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A review by kevin_shepherd
The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American by Andrew L. Seidel
5.0
“I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk – that’s not in the Constitution.” -Lauren Boebert, U.S. Representative (R-Colorado)
Whenever politicians and theologians (sometimes it is very hard to tell the difference) start rewriting history to fit their agendas, to prop up their mythologies, it becomes difficult to imagine a future in America where truth and reason are not outlawed commodities. Representative Lauren Boebert is not an anomaly, she isn’t a warped, uneducated aberration. She is but one of many.
“Modern events are part of a very deep story and [the] ‘Puritan connection’ helps explain a unique feature of modern US society: the influence of conservative evangelicals.” -Martyn Whittock, Trump and the Puritans
Whenever Christian Nationalists use Puritan Colonialism to boost their myth of America’s “Christian Foundation” it is important to note that Puritans imposed a death penalty for blasphemy, they imposed a death penalty for adultery, they imposed a death penalty for homosexuality, they imposed a death penalty for worshiping any god other than their god. This is the so-called “Christian heritage” that nationalists repeatedly point to; it is one of their go-to examples of [whitewashed] christian theocracy.
“The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.” -Thomas Paine
Andrew Seidel correctly points out that the mainstays of Christianity are fear and obedience. That is why the original sin wasn’t murder or rape or even adultery or incest. The original sin, that for which all suffering and misery is deemed justified, was eating a piece of fruit. The real basis of faith is simply pretending to know something you don’t know. That is no basis for founding a just government.
“The idea that all people are created equal is not a religious idea, the idea that some people are special is. The entire Hebrew Bible is about the chosen people. The genocides they committed were justified because they were the chosen people. Religion promotes elitism, not equality.” -Andrew Seidel
The greater a person’s faith the more subordinate healthy skepticism becomes. This, Seidel proposes, is why church goers were so susceptible to the lies of Donald Trump. They were primed for someone, anyone, who would tell them what they wanted to hear—even when a simple fact check showed that it wasn’t true. For that reason religious thought can only be maintained within a closed loop system. It cannot withstand scrutiny.
Whenever someone tells you that the US government was built on biblical principles don’t be afraid to ask them which biblical principles are they talking about. Are they talking about the genocide? Are they talking about burning people at the stake? Are they talking about hanging witches? Are they talking about stoning rape victims because they didn’t yell for help loud enough?
Of course Christian Nationalists are up in arms. They feel the deceleration of their momentum, the ebbing of their majority, and the slow but steady erosion of their perceived superiority.
I for one am glad that Andrew Seidel—author, activist, constitutional attorney—is on our side. He and others like him are stalwarts in the fight to keep the political ideologies of Jefferson and Adams and Paine from being contorted and manipulated. I am hesitant to say that this book should be “required reading” for every American because that book list is already eight miles long but it really, really should at least be read by Rep Lauren Boebert and her like-minded constituents.
“Humans need saving, but they need to be saved from religion . . . the Christian Nationalists will not go gently into the obsolescence for which they are bound. They have grown accustomed to religious privilege. They are used to imposing their beliefs on unsuspecting schoolchildren, to politicians paying lip service to their deity, to their warped idea of religious freedom…” -A.S.
___________________________________
Today I just happened to drive by a Methodist Church with a marquee that read, “THE WORD OF THE DAY IS TOLERANCE.” How timely. I was reminded of something Andrew Seidel wrote…
“Tolerance and intolerance are not opposites.”
When you think about it, both tolerance and intolerance imply a position of authority. When I “tolerate” a person, an action, or an idea, the implication is that I have decided to grant it space—which in itself implies that I have the authority to do so. Intolerance means I have denied it space, I have denied its right to exist, or that it never had a right to exist in the first place. Tolerance is simply a political dog-whistle, a way of promoting Christian privilege without outwardly acknowledging Christian privilege.
