Christian Nationalists Seek A Torture-Filled City On A Hill

In the “pilgrim” days that Donald Trump celebrates, colonists were legally required to attend Puritan church services every week, even if they weren’t Puritans. When the Church Warden caught a person being absent from church services without a government excuse, the person was put into a pillory, a medieval torture device in which a person’s hands and head were locked into a kind of wooden frame, forcing them to stand still in the town square for long periods of time so that Christian church members could physically torment the prisoner with impunity. In the Massachussets Bay Colony, a person who failed to attend the government-sponsored church had their ear nailed to the wood of the pillory.

When Christian Nationalists talk about the “Puritan ethic” and the “Christian values” of America’s founders, this kind of brutality is what they are referring to. They want to reinstate this culture of religious torture and use it to control the private lives of the American people, to put us all under the thumb of the government-established church.

Donald Trump recently promised Christian Nationalists that if they elect him, they will never need to vote again, because he’s going to make sure the government is “fixed” in their favor. What many people didn’t note was the way that Trump then praised the Puritan pilgrims that settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He said they came to America for freedom, when in fact they came to America to establish a hellish torture-filled authoritarian city on a hill.

The city on a hill of Puritan times wasn’t a utopia. It was a place of misery that people were desperate to escape. Puritan leaders themselves made it plain that they were opposed to democracy. They wanted Christian theocracy instead. Puritan leader John Winthrop wrote:

“If we should change from a mixed aristocratic to mere democracy, first we should have no warrant in scripture for it: for there was no such government in Israel. We should hereby voluntarily abase ourselves and deprive ourselves of that dignity, which the providence of God has put upon us, which is a manifest breach of the Fifth Commandment, for a democracy is, amongst civil nations, accounted the meanest and worst of all forms of government.”

Donald Trump’s Christian Nationalism movement is seeking to return the United States to the bad old days of Puritan extremism. Ben Zeisloft, a prominent Trump Supporter online advocate for Christian Nationalism, declared this a few days ago:

“We need to restore true blasphemy laws. For centuries the entire Western world had statutes that prohibited the brazen public blaspheming of the Triune God. Now most of the Western world has the same types of laws, except to protect sodomy and other forms of perversion. We need the former and not the latter.”

Then Zeisloft cited a specific law from colonial times he wants to be re-enacted: The Act against Atheism and Blasphemy from the Massachusetts Bay Colony of 1697. This law provided for the public torture and execution of atheists and blasphemers.

“Be it declared and enacted by the Lieutenant Governor, Council and Representatives, convened in General Court of Assembly, and it is enacted by the Authority of the same, that if any person shall presume willfully to blaspheme the holy Name of God; Father, Son, or Holy Ghost; either by denying, cursing or reproaching the true God; his Creation or Government of the World: or by denying, cursing, or reproaching the holy Word of God; that is, the canonical Scriptures contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament; namely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Samuel, Kings, Kings, Chronicles, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkak, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, Peter, Peter, John, John, John, Jude, Revelation: Every one so offending shall be punished by imprisonment, not exceeding six months, and until they find sureties for the good behavior; by fitting in the pillory; by whipping; boring through the tongue, with a red hot iron; or setting upon the gallows with a rope about their neck; at the discretion of the Court.”

Brad Sherman, an Iowa State legislator and member of Donald Trump’s Iowa Faith Leader Coalition, supports an extremist restoration of the cruel and violent Christian Nationalism of ages past. Sherman perceives the purpose of Christianity as to conquer and dominate everyone in the United States and around the world. He writes:

“We are called to be soldiers in God's army - and we are supposed to win. Jesus has given us the authority and commissioned us to ‘...make disciples of all the nations’… We are called to boldly proclaim Christian values, not only in our churches, but also in the public square and make disciples of all the nations. We are called to prepare the way for the King and His appearing, at which time every knee will bow and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord.”

Furthermore, Brad Sherman believes that government in the United States must submit to Christian control.

“If we claim to believe in the One Supreme Being, the God of all creation, we cannot claim an exemption from obedience to Him in things relating to civil government. In fact, if we claim Him as our God, then we as legislators and government officials are His ministers. As such we must submit to Him in government as much as any other area of life.”

Donald Trump and his Christian Nationalist supporters are not playing around. They’re telling us what they want to do. They want to replace American democracy with a theocratic authoritarian government in which citizens are required to submit themselves to the power of Christian churches. They want to make 2024 the last opportunity Americans ever have to vote.

It’s up to you, while you still have the freedom to make a choice, to decide: Are you willing to submit to the power of Christian Nationalism, or are you going to stand up for American democracy?