How the powerful U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and its ultra-conservative allies are waging a political war on democratic norms and institutions. Playing God, by Mary Jo McConahay, a leading Catholic journalist in the United States, is the definitive account of how the Catholic bishops are attempting to remake America in their own image, campaigning to alter democratic institutions under the guise of religious liberty, allying with major right-wing contributors, such as the Kochs and the Mercers, as well as ultra-right evangelicals whom they increasingly resemble politically. It tells the story of how these bishops - two-hundred and twenty-nine men, almost all beyond middle age and white-- fueled by Catholic 'dark money' --have become one of the most formidable and reactionary forces in American society. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is one of the most powerful religious organizations supporting nationalist-populist conservatism in America today. The media