AG Bondi’s Bogus Crusade Against Anti-Christian Bias
Christian Nationalists have long complained they are fighting for religious freedom, but the truth is that they want the freedom to force their beliefs on the rest of us. Bondi is simply using a more accusatory term for an old complaint.
So, what is Christian Nationalism? According to Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry, co-authors of the book Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2020), Christian nationalism is an ideology that “idealizes and advocates a fusion of American civil life with a particular type of Christian identity and culture.” It isn’t necessarily religious. In fact many Christian Nationalists are “quite secular.” In a nutshell, it blends “religious identity (Christian, preferably Protestant) with race (white), nativity (born in the United States), citizenship (American), and political ideology (social and fiscal conservative).” I will add that it is also male-centric, and blatantly authoritarian.
Although the term, Christian Nationalist, may have only recently become prominent, the beliefs have been around for centuries. Consider that early settlers believed in Manifest Destiny - their God-given right to western expansion, which resulted in the genocide of indigenous people. (For an interesting allusion, listen to The Last Resort by The Eagles. I used the song with my students to accompany literature of the period in my classroom)
Persistent propaganda over the years has finally given Christian Nationalists control of our three branches of government and much of our state legislatures and media across the country. Even before Project 2025 instructed how to create a Christian Nationalist country, religious groups were already working at it. Many, including Justices Thomas and Alito, claim to be originalists but, “not only did the founders deliberately create an entirely secular government when they wrote the Constitution, but several of the founders were Deists who didn’t believe in the divinity of Christ.” (O’Brien, 2022) When I taught the literature of that era, my students were inquisitive and engaged in debate about the references to God in the Pledge of Allegiance and on our currency, considering the words of the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Nevertheless, Christian Nationalists insist that our country was founded as a Christian nation and use the lie to chip away at the First Amendment’s establishment clause, one issue at a time. Public education is a current target, both in state government and in Trump’s order to eliminate the Department of Education. Christian Nationalists have patiently have worked incrementally in many states to transfer our tax dollars to private schools; first with charters, then with vouchers. More than half of the states now have voucher programs. How long before the private schools will be able to choose their students, whether by new laws or by ostracizing students they deem not worthy?
“To a fanatical Christian nationalist, if you don’t check all of the boxes, you aren’t a ‘real American.’” (O’Brien, 2022) Your loyalty should be to an idea of the perfect America, rather than to Jesus or the Bible. It is also about how only some people should hold power.
It is shameful and scary that a self-professed sexual assaulter, 36 count felon, corrupt, pathological liar, mentally incompetent buffoon is “some people.”
O’Brien, B. (2022, November 3). A Brief History of Christian Nationalism: From The Founders To The Cold War https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thereligioushistorynerd/2022/10/a-brief-history-of-christian-nationalism-from-the-founders-to-the-cold-war/