Nation

As the Jan. 6 insurrection showed, our democracy is under attack. And Christian nationalism, which seeks to privilege one faith tradition over others, has fueled the anti-democratic efforts. Rather than serving as a balm for our fractured nation, religion is being used to further divide us.

A group of prominent Christian leaders, including the heads of major denominations, say they submitted a letter earlier this year to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, urging members to examine Christian nationalism and arguing the ideology played a crucial role in the insurrection.

Nathan Empsall, executive director of Faithful America, makes the case that with hundreds of right-wing political candidates using Christ’s name to deny election results, demonize their opponents, and spread discrimination – all with the blessing of far too many evangelical pastors and activists – Christian Nationalism is the single biggest threat to both democracy and the church today.

Calvin University’s board of trustees has allowed a group of faculty members to dissent from a clause in a confession of faith that regards sex outside of heterosexual marriage as sinful, thus enabling them to continue to work at the school while also respecting their convictions. The Grand Rapids, Michigan, school is wholly owned by the Christian Reformed Church, a Dutch Calvinist denomination of about 200,000 members.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy offers his take on Robert Jeffress' recent about-face when it comes to embracing the term "Christian Nationalist." Jeffress and those like him reveal a disturbing trend based in the active despising of truth. Democracy can be, in this case, a sacrificial lamb if this is what it takes to impose conservative Christianity on the nation.

In July, the Biden administration established the Faith-Based Security Advisory Council, inviting a group of 25 faith leaders and law enforcement experts to help guide the administration’s efforts to address violent attacks on faith institutions. The council, which will make recommendations to the secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, convened for the first time in early October.

In this issue of A Public Witness, we sing a song of lament for how some Christians are helping to dismantle democracy. By looking at Kari Lake, a candidate who represents the threat, we explore her use of religious rhetoric and practices before offering a pro-democracy chorus ahead of next week’s midterm elections.

Anti-Catholic rhetoric has long been a theme in nativist American thought, which includes some forms of extremist Protestant Christian agitators such as the Ku Klux Klan. But in the current Christian nationalist surge that fuels the ReAwaken gatherings and others like it, the ideology has served more as a glue holding together a wide range of right-wing coalitions.

In one of the most closely watched races in one of the most contested of battleground states, both gubernatorial candidates bring up religion. But in starkly different ways.

Three-quarters of Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction, and the majority of many religious groups agree with that sentiment, a new report shows. But they don’t all agree on what, exactly, has gone wrong. The 2022 American Values Survey by Public Religion Research Institute addressed questions of race, sexuality, abortion and immigration as well as sentiments about the country’s origins.