Christian nationalism was prominent
at the 1/6 coup attempt
I have pointed out here many times that a key goal of Christian nationalism (CN) is to get rid of all, 100%, of taxpayer-funded secular public education. The CN goal includes replacing it with taxpayer-funded Christian education. CN is a no-compromise (authoritarian) Christian fundamentalist political and social movement.
The CN social-political movement is acutely aware that young minds need to be trapped and enslaved in servitude to the loving, righteous God to push back on the evils and horrors of secularism and pluralism in society, government and law. Evils and horrors of secularism and pluralism is exactly how the CN movement sees this “problem” in its holy war on all Americans, including dissenting Christians, non-heterosexuals, atheists, people of non-Christian religions, non-White people, women and non-European ethnic groups.
The skirmishes in the war to force out secularism in public education are intensifying. The Freedom from Religion Foundation writes:
Nearly a dozen parents and students, with help from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, filed a high-profile federal lawsuit today over a Christian revival in a West Virginia school that prompted a recent student walkout.
More than 100 students, led by Huntington High School senior Max Nibert, staged a dramatic walkout on Feb. 9 to protest some students being forced to attend an evangelical Christian revival at the school on Feb. 2. The walkout, with students chanting “Separate the church and state” and “My faith, my choice,” was covered not only nationally by the Washington Post, NPR and CNN but also internationally.
The legal complaint in the case, Mays v. Cabell County Board of Education, notes, “For years, school system employees have violated the constitutional rights of students by promoting and advancing the Christian religion, as well as by coercing students into participating in Christian religious activity.” The lawsuit charges that two Huntington High School teachers during homeroom on Feb. 2 escorted their entire classes to the revival. Students, including a Jewish student who asked to leave but was not permitted to do so, were instructed to bow their heads in prayer and raise up their hands and were warned they needed to make a decision to follow Jesus or face eternal torment. Adult volunteers from a local church went into the crowd to pray with students. Plaintiff students observed teachers and administrators praying with church volunteers. Huntington High Principal Daniel Gleason was present at the assembly along with assistant principals.
Evangelist Nik Walker, who runs Nik Walker Ministries and had been leading revivals in Huntington for weeks, even prayed to thank God for the fact “that you are not going to let these students leave without . . . knowing you.”
FFRF has written several legal complaint letters over adult proselytizing, prayer and religious practices aimed at students within Cabell County Schools, which have been ignored.
Huntington East Middle School held separate Nik Walker Ministries assemblies on Feb. 1. It is FFRF’s understanding that a staff member requested the events and that some students attending those assemblies did not do so voluntarily. It seems parents were not informed in advance.
The lawsuit contends, “At the behest of adult evangelists, Huntington High School held an assembly for students that sought to convert students to evangelical Christianity. Some students were forced to attend. Regardless of whether attendance is mandatory or voluntary, the defendants violate the First Amendment by permitting, coordinating and encouraging students to attend an adult-led worship service and revival at their school during the school day. Parents and students bring this suit to stop these practices.”
Note the scare tactic, accept and submit to Jesus or face eternal torment. That propaganda tactic is no different from the scare tactics that radical right propaganda outlets like Faux News routinely employ to scare, enrage and foment hate among conservatives and Republicans. The same kind of apocalyptic rhetoric flows from both CN propagandists and neo-fascist sources like Faux.
In the coming years, this lawsuit and more like it will probably be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court. It is too early for the court to rule as the six Republican CN judges would like by forcing Christianity on all students right now. Instead, they are likely to give the CN movement small, incremental power increases over time. That will slowly drain the vitality from secularism and pluralism. Assuming it ever happens, it will probably years before American society will accept mandatory Christian indoctrination for public school students. Society still moving away from radical fundamentalist Christianity, so the CN movement needs to, and is actively trying to, squelch and reverse that natural social progression.
To be clear, the ultimate goal is to impose Christian sharia on society, government and law. The CN movement does not recognize any separation between church and state. The separation is openly rejected and attacked. The CN movement urgently wants and believes it fully deserves control of our tax dollars to glorify God and fulfill his commands.
A core CN myth (lie) is that America was founded by God as a White Christian nation to rule over all other nations. In that Christian nation, White heterosexual Christian men rule over all others who are subordinate. If one can wrap their mind around that idea, one can start to get a feel for the kind of all-encompassing threat to democracy, the rule of law, truth, rationality, science, secularism, pluralism and civil liberties that the CN movement actually is.
If an end amounting to an American theocracy ever comes about, this could be the beginning of that end.
There ain’t no arguing with that, it just is
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