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RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM

Ron DeSantis: I Would Have Loved to Hang Out With Jesus and His Disciples – America Needs More God

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Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis says he would have loved to hang out with Jesus and his disciples, and thinks America needs more God.

The 2024 presidential candidate, currently a double-digit distant second to Donald Trump, has been accused of being a “Christian-nationalist MAGA leader,” holding “‘White Christian Nationalist’ beliefs,” or “flirting” with Christian nationalism, yet he not only has ignored his accusers, he is increasingly embracing the concepts of Christian nationalism and telegraphing to Christian nationalist voters he is their guy.

DeSantis recently spoke with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody in an interview that aired on CBN’s “The 700 Club” Friday.

“How do you see the country from a Judeo-Christian standpoint?” Brody, a hard-right partisan, asked Gov. DeSantis. “How do you see that in terms of infusing that into public policy?”

“You know,” DeSantis replied, “this society, the United States of America, you know, was built on the foundation, you know, of what happened thousands of years ago in the Holy Land, and I think that the Judeo-Christian values undergird everything that the Founding Fathers did, some of it, you know, was just so embedded, they didn’t even need to think about it.”

“Of course, you know, those are the values that you had. And I think that’s one of the reasons why in the First Amendment, they have the free, free exercise of religion and making sure that that people had the ability to believe as they wanted to, because of course, in the old world, that wasn’t always the case. It was, you know, you’re prescribed to be this particular denomination, and they really understood that people had the right to be able to believe as they want, and I’ll tell you, you know, you had more flourishing of religion in America as a result of having that religious freedom protected,” DeSantis declared.

READ MORE: School’s LGBTQ Pride Celebration Destroyed by Students Tearing Down Posters, Chanting Their Pronouns Are ‘USA’

He did not allow for people who do not hold religious beliefs, or for people who are spiritual but not religious. And he agreed with Broody that America needs more God.

“So we need more God in society today?” Brody asked.

“Oh, absolutely. I mean, look, at the end of the day, there’s certain problems, economic problems, there’s, there’s problems at the border. There’s all very important, but you know, why are we here? Why are we free people?”

“We’re free because God has endowed us with inalienable rights. That’s why America was founded, our constitution was created, not to give us rights, but to protect the rights that God has already bestowed upon us,” he declared, as he has repeatedly before.

Back in February after DeSantis delivered similar remarks to Fox News, the Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote, “Our rights do not come from ‘God,’ Gov. DeSantis,” and explained that the Florida GOP governor had “missed the fact that the rebellious Founders didn’t only throw out the ‘divine right of kings,’ they threw out ‘divine rights’ altogether.”

DeSantis continued to share his biblical beliefs with Brody.

“And that’s just, I think that was the Founders’ central insight, because before them, it was thought, you know, the king has the power. So you may have rights as a subject of some kingdom, but it’s the courtesy of what the state is giving you. That’s not what our Founders believed. They said, God has endowed these for us. Yeah, we’ll give governments some power. we give them limited power, and we give them power primarily for the purpose of protecting these pre-existing rights.”

Over at CBN, Brody reports, “Ron DeSantis credits his Catholic faith for keeping him grounded in truth,” says the GOP presidential hopeful will “be spreading a 2024 campaign message of conservatism guided by faith,” yet claims, DeSantis “doesn’t publicly tout his faith.”

READ MORE: After Arraignment Fox News Labels Donald Trump the ‘President of the United States’ and Joe Biden a ‘Wannabe Dictator’

Except, he does.

Last year in March, DeSantis used the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation he had signed into law as the new flag of his bible-based anti-LGBTQ gubernatorial re-election campaign.

“Gird your loins for battle. We are going to fight. You put on the full armor of God,” the Florida Republican said in a video posted to social media, with the state flag behind him and a poster reading, “Keep Florida Free.”

“You take a stand against the Left’s schemes. Yeah, you’re gonna face flaming arrows, but if you stand for truth, you and we will prevail,” DeSantis added.

