The Christian Nationalism of Margaret Grun Kibben

Margaret Grun Kibben is the official Christian Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives. She, above all other Christian preachers in the country, has been granted the official power to make religious declarations on behalf of the Government of the United States of America.

What does Margaret Grun Kibben do with this theocratic power? In her government-sponsored prayer to the Christian god last Friday, Kibben declared:

“Blessed are those who trust in you. Better off are those who rely on you, and not on their own pride, who yield to your truth, and do not turn to follow false gods.”

In just this brief portion of Kibben’s government-established prayer, she offered two distinct criticisms of democracy while promoting the power of those who seek a Christian Nationalist theocracy.

First, Kibben urged members of Congress to trust in Christianity, to rely on Christianity, and to yield to Christianity. She depicted the refusal to submit to Christianity as a sign of moral failing, of pride.

In the next breath, Margaret Grun Kibben warned members of Congress not to “follow false gods”. False gods? Which gods are those? Are Hindu gods false gods or true gods? What about the divinities of Shinto? Are those false gods? Margaret Grun Kibben has thrown down the gauntlet and told members of Congress that they need to start working on identifying gods that aren’t real, identifying religions that are phony.

Is this really the best use of the time of our elected representatives in Washington DC? Can it lead to any good for members of Congress to start separating out false gods from true gods, to begin choosing religions that have congressional approval, and religions that do not?

Remember, Margaret Grun Kibben is not just a volunteer Christian preacher who shows up to give these sorts of official government prayers on her own time in an expression of generosity. Margaret Grun Kibben is paid a very large salary by the US federal government to conduct Christian rituals of prayer in Congress. She is a government official. Her position is in itself a blatant violation of the First Amendment’s prohibition of congressional establishment religion.

The paid position of Chaplain of the House of Representatives has always been occupied by Christian preachers. There has never ever been a non-Christian religious leader who has been given the job of House Chaplain.

So, you might ask who Margaret Grun Kibben is to lecture the United States Congress against following false gods, but the answer is that Kibben has been given an official federal government job of preaching and embodying Christian Nationalism at the highest levels of power. She is declaring that Congress should submit to the Christian god and implying that its members should abandon any non-Christian religions they may hold.

With such power, there ought to be some transparency. If Margaret Grun Kibben had any respect for democracy, the idea of government by the people rather than government controlled by gods, she would hold a press conference after her government Christian prayers, to explain herself. If Kibben felt accountable to the people of the United States, she would explain which gods the US federal government believes are false, and which gods the US federal government believes to be true. We could demand accountability. Instead, Kibben makes her Christian Nationalist

Margaret Grun Kibben’s Christian Nationalist prayers are not just a problem for non-Christian Americans. Christian preachers are fond of accusing other Christians of worshipping a false version of the Christian god. It might fairly be said that the one doctrine all Christians agree on is that other kinds of Christians are fake Christians, worshipping a false god.

Once we have a government official granted the power to promote Christian Nationalism within the federal government with daily proclamations of Christian power, we place our government in the position of deciding which versions of Christianity are true, and which are false, following false gods. House Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben seems happy to step into this role, providing official US government declarations about Christian religious doctrine.

The Constitution is clear. This is not how Congress was supposed to operate. The Constitution declares that there shall be no religious test for any public office, but the position of Chaplain of the US House of Representatives comes at the very least with a test of a chaplain’s religious training, and with the de facto test of Christian identity.

More broadly, Margaret Grun Kibben’s work in Congress undermines democracy by pushing our elected officials to listen more to her god, and listen less to the citizens of America. The thing is, democracy is all about people, not gods. In a democracy, we’re supposed to rely on each other. People are supposed to help people in a democratic society. We aren’t supposed to have a government that is dependent on any god, or any church.

Margaret Grun Kibben’s prayer is antagonistic to democracy, asking for the replacement of trust in people with trust in a religion: Kibben’s religion of Christianity. Even as she is appointed and paid a large salary by the US federal government, Kibben denigrates the idea that people can cooperate to govern themselves. She calls that idea “pride”, and calls for members of Congress to abandon their belief in the people power of democracy, replacing it with reliance on Christianity.

Chaplain Kibben says that she wants members of Congress to rely on the Christian god, but remember, the Christian god never actually shows up to any meetings or congressional hearings. It’s Christian preachers, acting like unregistered lobbyists, who actually show up, claiming to speak for their god. When Christians urge members of Congress to trust in the Christian god, what they really mean is that they want members of Congress to trust in Christian preachers.

When Margaret Grun Kibben declares in front of the members of the US House of Representatives that people should yield to the truth of the Christian god, she is instructing members of Congress to submit to the will of human Christian leaders. It’s those Christian leaders, after all, who declare what the truth of the Christian god is.

We should never forget that the supposed truth of Christianity comes with a many strings attached. The truth of Christianity demands submission to absolute power, rather than democracy. The truth of Christianity demands that one religion be placed above all others, because all other religions are “false”, with “false gods”.

We shouldn’t be surprised when Margaret Grun Kibben takes to the floor of the US House of Representatives to condemn non-Christian religions as having “false gods”. The sort of person who would accept an ethically-compromised position within a federal government priesthood is likely to have an exaggerated sense of certainty about what’s true and what’s false.

It takes a specific kind of Christian preacher to seek an official federal government job preaching Christianity, or to lobby the federal government to change American laws to conform with Christian demands, rather than working in a church. A preacher who engages in these kinds of activities must by definition believe that it’s appropriate for religious leaders to try to control the government or use the government to promote their specific religious beliefs. Religious leaders who believe in the separation of church and state wouldn’t engage in these kinds of activities. For this reason, there’s a built in bias in favor of Christian Nationalism whenever Christianity is allowed to take any role of influence with the government.