During her appearance at the right-wing CPAC conference yesterday, conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was asked about the phrase “Christian nationalist.” She insisted, falsely, that “most Americans” were Christian nationalists like her.
Greene: When I said I’m a Christian Nationalist, I have nothing to be ashamed of because that’s what most Americans are pic.twitter.com/aoQ188QTgx
First, let’s step back. She was specifically being asked about a meme claiming her defense of Christian nationalism was identical to what Hitler said in 1928: “We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity. Our movement is Christian.” Hitler really did say that. But Greene never said those exact words despite what the meme claimed.
We need to be the party of nationalism. And I’m a Christian and I say it proudly: We should be Christian nationalists…
…
I also call myself a Christian nationalist. And that’s not a bad word. That’s actually a good thing, right?
In short, the meme is wrong, but Greene has embraced Christian nationalism. And at CPAC yesterday, she doubled down on the idea.
Not surprisingly, she’s wrong on two counts in that single sentence: She has plenty to be ashamed of and “most Americans” are not Christian nationalists. The Pew Research Center says about 63% of Americans identify as Christians (and that number keeps going down every year). But are they all “Christian nationalists” in any sense of the term?
Not even close. If we define Christian nationalism as the idea that America was founded on conservative Christian principles and the government should actively work to keep it that way, we’re talking about a very small subset of Christians as a whole.
Pew found that the kind of Christians who are “staunchly conservative” on all issues as well as “deeply loyal to Donald Trump” represent about 10% of the public. They’re 23% of Republicans… so not a majority within the GOP, either.
Even if we expanded the definition to include slightly less conservative Christians, we wouldn’t even come close to a majority of Americans.
Greene, as usual, is lying.
Honestly, if she’s championing Christian nationalism, that may be the best argument against Christian nationalism. No one should want to live in a country where someone like her represents the height of patriotism.
Her statements came a day after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who already expressed opposition to people of mixed race, claimed “a Christian politician cannot be racist.” Like Greene, Orbán believes identifying as a Christian absolves politicians from accountability for the harm they cause.
There’s been a shift in recent years in which conservatives, who used to take offense at the phrase, now proudly proclaim themselves to be Christian nationalists. The message is loud and clear for those of us who aren’t Christian—as well as progressive Christians who aren’t included under that label. We’re not welcome. We’re not True Patriots. We’re not the people who ought to be making laws for the rest of the country. It’s the sort of stuff that would get non-stop coverage in right-wing propaganda outlets if a Muslim or non-theistic politician ever said about themselves.
As it stands, though, the kind of people using the term as a badge of honor are precisely the kinds of people you shouldn’t want to associate with. It’s a blend of autocrats, conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, bigots, and science-deniers.
Unless other Christians are willing to take back the label, those are the people who will come to represent the religion to large swaths of the American public. Pastors should really ask themselves: Who should come to mind when people think about Christianity? Because right now, it sure as hell isn’t Jesus. He left the building a long time ago. The loudest voices under the Christian nationalist umbrella are also the least humane, least empathetic, least thoughtful people in the country… many of whom have outsized power.
That’s the problem here. We’re not talking about fringe figures who have a small group of followers. We’re talking about national leaders in elected office who, if they had their way, would destroy democracy and replace it with a form of theocracy that only pays lip service to the idea of religious freedom. People of all faiths and no faith should be united in opposition to Christian nationalism.
And yet white evangelicals and conservative Catholics will not distance themselves from people like Greene or Orbán. They overwhelmingly support them. It’s unfair, then, to pretend Christian nationalists are hijacking the faith. They represent a larger segment of a shrinking population.
Christian nationalists are basically white evangelicals at this point. There’s very little difference about their goals and methods. The rhetoric may be different, but the substance is all rot.
Afew stories about conservative Christians coming after public libraries:
Voters in Jamestown Township, Michigan chose to defund the library, depriving it of 84% of its 2023 budget. Unless that decision is reversed, the Patmos Library will be forced to shut down sometime next year. The reason the vote failed? Because conservative Christians in the community didn’t like that some of the books featured same-sex couples.
Library Director Amber McLain resigned this spring, telling Bridge she had been harassed online and accused of indoctrinating children. Interim director Matthew Lawrence resigned later.
