During a recent interview with right-wing commentator Doug Billings, Eric Trump insisted that Christianity was “under attack.”
… Religion in this country is under attack. Our Constitution in this country is under attack. You have people who burn the American flag. Step on the American flag. Disrespect the American flag. You have people who want to cancel our Pledge of Allegiance. You have people who want to take “In God We Trust” off of our national currency. You have people who just want to get rid of God in society. And, honestly, if we go down that road, we’ve lost America…
I hate myself for trying to dissect everything he said, because it’s nothing more than red meat for a delusional right-wing base, but these lies deserve a response, and it’s not like Billings is the sort of honest journalist who would dare to point out the inaccuracies.
As someone who would absolutely cover the story if it happened, literally no one is trying to cancel the Pledge. If you enjoy saying it, no one’s going to come after you. Pointing out the problem with pressuring school kids to say we live in a nation “under God” or pretending that we have “liberty and justice for all” is legitimate criticism, but criticism isn’t cancellation.
There are also no atheists working to get “In God We Trust” off the money. Even when one activist attempted to do it years ago, not a single court seriously considered the arguments.
And I dare anyone who thinks God has been removed from society to walk around in a large city come December. There won’t be any shortage of references to Christian mythology. Eric Trump said people are trying to get rid of God in society when the only thing atheist groups have ever seriously done is try to prevent government officials from treating Christianity like some sort of default faith for their communities.
If Christianity is on a decline in popularity—and it is—the credit belongs far more to Christian zealots who want to shove their hateful and harmful views (like anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion policies) on the rest of society, not the atheists who fight for religious neutrality and church/state separation.
Oh. And if you want to burn, or step on, or disrespect the American flag, you absolutely can because the First Amendment gives you that right. You would think the people obsessed with the Second Amendment would have noticed that on their way down the page.
In any case, Eric Trump hasn’t thought this through because the Republican Party, by and large, just accepts his lies as fact. No one’s demanding honesty from the Trump clan. Certainly not the sort of people who attend Trump rallies. They embrace every Christian nationalist delusion they can cram into their brain cell.
It’s incredibly, really, that he says all this with a straight face while standing in front of an American flag that’s arguably been desecrated by replacing the stars with a giant Christian cross at a Christian nationalism event in Idaho called the “ReAwaken America Tour.”
Don’t think about it too hard. If you notice the hypocrisy at all… well, you’ve given the issue far more critical thought than anyone attending that rally.