Who Gets To Be Christian Now

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At last Thursday’s totally constitutional and not at all problematic (please detect the sarcasm here) National Prayer Breakfast, Donald Trump announced the formation of a Justice Department taskforce to eliminate “anti-Christian bias” in the federal government.

Citing prison sentences for pro forced birth protesters (who had forced themselves into a clinic and hoarded fetuses, to name a few things), the classification of the “rad-trad” Catholic movement as a risk for domestic terrorism (the FBI rescinded the leaked document immediately, and investigated one guy that they described as exhibiting “unusual” and “concerning” behavior), and general civil rights protections – namely for LGBTQIA+ people – that don’t align with the most conservative of Christian theologies (that courts continually provide exemptions for), Trump claimed that Christian values in this country are under attack, and that it was necessary for religious liberty that these “biases” be eliminated.

Is anyone really that surprised by this? Of course not. Trump has been aligning himself with the most extreme, conservative branches of Christianity in the United States for years now.

But for those of us who have been paying attention, there is a certain level of irony. It might be hard to remember considering time is feeling increasingly fake, but over the past few weeks, large swaths of American Christians have been directly targeted by the Trump administration for acting in accordance with their faith. A group of Quaker Meetings is suing the administration over the rescinding of a rule preventing ICE from conducting raids in “sensitive” spaces like churches and schools. The Mormon church and Southern Baptist Convention both also spoke out in opposition, noting that the policy shift would cause immigrants to be fearful to attend their normal services. At the (again totally not at all problematic) Inaugural Prayer Service, the Trump administration and its disciples of MAGA were so offended by Episcopalian Bishop Mariann Budde’s call for mercy in line with the teachings of the Gospel that Trump personally singled her out on social media, and members of Congress drafted a resolution condemning her. The attack on DEI policies led an affinity group for Christian employees in the State Department to temporarily disband. In his many attacks on government spending, Elon Musk accused the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) of illegal activity for their refugee resettlement activities, which was echoed by Vice President J.D. Vance in comments made about similar programs run by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Musk’s attack on USAID also directly impacted Christian aid providers, who are the biggest recipient of USAID grant money.

Any Christian of any stripe with even a base level of understanding will tell you that the central reason Christian organizations do any type of work to assist immigrants, refugees, the poor, and the sick is because it is one of the very few clear, express directions found in the Gospels. Jesus was pretty clear on the topic, as were the leaders and prophets of the Old Testament. There are at least twenty-two references to caring for immigrants/strangers throughout the Bible (give or take depending on what translation you’re using), and “hospitality” was one of the most important virtues in the ancient Mediterranean world, causing it to come up time and time again.

So it begs the question: what counts as an attack on Christian beliefs?

Hot Take Alert, but Christianity is not a monolith. There is very little that actually unites Christians, beyond a general belief in Jesus. That’s pretty much it. Different denominations have different overlaps with each other. Everything from the nature of the Eucharist to what type of music is acceptable during worship has been debated for centuries. Even within individual denominations there can be a wide range of opinions on significant theological questions. I was raised as a post Vatican II, social Gospel, liberation theology, Rosemary Radford Reuther reading, pro-choice, pro-dissent cradle Catholic, an upbringing that has radically shaped who I am as a person. Compare that to the theologies held by “radical traditionalist” Catholics (like Vice President J.D. Vance), who believe that values like compassion and mercy are “weak” and against the teachings of the Church. Schisms and the founding of new denominations happen all the time. If you’re going to attempt to create a task force to end “anti-Christian bias” you first have to decide what side of hundreds of theological debates you are going to land on.

Unsurprisingly, it seems that the Trump administration has decided that the answer is “whatever side is most likely to replace God with Trump.” They can’t even manage consistent theological opinions. Before the ink could even dry on condemnations of Bishop Budde justified by claims that women shouldn’t be permitted to preach, Trump’s supporters are celebrating the appointment of Pastor Paula White to head up the White House Faith office.

This claim that conservative Christians are being “persecuted,” particularly by advances in civil rights protections, is nothing new. It’s common for conservative Christians, especially those in fundamentalist/evangelical circles that tend to isolate themselves from the broader world to learn from childhood that they will be relentlessly mocked and violently harrassed for “daring” to be Christian. Look no further than the “God’s Not Dead” movies (of which there are somehow five???) if you don’t believe me.

American Christian conservatives have viewed everything from the abolition of slavery to transgender 9 year olds playing soccer as a critical attack on their values and way of life. They take Bible verses about Roman persecution of Christians and ironically attempt to apply them to a modern world where they have more in common with the Romans than those early Christians, all so they don’t have to deal with even thinking about people who are different from them.

In the past, while these groups of conservative Christians have certainly held considerable political and cultural power, many of our institutions paid heed to the general support for the expansion of civil rights. While the fight was difficult, the government usually found its way to eventually respecting that under the First Amendment, one set of theological opinions cannot be permitted to trump secular law for the entire country. Now, though, we have a group of Christians in government that have no regard for the law, the history of this country, or their neighbors. They won’t try to find sneaky ways around the religion clauses, like recharacterizing their free exercise claims as “speech.” Instead they are going to attempt to redefine the entirety of the First Amendment to only protect the theological opinions that they agree with, and there will be no clever tactics behind it. I truly believe in this area we are past political gamesmanship and strategy from the Christian right. They’ve traded their scalpels for shotguns and are going to do as much damage as they can as quickly as they can.