When the Patmos staff and elected board of directors declined to remove the books from the library’s collection, some upset residents organized an effort to defeat the library’s millage renewal.
One of the people who organized the attack on the library naturally cited her Christian faith:
Amanda Ensing, one of the organizers of the Jamestown Conservatives group, emerged from the library Tuesday wearing an “I voted” sticker. “They are trying to groom our children to believe that it’s OK to have these sinful desires,” Ensing said of library officials. “It’s not a political issue, it’s a Biblical issue.”
The Vinton Public Library in Iowa was forced to close for over a week after its interim director, who’s gay, resigned over the Christian community’s homophobia.
Colton Neely had been hired as the children’s librarian in 2020 and did his job well. But between nasty comments said within earshot, and demands to hide or censor books about LGBTQ people, and objections to a summer reading challenge that “encouraged patrons to read books by people of color and LGBTQ authors,” it was clear the people in this town wanted to make the librarians’ lives miserable. Neely only became the director after his predecessor left town to take over a library in a more welcoming community. Before long, he decided he had to go, too:
“You could tell half the crowd was just like, ‘Ugh, you’re disgusting,’” he said of the June 8 meeting. “That was the board meeting where I was just like, ‘I’ve had it.’”
He penned a resignation letter to the library board on June 27, writing that despite his hard-earned qualifications, he felt reduced to just “the gay man of the library.”
“It hurts and I am disappointed,” he wrote.
One of the board members who created this mess was Jennifer Kreutner who, when accused of promoting only conservative perspectives, responded with, “I represent the entire rural community, but most of them are conservative Christians.” As if that made everything better.
In South Carolina, the Greenville County Schools are forming committees to review any books/materials that are challenged at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. They’re currently looking for people to serve on those boards. Don’t have experience with this sort of thing? IT DOESN’T MATTER. At the high school level, for example, the committees will consist of:
Three parents with children enrolled in Greenville County high schools
Three district high school teachers from different subject areas
One high school media specialist
Two non-employees of the school district
One member of the clergy
What the hell is a clergy member doing on this committee? There’s one at the other levels, too. All of those other members have some kind of connection to the district, and I would hope the “non-employees” have qualifications for assessing instructional materials, but why on earth would they save a seat at the table for someone who has religious training?! (And let’s be honest: They’re only referring to Christians, even if they don’t say that directly.)
They could easily have asked for a psychologist or a social worker or someone who represents a minority group in the community. Nope. They’re going with religious leader, as if a priest should have any say in what children learn in public schools.
All of this is happening while right-wing politicians are banning books left and right if they commit the cardinal sin of exposing children to LGBTQ people/characters or teaching them about our nation’s racist history. Just this week at CPAC, Sen. Rick Scott claimed liberals were a “modern day version of book burners,” all while conservatives work to shut down public libraries and access to materials that may educate students about perspectives they’re not used to hearing.
This entire clip is projection. He is railing against ‘book burners’ and ‘cancel culture’ when he comes from a state where the GOP governor is banning books and firing attorneys who don’t fall into line. https://t.co/c1pZ0wizop
What none of these conservatives admit is that a public library is a place where quality books of all kinds should be available to all people. Furthermore, libraries offer so much more than books. They also offer meeting spaces, internet access, video games, audiobooks, reference materials, etc. They’re one of the only places you can go to these days to browse things you don’t already own with no pressure to spend any money. But the bigots will point to anything as a way to imply these places are liberal sanctuaries that must be stopped, whether it’s literature that shows LGBTQ characters in a positive light, Drag Queen Story Hours (which are not sexual), or the celebration of “banned books.”
There’s a dark joke about how it’s a good thing libraries have been around for centuries because there’s no way in hell Republicans would allow them to be created today. But the flip side of that is that conservative Christians are now painting libraries as enemies of children all because they dare to offer people access to information that others may want to keep from them.
If pastors don’t take a lead in shutting this shit down by calling out their own church members’ participation in these mobs, more libraries (and librarians) will suffer, which will have ripple effects throughout their communities. The same principle applies to public schools, which conservatives are also trying to decimate. They’ve always underpaid teachers, but they’re now micromanaging what they’re allowed to say (and not say) to students and funneling taxpayer dollars to private sectarian schools.
