Today, historian and author Peter Manseau tweeted the following truth about the legislative efforts of Christian nationalists in Texas and elsewhere.
Manseau is absolutely correct. Evangelical Christian legislators want the Texas government to privilege their version of Christianity. Their efforts are not about advancing all religions or religion in a general sense. Bills to require the King James Version of the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms and allow Christian chaplains in addition to school counselors are de facto establishments of conservative Christianity as the Texas state religion.
I agree with Manseau that we all should be very clear about what is happening. Christian privilege legislation is different than religious freedom legislation. Other religions and no religion will be limited by these bills if they become law.
Christian speaker Sean Feucht made his intentions clear outside the TX capitol when he said Christians should be writing the laws.
Christian nationalists are focusing on states because they believe they can establish Christianity in statehouses around the nation. Stephen Wolfe promoted a version of this strategy in his recent book The Case for Christian Nationalism. Specifically, he calls on governors to resist federal laws believed by Christian nationalists to be unfriendly to Christians.
State governors are deputies of God, not deputies of the federal government, and their power from God is for good, not for evil. Thus, they must resist and nullify unjust and tyrannical laws imposed on the people by the federal government. No unjust federal law is an ordinance of God, and so it is not backed by a power of God. Therefore, a state governor resisting an unjust law of the federal government is not resisting God but the tyranny of men. Resistance to such tyrannical laws—which are not laws at all—is obedience to God, for they harm the people, and the state governors have the power of God to eliminate what harms the people. State governors must recall their duties to God and fight against injustices of the federal government. (p. 472)
Let’s be clear. Christian nationalists believe the government should use their version of the Bible as a law book. For them, religious freedom means Christian privilege.
I am frankly getting tired of this. This is why the First Amendment was written - to treat all religions equally and keep them out of government. But because we think we can just ignore the Constitution, I would remind these goons that there is also a reason for the Supremacy Clause, which elevates the Constitution above all other laws in the country. The Framers well knew the history of national governments dominated by religious sectarianism, and it wasn't good.
Religions have prospered under the First Amendment, because the government stays out of religion, choosing no sides. And it is not a hard law to follow. Unless one is enamored of the idea of supremacy for one's sect in all things in life. These people find the Constitution hostile and inimical to their professed supremacy. Too bad we have a Supreme Court that agrees with them.
They must be stopped.
I find it sad that so many professing christians are all for a christian takeover of government. Makes me wonder what bible they’ve been reading, as much if not most of what they are striving for would’ve been anathema to Jesus.
in truth this attitude is nothing new, as it’s found in the writings of St. Augustine and onward.