TP O’Mahony: Many in US believe God has a mission that can ignore democracy

Supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol. As the mob occupied the Capitol it was noticeable that, along with Confederate flags, there were crucifixes and placards saying 'Jesus Saves' and 'In God We Trust' on display.

January 6 marks a year since television viewers across the world watched events unfolding in Washington DC that might have been scenes from a dystopian novel.

What horrified viewers were witnessing was the storming of the Capitol building by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump.

The defeated president had egged them on with an inflammatory speech in which his supporters were urged to “fight” to take back their country and to overturn the result of a “stolen’ election.

All of this was just two weeks before the inauguration of Joe Biden in the building described by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, as the “citadel of American democracy”.

As the mob occupied the halls, offices and chambers of the Capitol it was noticeable that, along with Confederate flags, there were crucifixes and placards saying “Jesus Saves” and “In God We Trust” on display. And some of Trump’s followers even knelt on the marble floors in prayer.

What was going on? Now the authors of a new book entitled Taking America Back for God have issued a warning about the growth of “Christian Nationalism” in the United States. This, they say, is a sign of a major restructuring of religion in America.

God's plan

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 this week, Andrew Whitehead, one of the two sociologists who have written the new book, explained that Christian nationalists “believe that God has a particular plan for America and if democracy gets in the way of that mission, then democracy itself should be brushed away”.

The authors — the other sociologist is Samuel Perry of the University of Oklahoma — say Christian nationalism is a quest for power and the privileging of white ethnic identity, and its adherents are committed to defending American Christian identity.

They regard Donald Trump — despite his many overt moral failings - as the agent best placed to fulfil God’s mission for the USA and bring about a restructuring of America within the framework of Christian nationalism. One of their core beliefs is that black Americans, even if they are Christians, are not “true” Americans.

President Donald Trump prays with American pastor Andrew Brunson in the Oval Office of the White House.  Trump's supporters believe he is  best placed to fulfil God’s mission for the USA.

Whitehead says that Christian nationalists believe that to be American is to be Christian and to be Christian is to be American — but this refers to whites only. This creates an “us versus them” ideology which Trump exploited during his four years in the White House.

So racism linked to white supremacy, xenophobia, as well as sexism, are correlated to Christian nationalism. On social issues like the border wall with Mexico, school prayer, gun control, LGBTQ rights, and abortion, a religiously-based conservatism permeates the religious Right in the US.

Much has been made, for instance, of the fact that 81% of evangelical Christians (mostly associated with Protestant churches in the southern states) voted for Trump in 2016 (as well as 43% of Catholics, many of whom support the death penalty).

It has always been the case, of course, that the religiosity of American society stands in marked contrast to the spread of secularisation in Europe.

“Despite the explicit separation of church and state provided for by the US Constitution, the level of religious belief in the United States (and the concomitant significance of religion in American life and political discourse) rivals that of many theocracies,” according to Sam Harris, author of The Moral Landscape.

Religion matters significantly in American public life, and before Donald Trump the Christian Right helped to elect Ronald Reagan and George W Bush.

But, as the attempted coup on January 6 last in Washington DC showed in dramatic fashion, religion is now being weaponised in a much more toxic and divisive way in support of a blatantly racist and anti-democracy ideology.

Christian nationalists see their privileged access to power being threatened by changing demographics and the spread of pluralism, says Professor Whitehead.

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They will support democracy so long as it delivers the results they want, but as the insurrection of 6 January showed, they will work to overturn it when it doesn’t.

On the basis of the central thesis of Taking America Back for God, the polarisation and fracturing of American society which has become a major characterisation of the Trump presidency is going to continue and deepen.

Joe Biden’s plea for unity during his inaugural address has patently failed to penetrate the mainstream of American life. And Donald Trump hasn’t gone away.