The results of this are going to be disastrous for anyone who cares about religious liberty, social safety nets, civil rights, or who simply does not want to live under the thumb of White Nationalist Christian Fundamentalism.

Even Christians who may have thought their rights were safe because they aligned themselves with the Christian nationalist movement are beginning to see their mistake. I’ve been yelling since I was a teenager that Catholics working with these groups makes no sense, when historically these same groups have believed Catholics to be “pagans” and “devil worshipers.” Anyone with a basic knowledge of the history of religion in American politics could have predicted that they’d turn right around and start going after Catholics for being the “wrong kind of Christian.” And now we’re seeing that come to pass with the attacks on Catholic immigration and refugee services.

Let me be clear that Christians of any denomination are not the ones currently at the greatest risk, at least, not for being Christian alone. Our minority religion and non believing siblings are at far greater risk right now in terms of faith based violence, discrimination, and bigotry. Queer people, people of color, disabled people, immigrants, poor people, and other marginalized groups are in critical danger right now regardless of their individual religious beliefs, or lack thereof. But the government narrowly defining Christianity should be seen as a major cause for concern for multiple reasons.

First and foremost, the government has absolutely zero business making theological statements on any faith. The very basic idea behind the religion clauses of the First Amendment makes clear that the government is meant to be a complete, and wholly separate entity from any theological body. This is significantly different from government agencies identifying extremist groups, which typically share secular characteristics that make them recognizable regardless of their religious origins– these are purely theological choices. There is no State Church, and no government official, not Donald Trump, not Paula White, and certainly not Elon Musk, has any authority to determine which theologies are and are not authentically Christian.

Second, the government is clearly moving to create a legal and theological hierarchy, in line with the classic formation of a fascist regime. I’ve said it over and over again, but at its core, fascism is both characterized by and relies upon social and political hierarchies. By singling out a particular theology in need of special government protection, the Trump administration is creating an upper class of Christians whose preferences override the rights of everyone else. Conversely, it also creates a clear underclass of progressive Christians, followed by an even further underclass of literally any other set of beliefs, who the government will expect to bend and scrape and compromise their own beliefs for the benefit of the upper echelon of believers.

I want to emphasize that none of this is normal, and that if we are going to stop this from going much further, we cannot succumb to normalcy bias. This is not how a functional democracy works. This is not something that we can simply wait out for four years. This is a situation that requires sustained, direct, organized action, in which everyone understands their role and plays their part.

We all need to make sure that we are not simply accepting this definition of “Christian” and letting the right control the narrative.

For my fellow progressive Christians, we have a responsibility to be clear and vocal dissenters to prevent the government’s definition of “Christian” from becoming a social norm. We have a responsibility not only to stand up to these beliefs in the government, but within our own denominations, churches, and community spaces. We also have the responsibility to take on the bulk of the labor, not only because we have the numbers, but also because as much as we might want to discredit Christian nationalists as not being “true Christians” they still come from our same faith traditions, and we are still accountable for them. Remember that the answer to “am I my brother’s keeper” was always “yes,” and we have an infinite amount of work to do.

To that end, if you are somehow a conservative Christian who has made their way to my blog and is reconsidering what you’ve been supporting, know that it is never too late to turn your back on Christian nationalism and the devastating harm it’s causing. It’s difficult, and repairing the harm you’ve contributed to will take work and effort, but it is beyond worth it.

For my non-Christian siblings, I can only ask that you give the Christians that aren’t attempting to turn the United States into a Christo-fascist dictatorship the opportunity to prove ourselves and collaborators. You have every right and reason not to trust us point blank, but if we are going to fight a government that wants to eliminate all dissent and place everyone into its predetermined boxes, then we all need the opportunity to defy those boxes. We can successfully work together to reestablish what the norm is and should be for interfaith collaboration and what it means to live in a pluralistic society. And I know this because I have worked in all sorts of religious and irreligious settings. We have more in common than we do different, and recognizing that will be the key to resisting Christian Authoritarianism.

We have a long road ahead of us. This won’t be the last attack on religious liberty the Trump administration engages in in the coming years. But if we can find a way to come together and fight this attempt to create a new “normal” that is anything but, we can do more than survive this, we can build something better.

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Kat (they/them) is a queer lawyer, activist, and theorist focusing on the intersections of law, queerness, religion, and politics, with the occasional bit of theology, political theory, and legal theory thrown in for good measure. Originally from rural southern Indiana, Kat earned their B.A. in Political Science in 2019 before continuing on to earn their J.D. in 2022, both from Indiana University- Bloomington. A former Equal Justice Works Fellow for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Kat has spent their professional career fighting for the separation of church and state and LGBTQIA+ rights. Outside of work you can find them at a ballet or contemporary dance class, sipping on dirty shirleys at their local gay bar, or playing video games with their cat, Merlin.