OPINION

Longacre: Christian nationalism is ‘dictatorship usurping power’

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Christian nationalism sees Donald Trump as chosen by God to deliver its followers’ agenda. It is an organization that is neither Christian nor Democratic. Instead, it is a form of theocracy or, more accurately, a dictatorship usurping power in the name of Christ.

Let’s cut to the chase. Christ is on record promoting love over power. The devil offered him power over all principalities on Earth, and he rejected it (Luke 4:8). Christ told us that our job is simply to love God with every sinew of our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:27), where neighbor is defined as anyone in need (Luke 10:30-37). In addition, there is his statement in Matthew where he makes his preferences even clearer: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in” (25:35).

One could argue that our democratic republic was invented as a way of avoiding systems of power like Christian nationalism. Our forefathers were not naive. They had seen it all before. They desperately wanted to avoid any attempt of one group or person to “lord” it over another, as monarchies and their ilk had done for centuries. The best way to avoid this was, very simply, to have the people decide who their leaders would be — a government of the people, by the people and for the people — and to have a clear separation of church and state.

Christian nationalists deny that this separation was the founders’ intent. They, like Trump, lie whenever the truth is inconvenient. Here is what the First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Frederick Longacre

Hockessin

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