___________________________________
“Religion is the millstone around the neck of American Exceptionalism because religious faith denies experience and observation to preserve a belief. It is for this reason that it is unlikely to contribute to progress, though will take credit for what science, rationality, experience, and observation have accomplished.” -A.S., The Founding Myth
Whenever politicians and theologians (sometimes it is very hard to tell the difference) start rewriting history to fit their agendas, to prop up their mythologies, it becomes difficult to imagine a future in America where truth and reason are not outlawed commodities. Representative Lauren Boebert is not an anomaly, she isn’t a warped, uneducated aberration. She is but one of many.
“Modern events are part of a very deep story and [the] ‘Puritan connection’ helps explain a unique feature of modern US society: the influence of conservative evangelicals.” -Martyn Whittock, Trump and the Puritans
Whenever Christian Nationalists use Puritan Colonialism to boost their myth of America’s “Christian Foundation” it is important to note that Puritans imposed a death penalty for blasphemy, they imposed a death penalty for adultery, they imposed a death penalty for homosexuality, they imposed a death penalty for worshiping any god other than their god. This is the so-called “Christian heritage” that nationalists repeatedly point to; it is one of their go-to examples of [whitewashed] christian theocracy.
“The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.” -Thomas Paine
Andrew Seidel correctly points out that the mainstays of Christianity are fear and obedience. That is why the original sin wasn’t murder or rape or even adultery or incest. The original sin, that for which all suffering and misery is deemed justified, was eating a piece of fruit. The real basis of faith is simply pretending to know something you don’t know. That is no basis for founding a just government.
“The idea that all people are created equal is not a religious idea, the idea that some people are special is. The entire Hebrew Bible is about the chosen people. The genocides they committed were justified because they were the chosen people. Religion promotes elitism, not equality.” -Andrew Seidel
The greater a person’s faith the more subordinate healthy skepticism becomes. This, Seidel proposes, is why church goers were so susceptible to the lies of Donald Trump. They were primed for someone, anyone, who would tell them what they wanted to hear—even when a simple fact check showed that it wasn’t true. For that reason religious thought can only be maintained within a closed loop system. It cannot withstand scrutiny.
Whenever someone tells you that the US government was built on biblical principles don’t be afraid to ask them which biblical principles are they talking about. Are they talking about the genocide? Are they talking about burning people at the stake? Are they talking about hanging witches? Are they talking about stoning rape victims because they didn’t yell for help loud enough?
Of course Christian Nationalists are up in arms. They feel the deceleration of their momentum, the ebbing of their majority, and the slow but steady erosion of their perceived superiority.
I for one am glad that Andrew Seidel—author, activist, constitutional attorney—is on our side. He and others like him are stalwarts in the fight to keep the political ideologies of Jefferson and Adams and Paine from being contorted and manipulated. I am hesitant to say that this book should be “required reading” for every American because that book list is already eight miles long but it really, really should at least be read by Rep Lauren Boebert and her like-minded constituents.
“Humans need saving, but they need to be saved from religion . . . the Christian Nationalists will not go gently into the obsolescence for which they are bound. They have grown accustomed to religious privilege. They are used to imposing their beliefs on unsuspecting schoolchildren, to politicians paying lip service to their deity, to their warped idea of religious freedom…” -A.S.
___________________________________
Today I just happened to drive by a Methodist Church with a marquee that read, “THE WORD OF THE DAY IS TOLERANCE.” How timely. I was reminded of something Andrew Seidel wrote…
“Tolerance and intolerance are not opposites.”
When you think about it, both tolerance and intolerance imply a position of authority. When I “tolerate” a person, an action, or an idea, the implication is that I have decided to grant it space—which in itself implies that I have the authority to do so. Intolerance means I have denied it space, I have denied its right to exist, or that it never had a right to exist in the first place. Tolerance is simply a political dog-whistle, a way of promoting Christian privilege without outwardly acknowledging Christian privilege.
___________________________________
“Religion is the millstone around the neck of American Exceptionalism because religious faith denies experience and observation to preserve a belief. It is for this reason that it is unlikely to contribute to progress, though will take credit for what science, rationality, experience, and observation have accomplished.” -A.S., The Founding Myth