肯·帕克斯顿的政治生涯，比本周期竞选的任何其他共和党候选人都更能勾勒出宗教右翼的兴衰轨迹。该阵营最具影响力的活动家和捐助者，在其从崛起至每一次丑闻的各个阶段，都精心打造了这位文化战士。他角逐参议员一职，是其野心的巅峰，不仅成了他的最后一搏，也成了德州基督教民族主义者的“阿拉莫保卫战”。
Ken Paxton’s political career, more than that of any other Republican candidate campaigning in this cycle, charts the arc of the religious right. The most influential of its activists and donors engineered his rise as a culture warrior at each of its phases from his creation through every disgrace. His race for the Senate, the culmination of his ambition, has become not only his last stand, but also the Alamo for Christian nationalists in Texas.
帕克斯顿的劣迹斑斑，解释了为何他要将基督教身份政治作为一面盾牌，以转移外界对其数十年来财务与性丑闻累累这一包袱的关注。德州共和党控制的众议院于2023年5月通过的20项弹劾条款，数量是帕克斯顿坚持要在每间德州教室悬挂的“十诫”的两倍。
Paxton’s rap sheet explains his Christian identity politics as a shield to distract from the liability of his own record of financial and sexual scandals scrolling back decades. The 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton, adopted by the Republican-controlled Texas house of representatives in May 2023, were double the Ten Commandments that Paxton insists should be displayed in every Texas classroom.
据指控，帕克斯顿涉嫌受贿：竞选捐助内特·保罗为帕克斯顿的疑似情妇——一名前参议院助手——在其旗下的“世界级控股”房地产公司安排了工作。保罗涉嫌为帕克斯顿创建了一个虚假的Uber账户，以便其秘密出行与情妇幽会，并支付了帕克斯顿住宅的装修费用。作为交换，帕克斯顿涉嫌干预了针对保罗涉及1.72亿美元贷款财务欺诈指控的联邦调查，泄露了FBI的密封文件，利用州检察长职权安插特别检察官以打击骚扰调查保罗罪行的联邦特工和法官，并叫停了对保罗房产的拍卖。2025年4月，保罗达成认罪协议，判处四个月居家监禁、五年监管释放及100万美元罚金。
Paxton had allegedly engaged in bribery when a campaign contributor, Nate Paul, secured a job for Paxton’s alleged mistress, a former senate aide, at World Class Holdings, a real estate firm owned by Paul. Paul allegedly created a fake Uber account for Paxton to travel secretly for liaisons with his mistress and paid for renovations at Paxton’s house. In exchange, Paxton allegedly interfered with a federal inquiry into accusations of financial fraud against Paul involving $172m in loans by passing on sealed FBI documents, installing a special prosecutor in his office as the state’s attorney general to target and harass the federal agents and judges investigating Paul’s crimes, and halting foreclosures on Paul’s properties. In April 2025, Paul took a plea deal of four months of home confinement, five years of supervised release, and a $1m fine.
共和党主导的得克萨斯州参议院在2023年9月的弹劾审判中以16票对14票宣告帕克斯顿无罪。2015年，帕克斯顿因金融证券欺诈重罪被联邦起诉后，他通过认罪协议避免了审判，根据协议，他需完成100小时社区服务、参加15小时法律伦理课程，并向被骗投资者支付27.1万美元赔偿金。
The Republican-dominated Texas senate by a 16-to-14 vote acquitted Paxton in his impeachment trial in September 2023. After Paxton’s federal indictment in 2015 on felony counts of financial securities fraud, he avoided trial by copping a plea under which he would perform 100 hours of community service, take 15 hours of legal ethics courses, and pay $271,000 in restitution to the fleeced investors.
帕克斯顿的妻子、州参议员安吉拉·帕克斯顿出席了弹劾审判，但被禁止投票。她在推动他的职业生涯中发挥了关键作用，本身也是一股政治力量，是连接基督教民族主义领导人和资助者的重要渠道。两人在贝勒大学求学时相识，育有四个孩子，她将他们的“神圣盟约”呈现为一种基于信仰的党派使命。“我是个带枪的妈妈，我丈夫起诉奥巴马，”她对欢呼的人群说。他用竞选基金中的200万美元贷款资助了她的竞选，而她一旦上任，便提出法案以增加他办公室的经费和薪水。
Paxton’s wife, the state senator Angela Paxton, attended the impeachment trial, but was barred from voting. She had been instrumental in advancing his career, a political force in her own right, a crucial conduit to Christian nationalist leaders and funders. They had met as students at Baylor University, had four children, and she presented their “sacred covenant” as a faith-based partisan calling. “I’m a pistol-packing mama, and my husband sues Obama,” she told cheering crowds. He financed her election with a $2m loan from his campaign fund, and once in office she filed bills to increase his office and salary.