The public institutions that have formed the bedrock of our nation are under attack by Christian nationalists and their allies. They want to keep everyone else in the dark like they do in their churches, and conservative politicians and judges are eager to help them achieve their goal.
We shouldn’t be surprised, though. The people least likely to find value in an infinite supply of books are the people who believe only one book matters.
Welcome to DeSantisstan: “She was a waitress. She starts teaching 3rd grade next week & the only thing she had to do to get this teaching certification was to observe certified teachers…she had to ask me what I meant by phonetic spelling.” #Floriduh#RemoveRonpic.twitter.com/QiXb4FjoQ4
— Lesley Abravanel 🪩 (@lesleyabravanel) July 27, 2022
BREAKING: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas resigns from his teaching position at George Washington University’s law school after students stage large protests over his extremist views on abortion and gay marriage. RT TO THANK THE STUDENTS FOR STANDING UP TO JUSTICE THOMAS!
A 12-year-old girl left people applauding after addressing the West Virginia state legislature about its restrictive and dangerous abortion law proposed in the state.
The girl’s speech occurred at a public hearing about the law, House Bill 302 which bans abortion in all but the most extreme exceptions and criminalizes the procedure for doctors.
Each speaker at the hearing was given 45 seconds to speak.
12-year-old Addison Gardner made every single one of hers count.
Speakers at Wednesday’s public hearing in WV were given 45 seconds each. The youngest, 12-year-old Addison Gardner from Buffalo Middle School, gave powerful remarks against HB302.
The bill provides a total ban on abortion in all but cases of rape and incest but not for the life of the pregnant person, and also allows criminal prosecution of doctors who provide the procedure.
Gardner gave an impassioned plea to the legislature for a more reasonable abortion rights law.
She asked lawmakers:
“If a man decides that I’m an object, and does unspeakable, tragic things to me, am I, a child, supposed to carry and birth another child?”
“Am I to put my body through the physical trauma of pregnancy?”
“Am I to suffer the mental implications, a child who had no say in what was being done with my body?”
The bill, which has passed the West Virginia House of Delegates, does provide exceptions for some, but not all, cases of rape and incest. But the requirements are so stiff they will make access impossible for most people.
In order to obtain an abortion in the case of rape and incest, the victim will have to have reported the crime to law enforcement, which is often impossible for victims for myriad reasons, especially for those who are minors.
The pregnant person will also have to have a medical professional confirm the fetus was under 14 weeks and all other rules of the bill were followed—a requirement easily thwarted by anti-abortion doctors who can simply lie and refuse to sign off on the procedure.
Ash Orr, a transgender activist from the state’s Appalachian region who spoke about having been raped at the ages of 9 and 10, pointed out the cruelty of these policies.
They said:
“I want you to explain to me why it would have been OK for me as a child to have carried my rapist’s child.”
“Explain it to me like I’m one of the children that y’all are willing to traumatize.”
Gardner went on to underline the hypocrisy inherent to this approach to abortion access by West Virginia Republicans.
“Some here say they are pro-life. What about my life? Does my life not matter to you?”
On Twitter, people applauded Gardner for speaking out and were outraged by the bill.
I don’t understand why they are doing this. Do they not understand the real life ramifications of their actions?! 10 years ago, Todd Aiken lost his senate race over “legitimate rape” comments. Now they are making it a huge part of their platform.
— Standing against the FAR RIGHT. (@Txsocialwork221) July 28, 2022
It’s so sad that this little girl actually has to think about this and say these words and it won’t matter. How is she going to feel when her efforts are ignored and it’s confirmed that, no, they don’t care about her life. Tragic lesson at such a young age.
Rita Ray, 80, who risked her life pre-Roe by getting an abortion from someone who wasn’t a healthcare provider, watches on as Addison Gardner, 12, contemplates her own future without access to legal abortion in WV. pic.twitter.com/RbDrCma3Ld
FBI executes search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, Trump says
The FBI executed a search warrant on Monday at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, the former President confirms to CNN.
FBI raids Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
Federal authorities have searched Donald Trump’s home in Florida, with the former president releasing a statement saying Mar A Lago was “raided” by the FBI.
