Bravo, Robby! (If I may use the name you call yourself). I’m glad to see that two-thirds of our country reject the white “Christian” patriarchal supremacy they’re trying to suffocate us with!
“As I argue in my forthcoming book, Backslide, the God conjured by MAGA is not the compassionate creator of an expansive universe but a vengeful tribal deity tailor-made for a white Christian ethno-religious state.”
Thank you for making this distinction. I believe it is this sort of thing that gets lost in the messaging by the MAGA right.
Thank you for posting this informative and essential article here. As a member of a progressive church, I see little real Christianity in the political views of the modern Republican Party.
I recommend Robert Jones' own books on the subject and its history, history which has been swept under the rug by history courses. I also recommend John Meachum's "The Power and the Glory". White Christian Nationalism has been around for long time. Hopefully we will overcome it!
You write: "Trump and his white Christian nationalist followers will make much of the founders’ general references to God in the Declaration of Independence (Nature’s God, Creator, Supreme Judge of the world, divine Providence)." DO PLEASE NOTE, however, that NONE of Jefferson's references specifically, much less exclusively, refers to the person of "Jesus Christ" or to "Christianity." Instead Jefferson writes of the "Creator" with DELIBERATE GENERALITY to invoke VARIOUS conceptions of "God's" identity. Together his references to God acknowledge a belief, widespread both in his own time and still now, that the world was created for a reason, that its creation was not a random event, and that the "Divine Providence" behind its creation endowed humanity with certain "unalienable rights" including "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." There is nothing in his language about "Jesus" or the "Good News" of the New Testament scriptures. In fact far from supporting the chest-beating of "white Christian nationalists," Jefferson's language implicitly repudiates the primacy of ANY and EVERY religious sect.
And one of the three things Jefferson wanted to be remembered for was the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, "protecting the rights of its citizens to worship as they choose and to not suffer physically, professionally, or financially—either through direct penalty or by tax in support of an established church—on the basis of faith or religious beliefs." A link to the Monticello Foundation site discussing the statute: https://www.monticello.org/encyclopedia/virginia-statute-religious-freedom
Bravo, Robby! (If I may use the name you call yourself). I’m glad to see that two-thirds of our country reject the white “Christian” patriarchal supremacy they’re trying to suffocate us with!
“As I argue in my forthcoming book, Backslide, the God conjured by MAGA is not the compassionate creator of an expansive universe but a vengeful tribal deity tailor-made for a white Christian ethno-religious state.”
Thank you for making this distinction. I believe it is this sort of thing that gets lost in the messaging by the MAGA right.
Thank you for posting this informative and essential article here. As a member of a progressive church, I see little real Christianity in the political views of the modern Republican Party.
I recommend Robert Jones' own books on the subject and its history, history which has been swept under the rug by history courses. I also recommend John Meachum's "The Power and the Glory". White Christian Nationalism has been around for long time. Hopefully we will overcome it!
You write: "Trump and his white Christian nationalist followers will make much of the founders’ general references to God in the Declaration of Independence (Nature’s God, Creator, Supreme Judge of the world, divine Providence)." DO PLEASE NOTE, however, that NONE of Jefferson's references specifically, much less exclusively, refers to the person of "Jesus Christ" or to "Christianity." Instead Jefferson writes of the "Creator" with DELIBERATE GENERALITY to invoke VARIOUS conceptions of "God's" identity. Together his references to God acknowledge a belief, widespread both in his own time and still now, that the world was created for a reason, that its creation was not a random event, and that the "Divine Providence" behind its creation endowed humanity with certain "unalienable rights" including "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." There is nothing in his language about "Jesus" or the "Good News" of the New Testament scriptures. In fact far from supporting the chest-beating of "white Christian nationalists," Jefferson's language implicitly repudiates the primacy of ANY and EVERY religious sect.
And one of the three things Jefferson wanted to be remembered for was the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, "protecting the rights of its citizens to worship as they choose and to not suffer physically, professionally, or financially—either through direct penalty or by tax in support of an established church—on the basis of faith or religious beliefs." A link to the Monticello Foundation site discussing the statute: https://www.monticello.org/encyclopedia/virginia-statute-religious-freedom
I will never acquiesce to an illegal state religion or a state-favored race of people. Never.
Thank you for a clear review with statistics and brief history.