As we reported on Friday, this comment on MSNBC from journalist Heidi Przybyla, who is also an investigative reporter for Politico, had a lot of people going, "What the heck?"
Here @MSNBC helpfully makes it clear their disdain for Christians in America.
— Wade Miller (@WadeMiller_USMC) February 23, 2024
She says that if you believe that your rights come from God, you aren’t a Christian, you are a Christian nationalist.
Somehow they seem to not mention that our own founding documents make this… pic.twitter.com/WTLMqcqTzg
The one thing that unites all of them because there is many different group orbiting Trump, but the thing that unites them as Christian nationalists, not Christians by the way, because Christian nationalist is very different, is that they believe that our rights as a Americans, as all human beings don't come from any earthly authority. They don't come from Congress, they don't come from the Supreme Court, they come from God.
She's ascribing a term to "Christians" and then declaring they aren't "Christians" because she says so, that they're "Christian nationalists"--which seems to be an attempt to make them sound frightening/dangerous.
But perhaps more importantly, what ties the "Christian Nationalists" together is apparently believing that our rights don't come from any earthly authority, they come from God.
But that's one of the founding principles of our nation, that we have rights from our Creator. And even if we don't believe in a Creator, that we have natural rights by virtue of our birth, not given to us by the government and so cannot be taken away by the government, even if Democrats seem to think they can be.
There was a big backlash on X to the comment, as one might expect.
Przybyla then tried to point to the full clip, where she talks about natural law being used "for good" in the case of the civil rights movement, as if to suggest it made her comment any better (it doesn't, in my opinion).
That is NOT what I said & you know it.
— Heidi Przybyla 🌺 (@HeidiReports) February 23, 2024
Why don't you play the full clip?
I said men are making their own policy interpretation of natural law. MLK did so w social justice.
You're welcome to as well but you don't speak for all Christians & certainly not for God. https://t.co/RwtNkKx2f4
Then she doubled down on the claim anyway.
Thank you.
— Heidi Przybyla 🌺 (@HeidiReports) February 23, 2024
While there are different wings of Christian Nationalism, they are bound by their belief that our rights come from God.
If you are Hindu, Jewish etc, this might help you understand the next part of my point, which is they are using this for a man-made policy agenda. https://t.co/7FoVJh1UTx
which distinguishes this from other Christians who leave these God-given rights at our inherent right to "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" -- vs banning abortion, contraception etc.
— Heidi Przybyla 🌺 (@HeidiReports) February 23, 2024
She should stop digging that hole already.
I'm pretty sure that a lot of Hindus and Jews also accept that basic American principle of rights coming from God/natural law, as well as all kinds of atheists and others of other religious persuasions. So, are we all Christian Nationalists because we have this belief as Americans? If she's attacking something else about the people she's painting as extremists, then why is she including this basic principle? The principle isn't nationalism; indeed, it is the best protection of the rights of the individual, and it's one of the things that made our founding so very special.
I'm not sure what nonsense she's trying to say in that last tweet but even there, she seems to not understand what she is talking about. The Declaration of Independence says people are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." "That among them," meaning not limited to. And I'm pretty sure that Catholics and others think that the right to life applies in the case of abortion. So, what is she even trying to say/do here, besides attack American principles?
Bishop Robert Barron, the bishop of the Diocese of Winona–Rochester, who hosted a documentary series, "Catholicism," that aired on PBS, completely took apart why this take was so dangerous.
Friends, I wanted to share some reflections with you concerning a recent clip I saw from @MSNBC, which was one of the most disturbing and frankly dangerous things I’ve ever seen in a political conversation. @HeidiReports @politico pic.twitter.com/3KO9LY4eXh
— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) February 23, 2024
He pointed out how it was Thomas Jefferson who made the claim about our rights, and that if they don't come from God, if they come from the government, they can be taken away by the government.
That's "opening the door to totalitarianism," Barron explained. God-given rights is one of the "sanest principles of our democratic governance."
Proud Jewish American here:
— American Accountability Foundation (@ExposingBiden) February 23, 2024
We believe pretty much the exact same thing as the "Christian Nationalists" as you describe it
Does that mean we are Jewish Christian Nationalists?
Please advise https://t.co/MhS8m8Wnhj
Sorry, but as a Hindu, even I think this spin is ridiculous.
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) February 24, 2024
Each person has their own faith. But whether religious or not, believing that your rights are natural born, and inherent to very humanity and being, is NOT a specific religious belief.
You are spinning here. https://t.co/QgDs4zIAF5
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