Funny how this works. Jared Huffman, a Democrat from California, has been the only openly non-believing member of Congress for a while now. He leads something called the Congressional Freethought Caucus. He wrote a whole piece thanking Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for flying that “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his beach house, because at least somebody on the far right had the decency to show the whole country what they’re really up to. And for years, nobody in the press cared.
Now Huffman has a book out saying the separation of church and state is in grave danger, and suddenly it’s a New York Times story. Ask yourself: what changed? Not the threat. That’s been building for decades. What changed is that the establishment finally can’t pretend it isn’t happening.
US Government (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsHere’s what Huffman has been saying, on the record, from his own office. Christian nationalism was at the heart of January 6. “Appeal to Heaven” flags everywhere. Christian nationalist pastors feeding rioters prophecies about God ordaining Trump. Experts who studied the religious dimension of that day confirm it wasn’t a sideshow. It was the engine. And yet the January 6 Committee, which produced a 154-page report, said nothing about it. Nothing. Liz Cheney, supposedly the conscience of the Republican Party, pulled punches because her own religious feelings made her squeamish. Adam Kinzinger was honest enough to say that without the prophecies about Trump being chosen by God, January 6 probably wouldn’t have happened the way it did. But that didn’t make the report.
Ask yourself who benefits from a 154-page report that leaves out the actual motive.
Huffman names names. He says House Speaker Mike Johnson embraces Seven Mountains Mandate theology, which is not some fringe thing you find on a pamphlet at a truck stop. It’s a blueprint for Christian dominance over every institution in society: government, courts, schools, media, family. Huffman says he has “dozens” of colleagues in Congress who buy into it. Dozens. And the Alabama Supreme Court justice who declared frozen IVF embryos to be “people” and proclaimed the United States a “Christian nation”? Not an outlier, Huffman says. There are Christian nationalist judges at every level of the judiciary.
White House photo by Kimberlee Hewitt (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsBut sure, let’s keep calling it fringe.
Nearly a quarter of Americans identify as nontheistic or religiously unaffiliated. Congress is overwhelmingly Christian. One guy out of 535 admits he doesn’t buy it, and he’s treated like a curiosity. The rest fall over each other to prove how pious they are while they gut the Establishment Clause and hand the courts to people who think the Constitution is a suggestion and the Bible is the law.
Jason Knauer (CC BY 3.0) via Wikimedia CommonsAlito flies a Christian nationalist flag at his house and stays on the bench. He writes opinions forcing states to fund religious schools, letting corporations deny women healthcare on religious grounds, and overturning Roe. Pastor Dutch Sheets, the guy who resurrected that flag, claims his prayers created the Supreme Court vacancies that Alito and Roberts filled. Alito has “answered Christian nationalists’ prayers,” in Huffman’s words. And the response from the institutions that are supposed to police this? Silence. Recusal demands that go nowhere. A media that treats each scandal as a one-day story.
Huffman’s book says the wall between church and state is in grave danger. That’s not alarmism. That’s a guy standing inside the building watching the walls come down and telling you what he sees. The question isn’t whether he’s right. The question is why it took this long for anyone to listen.
When the theocrats tell you what they’re doing, believe them. They’re not hiding it anymore. They don’t have to.