Take away all religious exempt status. Tax all their assets , properties, accounts everything. Put laws in place to ban all religious activity in public office.
i agree and i’m thankful for this sentiment because i wouldn’t exist without it. lol
almost a 100 years ago, my grandfather’s political faction managed to convince the federal gov’t to do exactly what your comment advocates for doing and it resulted in the churches giving guns and rifles to its congregants and sending out posses to kill people – like my grandfather’s first wife and youngest children – and intimidate the rest to pressure them into leaving – like my grandfather did with his only surviving son.
the fact that the same thing had been tried before several times in history – and it had always ended up in the same way each time – somehow never seemed to part of the chain of events that ended up creating the cristero rebellion and calls to arms like this one seem intent on repeating this cycle for humanity. (or atleast that’s the only conclusion i can draw).
the culture wars prove how easily these christian nationalists can be triggered and our ruling epstein class would be more than happy to give them whatever material support their christian nationalists hearts could ever desire should they ever feel like they need to defend GOD-AND-COUNTRYTM like my grandfather’s neighbors did to him and his first family.
This article is just a recap of one Congressman’s life. It has virtually nothing to do with the headline.
No one is better qualified to make this case than Huffman, the only current member of Congress to admit he does not believe in God.
I don’t know… that means he’s likely to be against anything religious or faith based showing up anywhere near politics, making any argument about Christian Nationalism significantly weaker.
What I’d like to see is American Christians and churches speaking up about this, identifying that there’s a difference between Christian faith and Christian nationalism. The relative silence THERE speaks louder to me than Huffman.
How does that weaken his argument? Are atheists not allowed to have opinions on their government when it comes to religion?
Others we’re trying to convince are going to dismiss him as being “anti-God” or similar. He can have the best arguments possible (and probably does) but people are going to assume he blurs the line between arguments against ultranationalism where they likely agree with him and anti deism where it appears the vast majority of people do not.
I agree that a religious person would be handy to have in our corner. But I’m not super comfortable with the idea that political questions around religion need a Christian’s opinion in order to have impact. It favors political expediency over principles. By doing that, you’re slightly conceding that principles aren’t important. At the same time, it devalues non-Christian voices on a topic that is most relevant to non-Christians. If Christians only care about the opinions of other Christians, I’m really not trying to play by their rules to win them over.
To be clear, I don’t think you’re trying to do all that. I also would bet most Christians would agree with this atheist. The minority of actual Christian nationalists aren’t going to be convinced no matter what you do. I think a Christian coming out in support of this congressman would be a good show of solidarity across a religious divide. But I don’t think this man’s argument would be better coming from a Christian instead. It would be like hearing MLK’s “I have a dream” speech and saying it would make more sense coming from a white guy because the majority won’t listen to him otherwise.
he’s likely to be against anything religious or faith based showing up anywhere near politics
yes, that’s how it’s supposed to work. that’s what the phrase “separation of church and state” means
It’s actually not; it’s about separating the powers of the state from the powers of the church; to the state, each person is supposed to be equal, no matter whether they’re an atheist or the Pope. To the church, each person is supposed to be equal, whether they’re an anarchist or the POTUS.
What I’d like to see is American Christians and churches speaking up about this, identifying that there’s a difference between Christian faith and Christian nationalism.
There isn’t, though. Read the bible. Domination was always the plan.
The Bible is enormous and can be cherry-picked to mean almost anything you want. Look at all the large differences in denominations for reference. IMO, the Bible isn’t pushing Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism is pushing different interpretations of the Bible. The nationalism is coming from other things.
IMO, the Bible isn’t pushing Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism is pushing different interpretations of the Bible. The nationalism is coming from other things.
You just admitted the bible can be interpreted as nationalistic (because it literally says that multiple times), but then you pretend it’s not coming from the bible.
Please do better. Their death cult is killing us all. You’re running defense for your murderers.
My point is that the Bible and Christianity isn’t the source of the nationalism. I didn’t want to get into the weeds but I’ve got more time now so fuck it.
Many people, especially religious people, believe that religion is a driver of values. They believe their religion gives them a moral compass that isn’t affected by the whims of modern society. But I don’t think that’s true. I think a person’s religion can be easily molded to fit their worldly values. Their changing interpretation of their religion is used to claim they’ve been following the same religion the whole time.