As NCRM reported at the time, the full biblical reference makes DeSantis’ remarks even more disturbing. It comes from Ephesians 6:11-18, which mentions the Devil and the spiritual forces of evil. It reads in part:

“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. … In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

The Tampa Bay Times last year chastised the Florida governor over his “full armor of God” speech.

“Christian nationalism for many conservatives has become a political identity, and unlike conservative politicians in the past who used their faith to inform their arguments, DeSantis is more aggressive, using war imagery to describe the political debates as a battle over who will be the better American,” the paper wrote.

“The full armor of God passage is a favorite amongst certain types of Pentecostals who really do see the world in terms of spiritual warfare,” Yale University comparative-history sociologist Philip Gorski told the newspaper.

READ MORE: Watch: Ron DeSantis Travels to New Hampshire to Claim Kids Are Being ‘Forced’ to Choose Pronouns

Former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski, a former DeSantis administration official, at the time weighed in, writing: “Desantis gets sexual and biblical on the campaign trail.”

In September, the Miami Herald’s Editorial Board published a warning.

“DeSantis’ flirting with Christian nationalism — the belief that America is in God’s plan and was intended to be a Christian nation — as the Herald recently reported, is not new in GOP politics. But it shows where the governor’s mind is.”

Pointing to DeSantis’ “Christian nationalist shtick,” the Editorial Board added, “given the onslaught of religious talk in Florida — and the use of government to promote one conservative religious view — Democrats must find a better way to acknowledge the importance of religion and spirituality in people’s lives without crossing the line into proselytizing. If DeSantis is telling his followers to go fight to shape the nation to their religious liking, the counter-narrative should be that this rhetoric could not only incite violence, but it also undermines Christianity itself. For most Christians, religion doesn’t mean hostility toward your fellowmen and those who share different beliefs, as DeSantis makes it seem.”

Last year in November, DeSantis not only went biblical again, he posted what was seen as “blasphemy” – a “heretical,” according to some, re-election ode celebrating not God, but himself.

Indeed, the Tampa Bay Times in that same piece called DeSantis’ biblical reference a “recurring theme.”

“DeSantis has made the biblical references in numerous stump speeches. He did it at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando in February. Then, at the Florida Republican Party’s annual gathering in July. And again, in August, while campaigning alongside Doug Mastriano, a right-wing Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate who has promoted Christian power in America.”

In May, New York Times’ opinion writer Michelle Goldberg asked, “Whose Version of Christian Nationalism Will Win in 2024?”

“What’s not yet clear,” Goldberg said, “is what sort of Christian nationalism will prevail — the elite, doctrinaire variety of candidates like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida or the violently messianic version embodied by [Mike] Flynn and [Donald] Trump.”

“The issue isn’t whether the next Republican presidential candidate is going to be a Christian nationalist, meaning someone who rejects the separation of church and state and treats Christianity as the foundation of American identity and law,” Goldberg explained. “That’s a foregone conclusion in a party whose state lawmakers are falling over themselves to pass book bans, abortion prohibitions, anti-trans laws and, in Texas, bills authorizing school prayer and the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.”

Also in May, Newsweek warned, “Thousands of Christians signed an online petition condemning Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign, accusing him of ‘twisting religion’ for political gain.”

DeSantis does not appear to care.

“Our household is a Christ-centered household,” the governor told CBN’s Brody. “We’re raising our kids with those values. We think that that’s very important…It’s great for us when our kids are coming back from preschool or kindergarten, talking about David and Goliath and we’re like, thank you. So we’re very, very appreciative of being able to do that…My son, he was four for Christmas this year, he wanted a sling to be like David slaying Goliath and so that really warms our hearts when we see that.”

Watch the videos of DeSantis above or at this link.

 

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News

Lone Dissenter Calls Texas Supreme Court Transgender Ruling ‘Cruel, Unconstitutional’

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3 months ago

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June 28, 2024

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texas supreme court

The lone justice to dissent called the Texas Supreme Court ruling to uphold the ban on gender-affirming care for minors “cruel” and “unconstitutional” Friday.

