Rights come from God. Which verse of Scripture causes you to believe in the right to vote?
1. Do you disagree with the tenets and/or goals of Christian Nationalism?
A study which was conducted in May 2022 showed that the strongest base of support for Christian nationalism comes from Republicans who identify as Evangelical or born again Christians.[51][52] Of this demographic group, 78% are in favor of formally declaring that the United States should be a Christian nation, versus only 48% of Republicans overall. Age is also a factor, with over 70% of Republicans from the Baby Boomer and Silent Generations supporting the United States officially becoming a Christian nation. According to Politico, the polling also found that sentiments of white grievance are highly correlated with Christian nationalism: "White respondents who say that members of their race have faced more discrimination than others are most likely to embrace a Christian America. Roughly 59% of all Americans who say white people have been discriminated against ... favor declaring the U.S. a Christian nation, compared to 38% of all Americans."[51][53]
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has referred to herself as a Christian nationalist. Fellow congresswomen Lauren Boebert and Mary Miller have also expressed support for Christian nationalism.[54][55] Politician Doug Mastriano is a prominent figure in the fundamentalist Christian nationalist movement, and has called the separation of church and state a myth.[56][57]
Andrew Torba, the CEO of the alt-tech platform Gab, supported Mastriano's failed 2022 bid for office,[58] in order to build a grass-roots Christian nationalist political movement to help "take back" government power for "the glory of God"; he has argued that "unapologetic Christian Nationalism is what will save the United States of America".[59][60] Torba is also a proponent of the great replacement conspiracy theory, and he has said that "The best way to stop White genocide and White replacement, both of which are demonstrably and undeniably happening, is to get married to a White woman and have a lot of White babies".[59] White nationalist Nick Fuentes has also expressed support for Christian nationalism.[61][62]
Author Katherine Stewart has called the combined ideology and political movement of Christian nationalism "an organized quest for power" and she says that Florida governor Ron DeSantis has identified with and promoted this system of values in order to gain votes in his bid for political advancement.[63] Desantis, who has invoked Christian nationalist rhetoric,[51][64] has also endorsed the Evangelical Christian notion of "purity culture" and the mythology of "white innocence" while pushing laws such as the Stop W.O.K.E. act to combat so-called "woke indoctrination" in schools.[63] According to the Tampa Bay Times, DeSantis has also promoted a civics course for educators, which emphasized the belief that "the nation's founders did not desire a strict separation of state and church"; the teacher training program also "pushed a judicial theory, favored by legal conservatives like DeSantis, that requires people to interpret the Constitution as the framers intended it, not as a living, evolving document".[65][66][67][52]
Some Christian nationalists also engage in spiritual warfare and they say militarized forms of prayers in order to defend and advance their beliefs and political agenda.[68] According to American Studies professor S. Jonathon O'Donnell: "A key idea in spiritual warfare is that demons don't only attack people, as in depictions of demonic possession, but also take control of places and institutions, such as journalism, academia, and both municipal and federal bureaucracies. By doing so, demons are framed as advancing social projects that spiritual warriors see as opposing God's plans. These include advances in reproductive and LGBTQ rights and tolerance for non-Christian religions (especially Islam)."[69]
January 6 and beyond
In the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the term "Christian nationalism" has become synonymous with white Christian identity politics, a belief system that asserts itself as an integral part of American identity overall.[59][70] The New York Times notes that historically, "Christian nationalism in America has ... encompassed extremist ideologies".[59][71] Critics have argued that Christian nationalism promotes racist tendencies, male violence, anti-democratic sentiment, and revisionist history.[72][73] Christian nationalism in the United States is also linked to political opposition to gun control laws and strong cultural support for the Second Amendment which protects the right to keep and bear arms.[74]
Political analyst Jared Yates Sexton has said: "Republicans recognize that QAnon and Christian nationalism are invaluable tools" and that these belief systems "legitimize antidemocratic actions, political violence, and widespread oppression", which he calls an "incredible threat" that extends beyond Trumpism.[75]
2. Do you disagree with the tenets and/or goals of the Seven Mountain Mandate?
The Seven Mountain Mandate, also Seven Mountains Mandate, 7M,[1] or Seven Mountains Dominionism,[2] is a conservative Christianmovement within Pentecostal and evangelical Christianity.[1][3]
History
The movement is believed by its followers to have begun in 1975 with a purported message from God delivered to evangelicals Loren Cunningham, Bill Bright, and Francis Schaeffer ordering them to invade the "seven spheres" of society. The idea was not seriously considered until 2000 during a meeting between Cunningham and Lance Wallnau. The movement came to prominence after the 2013 publication of Lance Wallnau and Bill Johnson's Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate.[4]
The movement was generally supportive of the Presidency of Donald Trump with member Paula White becoming the president's spiritual advisor. White claimed that Trump "will play a critical role in Armageddon as the United States stands alongside Israel in the battle against Islam." In 2020 Charlie Kirk said "finally we have a president that understands the seven mountains of cultural influence" during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.[4]
Theory
The Seven Mountain Mandate is part of dominionism.[5]
Followers claim that the biblical base for the movement is derived from Revelation 17:1–18, wherein verse 9 reads, "And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains".[5] The seven areas which the movement believe control society and which they seek to control are family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government.[5] They believe that their mission to take over the world is justified by Isaiah 2:2 "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains."[4]
Followers believe that by fulfilling the Seven Mountain Mandate they can bring about the end times.[4]