A Christian Nationalist Blitz

[DonViejo]

By Katherine Stewart

Ms. Stewart is the author of “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children.”

May 26, 2018

America’s Christian nationalists have a new plan for advancing their legislative goals in state capitols across the country. Its stated aim is to promote “religious freedom.” Not shy, they call it “Project Blitz.”

“Blitz” accurately describes the spirit of the enterprise, but the mission has little to do with what most Americans would call religious freedom. This is just the latest attempt by religious extremists to use the coercive powers of government to secure a privileged position in society for their version of Christianity.

The idea behind Project Blitz is to overwhelm state legislatures with bills based on centrally manufactured legislation. “It’s kind of like whack-a-mole for the other side; it’ll drive ‘em crazy that they’ll have to divide their resources out in opposing this,” David Barton, the Christian nationalist historian and one of four members of Project Blitz’s “steering team,” said in a conference call with state legislators from around the country that was later made public.

According to research provided by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, more than 70 bills before state legislatures appear to be based on Project Blitz templates or have similar objectives. Some of the bills are progressing rapidly. An Oklahoma measure, which has passed the legislature and is awaiting the governor’s signature, allows adoption and foster care agencies to discriminate on the basis of their own religious beliefs. Others, such as a Minnesota bill that would allow public schools to post “In God We Trust” signs on their walls, have provoked hostile debates in local and national media, which is in many cases the point of the exercise.

“ ‘Project Blitz’ Seeks to Do for Christian Nationalism What ALEC Does for Big Business,” reads the headline of a recent piece Frederick Clarkson wrote for Religion Dispatches that highlighted the danger. ALEC, of course, is the corporate lobbying group that crafts and promotes model legislation advancing business interests.

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/26/opinion/project-blitz-christian-nationalists.html

[kchamberlin25]

1. And they'll know we are Christians by our hate, by our hate

And they'll know we are Christians by our haaaaaate!

[mountain grammy]

2. Just read this story in The Guardian about this

came here to post it and searched and found your post. Guess I missed it. Here's the Guardian link. We're screwed.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/04/project-blitz-the-legislative-assault-by-christian-nationalists-to-reshape-america

Clarkson, whose research first highlighted Project Blitz, said: “It’s a Christian supremacist agenda, the idea that God intended and mandates Christians to lead and control the United States for the religious vision that they hold and the policy implications that flow from it.

“If you are a more liberal Christian , a Jew or a Muslim or a non-believer of any sort, or whatever you happen to be, you’re a second class citizen at best.

[Initech]

3. These are the kind of people that made me glad that I left organized religion.

Fuck Christian nationalists and supremacists.

[Achilleaze]

4. So they chose a frikken Nazi name for their attack on America?

Get thee behind, me, ideo-pervo KGOP republican FAKE christians

[Hortensis]

5. Blitzkrieg religious war. They should have tried this sooner.

It's not that they won't have some victories, but elections this spring are defeating and even unseating right-wing extremists in favor of moderation. And this is an electoral effect of something we've already been seeing: religious right denominations have been losing power and influence increasingly for a few years now as more and more people leave organized religion.

The bad side of this, of course, is that many of those latter have made political partisanship a substitute that they've thrown themselves into with religious commitment and zealotry. They will still vote for what they deplored it's a choice on the ballot associated with an R.