The First Amendment does say "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," but that does not stop lawmakers from endorsing Christian nationalism.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says that Christian nationalism is nothing to fear because it's the only thing that can stop school shootings, crime, and sexual immorality, declaring that anyone who opposes it is a "domestic terrorist." pic.twitter.com/0WhcAfFeCT
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) June 3, 2022
Remember how researchers of Christian nationalism were called „alarmist“ and „hysterical“ because they warned of its dangers? Well, the Right has started to openly admit that they in fact ARE Christian nationalists. Just fyi. https://t.co/wnpiOA5M9H
— Annika Brockschmidt (@ardenthistorian) June 3, 2022
One of many, many related phenomena we might bring up is that some guns are Christian.
I am not over the fact that a gun company made a gun named the Crusader, stamped Psalm 144:1 on it, it's in such high demand that there's a 12-18 month waiting period, and we don't treat it as a call for religious terrorism.
— Thomas Lecaque (@tlecaque) June 6, 2022
I. Am. Literally. A. Historian. Of. The. Crusades. https://t.co/Z2PfHTTCGL
— Thomas Lecaque (@tlecaque) June 7, 2022
Hemant Mehta blogged: "On July 1 [2022], a slew of conservative Christians, including conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and anti-abortion zealot Abby Johnson, gathered..." The event was hosted by Gene Bailey who said they should pledge to "watch over the nation and make sure it’s run according to conservative Christian principles." He asked them to recite something called the "Watchmen Decree."
On July 23, 2022, Marjorie Taylor Greene told Next News Network: “We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists."
If you're interested in context, please see my posts on Sarah Posner's Unholy and Katherine Stewart's The Good News Club (both on this blog); Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez and American Rule by Jared Yates Sexton (on Medium — these links get you around the paywall); and The End of White Christian America by Robert P. Jones (on Goodreads). In September 2023, Jones has a new book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future, and in an interview refers to White Christian Americans' "counterfactual myth of impossible innocence."
Doug Mastriano is the Republican Party nominee for Pennsylvania governor. He supports QAnon and Christian nationalism. He's promoted his campaign on the social media site Gab, which was founded by Andrew Torba. Torba said, as Raw Story paraphrased it, that "he believes American conservatism should be for Christians only, and that conservatives should reject right-wing Jewish figures such as Ben Shapiro and Dave Rubin."
Torba's words:
>"We don't want people who are Jewish. We don't want people who are, you know, nonbelievers, agnostic, whatever. This is an explicitly Christian movement because this is an explicitly Christian country. We're not saying we're going to deport all these people or whatever. You're free to stay here. You're not going to be forced to convert or anything like this because that's not biblical whatsoever. But you're going to enjoy the fruits of living in a Christian society under Christian laws and under a Christian culture and you can thank us later."
The US isn't a Christian nation, but that's a myth that enables its believers, says Jared Yates Sexton, "to understand the world and accept the type of violence and oppression that is coming." (tweet, July 27, 2022) One of their sayings is "There is no crime for those with Christ," meaning the ends justify the means. (tweet from the same thread) There was violence and political scapegoating between Catholics and Protestants ever since Protestantism arose. Then, in the US, "the Founders wanted to destroy the religious-backed institution of the monarchy, which relied on the Christian mythology in order to hold power. They wanted to move to a different system where entrenched wealth and power could be shifted." (tweet from the same thread) "Because Christianity held such power, the Founders and others like them formed secret societies and organizations where they could discuss options to move beyond the old systems and form something less chaotic and beyond the old hierarchies." (tweet from the same thread) It was the instinct of liberal democracy to have a religion-free government, and the instinct of conservatism to assume that liberals wanted "to destroy Christianity itself...[and that this was] part of a larger, sinister plot. This is the definitive mindset of conservatism and their goal is to reconstruct the hierarchies of the past." (tweet from the same thread) There is "the original conspiracy theory: that a sinister and evil plot is being carried out to destroy Christianity and destroy the nation." (tweet from the same thread) The New World Order conspiracy theory is also used by Putin and Orbán. The Christian myth "gives them a world to live in in which these things can be carried out." (tweet from the same thread) Trumpism prepared the way. QAnon is a modernized version of "sinister, Evil plots that can only be answered by violence and the destruction of liberal democracy." (tweet from the same thread) Sexton adapted this information from his forthcoming book, The Midnight Kingdom (January 2023).
Quote from NPR's Morning Edition (July 1, 2022):
"These legal wins for the Christian Right, though, are happening at a time when a growing majority of Americans are strongly opposed to their views.
'This is the most disproportionate power that the Christian Right has had in my lifetime,' says Robert Jones, CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute — a nonpartisan group that conducts research on the intersection of politics, culture and religion."
Thom Hartmann, "So where did all this right-wing religious nuttery come from?," Salon, July 12, 2022:
"...what's so astonishing about the entire situation is that we have reached this point not because the American public wants religious doctrine running our law, and not because most religious people agree with an arrogant prick working at Walgreens.
Instead, it's because a small group of right-wing billionaires didn't want to pay their taxes, wanted to get rid of their unions and didn't want regulation of the pollution from their refineries and other operations.
Seriously.
They put billions of dollars over five decades into a project to seize control of the legislatures of a majority of the states, jam up the U.S. Congress and pack the Supreme Court — and it was all about taxes, unions and regulation.
So where did the religious nuttery come from?
The right-wing billionaires and the corporations and foundations aligned with them knew back in 1971 — when Lewis Powell laid out their strategy in his infamous "Powell Memo," the year before Richard Nixon put him on the Supreme Court — that most Americans wouldn't happily vote to lower billionaires' taxes, end unions and regulation of gun manufacturers, or increase the amount of refinery poisons in our air.
