The Threat of Christian Nationalism

by Jenny Blanchard

During my childhood, my parents took my brothers and me on a trip to Washington DC, a journey that so many American families make, to view the monuments, the Smithsonian Museums, and the seat of government. As we were standing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, we saw several federal workers assembling Easter lilies (it was springtime) in the shape of a cross. My father, ever the rebellious spirit, went over to speak to the workers. When he returned, I asked my father about the conversation. I then received my first lesson on the separation of church and state.

While Easter lilies in the shape of the cross on the grounds of a federal building may seem like a relatively benign example of a religious display in a public institution, we are now confronting a very real threat to our democracy from the religious right in the form of Christian nationalism, and there is nothing benign about this movement.

Christian nationalists subscribe to the notion that the government of the United States should declare America a Christian nation and that U.S. laws should be based on what they define as Christian values. Most alarming of all, they believe that God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.

During the second Trump administration, leaders of federal agencies have started hosting official worship services in government buildings led by Cabinet members during work hours. At one of the Department of Defense monthly Christian worship services, Secretary Pete Hegseth framed the war in Iran as divinely sanctioned, repeatedly invoking “God’s almighty providence” and expressing certainty that God is on the side of the US military. The defense secretary has promised to give “no quarter” to the “barbaric savages” of the Iranian regime and called on the American people to pray for victory “in the name of Jesus Christ”.

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have consistently misused Bible verses in their public communications to legitimize attacks on immigrants. In ads posted by DHS to their social media account, dark images of helicopters and masked federal agents ominously scroll as the narrator quotes from Isaiah: ”Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me.’

Christian nationalism activists are at work in American education, from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms to requiring Bible studies in public schools. Proponents of Christian nationalism vigorously advocate for banning books in schools and libraries. They pressure educators to avoid teaching, or to alter, historical facts about slavery and race in America.

The Christian nationalism movement has led to discrimination, and at times violence, against religious minorities and the nonreligious, women, and members of the LGBTQ community. One of the most damaging actions Christian Nationalists took was to fight public health orders designed to protect all Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Christian nationalists ignored health precautions, based on their misguided belief that "God's chosen people" are protected from illness.

If my father had stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on January 6 of 2021, he would have been shocked by the signs displayed by the insurrectionists: a wooden cross and wooden gallows; “Jesus saves” along with Don’t Tread On Me;” Christian flags and Confederate Flags; even a prayer in Jesus’ name after storming the Senate chamber. The floral cross he objected to years ago might have seemed a minor issue compared to these violent images and hate-filled rhetoric.

But the principal remains the same: The United States was not founded to be an officially Christian nation or to espouse any official religion. The individual rights and diversity we enjoy cannot be maintained if the government takes on the trappings of a faith-based state.