From Texas and Iowa to Arkansas, faith leaders are wading into politics to counter the rise of Christian nationalism
“But I also think the stereotypes of Republicans being pro-faith are bullshit too. We’re seeing a current administration bastardise faith almost every day. They used the Lord’s Prayer in a propaganda video for what they’re now calling the Department of War. That should have had every single evangelical’s bells and whistles and alarms going off in their head: this is sacrilegious.”
White clergy are deciding to run for office, Ryerse believes, in part as a response to the rise of Christian nationalism and the reality that, according to a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey, Trump won 85% of the white evangelical vote in last year’s presidential election.
Ryerse said: “We realise, hey, our churches and the people in our churches have been duped by this guy and so rather than hope someone else will clean up the problem, what we’ve seen is a lot of pastors respond with, you know what, I’m going to jump in and I’m going to be a part of the solution.
Part of the problem that we have in this country, is that this idea of “Separation of Church and State” (which I quote because it’s a joke now), is dead. I don’t care if you’re a running pastor who aligns themselves with Democrat. Democrat or Republican or Independent, your religious beliefs have NO place in governing everyone else’s lives. Especially lives of those that do not believe what you believe.
We’ve suffered enough of that shit and we’re suffering it now.