The Texas Supreme Court, currently made up of all Republican justices, decided 8-1 to uphold a ban on providing gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, to transgender people under the age of 18. The Court said that it did “not attempt to identify the most appropriate treatment for a child suffering from gender dysphoria,” claiming it to be a “complicated question” for doctors and legislators.

The Court ruled that even though “fit parents have a fundamental interest in directing the care, custody, and control of their children free from government interference,” that interest is bound by “the Legislature’s authority to regulate the practice of medicine.”

READ MORE: Republican Gov. Mike DeWine Vetoes Anti-Trans Bill After Talking to Families With Trans Kids

“[W]e conclude the Legislature made a permissible, rational policy choice to limit the types of available medical procedures for children, particularly in light of the relative nascency of both gender dysphoria and its various modes of treatment and the Legislature’s express constitutional authority to regulate the practice of medicine,” Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle wrote.

Justice Debra Lehrmann, the only justice to dissent, was clear in her disagreement. She wrote that the decision means “the State can usurp parental authority to follow a physician’s advice regarding their own children’s medical needs.” Lehrmann identified that gender-affirming care can be “lifesaving.”

She also mocked the idea that the Court’s ruling didn’t “deprive children diagnosed with gender dysphoria of appropriate treatment.” Lehrmann pointed out that by upholding the law, it “effectively forecloses all medical treatment options that are currently available to these children … under the guise that depriving parents of access to these treatments is no different than prohibiting parents from allowing their children to get tattoos.”

“The law is not only cruel—it is unconstitutional,” she wrote, calling the ban a “hatchet, not a scalpel.”

Lehrmann also put the lie to the claims by anti-LGBTQ activists that surgery is common for transgender minors.

“Indeed, the leading medical associations in this field do not recommend surgical intervention before adulthood. Without a doubt, the removal of a young child’s genitalia is something that neither the conventional medical community nor conscientious parents would condone,” she wrote. “Moreover, medical experts do not recommend that any medical intervention … be undertaken before the onset of puberty.”

Lehrmann is correct. Prior to puberty, transgender care is basically limited to social changes. For example, wearing gender-affirming clothing and using appropriate pronouns, according to Advocates for Trans Equality.

Puberty blockers can be prescribed for those who are starting puberty. Puberty blockers are safe, according to Cedars-Sinai, and are not only used for transgender youth. A common purpose is to stop precocious puberty, which affects 1 in 5,000 children, including children as young as 6. For both transgender youth and kids going through precocious puberty, puberty blockers are known to improve patients’ mental health, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Puberty blockers are also fully reversible. However, in terms of trans youth, a study published in The Lancet found that 98% of those on puberty blockers went on hormone replacement therapy upon turning 18. But even for those few teens who realize after being on puberty blockers that they aren’t trans, all they have to do is stop taking them, and their puberty will progress as normal.

 

 

 

 

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BIGOTRY

Rep. Tim Walberg Tells Uganda to ‘Stand Firm’ on ‘Kill The Gays’ Law Ted Cruz Called ‘Horrific’

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9 months ago

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December 29, 2023

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Tim Walberg Uganda Kill The Gays Law

Representative Tim Walberg (R-MI) delivered a speech in Uganda to defend the country’s President Yoweri Museveni and the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, better known as the “Kill the Gays” law.

Walberg traveled to Uganda in October to attend a national prayer breakfast organized by the Fellowship Foundation, also known as The Family, which also covered the cost of his trip, according to TYT. In the speech, transcribed by the blog Take Care Tim, he told the attendees to “stand firm” in the face of criticism.

“Whose side do we want to be on? God’s side. Not the World Bank, not the United States of America necessarily, not the UN. God’s side,” Walberg said. “I think as we go on here, it says, ‘So I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, And I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent.’ – Who’s gonna do that? God is gonna do that. Your esteemed President, his excellency, President Museveni needs a nation that stands with him and says, though the rest of the world is pushing back on you, though there are other major countries that are trying to get into you and ultimately change you, stand firm. Stand firm.”

