Heidi Przybyla, Christian Nationalism, and the Founding of America

Heidi Przybyla, an investigative correspondent for Politico, recently made a splash when she remarked that “Christian nationalist is very different — they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don't come from any earthly authority. They don't come from Congress, they don't come from the Supreme Court, they come from God.”

For the record, Przybyla was shocked that people actually think that way.

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Those remarks made many think Ms. Przybyla must have been asleep or absent during her classes on the founding of America. Or, perhaps more accurately, the true teaching of America’s founding was conveniently bypassed in her elementary school years. Interestingly, one mission of the college she attended is “to develop practical responses to social injustice, inequality, and conflict,” so it’s a fair bet she didn’t learn about the principles of our country’s founding in college, either.

Przybyla later apologized for her remarks, but her apology didn’t make it to air. And guess what? At least 33% of the people who heard or read about her remarks will still believe them to be true.

For Ms. Przybyla and anyone else who’d like a refresher, the Declaration of Independence, which is the founding document of the United States, was penned in large part by the person who became the third President of the United States. That document says, "...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights."

It may be that people like Ms. Przybyla are unfamiliar with the concept of unalienable rights, so allow me to help them out:

Unalienable rights are those that can never be taken away, either voluntarily or involuntarily.

They are “un-alien-able,” in that they cannot be made foreign to you. You have them. They are given by God at your creation, and nobody – not even the most powerful person or the most powerful government in the world – can erase them.

The Declaration mentions that among those inalienable rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those aren’t the only three, those are just the three that Thomas Jefferson and the other 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence happened to mention in 1776. For example, we can go to the first ten amendments to the Constitution, commonly called the Bill of Rights. That's not a list of rights granted by the government, it’s a list of what the government cannot do with regards to your inalienable, God-given rights.

Christianity Was Interwoven Into American Government

What Ms. Przybyla must have missed in her education is that the culture of America’s founding was overwhelmingly Christian, and the Founders believed Christianity was necessary for the method of government they created. To underscore that, let’s go back to 1798. In a letter that he wrote to the Massachusetts militia, sitting president John Adams said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Most folks don’t know that in the era of our country’s founding, the word “religion” was also a synonym for “Christian denomination.” Today, if someone were to ask Ms. Przybyla what religion she was, the question would be perceived along the lines of, “Are you a Christian? A Muslim? A Hindu?”  But in the era of our nation’s founding, an inquiry about one’s religion would be like asking, “Are you Presbyterian? A Congregationalist? An Episcopalian? Where do you attend church? Where do you worship?”

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court taking a phrase from a letter by Thomas Jefferson out of context to mean the exact opposite of what he intended, our Founders wanted Christians involved in our country’s government. Consider a statement by our first Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Jay, who was appointed by George Washington. Jay was adamant that Christians should be involved in government. He said, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."

States Included Christianity in Their Governments

Plenty of examples exist showing American’s connection to Christianity. When the 13 colonies became independent states and wrote their own state constitutions, almost every state required state office holders to be Christians.  For example, Chapter IV, Article I of the Massachusetts constitution stated:

Any person chosen governor, or lieutenant-governor, counsellor, senator, or representative, and accepting the trust, shall, before he proceed to execute the duties of his place or office, take, make, and subscribe the following declaration, viz, “I, ______, do declare, and believe, that I believe the Christian religion, and have a  firm persuasion of its truth.”

A guy by the name of Nathaniel Gorham had an active hand in writing that Massachusetts constitution. What else did Nathaniel Gorham do? As one of Massachusetts’ delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Gorham presided over the convention when George Washington was tending to other duties. It’s a given that neither he nor any of the Founders left their Christianity at the door when they walked into Independence Hall.

Let’s kick it up a notch. Two other signers of the U.S. Constitution, George Read and Richard Bassett, were also heavily involved in writing the constitution for the State of Delaware. Article 22 of that constitution said:

Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust … shall … make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: “I, ______, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed forevermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scripture of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.”

Christianity was Encouraged by the Government

For further evidence that our nation’s Founders intended for Christian principles to be interwoven in our nation’s government, consider the Northwest Ordinance, passed by the House and the Senate and signed into law by George Washington in 1789. It just so happens that the Northwest Ordinance charted a government system for the territory that became Michigan, Heidi Przybyla’s home state. Article III of the Northwest Ordinance states:

Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

Let’s interpret that. Members of the House and the Senate and the U.S. President said education shall forever be encouraged … because religion, morality, and knowledge were necessary for good government.

Put two and two together. Religion, morality, and knowledge were learned in schools.

Lest anyone doubt that, the New England Primer, a textbook replete with morality lessons and Scripture verses, was the most commonly used educational textbook in 18th-century colonial America. In fact, when our nation’s second President, John Adams, began school at age 6, he was taught out of the New England Primer. That book continued to be used throughout the 19th century and was still being used in American schools into the 20th century.

Christianity was taught in our public schools? Yep. And Congress stated it should happen.

What About the Establishment Clause?

The “Establishment Clause,” as it’s come to be known, was intended by the Founders to prevent the government from establishing or favoring any particular Christian denomination. Unfortunately, people today forget the meaning of the word “religion” as used in 1789. As was pointed out above, at the time of the country’s founding, the word “religion” was also a synonym for “Christian denomination.”

