Reclaiming Faith to Counter Global Christian Nationalism
Finding hope in amplifying our voices and our solidarity
I thought a little inspiration might be in order after my last post! This speech on hope and solidarity in the midst of the global threat of religious nationalism got a standing ovation at the Women’s Assembly at the Parliament of World’s Religions in Chicago a few weeks ago. Important words for men as well:). Solidarity welcome. I’ll be posting in coming weeks about some of the successful ways people counter the abuse of faith for political purposes. Please share far and wide to inspire others and LMK what you think.
I have spent a lifetime countering the Christian right’s illiberal agenda by mobilizing a faith movement centered in human dignity.
I stepped enthusiastically into my first job in ministry as the Presbyterian United Nations representative to the United Nations charged with the glorious mission of advancing the global women’s movement, only to see the Christian right gut our denominational programs while our national church leaders remained flat footed, assuming our democratic structures would hold.
As surely as night follows day, the year 2000, I encountered them at a United Nations. It was a gathering to review progress on the Beijing platform for Action from the Fourth World Conference on Women. The same strategies– talking points full of disinformation, trojan horse strategies, flooding the Assembly with delegates– were used to disrupt progress.
I wrote a book to expose this Christian right effort to export the culture wars and I organized people of faith to resist by amplifying religious arguments for women’s rights, first at the UN and then domestically, founding Faith in Public Life, an organization I led until recently.
Yet today, sadly, the Christian right in the U.S. has become a full blown Christian Nationalist movement, lining up behind an autocratic leader to advance openly a white supremacist patriarchal and homophobic agenda.
And the global Christian right has polarized the world along the lines of a culture war, seeking to establish patriarchal, xenophobic autocracies throughout the world, just as my book predicted. Today they are rapidly passing legislation that undermines women’s LGBTQ and children’s rights in Africa, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe. They are demonizing the very idea of democracy and human rights as somehow anti-religious while building connections to autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Victor Orbán to fund and host their movemens.
Other forms of religious nationalism are on the rise as well. Autocrats are weaponizing religion to amass power and maintain control from Russian Orthodox Nationalism, to Catholic nationalism in Hungary and Poland, to Hindutva in India, to Jewish nationalism manifesting in Netanyahu’s new ruling coalition in Israel, to evangelical and Pentecostal forms of Christian nationalism in the United States and in Brazil. Religion is being manipulated to give moral sanction to hideous acts of violence that run contrary to moral teachings. Women’s, LGBTQ, religious and migrant rights are the first to go. But they will come for all.
And if no one speaks against them, if OUR voices, specifically our faith voices, are not heard above the toxic din of autocratic disinformation, their lies begin to take hold.
People ask how I hold on to hope given the work I do. Here’s why I have hope.
My hope was born in partnership with Muslim women who worked with me at the UN to sponsor an event on religious extremism at a time when I had begun to doubt my own faith and call to ministry.
Midway through the event Saudi security guards burst into the room. The speaker faltered and I held my breath. The guards were clearly attempting to physically intimidate the speakers. But the global community of women of all faith and ethical backgrounds rose to their feet to applaud the women. The shaken speaker was able to continue her presentation and as the women stayed on their feet, they physically cloaked and blocked the guards.
It was the courage of Muslim women that inspired me not only claim my faith on my own terms, but to get ordained with the goal of bringing liberationist, feminist theology to a world of injustice. For the sake of women, the world, and my own spiritual well-being I could not let Christian extremists hijack my faith.
I learned to make an explicit argument from my faith for the human rights of all while respecting the guardrails of secular democracy doing this work solidarity with all faiths and those of secular moral beliefs. While some at the time were worried this would lead to a compromise in church state separation or the secular state, it became clear that it was a faith voice that could save democracy and human rights.
In leading Faith in Public Life I got to be inspired every day to see faith leaders stepping forward to reclaim their voices in the presence of creeping white supremacist, patriarchal authoritarianism.
I will never forget joining a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court to protest the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice who would undoubtedly rule to end federal protections to abortion access. I stood alongside pro-life religious colleagues who also opposed the criminalization of abortion in favor of supporting women with options. Though diverse in our perspectives, pro-life and pro-choice, we all knew that efforts to end federal protections by challenging Roe were not about abortion. This was about patriarchy. It has nothing to do with religion or freedom and everything to do with controlling women.
As I began to speak, the activists on the other side began to try to shout me down, getting in our faces, breaking the COVID and protest regulations. A man with a megaphone was yelling into our space. As I spoke I could not even hear my own voice. I saw that my staff felt scared. My words began to falter. But in front of me, in the crowd, I saw an older woman, a complete stranger. She locked eyes with me, calm, fierce, solid, and supportive in the storm. Time froze for me. She anchored me, paving the way for the others who spoke after me.
We are up against a lot, but we women have power in our solidarity and diversity even when facing a juggernaut. In 2018 I joined a group called MomsRising on Capitol Hill in Washington. We were there to witness Homeland Security Secretary Kirstin Nielsen testify before Congress on the Trump Administration’s child separation policy.
MomsRising made onesies with the names of children who died-- were in fact killed by neglect-- in detention centers. As I waited to go into the hearing the Capitol police chief singled me out by name.
I didn’t know him, but he sure knew who I was, quite possibly from a mug shot since I had led civil disobedience during the uprising to protect the Affordable Care Act.
He had a cell phone to one ear and he looked worried. He removed the phone from his ear, looked at me and said, “I’m being told that if you hold that onesie up in the hearing you will be arrested.”
Imagine that. The power of a onesie to drive fear into the hearts of members of Congress!
Sometimes, my friends, we don’t know the power that we have.
Our creativity and moral authority as women is critical to countering tyranny. Even when we are up against Goliath, our ability to be bold, to tell things as they are, as life givers and as moral leaders will bring autocrats down.
Building solidarity. Forging broad coalitions. Reclaiming our faith for justice. Grounding in our leadership as women. Keeping the true vision of our faiths– human dignity– alive for now and future generations.
Tyrants will try to convince us that our dream of dignity for all is impossible; unrealistic, or even undesirable.
But hope is born in our ability to imagine God’s vision of human dignity for all becoming a reality. That is why we are here in Chicago. As long as we continue to amplify that vision, then hope will power us and future generations to make it so.
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