For the future of America, Jesus must become our homeboy

Josh Hawley sure loves him some Jesus...even if his hypocrisy and lust for power is what truly drives him

America’s ideal has been the religion of the Bible, Christianity in particular. That is changing now, obviously, and not for the better. As the left works to impose an arid secularism, American culture increasingly has no memory of the religious tradition that made it and, without that tradition, no moral order to bind us together…. America has been a Christian nation. We can be again—if Christians will recover again their confidence that the gospel of Jesus Christ speaks to every facet of our common life. For the future of the nation, and the honor of the gospel, we must.

• Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Our Christian Nation

If you’re like me, you’re tired of self-righteous Christofascists like Sen. Hawley purposely misrepresenting what America was and continues to be. Josh Hawley is not a stupid man. He is, however, a profoundly ambitious and dishonest man willing to misrepresent our history, Constitution, and majority religion to advance his own interests and political prospects.

To give you an idea of the depths of his dishonesty, Sen. Hawley represents Missouri but no longer maintains a home there. He’s a resident of Virginia and, if memory serves, maintains an address of convenience in the Show-Me State to meet legal requirements.

America, as I’ve pointed out more times than I care to remember, is NOT a Christian nation. It is, however, a nation in which you’re free to be a Christian if you so choose. Or not. The Founding Fathers designed American governance to be free of interference from religious interests. That separation of Church and State has been critical to the continued integrity and survival of American governance.

From the outset, it should be clear that Sen. Hawley is being fundamentally dishonest about the nature of America, American culture, and American governance.

Such an astonishing lack of integrity from Josh Hawley should not come as a shock to anyone.

It hasn’t received much attention (yet), but Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a pro-insurrectionist election denier, wrote a lengthy article called “Our Christian Nation” for the conservative religious journal First Things.

In short, it’s a rehashing of the sorts of things Christian pseudo-historian David Barton has been saying for years—and, just as with Barton, it’s intended for an audience of gullible conservatives who eagerly accept anything someone with unearned confidence tells them.

David Barton is one of the few pseudo-intellectuals on the Far-Right who’s even more dishonest and devoid of integrity than Sen. Hawley. Barton spews pseudo-history to Conservatives lacking the intellectual wherewithal to think critically and call Barton out on his bullshit.

And so Sen. Hawley continues in the same tradition, making points that sound important in a manner that sounds grave and worthy of sober consideration…when, in fact, he’s shoveling pure, unadulterated bullshit.

[Hawley’s] examples of our lack of “moral order” include bitter politics, intractable culture wars, the slow-but-growing acceptance of transgender people, and the decline in marriage and birth rates.

He neglects to mention that he and his GOP colleagues have done more than just about anyone to poison our politics, that civil rights for marginalized groups is worth fighting for, and that many of the reasons people are delaying marriage or choosing not to have children are due to policies pushed by Republicans who ignore climate change, make it harder for young people to earn a living wage, reject universal health care, reject vaccines thereby spreading diseases, and voting in religious bigots who seek to punish everyone who doesn’t play along with their chosen mythology.

The conservative Christians who fight child marriage bans have no business complaining about people who want to get married later in life. It’s also ridiculous to argue that not having children is somehow immoral.

This is Hawley’s brand of Christianity for you: If you don’t live the life he wants for you, you’re the evil one.

Hawley, whose arrogant, self-important mien is reminiscent of nothing if not Ralph Fiennes’ Commander from the Hulu production of The Handmaid’s Tale, KNOWS how America should be. And he knows that Americans must live the life he describes as righteous…or risk being accused of evil. Yeah, he’s just that convinced of his own righteousness and purity.

Hawley is particularly concerned with what college students are doing:

[C]ollege students—conservatives are obsessed with what college students do—who criticize the genocide of Palestinians by the Israeli military are “parrot[ing] Osama bin Laden and Hamas.”

The solution to all of this, Hawley says, isn’t smarter political decisions by people like him.

The solution, of course, is MORJEEZUS!!!…because when more people follow Jesus, more people like Hawley can exert control over the faithful, and…well, you know how this is all going to end, right?

