On April 9, Douglas Wilson, senior pastor of local Christ Church, held a Q&A session at the University of Idaho about what to expect from a Christian nationalist church. During this Q&A session, Wilson talked about his vision for what an America with a state-sponsored religion would look like.
While it is common for modern Christians to claim that the United States is a “Christian nation,” this is not backed up by the statements and actions of the founding fathers and other early American political figures.
The most prominent argument against the inherent Christianity of America is the First Amendment, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” There is no mention of how the U.S. is Christian. The 1796 Treaty of Tripoli, which was ratified by the Senate and signed by President John Adams, states, “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religious or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims].” This document explicitly states how early Americans felt about state religion.
In opposition to the freedom built into the Bill of Rights and supported by founding documents, Wilson said, “The United States is a Christian nation and should have laws and regulations that abide by Christian theology.” Along with that, his panel, composed of himself and two other Christian nationalists, responded to a question about the First Amendment by talking about how their ideal state would not allow for religious institutes and buildings outside of the mandated state religion, Christianity.
But don’t worry. While the state would not endorse or allow other religions to promote or convert people within a Christian state, they would be free to practice the religion privately. It is very telling that they want to forbid other religions from proselytizing and converting Americans, something which American Christians are famous for doing.
Wilson assured a questioner that “I’m not trying to reverse the 19th Amendment right this minute.” The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. Wilson is a famous supporter of the idea that votes are cast by the household with one vote per adult controlled by the man of the house. Another panelist, Jared Longshore, said, “The idea is basically recovering the family as a fundamental unit of society.
Wilson’s other big point was bringing back the anti-sodomy laws of the early-mid 20th century. These laws allowed the shutting down of gar bars and other LGBTQ+ spaces and the prevention of public gay partnerships.
Wilson did say “I would not want a sexual Gestapo,” he just wants them persecuted and hidden, not rounded up into camps and murdered.
It is worth noting that, from Wilson’s Nazi comparison, some of the first people the Nazis targeted was the LGBTQ+ community. And they didn’t start by killing them in the street; they started their persecution by closing gay/lesbian bars and other LGBTQ+ spaces, strikingly similar to what Wilson proposes.
At the end of the day, it is fundamentally anti-American to restrict the freedoms of other people, whether it is their freedom to practice their religion in mosques or synagogues, their freedom to vote independently of their husbands, or their freedom to gather in spaces they feel safe in.
An America where you must hide your partnership, hide your worship and cannot vote independently is not America at all. The fact that public figures such as Wilson are pushing for this should raise alarm bells.
After all, if these Christian nationalists don’t like America or her values, they can leave.
Christopher Sprague can be reached at arg[email protected].