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Why are Christians always so eager to break the law for Jesus?
Quote:Fayette County middle school of unconstitutional acts
In a news release, the Freedom From Religion Foundation said a community member informed them that two pastors from Southern Heights Baptist Church have been “proselytizing” students at Jessie Clark Middle School by letting them lead the school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter.
According to the foundation, Southern Heights Baptist Church made a social media post saying that “three students gave their lives to Christ” during an FCA meeting.
“Additionally, the middle school named one of the pastors a ‘character coach’ for the middle school lacrosse team,” the foundation said, “apparently to encourage ‘growth in character, leadership and faith as they develop as athletes and individuals.’”
FFRF claims that these actions are unlawful, violating the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act.
“It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for the district to allow staff members or an outside adult to lead a religious club for students, FFRF emphasizes,” the foundation said. “Public schools may not show favoritism toward, or coerce, belief in or participation in religion.”
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
Inside Christian nationalists’ war on religious freedom
Earlier this year, a presidential commission staffed almost entirely by conservative Christians urged Americans to rethink the separation of church and state and build “bridges” between them. Last week, the Department of Justice directed federal agencies to expand protections for religious expression in public employment, military service, education, healthcare and federal contracting.
These policies reflect the influence of Christian nationalism, a movement predicated on the belief that the United States is divinely chosen,” the New Testament should shape government policies, and white Christians should dominate American culture.
In a compelling new book, “No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy From Christian Nationalism,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the only self-declared Humanist in Congress, chronicles the movement’s rise and documents its great and growing impact on American politics.
For decades, Christian nationalists sought influence within the Republican Party. Presidents Reagan and Bush talked the talk, but largely accepted the traditional constitutional framework regarding church-state relations. But as traditional churches and denominations began to shrink in the 1990s, “independent charismatic ministries” expanded. The New Apostolic Reformation, a network of evangelical leaders, maintained that America was a Christian nation under siege by secular elites, including “demons” who must be “vanquished.”
Alongside The New Apostolic Reformation, two other influential strands of conservative Christianity — radical traditionalist Catholics and the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches — emerged. Although differing in theology and tactics, all three claim that God has chosen Christians to run the country.
Most Republicans are adherents or sympathizers; 55 percent of them “embrace ‘dominion’ theology,” and more than 60 percent “want America to be officially declared a Christian nation.”
What’s more, many believe God anointed Donald Trump to save the country. Pillars of the MAGA movement, they helped elect him president. Legions of Christian nationalists, Huffman reveals, participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump has pledged to defend Christianity from the “radical left” and “root out anti-Christian bias.” He formed a task force to investigate the “targeting” of Christians, promoting the false narrative that the country’s dominant religious group is being systematically persecuted.
Trump also established a White House Faith Office, led by a pastor who called the “Black Lives Matter” movement “anti-Christ” and insisted Jesus would not have been the Messiah had he broken immigration laws. The office is part of a broader effort to bring “a renewal of faith in our schools, military, workplaces, hospitals, and halls of government.”
A principal architect of Project 2025, Russell Vought has recommended addressing the problems of a “too secular” America by criminalizing pornography; using biblical definitions of gender, marriage and family; and making the Christian Sabbath a government-enforced day of rest. As director of the Office of Management and Budget, Vought has fused notions of presidential power with his explicitly Christian vision of national renewal.
Christian nationalism also runs rampant on Capitol Hill, where, as Huffman points out, “a ministry-industrial complex” composed of “faith leaders, religious networks, advocacy groups, and a steady wave of religious programs” seeks “to embed right-wing Christian influence in government and manifest biblical dogma into policy.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), for example, dismisses the separation of church and state as a “misnomer,” considers the Bible “an appropriate course of study in our public schools,” and advocates “biblically sanctioned government.” Johnson opposes same-sex marriage, considers homosexual relationships “sinful” and denigrates no-fault divorce.
The danger is clear. Liberal democracy rests on the premise that citizens of every faith — and the approximately 28 percent of American adults who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” — stand as equals before the law. When government defines national identity in explicitly Christian terms, it marginalizes religious minorities, weakens constitutional protections for dissent, and transforms political disagreement into heresy.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