How to convince the public that taxes, regulations, and organized labor cause more harm than benefit? Not only "five decades and billions of dollars to subsidize think tanks and policy groups," not only right-wing media like Fox News, not only an alliance with the NRA to increase the number of guns 8-fold in the US over the four decades since Reagan was first elected. No, they also needed Jerry Falwell, "an inveterate grifter, hustling Jesus to build a multimillion-dollar empire while ignoring Jesus' teachings about humility, poverty and the need to care for others. A new, muscular Jesus — a Jesus who endorsed assault weapons and private jets for preachers — came to dominate much of America's Protestant Christianity."
The result of the politicized Christianity, of course, is that in 2022 we no longer have abortion access in all 50 states because we lost Roe v. Wade.
Very difficult to overstate how dangerous this is. A Supreme Court justice suggesting that "secular society" is a risk, that the government somehow favors or even is dependent on religion and believers over others is a step toward theocracy and away from our founding principles. https://t.co/3kid6XiGQS
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) July 30, 2022
This is the work of white Christian nationalism. It is the work of incipient fascism. It is the work of those who seek to enshrine the narrow superstitions of a small minority in laws and rulings that will in fact replace religious freedom with religious obligations.
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) July 30, 2022
"Our national poll included 2,091 participants, carried out May 6-16, 2022, with a margin of error of +/- 2.14 percent.
We started by asking participants if they believed the Constitution would even allow the United States government to declare the U.S. a “Christian Nation.” We found that 70 percent of Americans — including 57 percent of Republicans and 81 percent of Democrats — said that the Constitution would not allow such a declaration. (Indeed, the First Amendment says Congress can neither establish nor prohibit the practice of a religion.)
* * *
Fully 61 percent of Republicans supported declaring the United States a Christian nation. In other words, even though over half of Republicans previously said such a move would be unconstitutional, a majority of GOP voters would still support this declaration."
— "Most Republicans Support Declaring the United States a Christian Nation: New polling shows the appeal — and limits — of a Christian nationalist message." Stella Rouse and Shibley Telhami. Politico. Sept. 21, 2022.
Annika Brockschmidt (Twitter: @ardenthistorian) wrote a book about the rise of the religious right and white Christian Nationalism in the US. The book is in German. Amerikas Gotteskrieger: Wie die Religiöse Rechte die Demokratie gefährdet
Episode of Trumpcast: "White Supremacy, Tulsa, and the Mythology of America." One more conversation before this weekend’s ill-fated Trump rally. Description: "Virginia Heffernan talks to author Jared Yates Sexton about evangelical mythology, Bill Barr, rural understandings of globalism, the Confederacy, the coming Trump rally in Tulsa, how some Christian Trumpists may view COVID, and the “cult of the shining city."
Robert Reich observes (Substack, July 13, 2023):
“Put on the full armor of God. Stand firm against the left’s schemes,” Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis proclaimed at the Christian Hillsdale College (substituting “left’s schemes” for the “devil's schemes” of Ephesians 6:11).
* * *
The paradox is that religious observance has shown a steep decline over the past quarter century. In 1999, Gallup found that 70 percent of Americans belonged to a church, a synagogue, or a mosque. In 2020, the number was 47 percent. For the first time in nearly a century of polling, worshippers were the minority in America.
Does this precipitous decline help explain the militance of white Christian nationalism? A fierce minority religious movement has taken over the Republican Party — giving the GOP fervor and purpose that are now being championed by Republican appointees to the Supreme Court, Republican state legislators, and Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump.
We're in this situation now.
"Christian nationalism, separate from the Christian religion, is a political ideology that seeks to merge Christian beliefs and symbols with national identity and public policy. Christian nationalists believe that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and Christianity should be infused in all aspects of American society. They believe that their god is the only thing that should influence laws and determine our rights, and as such, any laws and any governing body that is not based on the authority of their god, is essentially meaningless. For Christian nationalists, our government, the television shows we watch, the music we consume, how we structure our family life, how we engage with one another, and more, should be informed by their god. The true danger of this ideology lies not in that they believe this (although plenty could be said on that), but in that they are actively trying to enact it into our policies."
— Unveiling Christian Nationalism: Examining its Influence Through Current Legislative Trends, Meredith Thompson, The Humanist, March 15, 2024
Seen in May 2024
One of the most important things you can do as an ally and as fighter of fascism is stop laughing at evangelical Christians and realize they mean every single word they say. They’re not funny, they’re absolutely terrifying. Take them extremely seriously and act accordingly.
— Erin Biba (@erinbiba.bsky.social) May 26, 2024 at 4:14 PM
Responses to this included (paraphrased):
- They worship power.
- They will reject their own family rather than give up any of that power.
- They will use their power to cause harm.
- They're trying to bring about the apocalypse.
- They're aware of what they're doing.
- They're organized and shrewd.
- They apply the concept of "religious freedom" inconsistently — they mean it for them and no one else.
- They're conscious and intentional about their inconsistency, which means you can't shame them simply by pointing out their hypocrisy.
Recommendation: Listen to Chrissy Stroop www.bugbeardispatch.com (and on Bluesky)
June 2024
It's long past time for a broader discussion about what "Christian" means in America. It is far more a political identifier than a shared faith: 43% of Evangelicals reject the divinity of Christ.
— Max Kennerly (@maxkennerly.bsky.social) Jun 18, 2024 at 8:55 AM
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Washington Post opinion: "Trump has changed what it means to be evangelical"
July 2024
Josh Hawley embraces the Christian nationalism label at NatCon:
— Sarah Posner (@sarahposner.bsky.social) Jul 9, 2024 at 12:41 PM
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