Religion
Christian nationalism: The darkest side of religion
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Sep 18, 2009, 00:20

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.