In a paroxysm of panic about Americans' rejection of the Biden administration's policies of open borders, rampant crime, runaway inflation and profligate spending on foreign wars, the Left has decided that the real cause of the widespread dissatisfaction and demand for policies that place Americans first is "Christian nationalism."
They've been tossing this term around for a while, but it has picked up steam in recent weeks. It attracted widespread attention last week when Politico reporter Heidi Przybyla appeared on MSNBC to expound upon the article she penned warning of the presence of "Christian nationalists" in America who are flexing their political muscles.
During her MSNBC appearance, Przybyla explained ominously that "Christian nationalists" believe that (wait for it) "our rights as Americans — as all human beings — don't come from any earthly authority. They don't come from Congress; they don't come from the Supreme Court; they come from God."
Across traditional and social media, plenty of people piled on to mock Przybyla for her historical illiteracy.
The Declaration of Independence refers to the right of self-governance to which "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God" entitle mankind. It goes on to declare as "self-evident" that "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights," and that the role of government, properly constituted, is to "secure" those rights.
In fact, the document states expressly that when "any Form of Government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it."
These principles — upon which our nation was founded — are contained within the philosophy of law known as "natural law," which — contrary to Przybyla's suggestion (she referred to it as "a pillar of Catholicism") — does not trace its origin to Christianity, but at least as far back as the classical Greek tradition.
Przybyla admitted "that so-called 'natural law'" was great insofar as it was used by Martin Luther King Jr. to advance the cause of civil rights for Black Americans. But in defense of human life? Unborn children? Marriage and the family? Quelle horreur!
In fact, much more is embedded in Przybyla's comments. She purports to distinguish between ordinary Christians and "Christian nationalists." But this distinction is specious for at least two reasons.
First, the implicit assumption is that the sort of Christians who are inoffensive and unthreatening are those who do not expect American society or government to reflect their values. This is — to say the very least — hypocritical coming from those on the political and cultural Left who demand that American culture and government reflect theirs.
Secondly, the epithet "Christian nationalist" will not remain confined to what are currently being called "extreme" viewpoints among Christians. The Left will do what it always does: (1) coin a new term; (2) gin up public hysteria about its definition, and then; (3) having created widespread negative consensus around the term, expand its application to encompass many more people.
We have already seen this done with "racist" and "white supremacist," which at one point referred only to Nazi skinheads and others who literally espoused the genetic supremacy of people who trace their origin to northern Europe, but then got stretched out and mashed up into terms like "white privilege" and "systemic racism," which somehow apply to just about anyone (including conservative Black people) the Left wants to smear.
An article posted last year on CNN provides proof. First, it inserts "White" into the description. So "Christian nationalism" becomes "White Christian nationalism." Then it refers to these views as a "deviant strain or religion" that has "infected" U.S. politics.
Finally, it reports on a 2023 poll in which two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants "qualified as sympathizers or adherents to Christian nationalism."
Wait, what?
What does it mean to be a "sympathizer"? It means that those polled "mostly agree" with statements like "U.S. laws should be based on Christian values" or "If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundation, we will not have a country anymore."
Statements like those are deliberately crafted to create a particular result. The average American who knows the content of the Declaration of Independence would have little difficulty agreeing that our laws are based — and therefore should be based — on Christian values.
And as for "not having a country anymore," that language is just sloppy, since it's impossible to tell what those polled meant by agreeing. By way of example, North Korea is a country, but few Americans would want to live there — including those foaming at the mouth about "Christian nationalism."
In point of fact, there is no United States of America — at least as it was designed and as we have known it — without natural law.
In place of the internal restraints on antisocial behavior provided by widespread religious belief, the Left instead argues — always — for the growth of government to rein in the chaos created by their own encouragement of license. We need only look at our cities to see what this has wrought.
Those who are not Christians cannot dismiss these threats as irrelevant to them. This isn't just an attack on Christianity; it is an attack on Judeo-Christianity, and the Left's shocking attitude toward Jews and Israel has been on display for months.
And as for believers of other faiths, they are also potential targets. Ultimately, the war against Christianity and "natural law" is a war against anyone who dares suggest that government is subordinate to anything — including God.
Whatever our religious differences, we must unite behind the common principles upon which America was founded, and defeat those who would dissolve them. Benjamin Franklin's advice to his fellow Founders is just as applicable now as it was then: "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
Laura Hollis is a professor of teaching at the Mendoza College of Business, as well as a professor of business law and entrepreneurship at Notre Dame. Her career as an attorney has spanned 35 plus years. Her legal publications have appeared in the Temple Law Review, Cardozo Law Review and the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. She has written for The Detroit News, HOUR Detroit magazine, Townhall.com, and The Christian Post. Read reports by Professor Hollis — More Here.