From Amanpour & Co. to the PBS NewsHour, public television is all over the threat of “Christian Nationalism” as the 2024 presidential campaign gathers steam. Thursday evening’s edition featured perhaps the most conservative-hostile reporter on News Hour‘s staff, White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez, to offer its trademark taxpayer-funded liberal alarmism regarding devout Trump supporters.
Anchor William Brangham set things up: “The phrase ‘white Christian nationalism’ has been in the headlines quite a bit recently, but what does it really mean?”
Barron-Lopez’s introduction to her featured expert Brad Onishi left nothing mysterious about his ideological bent.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Brad Onishi is a former evangelical minister who once identified as a Christian nationalist himself. He left the church in 2005 and began studying religion from the outside, including extremism. He now hosts the popular podcast “Straight White American Jesus” and is the author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next. I began by asking him what that term actually means.
Brad Onishi: Christian nationalism is an ideology that is based around the idea that this is a Christian nation, that this was founded as a Christian nation, and, therefore, it should be a Christian nation today and should be so in the future. According to survey data, Christian nationalists agree with statements like the federal government should declare the United States of America a Christian nation. Our laws should be based on Christian values. Being a Christian is important if you want to be a real American.
The focus fell on one Christian sect in particular, the New Apostolic Reformation, fairly obscure save for on the alarmist left-wing of America.
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Barron-Lopez: Onishi tracks a number of subgroups and ideas under the umbrella of white Christian nationalism, including what’s known as the New Apostolic Reformation.
Onishi: Well, the New Apostolic Reformation is notable for a number of reasons. One, it’s built around the idea that Christians are called to a new transformation or reformation of the United States. These are Christians who want to revolutionize the way that our country looks, and to make it great again in terms of being a Christian nation….the New Apostolic Reformation leaders, the apostles and the prophets that are really at the head of this movement were some of the earliest to support Donald Trump in 2016. And they have remained steadfast in that support. They were at the very avant-garde of trying to get the 2020 election overturned in the wake of Joe Biden’s victory and mobilizing folks to be at January 6. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of New Apostolic Reformation Christians at January 6, as an example.
After trying to establish a third-hand connections between House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and the January 6 rioters, Onishi tried more guilt by association, highlighting a flag that hangs outside Johnson’s office. (It’s quite a contrast with their softball treatment of House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries.)
Onishi: One of the most frightening things, I think, about Mike Johnson is the flag he hangs outside of his office, an Appeal to Heaven Flag. The Appeal to Heaven Flag goes back to the Revolutionary War, George Washington. It was inspired by John Locke….If you look closely at January 6, you will see dozens of Appeal to Heaven Flags. It may have a long history, but in the contemporary context, it has a very specific meaning. So the fact that Mike Johnson has it hanging outside of his office to me signifies how he understands his role as speaker of the House in terms of being a Christian and being an American.
Barron-Lopez took Onishi’s paranoid style seriously and reached out to Johnson’s office, which responded, “The speaker has long appreciated the rich history of the flag. Any implication that the Speaker’s use of the flag is connected to the events of January 6 is wildly inaccurate.”
There’s quite a contrast regarding how “radical” forms of various religions and political leaders are treated on PBS. The Democratic Muslim mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, Abdullah Hahmoud, recently received a sympathetic News Hour interview over his snub of President Joe Biden over the president’s support for Israel over Hamas. There was no questioning or suspicions raised about radical Islamic pro-Hamas protests in his city, documented by the Wall Street Journal.
This segment was brought to you in part by BDO.
LifeNews Note: Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times. Click here to follow Clay Waters on Twitter.
