Christian Nationalism and the great liberal smokescreen

Every week, as if on cue, the media stirs up another bout of hysteria over the so-called threat of “Christian nationalism.”

The most recent instance of this coordinated hatchet job is political strategist James Carville’s assertion that House Speaker Mike Johnson is more dangerous than the Islamists who perpetrated the September 11 terrorist attacks.  

In an interview on Bill Maher’s HBO program, Carville claimed that “Mike Johnson and what he believes is one of the greatest threats we have today to the United States.”

“You’re talking about Christian nationalists,” asked Maher, to which Carville replied,

“Absolutely. This is a bigger threat than al-Qaeda to this country.”

As we’ve previously highlighted, the “Christian nationalism” charge aims to muzzle conservative Christian voices in the public square, painting us as some sort of authoritarian bogeyman with a lust for violence.

The irony is thick, coming from the Left, a faction that hasn’t met a light bulb, gas stove, dishwasher, combustion engine, healthcare plan or cow fart they didn’t want to control, and whose elites have repeatedly gawked at unabashedly despotic regimes, from Cuba to China.

While conservatives strive to shrink the federal government’s overreach, championing individual freedom over central planning, the Left seems hellbent on expanding it, demanding statist solutions for every societal problem.

Yes, there’s an authoritarian concern, but it’s not emanating from the Right, and certainly not from the Christian Right, which largely advocates for a return to constitutional limitations on the federal government, a move that would vaporize 90% of government jobs overnight.

But let’s park that issue for another day.

The great liberal smokescreen is this: While leftists like James Carville are busy decrying the “threat” of supposed Christian Nationalism, our urban landscapes are crumbling under the weight of rampant crime and disorder, thanks to left-wing policies.

The real danger to our republic is not from devoted Christians engaged in the political process, but rather from the swift unraveling of social cohesion — a trend promoted and fostered by secular progressives. 

Case in point: Businesses located near the intersection where George Floyd died have filed a lawsuit accusing Minneapolis and Mayor Jacob Frey of abdicating the city’s legal duty to “provide police protection,” thereby allowing the place to devolve into a “hub for violent crime.”

According to the lawsuit, “criminals know the area lacks” a law enforcement presence and has been dubbed a “No Go Zone” — for cops.

What transpired next should shock no one:

• “On August 14, 2022, one person was killed, and another person was severely injured in a shooting,” while just a week prior, a separate individual, Mohamed A. Omar, was also gunned down.

• “On July 5, 2020, a man shot and killed” a 27-year-old female and her unborn child. 

• “On March 6, 2021, a man shot and killed” a prominent community figure “in broad daylight.”

• “On one occasion, a tenant at one of Plaintiffs’ businesses was hospitalized after being shot and brutally assaulted just outside the property. The assault led to the tenant and all other tenants on the property to vacate the premises, causing Plaintiff severe economic injury.”

Oh, and let’s not forget about the incident on March 10, 2022, where “three suspects kidnapped a guy and took him to an abandoned gas station” before they reportedly “assaulted the man and tried to rob him.”  

The area grew so dangerous that one business owner told the local news that when he comes into work each day, “I don’t know if I’m going home.”

Tragically, his fear wasn’t unfounded.

In 2020, a staggering 700 gunshots were “detected” around George Floyd Square — nearly a 2,000% increase compared to just 34 shots the previous year.

The plaintiffs are seeking $1.5 million in compensation to cover their financial losses after Minneapolis descended into chaos.

The exponential rise in violence in left-wing cities over the last few years is a stark reminder that progressive priorities have an undeniable human cost — along with a high body count.

Yet liberals gloss over the nightly mayhem they enabled following Floyd’s death, fixating instead on the mostly peaceful protests of January 6.

Don’t buy into the misdirection.

People like Mike Johnson, maligned by the Left as “Christian nationalists,” never championed abolishing police or stripping their resources.

They didn’t embolden BLM agitators and Antifa foot soldiers to immolate neighborhoods, wreaking billions in damages.

Mike Johnson and allies never condoned looting as “reparations.”

They didn’t cultivate an anarchist “autonomous zone” in Seattle that ultimately claimed two lives.

They never rescinded bail requirements and unleashed repeat offenders to victimize innocents.

Unlike the Left, they didn’t trump up dubious legal crusades to imprison political foes.

And they certainly never smeared the Founding Fathers as bigots or defaced historic monuments.

There is a “threat” to America, all right, but it isn’t coming from the side that believes one of the only legitimate purposes of civil government is to maintain a civil society.

The real danger lurks within the ranks of those who view America’s institutions and values as oppressive relics, ripe for demolition and reimagining.

So, if folks like James Carville truly fear “threats” to constitutional norms, they should turn towards their ideological kin.

But they won’t.

And that’s because their discomfort lies not in potential violence per se, but in the genteel defiance of those like Mike Johnson who won’t abandon their biblical convictions on Capitol Hill.

In this sense, Johnson is indeed a threat — not to America but to the progressive agenda that seeks to erase every vestige of faith from our nation’s Christian heritage.

That’s the real reason liberals seem to be whining even more these days.

Originally published at the Standing for Freedom Center.