In the 1920s and 1930s, Indiana was ground zero for two of the most virulent anti-American movements in our nation’s history. Again, in 2024, we find ourselves at the center of two profoundly anti-American ideologies that seek to strip from us the basic freedoms of speech, association and, perhaps most importantly, religion.
The earlier movements sought to dismantle key parts of our Constitution. They wanted to isolate those who weren’t part of their religious heritage and establish a national religion. One of these movements was a vast uprising that eventually grew to include one out of every three adult men in the state. The other was a lone demagogue who pushed antisemitic, and ultimately pro-Nazi rhetoric, on a newfangled technology — radio.
The broad movement was the Ku Klux Klan, and the demagogue was the populist antisemitic Catholic priest, Father Charles Coughlin. The modern heirs to both movements are alive and well in Indiana.
Today they come to us in a more polished, smiling form than the KKK, but seek the same goals — the end of religious freedom of choice, restrictions on speech and the establishment of a quasi-national religion. We must reject both of these ideologies.
Patrick Deneen is the intellectual leader of Catholic Integralism. This idea, which he spells out in “Regime Change; towards a post-liberal future,” is a rejection of the American Constitutional separation of church and state. Deneen, a professor at Notre Dame, discards religious liberty and argues for a nation guided by (his) theocratic vision.
His views are not popular in Catholic leadership, and he is at odds with the Second Vatican Council and a half-century of official Catholic religious and political thought. Still, bad ideas rarely die of their own accord, and we should actively oppose them, even if they come from quiet, well-dressed academics.
Deneen is likely to prove only a small footnote to American religious intolerance. In contrast, Micah Beckwith is a rising leader of an anti-American movement that call themselves Christian nationalists. They are a profound danger to our republic.
To the casual Hoosier voter, Christian nationalism likely seems nothing to worry about. After all, most of us are Christians and love our country. That seems a common and healthy viewpoint. But, like many authoritarian movements, the name is intended to mask a deeper, darker agenda.
There can be no doubt the U.S. was founded in a Judeo-Christian culture. Our Declaration of Independence detailed the role of the Creator in establishing unalienable rights. That reference was clearly intended for the eyes of King George, his Parliament and fellow Americans as the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
If Christian nationalism was simply a recognition of divine inspiration of our founders, or to wish blessing upon our nation’s continuing experiment in liberty, I’d be happy with it. I am a Christian and patriot. But, that is not at all what Christian nationalism is or wishes to be.
Christian nationalism is an extreme ideology that rejects the First Amendment’s establishment clause prohibiting a state-sponsored religion. It rejects the central idea that makes our great nation a place of universal freedom. It makes an explicit claim that “Christians are entitled to primacy of place in the public square because they are heirs of the true or essential heritage of American culture,” per Christianity Today.
The Christian nationalist movement, including Beckwith, deny to the mainstream press that it wants a state-sponsored religion, but then states to more sympathetic media that it is ready to limit government offices to people who share an “alignment with Christian, Constitutional, and Conservative principles,” as Micah Beckwith has proposed to do with his advisors as lieutenant governor, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Again, I’ll say to my fellow Christians, this is dangerous and un-American. We might naturally all wish that our elected leaders shared our values, but where does it end? Should our department of agriculture or tourism officials be staffed only by Christians? Does denomination matter, or should it only be Pentecostalists or Methodists?
The founders knew that once the veil of church and state was pierced there would be no end to it, no safety valve, no limit. They knew it would end in ruin for the Republic.
Indeed, before taking office as president, George Washington penned a letter replying to a Hebrew congregation in Rhode Island. This community expressed concern that, even after supporting the Revolution, they may someday lose their freedom as a religious minority. Washington replied boldly, “… happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
Christian nationalism exists solely to promote bigotry and assist persecution. Washington knew tyranny when he saw it and flatly rejected the zealots of a young Republic.
When Beckwith proudly proclaims himself a Christian nationalist, we must take his word for it.
Some of the best insight to what that Christian nationalism means comes directly through his words about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick. Beckwith claims McCormick was “filled with the Jezebel spirit.” Since he made that claim, the Christian nationalist movement has said the same thing about Kamala Harris.
Like many of you, I got the gist of that. I did teach Sunday School, but we didn’t cover that with the first-graders, so I had to leaf through my Good Book to find precisely what Beckwith meant.
My King James Version answered me in Revelations 2:20: “Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication ….” In other words, Beckwith is making a pastoral and political claim that Jennifer McCormick is a slut, prostitute and enemy of God.
He said that about McCormick because he disagrees with her politically. He said that because he thought he could get away with saying it on an obscure Christian nationalist podcast. He said that because he has no scruples, no judgment and no sense of decency.
Equally worrisome, Sen. Mike Braun could not reject his running mate’s slurs because he lacks the courage to oppose the growing force of Christian nationalism.
It’s not so much that Hoosiers should expect better. We cannot do worse than this. But, there is one deliciously ironic silver lining to all this. Neither Patrick Deneen nor Micah Beckwith views one another as actual Christians. We’d be better off to let them hash out that difference as a couple of private citizens, far away from the Statehouse or political influence.
Michael J. Hicks is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and an associate professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. Send comments to [email protected].
