LETTER: Christian nationalism is serving as a blasphemous alternative
Editor, Register-Mail: America is indeed at a crucial inflection-point. WE must AWAKEN and face this melding of QAnon and MAGA forces dangerously morphing into a strange Christian nationalist movement taking shape in our nation. 'Q', anonymous online "conspiracy-prophet," began in 2016, telling followers that JFK and JFK Jr. were still alive, and that Bill and Hillary Clinton were running a child-sex ring from a Washington D.C. pizza parlor basement, which led a crazed gunman to terrorize the business in his attempt to self-investigate the supposed rumors.
The once merely wacky conspiracy group is now a huge lunatic-fringe political movement, as religious dissidents join with the folks in dire need of mental health services to praise their self-proclaimed savior Donald John Trump.
Trump's SAVE AMERICA rally in Ohio on Sept. 17, looked more like a megachurch service, with praise, song, chanting, as the attendees swayed in unison to the QAnon theme-song playing, their right arms lifted to the sky, their index fingers pointing to the heavens, signifying "One .... where we go one, we go all."
Trump's fundraising machine, Save America, is backing many state-wide and federal GOP candidates, who along with many pastors are telling people that to vote wrong is to be unfaithful to God. One pastor, Mark Burns, at a rally in Post Falls, Idaho, said, "I'm coming to declare war on every demonic, demon-possessed Democrat that comes from the gates of Hell!" As many churches are at an all-time low for attendance, this Christian nationalism is serving as a blasphemous alternative for people's need to express their fervor for something. History has witnessed this kind of misplaced fervor before, with the brown-shirts hailing Hitler as their savior. That Christo-fascist movement ended with the deaths of nearly 80 million human beings!
Political rallies are serving as megachurch services for multitudes. I suggest you read, "Donald Trump's bizarre altar call in Ohio," by Rev. Nathan Empsall, Episcopal priest, (CBS news online, Sept. 20). Rev. Empsall said, "Instead of worshipping the divine, crowds are heralding the malign, with Donald Trump's hateful intentionally divisive politics, which is leading to real-life violence. Under Christo-fascism, the only thing that matters is that conservative Christian leaders and their allies hold power. There is need neither for democracy nor for equal rights."
A south Texas evangelical church pastor has given a church office, to 'first Mexican-born immigrant, GOP, U.S. Congresswoman', Mayra Flores, to proselytize her message from, in her re-election bid in November. Her campaign poster reads, "Make America Godly Again," MAGA. — Trish Forsyth Voss, Victoria
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Christian nationalism is serving as a blasphemous alternative
