Jerry Newcombe
The smear of 'Christian nationalism'
FacebookTwitter
By Jerry Newcombe
March 8, 2024

It seems like everyone is talking these days about Rob Reiner’s hit job movie against the religious right, "God & Country." It makes “Christian nationalists” into the bogeyman. Although I travel in the circles of Christian conservatives, I have yet to meet anyone who has actually seen Reiner’s movie. But I have seen a trailer for it.

The thesis of the movie is that “Christian nationalists” are bad and are trying to take over the nation and turn it into something it was never intended to be.

Commentator Heidi Przybyla of Politico even told a panel on MSNBC that anyone who believes our rights are derived from God is a “Christian nationalist.”

She said, “The thing that unites them as Christian nationalists, not Christians, because Christian nationalists are very different, is that they believe that our rights as Americans and as human beings do not come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress, from the Supreme Court, they come from God.”

Furthermore, in a tweet, Przybyla wrote: “While there are different wings of Christian nationalism, they are bound by their belief that our rights come from God.”

And what’s wrong with that? Is that not exactly what the founding fathers and the settlers of America have said, as well as American leaders?

The essence of the American experiment is self-rule under God.

One famous American said, "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”

Who was this sneaky American trying to impose Christian nationalism on an unsuspecting populace? It was Thomas Jefferson. Those words are chiseled in stone at the memorial in Washington D.C. dedicated to his memory.

Another man said that we must remember the beliefs of this nation’s founders: “And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”

Who said that? D. James Kennedy, my long-time mentor?

No, actually, it was John F. Kennedy. That’s a quote from his Inaugural Address in 1961.

One American had the temerity to actually assert that America and belief in God go hand-in-hand. He declared, "Without God, there could be no American form of Government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first—the most basic— expression of Americanism. Thus the Founding Fathers saw it, and thus, with God's help, it will continue to be."

Who was that? Jerry Falwell? No, that was President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

One famous American said that what we need so desperately today is a spiritual revival. Here are his own words: “No greater thing could come to our land today than a revival of the spirit of religion—a revival that would sweep through the homes of the Nation and stir the hearts of men and women of all faiths to a reassertion of their belief in God and their dedication to His will for themselves and for their world.”

Was this a recent message from Franklin Graham or his late father, Billy Graham?

No, this was a comment from that icon of the left, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

One famous American observed that without God’s help, a nation will not be blessed.

This is how he worded it: “it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

The very last part of that quote is from Psalm 33. And the speaker’s hearers knew that because most of them were biblically literate, as was he.

In this quote, this Christian nationalist (by the new definition) is saying that a nation is blessed only when it belongs to the God of the Bible.

Who was it? Those are words from President Abraham Lincoln, calling on the nation to fast and pray and ask for God’s mercy.

The only way the elite class can get away with trying to impose state-sanctioned atheism on a land that was secured on the foundation of God-given rights is when we the people forget that God is indeed the source of our rights, not the government. Or when we become so fearful of a made-up label like “Christian nationalism” that we go mute in the face of a little name-calling.

© Jerry Newcombe

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)

Click to enlarge

Jerry Newcombe

Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., is the executive director of the Providence Forum, an outreach of D. James Kennedy Ministries, where Jerry also serves as senior producer and an on-air host. He has written/co-written 33 books, including George Washington's Sacred Fire (with Providence Forum founder Peter Lillback, Ph.D.) and What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (with D. James Kennedy, Ph.D.). www.djkm.org @newcombejerry www.jerrynewcombe.com

Subscribe

Receive future articles by Jerry Newcombe: Click here

More by this author

 

Stephen Stone
HAPPY EASTER: A message to all who love our country and want to help save it

Stephen Stone
The most egregious lies Evan McMullin and the media have told about Sen. Mike Lee

Siena Hoefling
Protect the Children: Update with VIDEO

Stephen Stone
FLASHBACK to 2020: Dems' fake claim that Trump and Utah congressional hopeful Burgess Owens want 'renewed nuclear testing' blows up when examined

Michael Bresciani
‘That’s misinformation’ – The Left’s standby excuse for everything devious, dishonest, and demonic

Cliff Kincaid
Maryland sheriff warns of terror cells in America

Stone Washington
Book review: The innovative efficiency and competitive dynamism of biotechnology

Jerry Newcombe
Reading the Bible and human flourishing

Linda Goudsmit
CHAPTER 39: Cognitive Warfare and the Battle for Your Brain

Joan Swirsky
Heads up, liberal Jews––Don’t be Jews with trembling knees

Frank Louis
No pain, no gain: At least Mike Pence isn’t in the copilot seat moving forward

Robert Meyer
The real reason the elites loathe Trump

Paul Cameron
What can experts cure or prevent?

Cliff Kincaid
Christians mobilize to save America and the world

Pete Riehm
Hurricane Helene exposes incompetent, inefficient, uncaring bloated bureaucracy

Frank Louis
Do the math folks, opulence is not the answer, nor is FEMA
  More columns

Cartoons


Click for full cartoon
More cartoons

Columnists

Matt C. Abbott
Chris Adamo
Russ J. Alan
Bonnie Alba
Chuck Baldwin
Kevin J. Banet
J. Matt Barber
Fr. Tom Bartolomeo
. . .
[See more]

Sister sites