Much More Nationalist than Christian
The Christian Nationalist movement is a cynical power-grab by ultra-wealthy elites controlling media, funding, PACs, and think tanks to steer its adherents via an inflated corporate persecution complex. This movement is so very adept at utilizing wedge issues and culture war battles to control a significant voting block, manipulating them en masse in a convoluted groupthink that twists Biblical themes and cherry-picks history to "prove" that they are the Chosen Ones.
None of this is grassroots activism or percolating from the pews but is the agenda of the very elites that are supposed to be the demonic forces leading the U.S. to ruin. I would say "wake up," but the message of being woke is counterintuitive to the message of the Christian Nationalist power brokers as they want their followers to remain uninformed and easy to manipulate. We're at the book banning and burning phase now, but when will those compendiums of people's ideas and experiences being pulled from shelves and/or destroyed enter the phase of locking up and/or expunging those from whence the ideas and experiences flow?
It's a valid question. Christian Nationalist leaders have already pledged and promised retribution to enemies if and when they return to power. Is it hyperbole to expect re-education camps if the Christian Nationalists regain control? The rallying cry versus public education echoing across right wing media and parroted by countless followers is that schools are nothing but demonic liberal indoctrination centers bent on sparking racial discord and the destruction of the Christian faith. Obviously, then, proponents of Christian Nationalism feel that the students who have been exposed to these destructive messages must be re-educated in the precepts of accepted orthodoxy. One only has to look at the educational "transparency" bills being floated in several states that outlaw the teaching of historical and sociological truths that expose the racial and economic disparities present throughout the history of the U.S. and the snitch culture that is being promoted. These bills are boilerplate legislative initiatives funded by ultra-wealthy Christian Nationalists and neoliberalists that flow from various think tanks and dark money PACs.
The pushback against other legislative and governmental initiatives, ranging from protecting voting rights to addressing key infrastructure deficiencies to strengthening social safety nets, come from the same places and ultimately trickle down through voting Biblical values symposiums (again, sponsored by exorbitantly wealthy Christian Nationalists) where congregational leaders and clergy either preach this agenda from the pulpit, organize congregants to vote and vote only for certain candidates, storm local boards of governance, or more. The only way that Christian Nationalists can gain and retain power is to demonize others, to control the mechanisms of information that would otherwise inform people of contrarian worldviews, and keep up the facade of being the righteous Chosen Ones.
Take some time to read Katherine Stewart’s article on this topic:
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