On a Collision Course

“Seventy percent of Americans agreed the U.S. Constitution would not allow ‘the U.S. government to declare the United States a Christian nation….’” There is some encouragement in this, but it doesn’t change the fact that sixty-one percent of Republicans said they favor “the United States officially declaring the United States to be a Christian nation” (The Religious News Service and a University of Maryland poll). The rise of christian nationalism (I can’t bear to capitalize either word), is the blending of a particular and peculiar religious fervor with a political agenda. It is reaching a frightening level in our country. According to Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, “christian nationalism is the single biggest threat to America’s religious freedom.”

The most famous period in history when Christianity was declared a state religion resulted in the Crusades. Over a period of two hundred years in the high middle ages, millions of people were murdered for refusing to convert to Christianity.  The utter disconnect of this never ceases to blow my mind. Granted there were many other factors that contributed to the Crusades, but most of the time they were wrapped up in a “christian” box and tied with a very bloody bow.

Back to the present moment and the rise of christian nationalism. According to Tyler, “christian nationalism, (is) the anti-democratic notion that America is a nation by and for Christians alone. At its core, this idea threatens the principle of the separation of church and state and undermines the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It also leads to discrimination and, and at times violence, against religious minorities and the nonreligious.”

Enter the Supreme Court. Most of the Justices appear to be losing their collective mind. Gratefully there are still a few notable exceptions. The issue begins in the state court of New York, where under state law “private schools are responsible for providing students with an education that is substantially equivalent to what public schools are expected to provide.” The schools on the front line of the impending fight are yeshivas, conservative Jewish schools run by Hasidic communities (the most conservative Jews). The schools argue an exemption from the secular subjects of education because they are religious schools. The Supreme Court is likely to agree with them given some of their recent rulings on religious schools.

This puts the christian nationalist agenda and the potential for a High Court ruling on a collision course. We cannot claim the United States to be a Christian nation while giving special dispensations to religious schools from other traditions. I doubt an Islamic school would receive the same dispensation, but that is another blog for another day.

The point here is that while evangelical “christians” are pushing a christian nationalist agenda, another branch of government seems to be moving in the opposite direction. According to our political structure, the Supreme Court is the keeper of the Constitution. The establishment clause of the first amendment clearly states that the government cannot establish a state sanctioned religion. Neither can the state prevent the free exercise of religion.

A legal precedent set in 1971, Lemon v. Kturzman, states that the “…government can assist religion only if (1) the primary purpose of assistance is secular, (2) the assistance must neither promote nor inhibit religion, and (3) there is no excessive entanglement between church and state.”(United States Courts).  

It can be argued that by ruling in favor of the yeshivas, that the primary purpose of the ruling is not secular, but religious. It can be further argued that the assistance promotes religion and that there is excessive entanglement between church and state.

Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the likely ruling of the Supreme Court on this matter, there is a likelihood of conflict between the christian nationalists and the High Court. It further muddies the waters on the complex issue of the separation of church and state (which seems to be a rapidly eroding reality), increases the potential for violence among varying religious traditions and makes the rollback of civil rights for LGBTQI likely.

It’s easy to think that a bunch of obscure little schools in New York not wanting to teach reading, writing and ‘rithmitic has nothing to do with us, but nothing could be further from the truth. The lineup of smaller cases set precedents for larger cases. Larger cases are bound to collide with divergent political agendas in the realm of religious practice. What gets caught in the mix is the very essence of our Democracy. As the old saying goes, “if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”