Christian nationalism. What is it? In her 2006 book Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, Michelle Goldberg
detailed the rise of this theofascist movement.
Her online article �What is Christian
Nationalism?� summarized:
�Christian
nationalists believe in a revisionist history, which holds that the founders
were devout Christians who never intended to create a secular republic;
separation of church and state, according to this history, is a fraud
perpetrated by God-hating subversives. One of the foremost Christian revisionist
historians is David Barton, who, in addition to running an organization called
Wallbuilders that disseminates Christian nationalist books, tracts and videos,
is also the vice-chairman of the Texas Republican Party. The goal of Christian
nationalist politics is the restoration of the imagined Christian nation. As
George Grant, former executive director of D. James Kennedy�s influential Coral
Ridge Ministries, wrote in his book The Changing of the Guard:
�Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility
to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ -- to have dominion in civil structures,
just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
�But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
�It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
�It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
�It is dominion we are after.
�World conquest. That�s what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish.�
Brian Fischer was the executive director of Idaho Values
Alliance (IVA), an affiliate of Don Wildmon�s rabidly homophobic American
[anti-]Family Association. But on 1 June 2009, Fischer announced he�d
be leaving IVA to join Wildmon in Tupelo, Mississippi: �Don Wildmon has invited me to join his AFA staff and host a live,
two-hour talk show on AFA�s radio and TV networks, and I have accepted his
gracious offer.� No doubt Fischer was excited. Now he�d get to spew his bigotry
over the airwaves. From a 2 June 2009 Right Wing Watch article:
It
was just last month when there was lots of discussion taking place over whether
the Religious Right would oppose a gay or lesbian Supreme Court nominee because
of his or her sexuality that Fischer declared that they would because, by definition, a gay judge could not
be fair:
�An open lesbian has obviously resolved the ethical questions about sexuality
in favor of the legitimacy of aberrant sexual behavior, in favor of what
historically has been known in U.S. law as an �infamous crime against nature.�
�It�s one thing for a judge to keep his orientation a private matter. There is
some evidence that perhaps two Supreme Court justices of the past were
homosexuals themselves. But they concealed that from the public, accepted that
the laws of the day considered homosexual sexual activity a felony offense, and
did not use their platform on the bench to challenge society�s sexual
standards.
�But a judge who is quite open about his (generic use) alternative sexuality is
another matter entirely. It�s hard to imagine any universe in which an open
lesbian would uphold any pro-family law should it be challenged in her court.
�It will be absolutely incumbent upon the GOP members of the Senate judiciary
committee to ask probing questions of a lesbian nominee . . .�
On 27 August 2009, an article titled �Can a devout Muslim
be a good American?� appeared on ActionAFA.net, one of the many tentacles of Wildmon�s AFA.
It was written by Mr. Fischer who,
of course, answered the title�s question with a resounding �No.�
Aside from unadulterated
religious bigotry, Mr. Fischer�s �reasoning� was based on the two falsehoods
Christian nationalists are constantly propagating: America was founded as a
�Christian nation,� and only �Christians� like Mr. Fischer can be �true
Americans.�
If the United States were founded as a Christian nation,
surely only Christians would be allowed to hold office, yet Article 6, Section
3 of the U.S. Constitution reads, in part, �no religious test shall ever be required as a
qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.� Nowhere in the Constitution are the words �Jesus Christ,� �Christianity,�
�Bible,� or �God� even mentioned. Surely they would be overtly stated -- and
asserted -- if this had been founded as a �Christian nation.� But their absence
is to be expected since many -- if not most -- of the Founding Fathers were not
Christians. They were Deists.
The fact that the
United States was not a �Christian nation� was reaffirmed in the first treaty
the fledgling country entered into: the 1796 treaty with (Muslim) Tripoli that
stated, quite plainly, �As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense
founded on the Christian Religion, - as it has in itself no character of enmity
against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims], -- and as the
said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any
Mahomitan [Islamic] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext
arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the
harmony existing between the two countries.� The treaty was ratified by the
Senate in 1797 and immediately signed into law by President John Adams, a
Deist.
Too bad Christian nationalists don�t read
anything that fails to support their theofascist agenda. They might find Jon
Meacham�s 2006 book American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the
Making of a Nation educational. But then again, they prefer ignorance and
their myths and fairy tales, such as Adam and Eve were real people and the
incestuous copulation of their offspring populated the entire planet, gays
can�t be fair, and the United States was founded as a �Christian nation.�
Christian nationalists are theofascist bigots, in the truest
sense of those words. The real question that needs to be addressed is �Are
Christian nationalists a time bomb waiting to explode?� Read, listen to and view this and then decide:
OBAMA-HATING PASTOR: EVERY HOMOSEXUAL IS A
DEVIANT, EVIL PREDATOR
On his radio show, Alan Colmes hosted
Pastor Steven Anderson, who recently gave a sermon at Faithful Word
Baptist Church in which he said,
�When I go to bed at night Steven L. Anderson will pray for Barack Obama to die
and go to hell.� . . .
Colmes asked the pastor about his views on gays . . .
Says Anderson: �I believe that every homosexual in the world is a deviant, is
evil, and is a predator that is out to recruit others through molestation,
through rape. It�s in the news . . . I would keep my kids away from them.
They�re deviants. They�re not normal. . . . Do I think that homosexuality
should be against the law? Well, it�s against God�s law.� . . .
Anderson then goes on to quote Leviticus. He was challenged by a caller later
in the show, according to the Phoenix New Times: �It really got rockin� towards the end when a
gay fella called up and asked the pastor about the part in Leviticus that says
you can kill your children if they �curse� you. Anderson had to admit this was
true, and he seemed to sign on to this bit of dark, religious insanity as well.
Ditto on the whole stoning adulterers thing, BTW. though he thinks the
government should do the stoning. You know, like they used to in Afghanistan
n�stuff.�
In related news, an armed protestor at a Phoenix Obama town hall event has been confirmed to be a parishioner of Anderson�s. How long
before one of these violence worshipers picks up his gun and uses it?
How long, indeed.
In one of his sermons, Anderson had this to say about gay
Americans: �The same God who instituted
the death penalty for murders is the same god who instituted the death penalty
for rapists and for homosexuals, sodomites and queers!
�That�s what it was
instituted for, okay? That�s God, he hasn�t changed. Oh, God doesn�t feel that
way in the New Testament . . . God never �felt� anything about it, he commanded
it and said they should be taken out and killed. . . .
�They [gays and
lesbians] recruit through rape. They recruit through molestation. They recruit
through violation. They are infecting our society. They are spreading their
disease. It�s not a physical disease, it�s a sin disease, it�s a wicked, filthy
sin disease and it�s spreading on a rampage. Can�t you see that it�s spreading
on a rampage? I mean, can you not see that? Can you not see that it�s just
exploding in growth? Why? Because each sodomite recruits far more than one
other sodomite because his whole life is about recruiting other sodomites, his
whole life is about violating and hurting people and molesting �em.�
You
can read -- and hear -- more of Anderson�s vile ranting from the pulpit here.