You know the old advice about two things not to bring up at parties, religion or politics? Today, if you want to, you can bring them up simultaneously; just mention Christian nationalism. There are many definitions but let’s go with the one from Christians Against Christian Nationalism: “Christian nationalism seeks to merge Christian and American identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America's constitutional democracy.” Obviously this is the opposite, and the enemy, of the principle of separation of religion and government. 

I’m focused on this issue today because I just attended a Capitol Hill briefing presented by the Interfaith Alliance. The briefing amplified the message that Christian nationalism is a growing threat and is on the ballot this fall in many states. A new poll finds that when asked "Would You Favor or Oppose the United States Officially Declaring the United States to be a Christian Nation?” 38 percent of Americans favor it. 

Recently some members of Congress have been openly critical of church-state separation and openly welcoming of Christian nationalism. These members have perfected the business model of saying something outrageous whether or not they mean it or really understand it, wait to be criticized, complain about being criticized, and then raise campaign money off being criticized/attacked/canceled. (Which is why I'm not naming them. I’m not helping.) 

It’s somewhat comforting that so far these members don’t appear to be especially competent at their actual job of passing bills in Congress.  But they will in all likelihood be in the majority next year, along with others who agree with them but not publicly. More importantly, every time they promote Christian nationalism it legitimizes it a little more and makes the Christian nationalists a little more open and a little more bold about what they are trying to accomplish. 

Christian nationalism isn’t just a threat to church-state separation but also to free and fair elections. It provides a permission structure that allows people to ignore the law in the name of their higher goals, usually something like returning the nation to its Christian roots and running the government on Christian principles. Or it gives them permission to storm the Capitol to disrupt the counting of electoral college votes.  

Millions of people believe the last Presidential election was stolen. The Christian nationalists in that group can tell themselves that God wants them to make sure the “right” candidates win this time so they become local election officials or run for office themselves. The Republican candidate for governor in Pennsylvania is a blatant Christian nationalist. Fortunately Pennsylvanians don’t seem interested in his vision for the state or the nation, according to the polls,  but he is still the nominee of one of the two major parties in the fifth largest state. 

Elections always matter. The ones 37 days away will decide whether the party that includes Christian nationalists will control one or both houses of Congress and how many governorships. To help educate voters who support secular candidates we have created a secular voter scorecard that evaluates House members based on votes, bills they cosponsored, and membership in the Congressional Freethought Caucus. The Senate has not held enough votes on secular voter issues to create a useful scorecard (not necessarily a bad thing) but we do highlight two Senate votes of particular importance. 

You can find the scorecard here. It’s one tool you can use to decide who gets your vote. You can also find information on registering to vote, requesting a mail-in ballot, and much more on the Secular America Votes page, now being hosted by our coalition member the Secular Student Alliance.  Vote early if you can but please make sure you get to the polls; it’s always important.