Does the current political climate and rise in Christian Nationalism endanger the First Amendment?
Question
Does the current political climate and rise in Christian Nationalism endanger the First Amendment?
Answer
Dear Reader,
Absolutely. The First Amendment is the most quintessential American idea of them all. It protects the press, which is often called the Fourth Estate, because there is no democracy without a free press and free speech—even, and especially, unpopular speech. The First Amendment protects those who seek to find the truth and then to tell it, free from censorship or harm. As authoritarianism has increased around the world, it has become more dangerous to be a journalist than ever before. As the saying goes, “Truth is the first casualty of war.”
Christian Nationalism is a direct threat to the First Amendment because it is a form of theological authoritarianism. Those who insist that America was once, and should be again, a “Christian Nation” run by white male overseers are essentially saying that all other viewpoints are not only wrong but blasphemous. But the founders gave us the First Amendment because they were escaping religious violence. They knew we needed not only freedom of religion, but freedom from religion.
Christian Nationalists are now fully in charge of the current administration, and what we see is not only rampant racism and homophobia, but a dark enthusiasm for gratuitous cruelty. Leading figures in the CN movement not only embrace white supremacists and anti-Semites, but they also view the moral imagination as “woke” and empathy as a danger to the nation. The Vice President recently explained why compassion should begin with one’s own family and end with the stranger, an idea completely at odds with the teachings of Jesus. They also preach and teach a warrior Jesus who works for a vengeful god and slays his enemies. They are Manicheans who view everything in the world as divided between good and evil, right and wrong, chosen ones and everyone else (the unchosen?) who should either convert or perish.
The First Amendment has saved America countless times, when prophets of social change could speak truth to power without being arrested and silenced. It has allowed biblical scholars to expose how little of the Bible can, or should, be taken literally. It has protected minority voices from the ravages of the majority. Indeed, the crucifixion itself is a testament to what happens when the love of power trumps the power of love. Those who fear dissenting voices fear the validity and integrity of their own. The First Amendment was first for a reason. Long may we defend it, and never forget those who died to protect it.
~ Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers
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