Taliban American Style?
Image by Diana Vargas.
Most Americans vilify the Taliban and are horrified at the draconian rules they impose on every resident and organization,and especially their oppression of Afghani women and girls. So why are millions of freedom-loving Americans rushing to vote for candidates who plan to impose white Christian nationalism (WCN) on our country? Yes, Christianity and Islam have different religious doctrines and rituals, but a theocracy is a theocracy. Do Americans really want to live in a nation where a particular religious doctrine dictates the beliefs, behaviors, and status of every individual and group?
The WCN movement is imbedded in the Trump-Vance candidacy and complements and animates the authoritarianism and white supremacy of Project 2025. It passionately supports the myth that the United States was founded as a white Christian nationand must be restored this “original” state, where only white native-born Christians are “true” Americans. In fact, however, the “founding fathers” were a collection of atheists, Unitarians, Deists, and liberal (not evangelical) Protestants, and nowhere does the Constitution refer to God, the Bible, or the Ten Commandments.
However, these erroneous beliefs appeal to people who resent the changing racial and religious demographics of our country, and they are a driving force in the 2024 election. States with a strong WCN presence give us a preview of what our lives will be like if the WCN movement prevails.
In places like Texas, we see the tragic effects of the elimination of women’s reproductive rights. To maintain the myth that we are a white nation, Florida and other states have passed laws forbidding any mention of race or specific racial groups in schools and any efforts to racially diversify workplaces or educational institutions. Recently a college professor was told that she would be fired if she didn’t remove a poster of Martin Luther King (who was a Baptist preacher) that hung in her office. In support of straight white male supremacy, The WCN loyalists that now run New College in Florida recently threw the books accumulated by the Gender and Diversity Center into a dumpster.
The separation between church and state, a foundational American principle, has been erased with public school teachers forced to teach the Bible in Oklahoma; the Ten Commandments must be posted in public buildings in Louisiana. Book banning in schools and libraries is occurring across the country wherever WCN proponents have gained control of school boards and town and city councils. And if the WCN movement takes over our country, those restrictions may expand to other media. Many popular entertainers, shows, movies, and TV series portray and celebrate racial, sexual, and lifestyle diversity. These images are an anathema to the WCN idealization of (white) families with a breadwinning father and a stay-at-home mother and (biological) kids as the only acceptable foundation of our society.
Fitting into these narrow definitions of legitimacy and following draconian WCN rules will profoundly affect all aspects of our lives, from how we make basic life choices to whether or not we get a particular job. Most frightening of all, is the prospect that over 340 million Americans who have a wide range of religious beliefs and affiliations, including 25 percent that have no religious connections, will have to adhere to WCN rules. What economic, social, and physical pressures will be used to force all of us to abide by this draconian form of Christianity? Given that WCN proponents embrace authoritarianism and believe that white Christian men are free to use threats and violence to gain and maintain power, we have a lot to fear.
So here we are in the 21st century, a democratic country with a wide range of religious diversity and a long history of increasingly ensuring the rights of people of different races, creeds, genders, and abilities. Yet half of our fellow citizens are passionately supporting candidates who insist that all Americans be ruled by white Christian Nationalists who are only a small segment of people who identify as Christians. In contrast, many mainstream Protestant Christian churches (e.g., United Church of Christ, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist) proudly fly Black Lives Matter and Gay Pride flags and view WCN as a dangerous mockery of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Check out Christian groups like Faithful America that are vigorously warning about the threats of a WCN takeover.
So, if you and your friends think that white Christian nationalists will “save America,” take a hard look at their specific plans and consider how they will affect your life, your community, and every American. On November 5, vote for Harris and Walz and Democrats at local, state and federal levels to preserve our “unalienable Rights…[to] Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Dr. Patricia Ramsey is emeritus professor of psychology and education at Mount Holyoke.
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