I think a person’s entire worldview is far more maleable than they want to think. Your ethics, moral system, religion, views on your role in society, definitions on who is the in-group or not, all easily change in order to fit your incentives. I used to work as a manufacturing engineer in the auto industry. A lot of my job was indirectly automating other peoples’ jobs. But nobody wants to feel like they’re the bad guy, so I had an elaborate system of lies that I believed in order to make myself the good guy who was making the workers more productive, and setting the stage for them to get better pay. I had evidence all around me that wasn’t true but I was able to create a system where making a bunch of money eliminating the jobs of poor people was a good thing. It was only after a year or so of being out of that work that I saw it for what it was.
Fascism rises because it sees the same problems caused by capitalism and interprets the cause as national conflict rather than class conflict. The “globalist” elites are causing the problems. They seek a rebirth of the nation’s power under a visionary leader, unencumbered by the limits placed by the globalists (like checks on power).
I should point out that the nation isn’t the same as the country. Nationalism has been such a successful political ideology since the French revolution that we use “nation” and “country” interchangeably but they’re different. A country is defined by the state. It has borders and a government and institutions. A nation is more nebulous and mystical. It’s a group of unified people who can express power through their unity. Malcolm X and the Black Panthers spread the idea of black nationalism which redefined American blacks as being a unified, powerful people who were colonized by the White population. Nationalist movements have to constantly redefine what it means to be part of that nation in order to eliminate dissenters. The Black Panthers published a “bootlicker” column in their newspaper that called out black civil rights leaders that were more peaceful or didn’t like the Panthers. It didn’t just point it why they were wrong. They got called agents of the white colonizers. The nation was redefined without them.
American fascists do the same thing with “real Americans”. At first it means citizens, then it means people born here, then it means Christians. Soon it will mean Christians of (white) European decent. They need to constantly redefine who this nation expressing power is because if they don’t, those that disagree with them internally will threaten the legitimacy of their nationalist movement. They’re using a lot of the same mass politics and “power to the people” thinking of Marxists but they’ve defined their oppressors as those outside the nation. Once Christianity becomes tied to their national identity, the values of their Christianity change to fit the narrative.
Christianity didn’t create these values. It didn’t create any values. People shaped their values by their incentives and will redefine whatever’s needed along the way. Attacking the religion is missing the root of the issue. It’s accepting their nationalist framework and definitions. If these people were any other religion or completely secular, the results would be the same with different labels. Don’t attack the nation and accept their nationalist definitions of that nation. Attack the capitalism that drives nationalism and the idea of nationalism itself.
Attacking the religion is missing the root of the issue.
The root of the issue is human greed. Too many grown adults are too selfish to question the bible if they think they’re going to heaven. The bible does indeed explicitly encourage nationalism. Is religion the only source? No, but it’s a distressingly common one, and one that the average person has been conditioned to protect despite the danger it poses to all life.
They believe their religion gives them a moral compass that isn’t affected by the whims of modern society. But I don’t think that’s true.
But they believe it’s true, and they act like it’s true. They vote against everyone’s best interests to please an imaginary abuser.
Your ethics, moral system, religion, views on your role in society, definitions on who is the in-group or not, all easily change in order to fit your incentives.
You sound like you have not read the bible. You are deflecting instead of acknowledging what is written in it. The bible threatens believers with eternal punishment if they do not properly believe in and serve their fascist god.
Please stop defending death cults.
Which Bible are you reading?
While the Judaism of the Old Testament is definitely nationalist, Christianity didn’t become connected to nation and politics until Constantine. Jesus was quoted as saying “my kingdom is not of this world” — the entire reason Pilate was said to send him back to the Jews for punishment was that he didn’t see a political angle to what Jesus had been saying and doing — there was no threat to Rome.
Jesus said many conflicting things, including that he is the god of the old testament. Also:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
“Love the god who commands slave rape and genocide, and who promised certain land to his chosen people.”
What does Romans have to say?
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
“Submit completely to authority, always. All authority is christian authority.”
You can cherry-pick around the nationalism, but you cannot deny that it is present throughout the bible.
Every grown adult needs to acknowledge that the abrahamic faiths are baseless death cults.
We cannot tolerate our own slaughter.
