Christian Nationalism threatens Freedom Of Religion

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This is just an article I found that I thought was interesting. In posting it, I would like to state that I am not making any claims.

Religious liberty is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, yet the meaning of this core American value has been debated throughout the nation’s history. Today, conflicts most often arise from Christian nationalism, the anti-democratic notion that America is a nation by and for Christians alone. At its core, this idea threatens the principle of the separation of church and state and undermines the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It also leads to discrimination, and at times violence, against religious minorities and the nonreligious. Christian nationalism is also a contributing ideology in the religious right’s misuse of religious liberty as a rationale for circumventing laws and regulations aimed at protecting a pluralistic democracy, such as nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQI+ people, women, and religious minorities. These issues will only draw more attention in the years ahead, since the 6-3 conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court appears eager to hear more religious liberty cases advancing Christian nationalist arguments than in previous years.

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I would go further, and characterise the current strain of Christian Nationalism as an existential threat to the human species and the planet.

If this sounds hyperbolic, bear in mind two salient facts:

[1] The USA still possesses a large arsenal of nuclear weapons;

[2] The religious reich wing contains withing its ranks, a significant proportion of people who want to hasten the apocalyptic proclamations of Revelation, many of them believing the “rapture” nonsense that has arisen within the requisite doctrinal circles accompanying the fetish for this acid-trip part of the NT.

We also have to factor in the almost inhuman glee, with which Christian Nationalists and their antecedents in movements such as Dominionism (possibly the closest sister clade applicable) have exported the nastiest parts of their doctrine to other nations. The hideous spectacle of criminalising homosexuality with the death penalty in Uganda, is directly connected to the reich wing export of Christofascist bigotry by various “evangelical” groups, who are openly proud of their role in this pestilential development.

Now of course, while the verminous organisations in question were able to operate in this manner in Uganda without serious opposition, the same will not be the case if they try to export their bile and venom to certain other parts of the world. I’ll leave aside for the moment that numerous Islamic nations have their own parallel religion-driven horrors, which deserve appropriate robust measures to combat the spread of, but those same Islamic nations are going to resist Christian Nationalist exports violently.

Likewise, the European Union, and several prosperous secular democracies outside the EU such as Japan, will offer stiff resistance to Christian Nationalist interference in their societies. Germany has already set a useful precedent, by banning Scientology as a fraudulent cult, and extension of this to American brands of rampant Christofascism will be popular in several EU nations.

Faced with serious resistance to their attempts to force the rest of us to conform to their dogma, what measures will the Christian Nationalists take if they hold power in the USA? Anyone who thinks they won’t resort to military means is sadly deluded, as much of their rhetoric is precisely of the “holy war” variety. Indeed, the “rapture” brigade are likely to view this as the ideal opportunity to hasten their mythical “second coming” by launching World War III.

I contend that American Christian Nationalism is now a matter for global concern. While the primary impetus to deal with this disease should arise from the American population itself, the rest of the world would do well to prepare not only for it infecting the US political system, but becoming a lethal ideological pandemic.

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