In America, we have seen suffering inflicted on refugees, boldfaced white supremacy and cruelty, attacks on gay and transgender Americans, open anti-Semitism, the destruction of Roe V. Wade, and even an attempted coup. These are all worrying examples of supposedly unthinkable developments this ideology serves. Whether it will enable further losses of civil rights and liberties, oppression, totalitarianism, and even war remains to be seen, but much will depend on our understanding of the very real nature of this threat.
A philosophy of “righteous persecution,” forwarded by Saint Augustine, creates justification for oppression, telling true believers that inflicting suffering on sinners is justified if it is for their own spiritual benefit or the benefit of the faith. This has legitimized unthinkable horrors, including enslavement, genocide, colonization, and tyrannical systems that haunt our past and our present.
Our modern moment is once more defined by these concepts. The warnings that used to be relegated to Sunday mornings fill the halls of Congress and are repeated 24 hours a day on Fox News. Individuals and families that would have probably sat across the aisle from me all those years ago are now regularly posting pictures of themselves brandishing semiautomatic weapons with biblical quotes in the captions. And that’s only when they’re not retweeting QAnon conspiracy theories that tell the same horror stories that inspired other authoritarian movements like Nazism, Fascism, and have led to one annihilation and war after another.
https://time.com/6250769/christian-nationalism-popularity-wake-up-call/