Something about “Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war…?”

Voltaire said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” That’s what absolute obedience in the name of Jesus Christ will get you. Sen. Hawley knows that and wants to be the one issuing the orders.

For now, though, until Hawley can assert control, he’s going to endeavor to convince us that he knows what the solution to a restive, unsettled America is:

MORJEEZUS!!!

It’s Jesus: The universal solution offered by those who can’t think of anything useful.

America as a Christian nation—that’s a heretical notion by today’s lights. We are a secular country, the experts have insisted—demanded—for decades. But that was never true. The Founders read Roman historians, yes. Some were influenced by Enlightenment philosophies. But the Bible has been the main source of our national ideals. From the age of the New England Puritans to the Great Awakening that prepared the ground for revolution, Scripture has molded our common life from the first. Consider: Our ideal of the individual has Christian roots. So too does our constitutionalism. Our great traditions of progressive reform were animated by an ardent Christian spirit—as was conservative resistance to their excesses. Even in our most bitter conflicts, Christian culture has been America’s common ground.

We need to recover that common ground today. Why? Because America as we know it cannot survive without biblical Christianity. The rights we cherish, the freedoms we enjoy, the ideals we love together—all are rooted in and sustained by the tradition of the Bible….

It’s a decent question: How many books have to be written to convince Americans that we don’t live in a Christian nation? Declaring America to be a Christian nation doesn’t make it so. It doesn’t reverse Constitutional reality and tradition. It doesn’t negate 235 years of history in which the separation of Church and State has been ingrained into our system as precedent and tradition.

Wanting America to be a Christian nation doesn’t change a thing. This country, absent a revolution, is and will remain a secular nation in which citizens are free to choose whatever faith tradition works for them…or none at all if that’s their decision. Whatever an individual’s choice, that can have no impact on American governance, despite what Josh Hawley and his fellow Christofascists would have us believe.

What Hawley is arguing for here, without ever actually saying it, is the “Seven Mountains” mandate, which refers to Christians taking over the areas of Religion, Family, Education, Entertainment, Media, Government, and Business in order to influence every aspect of our lives. It’s a horrifying prospect—and the end goal for so many Christians who jump into politics because they can’t find success with their ideas alone in all the other realms.

Hawley argues that language used by American leaders at a time when we were far less diverse than we are today, and by global leaders in places where Christianity was the state religion, means we ought to revive political Christianity right here.

In a time of global crisis, Franklin Roosevelt emphasized America’s biblical heritage. After the devastation of World War II, European leaders embraced Christian democracy in order to rebuild their countries. But there can be no revival of Christian influence in America without Christian believers who are willing to bring the gospel to bear on every corner of our culture and politics.

No federal laws ban Christians from running for public office, in the same way adherents of any faith tradition can also run for office. The Constitution bans religious litmus tests for those who would run for office, even though there are still seven states (including- shocking, I know- Texas) that still have litmus tests on their books.

There are those White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals who’d see the right to participate in our government limited to people like them. That’s essentially the goal of Seven Mountains Dominionism. They want their flavor of Christianity to be the One, True, and ONLY Faith…and the One, True, and ONLY Government.

I have no problem with Christianity in America, as long as we’re not also talking about Christianity in government. Of course, the problem is that Sen. Hawley IS talking about Christianity in government…and if Josh Hawley’s an actual, honest, Bible-believing Christian, I’m Freddie Mercury.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with Christians serving in public office…or Muslims, Jews, or any other faith tradition. But American governance is still secular, and the separation of Church and State is still vital. So, believe what you will…but that’s a private matter, not a matter for any government body.

Remember, America isn’t a Christian nation, but it is a nation where you’re free to be a Christian if that’s your choice. Regardless of your choice of faith traditions, American governance is and must remain secular because religious freedom still means freedom OF as much as freedom FROM religion.

You’re free to your religion…or lack of one. You’re not free to force it on me, Sen. Hawley. I’d appreciate it if you kept that in mind.

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