The first amendment starts out saying, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Read that again with the intended meaning and we get, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a national denomination.”

As seen in the constitutions of American states, the Founders clearly wanted Christians and Christian principles to be a part of our government system. The “establishment clause” simply means they did not want to establish a national Christian denomination.

People often reference the “wall of separation” phrase used by Jefferson. After a careful reading of the letter from the Danbury Baptists to President Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson’s letter in response, we see the phrase, “wall of separation” was written to convey the idea that the Founders created a wall that kept government out of telling churches how they could or could not worship.  It was a one-way wall. The Founders believed government was supposed to keep its nose out of religious practices (Congress was prohibited from establishing any law preventing the free exercise of religion), but, as pointed out in the very few examples above, they knew it was the principles of Christianity that would hold this country together.

To those who say I’m challenging a finding of the U.S. Supreme Court, I say, “Definitely, I am. They applied the concept incorrectly.” Those who sit on the Supreme Court are not gods, they are humans with their own flaws, biases, and agendas. Anyone claiming American government is supposed to be free from Christian influence is, sadly, ignorant of American history.

Socialists and Marxists Need to Eliminate Christianity

The push in America today is to replace capitalism with socialism, and socialism is the economic arm of Marxism. To be clear, Marxists want nothing to do with God or our God-given rights. Karl Marx despised Christianity. He called it, “the opium of the people,” because if people were Christians, they tended to be content with life. Marx couldn’t have that. He needed people riled up and unhappy with their lives so they would rebel against the bourgeoisie. Anyone who was Christian was akin to being drugged up and useless for the Marxist/Communist cause.

We know Heidi Przybyla’s college taught her to seek practical responses to social injustice and inequality, but we also know that social justice and inequality are merely code words that open the doors for socialism (see Karlyn Borysenko’s class on How to Speak Socialist).

Many people today don’t want to follow the model established by our Founders. These are usually people who seek to replace capitalism with socialism. Therefore, to smear those who seek to restore America to its founding model, socialists and Marxists blur the meaning of hot button issues.

Lies About Christian Nationalism

Unequivocally, white supremacy is bad. Heck, any racial supremacy is bad. Unfortunately, some white supremacists exist in America. (So do black and brown supremacists, but you never see news stories about them.) For socialists to get their way, those advocating for socialism to be the new American way will blur the lines and say that white supremacists who are pro-American are white nationalists. Then they blur further to insinuate that white supremacists (nationalists) are often Christian, and that makes them Christian nationalists. For extra measure, they throw in the lie that Christian nationalists want a theocracy.

Their gaslighting is sinful, but they pump the media with the (false) idea that white Christians who are pro-American (nationalists) means they are white supremacists. Therefore, to socialists, anyone who is a Christian nationalist is also a white supremacist.

Search for “Christian nationalist” on any search engine and you’re likely to find some sideways correlations to the above socialist “logic.” However, a ray of intellectual honesty did recently break through. A visit to an AI app asking for a definition of Christian nationalism revealed the following:

Christian nationalism is an ideology that seeks to create or maintain a fusion of Christian religion with a nation's character and identity. The key beliefs of Christian nationalism include:

• The United States was founded as and should remain a Christian nation, with Christianity as an integral part of the country's identity and character.

• The government should advocate for and promote Christian values, and pass laws and policies that reflect Christian principles.

• The separation of church and state is not a formal law that should be strictly followed, and the government should have a privileged role for Christianity in the public.

With the exception of the questionable meaning of the last bullet point, this definition actually aligns with the vision of the Founders.

Does that make America a nation of white supremacist bigots who want to bring about a theocracy? Hardly. From the start, freedom to worship or not worship as one pleased was enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Nobody was forced to be Christians. But all legislation is based on someone’s morality, and our Constitution was established based on the belief that those in government would be operating with Christian principles.

People like Heidi Przybyla need to realize that. John Adams couldn’t have said it better: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Either we enjoy the fruit of our labor and don’t let our inalienable rights get stepped on – which is “America as intended” – or we let the lies win and we become a socialist nation.

Heidi Przybyla lives a pretty nice life. She’s married to a doctor and she makes a good living as a correspondent. But she should be careful what she wishes for. If Christian nationalists were pushed out of the picture and socialists took full control, it wouldn’t be too long until Przybyla’s family lost a lot of what it has, all in the name of equity.

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POST SCRIPT -
After originally posting this column, I realized I didn’t state my disdain for any and all forms of racial supremacy clearly enough. I stated it was bad, but I want to be crystal clear.

It is most unfortunate that some people who are actual white supremacists (YUCK) claim to be Christian nationalists. I denounce their supremacist beliefs. Unfortunately, many who are ignorant of how our nation was founded tend to smear all Christians who want to return America to its Christian roots in that category. Such people need the education provided in this column.

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© 2024 Shadowtrail Media, LLC

Daniel Bobinski, Th.D., is an international bestselling author, a certified behavioral analyst, and for 35 years he’s been a corporate trainer and executive coach. In 2019, before the dreaded virus, he began writing for UncoverDC and RedState. He now hosts his own TV show, Keep the Republic, on Brighteon.TV and does a regular podcast with Ambassador Alan Keyes, called “After Hours with Bobinski and Keyes.”