2025年7月，安吉拉·帕克斯顿以“圣经理由”提出离婚。今年7月，帕克斯顿被拍到与基督教网红特蕾西·杜洪一同前往冰岛和伦敦旅行。
In July 2025, Angela Paxton filed for divorce on “biblical grounds”. This July, Paxton was photographed on a trip to Iceland and London with the Christian influencer Tracy Duhon.
扶植帕克斯顿的宗教右翼对他的越轨行为毫不在意，只要他们能把他推上台来行使权力。这个联盟以传统价值观为名，是虚伪与犬儒主义的完美结合。
The religious right that raised up Paxton has cared little about his transgressions so long as they could prop him up to wield power. The alliance has been a perfect marriage of hypocrisy and cynicism in the name of traditional values.
故事始于1967年新奥尔良传奇的杜梦咖啡馆，保罗·普雷斯勒和佩奇·帕特森在那里达成协议，要接管南方浸信会，将其转变为“保守派复兴”的政治机器，并清除温和派。两人都已被正式授予这一神圣任务。
The origin story begins at New Orleans’ legendary Café du Monde in 1967, where Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson forged a pact to take over the Southern Baptist Convention to transform it into a political machine for a “Conservative Resurgence” and to purge moderates. Both had been duly anointed for their holy task.
普雷斯勒的祖父兼英雄EE·汤斯是一名石油行业律师，正如汤斯所解释的那样，他是得克萨斯正规派运动的领导人，该运动支持“白人至上”以及取消战时对石油和天然气的价格管制。正规派试图在1944年阻止富兰克林·D·罗斯福总统连任。四年后，正规派并入了主张种族隔离的迪克西民主党。汤斯利用其孙子、年轻普雷斯勒当选得克萨斯州众议员的机会，让他在州议会中发起支持种族隔离的立法。
Pressler’s grandfather and hero, EE Townes, an oil industry lawyer, was a leader of the Texas Regulars movement in favor of “white supremacy”, as Townes explained, and the lifting of wartime price controls on oil and gas. The Regulars sought to defeat President Franklin D Roosevelt’s re-election in 1944. Four years later, the Regulars folded into the segregationist Dixiecrat party. Townes leveraged the election of his grandson, young Pressler, to the Texas house, where he sponsored pro-segregationist legislation.
普雷斯勒找到了佩奇·帕特森，后者是达拉斯庞大的第一浸信会教堂原教旨主义牧师WA·克里斯韦尔的使徒。克里斯韦尔曾谴责民权活动人士是“异教徒”，并在1960年反对约翰·F·肯尼迪竞选总统，理由是他不过是教皇的幌子。克里斯韦尔后来任命帕特森为其克里斯韦尔圣经研究中心的负责人，该中心是拥有14座教堂的权力基地。
Pressler sought out Paige Patterson, an apostle of WA Criswell, fundamentalist pastor of the mammoth First Baptist Church of Dallas, who denounced civil rights activists as “infidels” and John F Kennedy’s candidacy for president in 1960 on the basis that he was a stalking horse for the pope. Criswell would appoint Patterson the head of his Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, a power base of 14 churches.
1979年，当时已被任命为得克萨斯州法官的普雷斯勒和帕特森利用他们在美南浸信会内部的影响力选举其主席。“那就像葛底斯堡，”普雷斯勒说，“但这一次，正确的一方赢了。”温和派被系统性地从美南浸信会神学院和官僚机构中解雇。“我们要直取要害，”普雷斯勒说。
In 1979, Pressler, by then appointed a Texas state judge, and Patterson applied their clout within the SBC to elect its president. “It was like Gettysburg,” said Pressler. “But this time the right side won.”Moderates were systematically fired from Southern Baptist seminaries and bureaucracy. “We are going for the jugular,” Pressler said.
