Sen. Josh Hawley is once again pushing Christian nationalism, telling Liberty University students that “America as we know it cannot survive without biblical Christianity.” Preaching from the Book of Judges, he framed secularism as “spiritual oppression” and called on Christians to “rise up” to reclaim the nation.
Hawley falsely claims that secularism seeks to erase Christianity from public life—when in reality, church-state separation ensures freedom for religion, not government enforcement of religion. His speech is a textbook example of Christian nationalist propaganda: stoking fear, spreading false claims of persecution, and mobilizing voters by demonizing secular government.
“This story [of Gideon] actually sounds a whole lot like today. We have the nation oppressed and we have Gideon afraid. Isn’t that a lot like our situation today? Can we just be honest? Is not our nation in so many ways spiritually oppressed? Are we not suffering the spiritual oppression of the forces of secularism in our society?”
“For decades now, the forces of secularism—the false god, if you will, of secularism—have said that Christians should be silent in the public square, that Christians should have no place in law or in business, or in academia or in government. The forces of secularism would cut us off from our spiritual history, from our spiritual foundations, from what makes us who we are as a nation.”
“Every civilization is founded on a set of religious convictions and the United States of America, I firmly believe, is the greatest nation in the history of the world because our spiritual convictions are the convictions of the Bible. They are the convictions of the truth of the word of God, but the forces of secularism seek to cut us off from that truth. It seeks to destroy it and in so doing, to oppress our nation.”
The real threat isn’t secularism—it’s politicians like Hawley who want to rewrite history and force their religious beliefs onto everyone else.
