A nation of many Christians does not make us “a Christian nation”

Claims that we have always been a Christian nation and should be again come from either lies or ignorance.

Daily Wire host Michael Knowles, for instance, says he supports “Christian nationalism” because “the soul of our nation is Christian” — the US was “founded explicitly as a Christian nation in 1620 by the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.”

Hardly. The pilgrims were not the founders of the US, they were settlers in one colony. Not even the first colony — Virginia was founded earlier and they were in it for money and land. And before them, Spanish Catholics, a fact which never gets conservatives declaring we’re a Catholic nation. Whether Knowles is ignorant or lying — or doesn’t care because he knows his listeners won’t care — he’s wrong.

Far from creating the shining city of the hill they dreamed of, the Puritans were theocrats who hung Quakers for the crime of not being Puritans. They hung 19 women for witchcraft plus pressing one man to death for the same crime — and every one of them was innocent. They are not a role model for anyone. Nor, of course, are many Christians today.

America’s Founding Fathers were a different breed with a different vision, as Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore detail in THE GODLESS CONSTITUTION: The Case Against Religious Correctness. They believed strongly that religion and morality were essential for they were building, but they also believed it was not the government’s job to inculcate religion or serve as a preacher. They’d also seen how government lifting up one religion above others led inevitably to religious oppression for others and the corruption of religion — as Jefferson put it in Virginia’s Statute for Religious Freedom, once government starts offering benefits for joining a particular religion, people will inevitably sign up for perks rather than faith.

As the authors detail, the Constitution was seen at the time as an anti-Christian document: even a Jew, a Muslim or an atheist could hold federal office! And it said nothing about how God himself had brought America into being, instead asserting that  it was created “by the people.” And none of the Founders defended themselves by invoking the lies/errors spread by so many conservatives today — that they based the document on the Bible, that the freedom of religion in the First Amendment only applied to Christians, etc. The Godless Constitution is an excellent book; even though I know a lot about this subject from other reading they provided many details that are new to me.

Right-wing House Speaker and Christian theocrat Mike Johnson doesn’t get the whole “government by the people” thing. Most recently, he’s insisted God himself chose him for speaker, like Moses. It’s true the Founders often invoked Moses as a symbol of their flight from bondage under England but as a symbol only; Johnson’s quite specific that God has anointed him as America’s Moses. And Moses took orders directly from God — he didn’t have to worry about the consent of the governed.

Which is why I scoff at theocrat Richard Harris squealing that “Christian nationalist” is a slur to disenfranchise Christians. This is a lie — nobody’s demanding Christian nationalists such as Knowles lose their right to vote — and “Christian nationalist” is a reasonable description of those who want the United States to toss out freedom of religion and established a government based on the Bible. I imagine Harris objects the same way Republicans object that bringing up right-wing terror is an attack on law-abiding conservatives — they dislike seeing themselves or allies they support being called out.

Invariably a Christian nation ends up with a specific Biblical worldview that tolerates only specific interpretations of the Bible and specific churches in line with that worldview. No theocracy has ever been equally supportive of all Christians. Martin Luther King had a Biblical worldview; so did some diehard segregationists. Conservative evangelical Timothy LaHaye undoubtedly thought his Illuminati-conspiracy worldview was Biblical.  As I’ve said before, reporters should ask men such as Harris, Knowles and Johnson what sort of Christian government they envision. Who counts as a Christian? Will Christian churches that let women speak and marry gays have the same rights as those who want gays executed? Is speaking in tongues Satanic or saintly?

I doubt the Founders would be fans of the Satanic Temple’s display at the state capital but they might understand that yes, it’s covered by the First Amendment. Conservatives such as State Rep. Brad Sherman did not — Satan is God’s enemy, we are spitting in God’s face by doing this (just like when we support abortion rights, gay rights, etc.). The Satanic Temple does not actually worship Satan by the way but use him as a symbol of free thought and resistance to arbitrary authority. Ron DeSantis doesn’t like it either.

Unsurprisingly, GOP politician Michael Cassidy destroyed the display, because religious rights only apply to religions conservatives like. Equally unsurprisingly, he’d raised $32,000 for his legal defenses within 24 hours. I have no doubts that if they thought they could get away with it, there are Christians who would do the same to a Jewish or Muslim memorial; however that’s riskier than striking at SATAN!!!.