I wrote a piece about the religious bastardry afoot in the US about 18 months ago which argued the Christian nationalism was a misnomer, and that christofascism was a much more accurate term1.
Looking into the history of democracy superficially made me wonder why most democratic nations became democratic when the church was politically much more powerful and had a great deal of influence over the lives of most of the populace, while now many of the churches in the US are antidemocratic in that they have been cheerleaders for Trump, who is rapidly dismantling US democracy. What has changed?
I suspect it is because religion is in decline in the US, and many of the churches can see their privilege, influence and their tax-free status is at risk. As a consequence, they have started scrabbling around for a means to maintain that privilege and influence such that they have now thrown their lot in with Trump and in part, drafted the Project 2025 manifesto. This manifesto includes the following:
- Making access to abortion infinitely more difficult2, including banning the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol which provide almost two-thirds of clinical abortions in the US3.
- To ban pornography with producers and distributors of pornography being sent to prison, and the shutting down of tech and telecom companies that allow access to adult material. Educators and librarians who allow access to what these people consider to be pornography would be classed as registered sex offenders. The definition of pornography they use is very broad and would include literary works that recognise homosexuality and even the very existence of transgender people4.
- Banning transgender Americans from serving in the armed forces4.
- Reversing anti-discrimination rules, such that employers can sack employees solely because of the latter’s sexual orientation4.
- Issuing regulations that declare gender reassignment surgery ‘dangerous’ and preventing it being covered by health insurance4.
- Increasing funding for religious organisations by giving them more access to government programs. This includes using a school voucher system to increase funding for religious schools, and by modifying the small business loans system to allow religious groups to be eligible for funding2.
- Preventing access by women of emergency contraception (e.g. the morning after pill), which is currently offered under the Affordable Care Act and requires most private health insurance plans to cover it at no cost to the customer5.
- Defunding Planned Parenthood which is an organisation that offers reproductive health care, including contraception, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, abortion services, pregnancy testing, cancer screenings like Pap smears and breast exams, and other preventative services mostly to poorer communities. One third of Planned Parenthood’s funding comes from state and federal government funding, including Medicaid, to provide health care services. Abortion services only make up 4% of all the health services they provide6.
- Enforcing a communal day of rest because “God ordained the Sabbath as a day of rest”7.
You can see the religious bent in all of the above, and as I say above, this is designed by the religious, in this case Christians, to entrench their power and privilege, as well as their bigotries, thereby getting rid of the separation of church and state, despite the latter being written in the US constitution. They want to make the country a theocracy. To this end they have thrown in their lot with the Trump caravan of fascists.
Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, which wrote the Project 2025 manifesto is unconcerned by Trump’s past. In an interview with CNN, he said: “We understand our lord works with imperfect instruments …. While on the surface it seems like a contradiction, on the whole, it may make him a more powerful messenger if he embraces it”8. The religious will twist and lie about anything if it suits their purposes.
It illustrates that they are unconcerned about Trump’s criminality, bigotry, his other character flaws and his attempted overthrow of an elected government, so long as he fulfils their need to maintain their power and influence. So, you cannot be lesbian, gay, transsexual, or have had an abortion, but you can be corrupt, a liar, fraud, embezzler, rapist and a paedophile, and that is perfectly acceptable.
However, in accepting Trump, these Christians have become antithetical to the Jesus they supposedly worship. They are exposing themselves for what they really are, a vindictive, venal, bigoted, power bloc that will side with anyone, even fascists, if they think it will help their cause. They are now a grave danger to democracy, not just in the US but everywhere.
Sources
- https://blotreport.com/2024/03/03/christofascism-not-christian-nationalism/
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/14/project-2025-election
- https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/how-project-2025-seeks-obliterate-srhr
- https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/project-2025-porn-ban-lgbtq-transgender-rcna161562
- https://www.americanprogress.org/article/project-2025-would-take-away-access-to-free-emergency-contraception-for-48-million-women/
- https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/major-federal-and-state-funding-cuts-facing-planned-parenthood/
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/14/project-2025-election
- https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/15/politics/trump-conservatives-pornography-fight
