting showed. We found him cited by county commissioners, state lawmakers and former Trump officials, all in the past several years. In our home state of Wisconsin, the Republican Party of Waukesha County, the heart of the state’s Republican politics, has invited Trewhella to speak twice and promotes his teachings and book on its website, although its leaders downplayed the link when asked for comment.

“I just can’t imagine that they’d support this person,” said Bill Kruziki, a former Republican sheriff in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. “You can quote me on this: I think it’s a shame they do that.”

The reporting process itself was one of the most interesting I’ve had. One of my first steps entailed sending records requests to local officials who served in areas where Trewhella had given presentations. Within days, Trewhella had obtained a copy of the request and shared it on his social media profile and email newsletter, writing: “The wicked are trembling!”

And in the final stages of the reporting, I requested an interview with Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers, who cited Trewhella when defending his calls to ignore federal law that violated “God’s word.” An aide denied my request and included in his email “a brief gospel exhortation,” urging me and my readers “to turn from sin, run to Christ, trust Him, and enjoy fellowship with him forever.”

Why we investigated Wisconsin Pastor Matthew Trewhella is a post from Wisconsin Watch , a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.