That’s me on the right, a 38-year-old foreign correspondent with my Afghan contact as we were about to trek into the mountains to connect with a large group of guerrillas fighting the Soviet invasion of their country. They were called “mujahideen,” which means Islamic freedom fighters.
Since the Soviet Union was America’s archenemy, the CIA secretly funneled cash and weapons to the mujahideen, including shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles called Stingers, which were capable of knocking out the Soviet Mi-24D helicopter gunships that were dominating the war.
Living in close quarters with the mujahideen, I came to see their rigidness and zealotry, and I was alarmed. Their stated goal was to expel the Soviets, but what might happen if they took power?
The Stingers were critical in turning the tide, and in 1989 the Soviet Union was defeated. The mujahideen soon became the Taliban and established a theocracy to impose their fundamentalist beliefs on the entire nation. What came next was even more brutal than the Soviet occupation.
Under the Taliban, human rights violations were rampant. Dissent was violently suppressed. There were beheadings and public executions. Women were denied education, prohibited from working, and imprisoned in their homes. Homosexuals were humiliated, beaten, and often killed. All public information was state-controlled. Books were banned. Freedom of the press was eliminated.
This is what theocracies do. Not just Islamic theocracies like those in Afghanistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, but Christian theocracies as well. Think of the Crusades and the Inquisition, with their torture, beheadings, and burnings at the stake.
The rise of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany was a merging of church and state that led to the extermination of six million Jews.
The Ku Klux Klan practiced racism, hate, and violence in God’s name, seeing their robes and hoods as priestly garments while claiming their cross burnings symbolized the “Light of Christ” in the world.
The January 6th Insurrection was largely fomented by Christian Nationalists hoping to subvert our government and begin the process of turning our nation into a fundamentalist theocracy.
There are more than 200 Christian denominations in the U.S. with diverse interpretations of scripture. Christian Nationalists, who are predominantly Evangelicals, comprise less than a quarter of American Christians, yet they are hell-bent on imposing their rigid viewpoint upon us all.
As Amanda Taylor of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty puts it, this movement not only poses a dire threat to our country, it endangers Christianity itself.
A coalition of Christian leaders called Christians Against Christian Nationalism states, “Whether we worship at a church, mosque, synagogue, or temple, America has no second-class faiths. All are equal under the U.S. Constitution. As Christians, we must speak in one voice condemning Christian nationalism as a distortion of the gospel of Jesus and a threat to American democracy.” Christians Against Christian Nationalism
Here’s My Take
Christian Nationalism is not a religion. It’s a political movement that twists the religious landscape to rationalize hate and violence as a means to an end. There are clear links between this movement and racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, authoritarianism, white supremacy, and QAnon conspiracies. PRRI
Its advocates are, in effect, an American Taliban using religion as a front for political insurrection.
We must continue to expose them and steadfastly resist their efforts to subvert our government on the national and local levels.
This is why we must be vigilant about Awaken Church of San Diego, which is seeking to establish a permanent presence in our community. Awaken is an ardent purveyor of Christian Nationalism.
Its founder and lead "pastor" spews endless hate on social media, including calls for torture and public executions. He vows to "take the crown" of our Crown City, calls those who oppose him demonic, unholy, perverted and unclean, and threatens to drive us out of town.
At the Constitutional Convention in 1797, a citizen asked Benjamin Franklin what type of new government had been formed. He famously answered, "A Republic… if you can keep it."
The message then, and now, is that sustaining our form of government requires our constant attention and dedication. We have a pluralistic society based on separation of church and state with a Constitution that guarantees liberty and justice for all.
The question is, can we keep it?
Resources:
To learn more about threat of Christian Nationalism, I recommend The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, by Tim Aberta, available online and at most bookstores.
The documentary “God and Country” is now out in limited release at movie theaters and eventually will be available for streaming. Here’s the trailer:
Links:
Christian Nationalism and Political Violence
What Happens When Church and State Merge? Look to Nazi Germany For Answers
The Bogus Historians Who Teach Evangelicals They Live in a Theocracy
Christians Against Christian Nationalism
It’s No Big Deal, We Just Want to Take Over the World
Conspiracies, Crackpots & Crazies