[Civic-Citizens] Against Christian Nationalism

  My comments on the statement found online at:

https://www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org/statement

[Civic-Citizens] Against Christian Nationalism

As Christians [and civic-citizens[i]], our faith teaches us everyone is created in [the-[ii]]God’s image and commands us to love each other  [appreciate[iii] the living species and this world[iv]]. As Americans, we value our system of government [domestic-self-discipline[v]] and the good that can be accomplished in our constitutional democracy [republic[vi]]. Today, we are concerned about a persistent threat to both our[vii] U.S. religious communities and our democracy republic — [the threat is] Christian nationalism.

Christian nationalism seeks to merge [a factional] Christian and [the] American identities, distorting both the Christian faith[s[viii]] and America’s constitutional democracy. Christian nationalism demands [nationalism-] Christianity be privileged by the State and implies that to be a good American, one must be [a nationalism-]Christian. It often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy[,] and racial subjugation[, and religious submission]. We reject this damaging political ideology and invite our Christian brothers and sisters [the entity We the People of the United States] to join us in opposing this threat to our faith[s] and to our nation [“to ourselves and our Posterity”, quoting the preamble].

As Christians [and civic-citizens], we are bound to Christ [the-God], not by citizenship, but by faith, [pursued in personal-privacy]. We believe [assert] that:

• People of all faiths and none have the right and responsibility [self-necessity& justice] to engage constructively in the public square.
• Patriotism does not require us [fellow-citizens] to minimize our [their] religious convictions.
• One’s religious affiliation, or lack thereof, should be irrelevant to one’s standing in the civic community. [On the other hand, spiritual inspiration to civic-integrity is appreciated by non-spiritual fellow-citizens.]
• Government should not prefer one religion over another or religion over [or] nonreligion.
• Religious instruction is best left to our houses of worship, other religious institutions and families [adult-personal-privacy[ix]].
• America’s historic commitment to religious pluralism enables faith communities to live in civic harmony with one another without sacrificing our [their] theological convictions.
• Conflating religious authority with political authority is idolatrous tyranny [---] and often leads to oppression of minority and other marginalized groups [oppressing the fellow-citizen’s opportunity to develop humble-integrity] as well as the [churches’ opportunities to discover the-ineluctable-truth[x] and the state’s necessity to develop statutory justice].
• We  [Civic-citizens, that faction of We the People of the United States] must stand up to and speak out against Christian nationalism, especially when it inspires acts of violence and intimidation—including vandalism, bomb threats, arson, hate crimes, and attacks on houses of worship [spirituality]—against religious communities at home and abroad.

Whether we worship at a church, mosque, synagogue, or temple, [or simply reserve sufficient humility to the-God] America has no second-class faiths. All are equal under the U.S. Constitution. As Christians [and civic-citizens], we must speak in one voice condemning Christian nationalism as a distortion of the gospel of Jesus[‘ message] and a threat to American democracy.

 

[We think Jesus’ message is that humankind can independently provide order and prosperity to living species and to this world.]

[To this end, we propose and request your aid to amend the First Amendment to the United States Constitution so as to encourage and facilitate civic humble-integrity rather than civil-religious pride. With this reform, the entity We the People of the United States will separate church (a pursuit for adult-personal-privacy), from state (the necessary domestic and alien monopoly on coercion and force for justice). Thereby, Posterity, including legal immigrants will be empowered to hold elected and appointed officials in local, state, and national governm

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[i] “Civic-citizens” refers to members of We the People of the United States who own personal interpretations of the domestic disciplines proffered by the 1787 U.S. Constitution. It affirms the separation of church and state expressed by both the 1776 declaration of war for independence from England as well as the Genesis 1:26-28 assertion that female& male-human-being can independently provide order& prosperity to the living species and to the world.

[ii] Accepting to ourselves that, while the human being can develop the individual power, the individual energy, and the individual authority (HIPEA) to choose humble-integrity rather than egocentric arrogance, we propose “the-God” for civic discussion so as to include the various theisms and non-theisms fellow-citizens personally-pursue in order to perfect their unique person according to the responsible-happiness they perceive rather than to someone else’s vision for them. “The-God” expresses humility in the hopes and comforts an individual’s personal-God provides them in privacy.

[iii] “Love” is often unwanted and justifiably so. Appreciate is more civic, when “civic” refers to reliable human-connections more than to municipal rules.

[iv] My 2021 interpretation of Genesis 1:26-28, a 5,000 year-old Sumerian political philosophy interpreted 2,000 years later by Hebrew scribes.

[v] It’s little recognized and less accepted that the 1787 U.S. Constitution proffers 5 public self-disciplines “in order to” encourage& facilitate responsible-human-independence (RHI) “to ourselves and our Posterity”. “Liberty” is a French fetish that too often is taken as license to let fellow-citizens’ blood. Religion is excluded from the disciplines in order to assign it to adult-personal-privacy. (I feel I am facilitating Phil Beaver’s adult-maturity, at age 78, by returning to UBC Sunday school.)

[vi] Allowing postmodernism to terminate the 1787 Constitution’s guarantee of a republican form of government is a death knell to the USA. It is abdication to Anglo-American tradition, or European enslavement of the U.S. person.

[vii] “Our” is too egocentric to Jesus-advocates at this point.

[viii] A Baptist boy must marry a serenely-confident Louisiana-French Catholic woman and learn to cherish her faith for her (and their children for themselves) without denying his faith for him, in-order-to understand that there are Catholics who pursue the-God regardless of the Church’s insistence on a Transubstantiation-Trinity.

[ix] Each viable-human-ova, the single-cell embryo, the embryo to fetus to baby, the delivered infant, and the child is due the dignity and appreciation of a human person. Thus, an authentic woman cares for her viable ova, perhaps 400, during her fertile years and any children for life. The authentic man supports her and hers, in monogamy, for life.

[x] “Ineluctable”, known for 450 years and published to modify both “truth” and “the . . . truth” in 1906, is unfortunately almost unknown in 2019. It means, “not to be avoided, changed, or resisted”. To lend precision& accuracy, I use hyphens and invite the reader/listener not to disassemble the phrase “the-ineluctable-truth”. I seek an improvement on this expression.