Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump and other pols battening on Christian nationalism should be understood as subverting Christianity and sanctifying conservative culture. The hatred they promote is dangerous and totally secular.
While reading about Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s latest “owning the libs” stunt of dumping immigrants on Martha’s Vineyard even as his fans hail him as a champion of Christianity, something broke inside me. As an observant Christian, I not only can but feel I must accept as fellow members of the body of Christ all sorts of people whose specific beliefs, worship practices, and interpretations of their faith leave me bewildered or unhappy. And I’ve tried to be consistent: Even as I’ve chastised religious conservatives for treating themselves as the only “real” Christians, I’ve chastised religious progressives for trying to replace one self-righteous set of claims on the Gospel with another. I even try to understand those whose tenacious belief that 1950s white patriarchal American culture was and remains holy has led them to support neo-pagan warlords like Donald Trump for reactionary efforts to put equality in its many dangerous forms back in a bottle.
What I cannot cope with is allegedly Christian people wallowing in hate. And as Jonathan V. Last pungently points out, unlike Trump, DeSantis professes to be a follower of the prince of peace even as he preaches constant cultural warfare:
Conservative Christians (not all of them, but some of them) dehumanizing their many perceived enemies has become so common that cries of anguish from within the ranks of evangelical Protestantism itself are become more pointed every day.