READ MORE: Mike Johnson Once Agreed to Speak at ‘Kill the Gays’ Pastor’s Conference – Until an NCRM Report

Walberg made it clear he knew his view would be unpopular in the United States.

“Now, this will probably get back to the national media in the United States, and I expect some pushback, but I’m not gonna give in to them. … I know that your President is a warrior. I like that about him. We’re in a battle, folks. We are in a battle,” he said.

Though Uganda has had homophobia enshrined in its legal code since it was a British protectorate, the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 is a drastic escalation. Previously, homosexuality was punished with life in prison, according to the Advocate. The new law allows the death penalty for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality.” It also bans “promotion of homosexuality,” much like Russia bans queer “propaganda”.

The law is so draconian that Republican Senator Ted Cruz—no ally to the queer community—condemned it. In May, shortly after Museveni signed the law, Cruz called the law “horrific” on X, formerly Twitter.

“This Uganda law is horrific & wrong. Any law criminalizing homosexuality or imposing the death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality’ is grotesque & an abomination. ALL civilized nations should join together in condemning this human rights abuse. #LGBTQ,” Cruz tweeted.

Attempts to pass a similar bill to the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 started in 2014, with a bill also called the “Kill the Gays” law. That form of the bill was built by anti-LGBTQ activist Scott Lively, who previously claimed then-President Barack Obama was secretly gay.

While it didn’t go into effect then, the bill and ones like it kept popping up on Uganda’s parliamentary agenda. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden threatened to cut nearly $1 billion in annual aid to Uganda if the bill passed.

A previous version of this story credited Salon with the initial reporting; Salon had republished the article from TYT. The sourcing has been corrected; NCRM regrets the error.

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RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM

If States Start Designating ‘Christian History Month’ You Can Thank This Far Right Christian Nationalist Group

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1 year ago

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July 28, 2023

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When the National Association of Christian Lawmakers held its annual conference at Liberty University last month, the event featured a “para-legislative session” at which state legislators and religious-right activists proposed and discussed various resolutions and sample legislation.

Among the speakers at the session was Allan Parker, president of religious-right organization The Justice Foundation, who urged the lawmakers in attendance to return to their states and introduce resolutions declaring the month of June to be “Christian History Month.”

“I think people are feeling it’s time for Christian History Month,” Parker said. “I hadn’t thought about when but I’m going to suggest June because it’s also Celebrate Life Month. The life of this nation was founded on a Christian worldview [and] if we preach all this and teach it in June, we’ll be ready for the Fourth of July with a true understanding of what it means.”

“You have the authority to create celebratory months and recognize things,” Parker reminded the gathered lawmakers.

Parker’s comments make it clear that religious-right leaders would use any state-designated “Christian History Month” as an official vehicle for promoting false and exclusionary Christian nationalist versions of American history, the kind promoted relentlessly by right-wing activists like David Barton, his son Tim, and pastors like Jackson Lahmeyer and Jack Hibbs.

The NACL was founded by unabashed Christian nationalist and former Arkansas state senator Jason Rapert, who is quite open about his intention to do everything that he can to ensure that Christians who share his far-right worldview “take authority” over every aspect of this nation.

Christian nationalists like Rapert believe that the country was founded as an explicitly Christian nation and that right-wing Christians must do everything they can to keep it that way, including making laws align with their particular religious and political worldview, one that is not shared by many Americans and even many Christians.Via the National Association for Christian Lawmakers, Rapert is putting this talk into action, using his organization advance so-called “biblical” legislation in statehouses throughout the country that would roll back abortion rights and the rights of LGBTQ Americans, defund public libraries that offer LGBTQ-friendly materials, and now perhaps push states or localities to honor Christian History Month.

It is surely no coincidence that LGBTQ Pride Month is already celebrated in June in the United States, a fact that drawn increasingly hostile responses this year from anti-equality activists as right-wing political leaders have escalated their rhetoric targeting LGBTQ people and their supporters.

 

This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is republished here by permission.

Image via Shutterstock

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