OAN host touts Christian nationalism: “it’s a recipe for morality”
OAN's guest says he wants to end abortion and marriage equality
Published
Citation From the September 22, 2022 edition of One America News Network's In Focus with Addison Smith
ADDISON SMITH (HOST): Here's a headline that is much more encouraging to look at from Politico, which Politico's terrified of this headline: Most Republicans support declaring the United States a Christian nation. New polling shows the appeal and limits of a Christian nationalist message. So, William, there's a good development. There's a positive development – that a lot of Republicans, a lot of people on the right understand that we are a Christian nation and that we shouldn't run from the term Christian nationalism. I, for one, embrace it.
WILLIAM WOLFE (GUEST): That's right. And it's funny, Addison, I stumbled upon this almost accidentally a year ago or so when I was reading a book, Taking America Back for God by Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead, where they describe pejoratively what they understood to be Christian nationalism. I realize this is just basic biblical beliefs. Of course, I want to help end abortion. Of course, I would like to defend the biblical, the true, the only definition of marriage in our nation. And if that makes me a Christian nationalist, so be it. And I, for one, having spent the time that I did working in politics and now bridging into the Christian community, I want to help fellow Christians recognize these rhetorical tricks being foisted upon us by secular academics who have a purpose and an end goal, which is to outgroup faithful, Bible-believing evangelical Christians. And I'll point out something that's very interesting. They've moved on from just Christian nationalism to, quote-unquote, scary white Christian nationalism. But even by the own data found in this original book that prompted much of this, Taking America Back for God, the vast majority of Black Christians also identify as Christian nationalists.
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SMITH: William, why are they so scared of Christian nationalism? Why do they think it's a recipe for fascism? I think it's just a recipe for morality. If you ask me.
WILLIAM WOLFE (GUEST): Well that's right. Well, look, the vast majority of secular academics in the media are completely beholden to the postwar consensus view of the nature of the state, the nation-state, and any role religion might play in forming a cohesive, unique cultural identity to a nation-state. They overreacted to things like World War II and said never again can there be strong national identities, we must have quote-on-quote open societies. So this is something that has been plaguing our national understanding of ourselves as Americans for seventy years and quite frankly that core content, as Michael Knowles recently said at the National Conservatism Conference, the soul of America is Christian. We have a nation, that's the body. We have a soul, and that's a Christian soul.
And I'm speaking, you know, anthropomorphic terms here. It doesn't actually have a soul, but you get my point. And so they want to make sure, however, to replace that key Christian soul with one that's built on man's own rationality, secular reason, because, quite frankly, they don't want any of the constraints that come with traditional Christian morality.