普雷斯勒和帕特森催生了凯利·沙克尔福德。后者于1997年创立了第一自由研究所，这是一个基督教保守派法律组织，并围绕它打造了一台强大的政治机器，从少数亿万富翁石油商那里筹集了数千万美元，动员福音派并选举右翼共和党人。实际上，得克萨斯正规派的愿景实现了。
Pressler and Patterson begat Kelly Shackelford, who in 1997 founded the First Liberty Institute, a Christian conservative legal organization, around which he created a powerful political machine, raising tens of millions from a handful of billionaire oilmen, mobilizing evangelicals and electing rightwing Republicans. In effect, the vision of the Texas Regulars was realized.
沙克尔福德生出了格雷格·阿博特，后者于2002年当选得克萨斯州总检察长，两人在宗教右翼案件上协同运作。与此同时，沙克尔福德还生出了肯·帕克斯顿，后者是他竞选得克萨斯州众议员背后的推手。沙克尔福德、帕克斯顿及其妻子安吉拉都曾一同就读于贝勒大学。随后，当阿博特于2014年竞选州长时，沙克尔福德支持帕克斯顿接替他出任总检察长。普雷斯勒曾在帕克斯顿的顾问委员会任职。
Shackelford begat Greg Abbott, elected Texas attorney general in 2002, meshing their operations on religious right cases. At the same time, Shackelford begat Ken Paxton, the force behind his run for the Texas house. Shackelford, Paxton and his wife Angela had all attended Baylor together. Then, when Abbott ran for governor in 2014, Shackelford backed Paxton to replace him as attorney general. Pressler served on Paxton’s advisory committee.
帕克斯顿聘用了沙克尔福德手下超过六名幕僚律师，包括其总法律顾问杰夫·马蒂尔，后者成为助理总检察长，并将整个总检察长办公室的全部力量投入到沙克尔福德的文化战争诉讼中。2020年，马蒂尔良心发现，向联邦调查局举报帕克斯顿涉嫌受贿，但沙克尔福德站在帕克斯顿一边，维持基督教右翼的团结，并为其法律辩护提供资金。
Paxton hired more than half a dozen of Shackelford’s staff lawyers, including his general counsel, Jeff Mateer, who became the assistant attorney general, and threw the full weight of his office behind Shackelford’s culture war litigation. In 2020, Mateer had a crisis of conscience and reported Paxton to the FBI for alleged bribery, but Shackelford stood by Paxton, keeping the Christian right in line and providing money for his legal defense.
沙克尔福德一直忙于生出一大批右翼政客来接管得克萨斯州共和党：参议员特德·克鲁兹、副州长丹·帕特里克，以及众多得克萨斯州议员。在帕克斯顿被众议院弹劾后拒绝将其免职的得克萨斯州参议院，早已被安插了人手。由沙克尔福德的石油商资助的“捍卫得克萨斯自由”政治行动委员会，威胁任何投票判定帕克斯顿有罪的共和党人的政治前途。作为法官主持审判的丹·帕特里克收到了300万美元的贷款和捐款。
Shackelford had been busy begetting a slew of rightwing politicians to take over the Texas Republican party: Senator Ted Cruz, the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, and a host of Texas legislators. The Texas state senate that refused to remove Paxton after he was impeached by the house had been packed. The Defend Texas Liberty Pac, funded by Shackelford’s oilmen, threatened the political future of any Republican who voted to convict Paxton. Dan Patrick, who presided over the trial as judge, received $3m in loans and contributions.
沙克尔福德还生出了迈克·约翰逊，早在后者成为众议院议长之前，约翰逊最初是“第一自由”组织的诉讼律师，于2010年被选中成为路易斯安那州新成立的保罗·普雷斯勒法学院的创院院长，该学院因资金短缺和未能获得认证而于2012年倒闭。
Shackelford also begat Mike Johnson, long before he became speaker of the House, originally a litigator at First Liberty, selected in 2010 to become the founding dean of the new Paul Pressler School of Law in Louisiana, which collapsed in 2012 due to lack of funding and failure to achieve accreditation.
