Supreme Court Justice Declares Allegiance To Christian Nationalism
According to evidence obtained by The New York Times, US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flew the Appeal To Heaven flag (also known as the Pine Tree Flag) outside his home for several months in 2021. This flag was an emblem of the violent insurrection of on January 6, 2021. Christian Nationalist supporters of Donald Trump carried the flag as they attacked police officers and smashed their way into the US Capitol building in an effort to overturn the presidential election of 2020.
At another one of his houses, Justice Alito displayed an upside-down American flag, a symbol also linked to the January 6 attack against democracy. The two flags were displayed by Alito at the same time that he was presiding over legal cases at the Supreme Court that were related to the January 6 insurrection.
The flags clearly signaled Alito's intention to abandon his role as a fair and neutral Supreme Court justice. They were a declaration of Alito’s aim to use his influence to strengthen Christian Nationalism's hold on the United States government, and to support Donald Trump's rise to power.
Samuel Alito is not the only government official to use the Appeal To Heaven flag to signal allegiance with violent Christian Nationalism. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has unfurled the flag outside his office in the US Capitol, and other Republican members of Congress have done the same. Across the country, Republican officials in state and local governments are displaying the Appeal To Heaven flag to show their support for the January 6 insurrection.
The Appeal To Heaven Flag is a pre-revolutionary emblem that was flown over a small fleet of ships in New England before American independence was declared. This flag has never been officially recognized in any way as a symbol of the US government.
In the last decade, the Appeal To Heaven Flag has been adopted as a symbol of Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalists believe that the United States should become an exclusively Christian nation, rejecting its foundation as a secular democracy. Under Christian Nationalist control, Christianity would be established as the official religion, other religions would be suppressed, and the Bible would take precedence over the Constitution as the supreme source of law. Christian Nationalists intend to use federal, state, and local government power to compel all Americans to convert to Christianity and participate in Christian religious rituals.
The Appeal To Heaven movement states that its goal is to establish a network of “elected officials who are believers in Jesus Christ, who regularly attend and display a commitment to an evangelical, Gospel-centered church and who will commit to live and govern based on biblical, constitutional and Federalist principles.” The strategy of the movement is to have Christian Nationalist elected officials use their governmental power to undermine secular democracy, eventually replacing it with Christian evangelical theocracy.
The government of the United States was established and is maintained through the will of the people. It does not exist to be used by churches as a tool of power. To the contrary, the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights was passed to prevent religious groups from seizing power over the United States. A democratic government exists to serve the human needs of its population, not the dictates of any god. For the sake of humanity, it’s time to stand up to the extremism of Christian Nationalism.
We can’t ignore it when a sitting justice on the United States Supreme Court publicly supports an insurrection against the federal government. We cannot treat it as just another story in the news cycle when a Supreme Court Justice joins a political movement that intends to overthrow democracy and grant exclusive political power to evangelical Christian leaders.
Samuel Alito should resign from the Supreme Court. If he refuses to do so, he should be impeached by the United States Senate.
The Supreme Court, on its own web site, acknowledges that the US Congress has the power to impeach members of the Supreme Court. It cites the impeachment of Associate Justice Samuel Chase in 1805. "The House of Representatives passed Articles of Impeachment against him; however, he was acquitted by the Senate.”
In practice, under Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, himself a member of the Appeal To Heaven movement, there will be no Articles of Impeachment against Samuel Alito. Christian Nationalists have infiltrated the US Congress and the US Supreme Court. Now, they are seeking to put Donald Trump, who has pledge his allegiance to Christian Nationalism, into the White House.
For those of us who believe in the principles of a democratic government that grants no special powers to members of any religion, the summer of 2024 cannot be a time to relax, kick up our feet, and crack open a cold beer. Donald Trump is currently the frontrunner in the presidential election. The forces of Christian Nationalism are gaining strength, and we need to get organized in our resistance to them.