Several Christian groups have fired back at Politico after one of its writers recently disparaged the Christian faith.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Brian Burch of Catholic Vote slammed Politico national investigative correspondent Heidi Przybyla’s “disqualifying lack of knowledge of the United States of America’s founding documents and a profoundly prejudicial view toward American religious groups.”
The letter was in response to Przybyla’s viral remarks on MSNBC bashing “Christian nationalists.”
“The thing that unites them as Christian nationalists — not Christians, by the way, because Christian nationalist is very different — is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority,” she said. “They don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court. They come from God. The problem with that is that they are determining — man, men, it is men are determining what God is telling them,”
Perkins and Burch knocked Przybyla for not acknowledging “our own republic was founded on the belief that our rights come from God, not earthly kings or government,” citing the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration states: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
“As a national investigative correspondent for Politico, Ms. Przybyla is charged with reporting accurately on American government, politics and law,” the letter said. “It is deeply disturbing, therefore, that she appeared unaware of the opening of the Declaration of Independence or to its references of ‘the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.’
“Equally concerning is Ms. Przybyla’s smearing of the Christian faith reflected in her comments. Her statements constituted an attempt to spread misinformation about Christians by creating the perception that they hold unique beliefs that pose a distinct and, in her words ‘extremist,’ threat to our country.”
Przybyla earlier cowrote a report saying that top allies of former President Trump are ready to “infuse” Christian nationalism into a second administration if he’s elected, spearheaded by Russell Vought, his former White House budget director and current president of the conservative think tank Center for Renewing America.
The term “Christian Nationalist” was originally devised by secularists and national media to “smear against conservative Christians who defend the role of religion in American public life,” according to the Heritage Foundation.
The organization goes on to say that the term’s “lack of standard definition allows critics to bundle evils like white supremacy and racism with standard conservative views on marriage, family, and politics.”
Gillian Simons, Simon Center for American Studies, writes that if the term Christian nationalism “referred to those who endorse the integration of church and state power, racism, and white supremacy, then we should reject it. But not one national figure endorses that platform. The term, as used in the media, is mostly a rhetorical tool to smear and silence conservatives.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
