At the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) a right-wing speaker named Jack Posobiec said the quiet out loud, leaving no doubt what the right is trying to do. (link) While holding up a cross on a chain, Posobiec said he is out to “destroy democracy” while the audience applauds. I am not one to operate from a place of fear, but in a webinar by Christians Against Christian Nationalism Professor Andrew Whitehead showed graphs that highlight the problem, with more than 50% supporting the idea. This made me sit up and take notice because the approach of Christian Nationalists would effective violate the First Amendment and make Christianity the Law of the Land. Think Sharia law, American style.
The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof……” Our nation was borne of religious persecution by the Puritans and since founding has been a pluralistic country. The First Amendment not provides for freedom of religion, but freedom FROM religion as well. When I hear people say the “US is a Christian nation,” I remind them that the Founding Fathers were the product of the Age of Reason and considered themselves, for the most part, to be Deists, believing that God created the universe and established rationally comprehensible moral and natural laws but does not intervene in human affairs through miracles or supernatural revelation. To cement that point Article XI in the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli states unequivocally “The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion,” the
According the the panelists on the webinar, Christian Nationalism is not a religious, but rather a cultural construct and the date bear that out. It is essentially a white, native-born, “people like us” and supposes that to be a ‘good American one must also be Christian.” Now to be clear, I am not referring to Christians, in general, but specifically to those who would have Christianity be privileged by the State and our laws governed by what they consider to be valid. Were this to become real, all of the civil rights we have secured over the last century would be wiped out. You could expect mass deportations, prison terms for LGBTQ+ people, etc. There is no worse image of a dystopian America I can think of.
Our Constitution and the rights it guarantees are what makes our nation the global magnet it is. To think that a group of people who subscribe to totalitarian ideologies know what’s best does ,make me afraid.
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DALE PORTER · March 24, 2024 at 5:18 pm
The present “Christian Nationalism” movement is reminiscent of the “Christian Front” with insurrectionist Father Charles Coughlin a Catholic Priest. The Christion Front during the 1930s identified with Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy and many in Congress were accepting money from the German government. Christian Nationalists have stated that they want to”take our democracy away” to make the US a Christian theocracy. The violence and insurrection attempts and right-wing support of authoritarian leadership of the 1930s can also be seen today with their support of Putin and his Russian expansion ambitions. House Speaker Mike Johnson identifies as a Christian Nationalist. There is a Christian Nationalist flag alongside the American flag outside his office. I believe in the separation of church and state as stated in the Constitution. Religion receives tax-free status because they do not become political and preach politics from the pulpit.