BAPTIST NEWS GLOBAL: Christian nationalism drives voter suppression efforts, panelists warn
BY JEFF BRUMLEY, BAPTIST NEWS GLOBAL— SEPTEMBER 27, 2024
Any effort to suppress voter participation is a direct outgrowth of Christian nationalism, a panel of experts said during a Sept. 24 webinar hosted by Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and its Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign.
More than ever before, supporters of religious freedom and the separation of church and state must work together to protect democracy and all Americans’ right to vote because it impacts everyone, said Sabrina Dent, director of the BJC Center for Faith, Justice and Reconciliation.
“Religion should never be used as a weapon to discriminate against any group of individuals or individual because of how they identify, who they love, what they believe or don’t believe, or how they make decisions about their personal health care options,” she said. “Nor should religious ideologies be used to challenge a person’s ability to fully participate in our democracy by restricting voting rights.”
BJC defines Christian nationalism as a political ideology and cultural framework that seeks to conflate American and Christian identities and distorts both in the process, said Jaziah Masters, research fellow with the center and moderator of “Combating Christian Nationalism and Voter Suppression: A Fight to Save Democracy.”
The extremist movement “holds that to be a true American, one must be a Christian, but that Christian identity is tied to and provides cover for privilege, white supremacy and racial subjugation,” he said.
And it is the motivation for nationwide efforts to discourage or prevent millions of Americans from voting for candidates unsupported by Christian nationalists, Masters added. “But the public square is made up of all of us, and voting is a key way we engage the public square. It allows us to elect representatives of many interests and to hold our elected officials accountable.”
