As she continues to try and cloak her calls for “nationalism” in terms of Christianity, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is drawing disgust and disdain from actual Christians, who say her actions don’t match her rhetoric.
Over the weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Greene defended her call for “Christian nationalism,” in the United States, remarking:
“But when I said that I’m a Christian nationalist, I have nothing to be ashamed of, because that’s what most Americans are.
“We’re proud of our faith and we love our country. And that will make America great again. When we lean into biblical principles, you know, is there anything wrong with loving God and loving others? No.
“So, I don’t back down from those comments, but I denounce the lying media for what they’ve said.”
But as Episcopal Rev. Nathan Empsall notes in a column he wrote for The Daily Beast, people like Congresswoman Greene are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
It’s not the first time she has embraced the label. And it’s a dangerous turn of events that requires active, loud opposition from all of us, especially from American Christians, for whom Greene and her allies claim to speak. As a pastor, if there’s one thing I understand, it’s that Christian nationalism is unchristian and unpatriotic. Academic researchers define the authoritarian ideology as a political worldview—not a religion—that unconstitutionally and unbiblically merges Christian and American identities, declaring that democracy does not matter because America is a ‘Christian nation’ where only conservative Christians count as true Americans.
Empsall illustrates his case with this explanation of “Christian nationalists” and what they long to see happen in the U.S.:
“The clear goal of Christian nationalism is to seize power only for its mostly white evangelical and conservative Catholic followers, no matter who else gets hurt or how many elections have to be overturned. This is the unholy force that incited the failed coup of Jan. 6, 2021, brought us the recent spate of theocratic Supreme Court opinions, and has inspired multiple wave upon wave of dangerous misinformation about elections, climate change, and COVID-19—all in direct contrast to Jesus’ teachings of love, truth, and the common good.”
Just consider the lie that Greene preaches when she speaks in such terms, Empsall notes:
Greene would have you believe that all of her critics “hate America [and] hate God,” but this ignores the fact that most Christians are appalled at the way she hijacks the Gospel to justify attending white nationalist rallies and spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. They don’t speak for American Christians. And it’s up to us to finally deflate their claims of a monopoly and thus their hold on power, reclaim our religion and its prophetic voice for the Gospel’s true values of love, dignity, equality, and social justice.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene and others like her are a cancer on this country. They need to be marginalized, and, in the case of Greene, who appears to have played a role in Jan. 6, they need to be charged, prosecuted, and sent to prison as the traitorous fake Christians they truly are.