自20世纪80年代初以来，关于普雷斯勒作为恋童癖者的侵害行为就不仅仅是传言。温和派浸信会教徒一直在仔细记录他性侵男孩和年轻男子的可观察模式。2004年，普雷斯勒担任执事的休斯敦第一浸信会教堂调查了一起投诉，指控普雷斯勒猥亵一名年轻男子。教会领袖向普雷斯勒发送了一封私下警告信，称该行为“在道德和精神上都不恰当”，如果曝光可能会“扭曲你的见证”。
Since the early 1980s, there were more than rumors about Pressler’s predations as a pedophile. Moderate Baptists were closely documenting his observable pattern of sexual abuse of boys and young men. In 2004, the First Baptist Church of Houston where Pressler was a deacon investigated a complaint that Pressler molested a young man. Church leaders sent Pressler a private warning letter saying the conduct was “morally and spiritually inappropriate” and could “distort your testimony” if it came to light.
那封信在十多年里一直保密。同年另一起事件中，普雷斯勒以45万美元私下和解了杜安·罗林斯提起的诉讼，罗林斯声称自己在14岁时曾多次遭到普雷斯勒强奸。普雷斯勒的律师事务所合伙人贾里德·伍德菲尔——他曾为帕克斯顿筹款——被告知了这些指控。此后多年，伍德菲尔一直让普雷斯勒保留合伙人身份，尽管普雷斯勒不做任何工作，伍德菲尔通过不断给他派年轻男子担任助手来补偿他，其中三人指控普雷斯勒有性行为不端。
That letter remained private for more than a decade. In a separate incident that year, Pressler privately settled a suit for $450,000 with Duane Rollins, who alleged that as a 14-year-old he had been repeatedly raped by Pressler. Jared Woodfill, Pressler’s law partner who helped fundraise for Paxton, was informed of the allegations. For years afterwards, Woodfill maintained Pressler as a law partner, though he performed no work, compensating him by sending him a string of young men to serve as assistants, three of whom have accused Pressler of sexual misconduct. (Pressler, who died in 2024, denied the allegations against him and was never criminally charged. Woodfill has denied wrongdoing.)
（普雷斯勒于2024年去世，他否认了对他的指控，也从未被刑事起诉。伍德菲尔否认有不当行为。）杜安·罗林斯于2017年提起新的诉讼，这次不仅点名普雷斯勒，还点名美南浸信会及多个浸信会机构，并指控美南浸信会领导层掩盖了虐待行为。他的诉讼消息在《德克萨斯论坛报》曝光后，其他年轻男子也站出来提出类似指控。
Duane Rollins filed a new lawsuit in 2017, this time naming the SBC and multiple Baptist entities, not just Pressler, and alleging the SBC leadership covered up the abuse. After the news of his suit broke in the Texas Tribune, other young men stepped forward with similar allegations.
2019年，《休斯敦纪事报》记者罗伯特·唐宁撰写了调查报道，记录了美南浸信会各教会中普遍存在的性虐待现象，普雷斯勒只是其中一个例子。
In 2019, the Houston Chronicle reporter Robert Downen wrote investigative reports documenting widespread sexual abuse across Southern Baptist churches broadly, of which Pressler was only one example.
唐宁的报道促使美南浸信会委托进行了一项调查，该调查发现了针对30个州263名教会领袖的指控，以及大量掩盖行为。调查报告发布后，美南浸信会阻挠进一步调查，其官员将这一切斥为“鲁莽的骗局”。
Downen’s reporting sparked the SBC to commission an investigation that unearthed allegations against 263 church leaders in 30 states and an extensive pattern of cover-up. After its publication, the SBC stonewalled further inquiry and its officials denounced it all as a “reckless hoax”.
普雷斯勒于 2024 年去世。佩奇·帕特森在担任西南浸信会神学院院长期间，因被指控建议遭受婚姻虐待的女性为丈夫祈祷而声名狼藉；他最终于 2018 年被解职。2023 年，帕特森及该神学院被卷入罗林斯对普雷斯勒的诉讼中，但最终败诉。该神学院曾将普雷斯勒和帕特森奉为“圣人”，并在教堂的彩色玻璃窗上为他们塑像；然而在他们失势后，这些玻璃窗被悄悄移除了。
Pressler died in 2024. Paige Patterson was disgraced when he was accused of advising women who endured marital abuse to pray for their husbands while he was president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was ousted in 2018. Patterson and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary were dismissed from Rollins’s lawsuit against Pressler in 2023. The school had immortalized Pressler and Patterson as virtual saints with stained glass windows in its chapel, but after their fall from grace the windows were quietly removed.