Vampires have been a part of folklore for hundreds of years, but in parts of New England in the 18th and 19th centuries, they were a very real. Let’s talk about the New England Vampire Panic.
INTERVIEW: Brian interviews Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, who responds to Republicans voting against veteran healthcare, debunks Republican lies about the new Inflation Reduction Act raising taxes, and reveals whether it’s difficult for him to get booked on Fox News.
The republicans cannot win on their policies, and they are a minority in the US so they must cheat. By using these maps, they will get 5 to 7 seats they shouldn’t have in congress. Hugs
Since January, judges in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio have found that Republican legislators illegally drew those states’ congressional maps along racial or partisan lines, or that a trial very likely would conclude that they did.
But a shift in election law philosophy at the Supreme Court, combined with a new aggressiveness among Republicans who drew the maps, has upended that model for the elections in November. This time, all four states are using the rejected maps, and questions about their legality for future elections will be hashed out in court later.
David Wasserman, who follows congressional redistricting for the Cook Political Report, said that using rejected maps in the four states, which make up nearly 10 percent of the seats in the House, was likely to hand Republicans five to seven House seats that they otherwise would not have won.
Judges in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio have found that Republicans illegally drew congressional maps along racial or partisan lines, or that a trial very likely would conclude that they did.
It’s a crime syndicate. A bona fide crime syndicate. Anyone’s guess what they’re going to do in November. Voter intimidation at the polls, at a minimum. I hope the Democrats are planning to monitor every single voting place around the country.
That 01/06 commission better be getting their collective shit in order now. If the house goes back to repubs the revenge is going to be awful on them and they going to wish they had moved with a little more urgency
It’s clear how the SCOTUS will vote next spring in the NC. They are eager and ready to make this a Republican apartheid state to cling to power. The fact that these maps are being allowed demonstrate that. It also means that there’s no way to get relief. They’d simply say it would be too chaotic to do an entire round of elections under fair maps
The “too chaotic” line is named the “Purcell principle” – no last minute changes. But the same SCOTUS who trots that out also brings up an unnamed argument about fairness to the voters when it’s an illegal Democratic Party gerrymander or advantage that they are striking down. They are perfectly consistent about having an overt and political double standard.
I’m just imaging how this would look for, say, a college student. They get an assignment (redistricting), then deliberately put it off until the last moment, possibly even getting an extension, then submit their work that they know doesn’t meet the rules.
They’re told that graduation is coming soon and they must submit the assignment properly, and they do it again.. and again wrong. They try whining to the department head, who also says “no, you did it wrong, submit a proper result”.
And then, they say “well, I’ll just graduate anyway, and we can figure out that pesky assignment thing later, after I’m working.”
Please notice the hypocrisy. He loves it when it is in his favor and helps his cult get their way, but if it is on something they are against he has to stomp it out hard. He is a thug and a gang leader at this point. He thinks he is a king of Florida. Hugs
Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren isn’t the only elected official in Florida who has promised not to enforce laws he thinks are unconstitutional. Some elected sheriffs have suggested they wouldn’t enforce gun control measures, tapping into an ideology that sheriffs are the final arbiter of what is constitutional.
But that movement hasn’t sparked action from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who ordered a statewide review of state attorneys and their policy positions.
DeSantis suspended Warren on Thursday, accusing him of putting himself above the law by pledging not to prosecute women seeking an abortion from their doctor and vowing to protect transgender minors receiving gender-transition treatment.
The so-called “constitutional sheriffs” movement recently held a convention in which they vowed to surveil ballot drop boxes and polling places. One of the leaders of the movement, Michigan sheriff Dar Leaf, was today implicated in the breach of county voting machines.
“All you have to do is Google ‘Florida sheriff not enforcing,’ and there are so many examples, mostly related to guns … If this is the game you are going to play and tell me it’s not political, you better start suspending those people, too.”https://t.co/1xGRcPqukj
If they can enforce only the laws they want and make up their own laws, they are not much more than a pack of vigilantes. That is not legitimate law enforcement and don’t need to be obeyed. Let’s see how they like that.
Ron DeSantis is a fascist, and he and the movement he represents are a clear and present danger to this country. That needs to be said again and again.
Scottie's Playtime 