Thursday, August 18, 2022

Christian nationalism

 

The latest “buzz word” in politics is “Christian nationalism.”

Although both Rachel Maddow and Alex Wagner mentioned the term on MSNBC in recent weeks, the reality of what it is goes back much further.

Although most of the Founding Fathers would be considered practicing Christians, several of them practiced Deism. Deists argued that human experience and rationality—rather than religious dogma and mystery—determine the validity of human beliefs. In his widely read The Age of ReasonThomas Paine, the principal American exponent of Deism, called Christianity “a fable.” Paine, the protégé of Benjamin Franklin, denied “that the Almighty ever did communicate anything to man, by…speech,…language, or…vision.” Postulating a distant deity whom he called “Nature’s God” (a term also used in the Declaration of Independence), Paine declared in a “profession of faith”:

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and in endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

 

Paine’s belief in the equality of man made it into the Declaration of Independence, even though the only people who were allowed to vote were white Christian men who owned land. The Deists in the founding group reminded the Christians in the group of the dangers of organized religion (which had led to countless religious wars over the years), which is why they firmly believed in the separation of church and state.

The article below provides a LOT more information on the topic, if you would like to read further about the Founding Fathers.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Founding-Fathers-Deism-and-Christianity-1272214

The belief that white men were superior to, not equal to, other people, first manifested itself with the founding of the Ku Klux Klan in 1866, but it faded away after the passage of the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871.

After D.W.W, Griffith released “The Birth of a Nation” in 1915, the movement was revived, and it peaked in the 1920’s, when membership exceeded 4,000,000 people.

The Great Depression caused membership to drop sharply, and it was almost non-existent until 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed.

Despite the persistence of racism, the Klan largely failed to stem the growth of racial tolerance in the South in the late 20th century. Though the organization continued some of its surreptitious activities into the early 21st century, cases of Klan violence became more isolated, and its membership had declined to a few thousand. The Klan became a chronically fragmented mélange made up of several separate and competing groups, some of which occasionally entered into alliances with neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist groups, as was the case at a demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 that erupted in violence, resulting in the death of a counterdemonstrator. (Spike Lee’s film, “BlacKKKlansman,” includes a video of the Charlottesville rally).

 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ku-Klux-Klan

Over time, the KKK started to develop a more Christian Identity.

According to Professor Jon Schamber, Rev. Philip E. J. Monson branched off from the teachings of British Israelism and began to develop Christian Identity Theology in the 1910s. During the 1920s, Monson published Satan's Seat: The Enemy of Our Race in which he adopted Russel Kelso Carter's theory that Jews and non-whites were descended from the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Monson connected the work of the corrupt race to the activities of the Catholic Church and the Pope. Monson's ideas were popular among some KKK members in the 1950s

Another group that has a Christian identity is the John Birch Society, which was founded in 1958. It still exists today, and its action projects exactly match today’s Republican Party.

https://jbs.org/

Claire Connor’s parents were members of the John Birch Society in the 1960’s. Her book, “Wrapped in the Flag” provides much detail about how radical the group was – and still is.

 https://www.amazon.com/Wrapped-Flag-Learned-Growing-Americas/dp/0807033316

http://claireconner.com/wrapped-in-the-flag-description/

The Moral Majority was an American political organization associated with the Christian right and Republican Party. It was founded in 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell Sr. and associates and dissolved in the late 1980s. It played a key role in the mobilization of conservative Christians as a political force and particularly in Republican presidential victories throughout the 1980s.

Oxford Dictionaries defines the term as a "right-wing movement in the US formed in the 1970s

Although 1988 was the last election in which the Moral Majority in which the Moral Majority was an active organization, its ideas have not gone away.

