{"id":1653502,"date":"2022-09-22T13:32:53","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T17:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1653502"},"modified":"2022-09-22T13:34:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T17:34:31","slug":"politicos-fearmongering-over-christian-nationalism-is-a-shoddy-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/politicos-fearmongering-over-christian-nationalism-is-a-shoddy-deception\/","title":{"rendered":"Politico\u2019s Fearmongering Over \u2018Christian Nationalism\u2019 Is A Shoddy Deception"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpoliticos-fearmongering-over-christian-nationalism-is-a-shoddy-deception%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1653502&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cChristian nationalism, a belief that the United States was founded as a white, Christian nation and that there is no separation between church and state, is gaining steam on the right,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2022\/09\/21\/most-republicans-support-declaring-the-united-states-a-christian-nation-00057736\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">contends<\/a> a new Politico article on the dangers of the theocratic democracy-destroying right. The headline reads, \u201cMost Republicans Support Declaring the United States a Christian Nation.\u201d <em>Most<\/em>? It is all very disturbing. And since the piece is categorized as \u201cpolitical science\u201d and written by two professors from the University of Maryland\u2019s Critical Issues Poll \u2014 one of them a <em>distinguished<\/em> scholar \u2014 it also sounds quite genuine.<\/p>\n<p>Alas, when you open the two-question (online) <a href=\"https:\/\/criticalissues.umd.edu\/sites\/criticalissues.umd.edu\/files\/American%20Attitudes%20on%20Race%2CEthnicity%2CReligion.pdf\">poll<\/a> that forms the basis for this 1,000-word piece condemning Republicans as modern-day Crusaders, you will notice that Stella Rouse and Shibley Telhami have asked participants if they would \u201cdeclare\u201d the United States \u201ca Christian nation.\u201d They do not define what \u201cdeclare\u201d means. And nowhere do they mention anything about a \u201cwhite Christian nation\u201d or a \u201cChristian nationalist\u201d state or anything about stripping other faiths of their religious freedoms.<\/p>\n<p>Why not? Well, you know why. But not only is the questioning deceptive \u2014 a set-up, really \u2014 but the two professors then retroactively define what a \u201cChristian nation\u201d means and attribute those beliefs to an entire political party. This would be tantamount to a conservative pollster asking a bunch of leftists if they want to declare America a \u201cprogressive nation,\u201d and then, later, defining the state as an antisemitic Communist dictatorship. Not in a million years would Politico run such a piece.<\/p>\n<p>None of this is to say that there aren\u2019t some conservatives who support theocratic and illiberal ideas. There\u2019s nothing, however, shocking or radical about contending that the United States is a \u201cChristian nation.\u201d Many of the foundational ideas of the nation were bound up in Christian ethics and ideas. Though it may not be so forever, we have been a predominantly Christian nation. These are objective historical facts. Nor is there anything extreme or theocratic about allowing Christianity to inform your political principles. I know this because leftists will often ask me \u201cWhat would Jesus do?\u201d (Probably not conduct partisan push-polling, is one of my guesses.)<\/p>\n<p>To bolster their bogus findings, the professors contend that \u201cprominent Republicans\u201d across the nation have been mainstreaming Christian nationalism. They offer us three people. First, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/house-gop-leaders-must-condemn-marjorie-taylor-greene-and-paul-gosar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">doltish<\/a> fringe extremist backbencher Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is mostly \u201cprominent\u201d because she\u2019s the favorite strawman of political journalists. <\/p>\n<p>Then there is Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, who apparently once said, \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d is a \u201cmyth\u201d at a \u201cQAnon meeting.\u201d Now, I don\u2019t know much about Mastriano, and I can\u2019t track down the context of this comment, but let\u2019s concede for the sake of argument he\u2019s a theocrat. It is a long-standing, and accurate, position of most social conservatives that the \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d is not the same as the Establishment Clause, but an idea that has been appropriated, almost exclusively, as a tool to strip religious institutions of funding, push God from the public square, and attack religious liberty. The Americans United for Separation of Church and State, for instance, is in the business of launching <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/06\/22\/once-great-sports-illustrated-is-now-just-another-bullhorn-for-attacks-on-the-first-amendment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">preposterous legal assaults<\/a> on people of faith. Consequently, they lose most of them.<\/p>\n<p>And, finally, we also learn that Ron DeSantis has also been \u201cflirting\u201d with Christian white nationalist ideas. As evidence, the professors link to a Miami Herald article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/politics-government\/article265261411.html\">making this claim<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>The Republican governor, a strategic politician who is up for reelection in November, is increasingly using biblical references in speeches that cater to those who see policy fights through a morality lens and flirting with those who embrace nationalist ideas that see the true identity of the nation as Christian.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A \u201cstrategic politician,\u201d you say? Get out of here. The Herald reports that DeSantis, a Catholic, recently dropped a biblical reference while speaking to an audience at a private Christian college, Hillsdale College. Nothing about \u201cwhite\u201d people or theocracies, mind you. The Herald correctly notes that Christianity has been a \u201crecurring theme\u201d for DeSantis and others. If you\u2019re shocked that Christian politicians see the world through the prism of their faith or infuse religious imagery in their rhetoric, I have some more news for you. Virtually every major politician in American history has integrated Scripture into their speeches \u2014 including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/news\/national\/hillary-clinton-quotes-scripture-her-concession-speech\/frDouiz2gDdgQlOkVZon3I\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hillary Clinton<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/politics\/obama-botched-bible-verse-favorite-article-1.1503827\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Barack Obama<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2020\/11\/07\/joe-bidens-faith-comes-through-speech-quoting-hymn-bible-verse\/6210854002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Joe Biden<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But then, Rouse and Telhami are partisan hacks. Not because they have a distaste for social conservatism, but because they write under the false patina of \u201cscience\u201d to mislead their readers. Shoddy and shameful stuff from Politico.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cChristian nationalism, a belief that the United States was founded as a white, Christian nation and that there is no separation between church and state, is gaining steam on the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1653502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1653502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1653502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1653502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1653502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}