Overview:
Trump claims "Americans kneel to God, and God alone" as Christian nationalism surges in the Republican Party.
Christian nationalism has been surging in the Republican Party, with elected officials and new candidates pushing to bring Christianity back to the forefront of American politics. At the conservative Turning Point USA conference, former President Trump joined voices calling for more religion in government.
“We will not break, we will not yield, we will never give in, we will never give up, we will never, ever, ever back down. As long as we are confident and united, the tyrants we are fighting do not stand a chance,” Trump said in a speech at the conservative conference. “Because we are Americans and Americans kneel to God, and God alone.”
Trump’s rhetoric was echoed by other conservative Republicans, including Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. “We need to be the party of nationalism, and I’m a Christian and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists,” Greene said.
Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert added that the Christian church should be effectively running the government. “The reason we had so many overreaching regulations in our nation is because the church complied,” Boebert said. “The church is supposed to direct the government, the government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it. And I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution, it was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.”
Experts say that Christian nationalism is a dangerous ideology which could threaten American democracy. Christian nationalism has been associated with conservative extremism and white nationalism, and some have called the January 6th insurrection against the federal government a Christian revolt. The Christian right has also increasingly won cases before the conservative Supreme Court, including the now infamous ruling overturning Roe. As the country continues to secularize, the growth of Christian nationalism on the right could potentially put Americans’ individuals liberties at risk.