Gods of the Smoke Machine: Power, Pain, and the Rise of Christian Nationalism in the Megachurch

by Scott Latta

We are entering a new era of religion in America. For the first time, fewer than half the country belongs to a church.

But within that group, growing numbers are consolidating in megachurches, which are amassing social and political power in our age of convenience and easy celebrity.


Megachurch pastors have never been more influential—with media empires, networks, and entire colleges under their control. But their churches have also never been more prone to abuse and hurt. Gods of the Smoke Machine goes inside America's largest churches to uncover the hidden stories of trauma happening within our most powerful Christian institutions and meet the survivors, attorneys, and advocates fighting for accountability. It is a cloaked world of sex, power, politics, and money, but also a human story of pain, betrayal, and resilience.


Combining personal storytelling and original reporting, author Scott Latta pulls back the curtain on a dangerously insular institution of more than seventeen hundred churches nationwide that is answerable to almost no outside accountability.


Even those who have never set foot in a church can feel the implications of this societal shift. Megachurch pastors were the kingmakers of Donald Trump and drove the rhetoric behind the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. For decades, they have crafted their own laws even as they fought to influence ours.

Gods of the Smoke Machine tells a sweeping story of those who commoditized our search for meaning into a machine that preserves privilege, profit, and power at the cost of those it wounds along the way.

288 pages, Hardcover

Published October 28, 2025

Reviews

[Cade · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 would absolutely recommend. BUT he got one thing wrong: In the section about Sylacauga, he says Ms. Hodges is the most famous person from Sylacauga. Nope! Sir, as interesting and odd as the Hodges meteorite is, the most famous person from my hometown is Jim Nabors.

[Timothy Klob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written. Good summary of some of the key problems with the megachurch movement. Could have focused on more of the positive impacts of evangelicalism in the historic sense as opposed to the negative impacts of modern American evangelicalism. Discussion toward the end of the book on the dangers of Christian nationalism was interesting but could have been developed further. The publication date is set for 2026 so this may be an advance copy (I received it through an investigative reporting ministry, The Roys Report, that it is cited therein), and while it appears to be current through November of this year, the recent events over the past several weeks (including the death of Charlie Kirk and additional recent megachurch scandals involving some of the key players cited therein) could have added additional context. The comparison between the benefits of a smaller church versus the primary and second-order impacts of megachurches was beneficial, but further recommendations on how to avoid the dangers of politicized Christianity as well as how smaller churches can survive when faced with megachurch encroachment would be helpful as well. Overall, a good book that I would recommend to anyone seeking more understanding of this phenomenon.