如今，帕克斯顿将自己塑造成一个极端男性化的形象，以此来贬低他的对手——詹姆斯·塔拉里科（一位秉持社会正义理念的长老会神学院学生）。其中一则电视广告称：“塔拉里科太软弱，根本配不上德克萨斯州！”帕克斯顿还用一系列嘲讽性绰号来攻击塔拉里科，如“豆腐塔拉里科”、“六性恋的吉米”等。白宫副幕僚长斯蒂芬·米勒也在社交媒体上恶意攻击塔拉里科，称：“民主党在德克萨斯州创造了历史，提名了首位跨性别参议员候选人。”
On a political precipice, Paxton projects himself as a specimen of hypermasculinity to feminize his opponent – his actual opposite in other respects – a Presbyterian seminarian animated by social justice, James Talarico. “Low-T Talarico Too Weak For Texas,” ran one TV ad. Paxton has mocked him with a blizzard of nicknames: “Tofu Talarico”, “Six-gender Jimmy” and “James Tala-freako”. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has chimed in, falsely, on X: “The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender senate candidate.”
一个保守派组织制作了一则人工智能生成的广告，其中虚假的塔拉里科穿着裙子，演唱着《音乐之声》中的歌曲，内容涉及“改变所有后代的性别”。随后，帕克斯顿又发布了一则类似的人工智能生成的广告，画面中虚假的塔拉里科用蜡笔在《圣经》上涂鸦，并发表了一系列关于宗教和性的错误、扭曲的言论，称这些观点“不适合德克萨斯州”。
A conservative group produced an AI generated ad with a phoney Talarico in a dress singing a song from The Sound of Music about “changing the gender of all your offspring”. Paxton then posted an AI-generated ad of a fake Talarico drawing in crayon on a “Talarico King James Bible”, delivering a sermon of false and distorted statements about religion and sex: “wrong for Texas”.
一位右翼人士出资 1000 万美元，制作了一则深度伪造的广告，将塔拉里科描绘成正在为一名女孩进行性别重置手术的外科医生；事实上，塔拉里科本人坚决反对对未成年人进行性别重置手术，也反对跨性别运动员参加女子体育比赛。
A rightwing Pac supported Paxton with a $10m buy of a deepfake AI ad depicting Talarico as a surgeon apparently performing a sex reassignment operation on a girl. In fact, Talarico is opposed to transgender surgery for minors and trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports.
帕克斯顿越是感到不安，就越会采取极端手段来煽动人们的性恐慌情绪。通过散布诽谤言论，他把自己伪装成“信仰的捍卫者”，并鼓吹恢复“犹太-基督教价值观”，声称塔拉里科（Talarico）是一个“憎恨基督教的基督徒”，因此需要保护这些价值观免受塔拉里科的威胁。
The more unnerved Paxton becomes, the deeper he descends to smears to incite a sexual panic. Through his calumnies, he positions himself as defender of the faith. He evangelizes for restoring “Judeo-Christian values” and protecting them from the threat of Talarico, “a Christian who hates Christianity”, he says.
帕克斯顿确实是一个典型的反面人物——他的形象可以追溯到辛克莱·刘易斯（Sinclair Lewis）1927年出版的小说《埃尔默·甘特尼》（Elmer Gantry）中，书中描绘了一个放荡不羁的传教士兼政治骗子。刘易斯写道：“这个家伙从教会和主日学校里学到的一切，或许只有对正直、善良与理性的渴望除外。”
Paxton is indeed a throwback to a venerable tradition. His archetype appeared in Sinclair Lewis’s novel, Elmer Gantry, published in 1927, about a licentious preacher and political conman. “He had, in fact,” wrote Lewis, “got everything from the church and Sunday School, except, perhaps, any longing whatever for decency and kindness and reason.”
西德尼·布卢门撒尔（Sidney Blumenthal）曾是比尔·克林顿（Bill Clinton）和希拉里·克林顿（Hillary Clinton）总统的高级顾问，目前已出版了关于亚伯拉罕·林肯（Abraham Lincoln）政治生涯的三本书（该系列计划共五卷），分别为《一个白手起家的人》（A Self-Made Man）、《与内心的“天使”抗争》（Wrestling with His Angel）以及《与世间的一切势力抗争》（All the Powers of Earth）。
Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth.
他同时也是《卫报美国版》（The Guardian US）的专栏作家，并共同主持播客节目《历史法庭》（Court of History）。
He is a Guardian US columnist and co-host of the Court of History podcast