Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was criticised by the executive director of Faithful America for twisting the words of Jesus to further her argument of Christian nationalism in a piece for the Daily Beast.
Episcopal Rev. Nathan Empsall argues that far-right conservatives are guilty of the “bastardization of the Christian religion” and that they are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” for adopting the militant Christian position with its connotations of racism.
The controversial legislator was questioned about her support for the movement in a recent interview, to which she said, “We must be the nationalist party. I’m a Christian, too. We should be Christian nationalists, I say with pride. Republicans will be the party that expands without needing to pursue certain identities or, you know, particular demographic groups if they learn to reflect the majority of the voters who support them.”
Empsall criticised her exclusive perspective on acceptance as being anti-Christian.
“She has already agreed to the label. And given that Greene and her supporters claim to speak for American Christians, this is a dangerous turn of affairs that calls for our active, vocal resistance “He composed. “If there is one thing I know about being a pastor, it is that Christian nationalism is both unchristian and disloyal. The authoritarian ideology, according to academic researchers, is a political worldview—not a religion—that unlawfully and unbiblically combines Christian and American identities, asserting that democracy is irrelevant in America because it is a “Christian nation” where only conservative Christians are considered to be true Americans.”
To further support his point, he stated, “No matter who else suffers or how many elections must be annulled, Christian nationalism’s explicit objective is to appoint only its mostly white evangelical and conservative Catholic adherents to positions of authority. This is the unholy force that inspired the failed Jan. 6, 2021 coup, the recent wave of theocratic Supreme Court opinions, and the numerous waves upon waves of harmful misinformation about elections, climate change, and COVID-19—all of which are in stark contrast to Jesus’ teachings of love, truth, and the common good.”
Greene, a religious leader, claims “would have you believe that all of her detractors “hate America [and] hate God,” but this ignores the fact that the majority of Christians are horrified by the way she uses the Gospel to justify going to white nationalist rallies and spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and they don’t speak for American Christians. And it is up to us to eventually disprove their monopoly claims and therefore loosen their grip on power. We must also recover our faith and its prophetic voice in support of the actual ideals of the Gospel, which are love, dignity, equality, and social justice.”
