The Christian Nationalism in Joe Biden’s Big Speech
Many Christian Nationalists are Republican, and so it’s easy to think that we can defeat Christian Nationalism by defeating the Republican Party. This week, however, America received a reminder that it’s not that simple. Christian Nationalism has a grip on the Democratic Party as well.
You may have heard that Joe Biden gave a speech this week in which he warned that the Trump wing of the Republican Party is a danger to democracy. What you may not have heard, and may not have noticed if you didn’t listen to the speech yourself, is that even while Biden condemned the ideological extremism of the Trump Republicans, he embraced the Christian Nationalism that motivates that extremism.
Biden said:
“I ran for President because I believed we were in a battle for the soul of this nation. I still believe that to be true. I believe the soul is the breath, the life, and the essence of who we are. The soul is what makes us us. The soul of America is defined by the sacred proposition that all are created equal in the image of god.”
Then, Biden ended the speech with a Christian Nationalist religious invocation:
“The greatest nation on the face of the Earth, we just need to remember who we are. We are the United States of America, the United States of America, and may god protect our nation, and may god protect all those who stand watch over our democracy. God bless you all.”
This concept of the United States as a Christian nation created and protected by the Christian god, defined by sacred beliefs in religious notions such as souls and divine creation of humanity, is straight Christian Nationalism.
Remember that every word of that speech was written ahead of time, not by Joe Biden alone, but by a team of speechwriters. That team of speechwriters argued over every word, which was put in there with a purpose.
The purpose of the Christian Nationalism language in Joe Biden’s speech was to send a message to Christian Nationalists who currently support Donald Trump. The message was this: Joe Biden and his Democratic followers won’t do anything to end Christian privilege in America. Under Biden, Christians will continue to enjoy special rights that are denied to members of other religions and to people who are not religious.
Biden’s speech promises an implicit deal with Republican Christian Nationalists. The deal is that Christian Nationalists can keep their special access to power, can keep their special rights, and can keep denying the equal rights of non-Christian Americans. The only thing Christian Nationalists have to do, Biden’s tone suggests, is not to be so overtly fascist about it, to not be so flamboyantly cruel about it, to not explicitly call for the end of democracy.
The problem with this deal is that Christian Nationalism is always inherently fascist. Christian Nationalism is always cruel. Christian Nationalism is always against democracy.
Christian Nationalism arose out of a mainstream medieval Christian doctrine, known as the Curse of Ham, that originated in a racist reading of chapter 9 of Genesis in the Christian bible. This doctrine held that Europeans and their descendants around the world are ordained by the Christian god to hold power over everyone else, and to possess Africans and their descendants as slaves. This very same Christian doctrine is what was used to justify the belief that the United States is a Christian Nation.
Joe Biden’s implicit deal with Christian Nationalists is to create two Americas: One America for Christians, and another America for everyone else.
In Christian America, people get full access to representation in their government. Christians get to set the terms.
In non-Christian America, people will continue to have restricted representation in their own government. Non-Christians will still be forced to participate in Christian rituals, to swear Christian oaths, and accept Christian supremacy. The beliefs and practices of non-Christians will continue to be excluded from government, while Christians are allowed to spread their Christianity throughout government, as if the separation of church and state does not exist.
Non-Christians are 40 percent of the population of the United States. We deserve to be treated equally. Preserving the current system of first-class citizenship for Christians and second-class citizenship for everybody else is not okay.
It’s not okay for Joe Biden to use the constitutional rights of non-Christian Americans as a bargaining chip. It’s not okay for Biden to agree to keep non-Christians as second-class citizens in exchange for Christian Nationalists agreeing not to wage a violent revolution.
That’s not freedom. It’s extortion.
America needs a president who is willing to stand up to Christian Nationalists, not make conciliatory deals with them. America needs a president who neither denigrates not promotes religion, but scrupulously observes the separation of church and state.
Joe Biden is not that president.