In 2016, Donald Trump captured 81% of the Evangelical vote. There are people who believe that Trump was sent by God, and Trump surrounded himself with 25 spiritual advisors to bolster his image as a Christian man.

https://archive.thinkprogress.org/meet-donald-trumps-new-evangelical-advisory-board-6a5bfc5460d7/

Although the Biden administration has been able to pass some bi-partisan bills since his inauguration, the reality is that the Republican Party of today has done little to help the average American, which is why they have seized on culture issues (abortion, gun laws, CRT, book bans) in order to get votes, which is precisely why Glenn Youngkin is now the governor of Virginia. 

In 2020, the FOX “news” station mentioned “critical race theory” more than 2000 times, which is now why it is a handy catchphrase for Republican politicians. The most prominent abusers are Ron DeSantis of Florida, and Dough Ducey of Arizona.




 The recent mid-term elections prove that Donald Trump still has a powerful grip on the Republican Party. A great many of his endorsed candidates won, and the Republicans that oppose him (most prominently, Liz Chaney) paid a political price.

 It is not clear that the MAGA attempt to take over the government will stay behind Trump. Today, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has recently been in the news for his defamation of the parents of a victim of the Sandy Hook shooting, announced on his show that he is switching his support to DeSantis. He was a staunch enough Trump supporter that he spoke at the January 5, 2021, rally in Washington, D.C., to fire up the crowd for the next day.


https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/inbox/id/AQMkADAwATZiZmYAZC04YTBiLTEyYTYtMDACLTAwCgBGAAADpqG04fTX00KKsFUU3Y8pVAcA5lKaVemBxkqBRuAA9YyB%2FgAAAgEMAAAA5lKaVemBxkqBRuAA9YyB%2FgAFefrevgAAAA%3D%3D




The Conservative Political Action conventions have always included a “straw vote” to determine their preferred candidate for the next presidential candidate, and Trump is usually the first choice. In second place, though, is a guy who is nearly as dangerous. His name is Ron DeSantis, and he is mentioned prominently in the link below:

 https://pen.org/report/americas-censored-classrooms/

The explosion of gag orders by the Republican party makes the job of American’s teachers much more difficult, and they harm the education of our students.

In order to further promote extreme ideas in our schools, Doug Ducey recently signed a bill to expand the voucher program, which will allow extreme groups like Turning Point USA to establish private schools to promote their ideas.

Turning Point USA (TPUSA), or Turning Point, is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative values on high school, college, and university campuses. The organization was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery. TPUSA's sister organizations include Turning Point Endowment, Turning Point ActionStudents for Trump, and Turning Point Faith. The group also works closely with PragerU. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, TPUSA "is now the dominant force in campus conservatism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning_Point_USA

The “winners” of the recent Republican primaries are so extreme that they are unlikely to win in the November election. That is especially true in Arizona, where independent voters outnumber both Republicans and Democrats. Kari Lake, Blake Masters, and Mark Finchem were all endorsed by Trump – and all of them believe that Joe Biden lost in 2020.

Trump is using the Mar-A-Lago raid to raise money, and his continued pursuit of the 2024 nomination (although he is virtually impossible to be nominated) is also simply a way to raise money. The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol says former President Donald Trump knowingly peddled lies about the 2020 election outcome in order to raise millions of dollars from his supporters. The committee says Trump took in $250 million that he promised would go to an official election defense fund, a fund that did not exist.

 https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1105162597/house-jan-6-panel-says-trump-raised-millions-for-a-nonexistent-election-defense

 

Traditionally, the party that has the keys to the White House does not do well in the midterms. Even though the Biden administration has vastly improved the economy, and has achieved some remarkable legislative victories, those (by themselves) would not be enough to prevent losses in the 2022 general elections.

This year, though, the bets are off, and one word sums up why.

Dobbs.

The Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade horrified both Democrats and Republicans, and it will cost the GOP some seats that they may otherwise have own.

 In July, the Supreme Court weakened the separation of church and state, which makes no sense at all.

I don’t know what it will take to reverse the trend to Christian nationalism, but a healthy drubbing in the mid-term elections will be a very good start.

 

 

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