According to Rachel Laser, President & CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the end goal of Christian nationalism is securing power and privilege for a select few – namely European Christians and those who pass a narrow religious litmus test. Democracy, by contrast, is about equality for all. And the end goal of Christian nationalism can’t be accomplished without the toppling of democracy because a majority of Americans would never embrace their political project.
“Christian nationalism is on the march across this entire country, emboldened by fear generated from the change in demographics in this country, the social changes that have been taking place and by the Make America Great Again [MAGA] movement,” said Laser. “It is especially visible in the realms of abortion bans and contraception restrictions which impose one narrow religious view on all of us, LGBTQ equality attacks, and the undermining of public education.”
Those three realms are places where white Christian nationalism is showing up a lot. In the Central Bucks and Pennridge School Districts, AU had been seeing massive efforts around banning books and censoring curricula by previous Republican school board majorities, especially when they’re featuring LGBTQ+ people and racial and religious minorities.
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“Private school vouchers – the diverting of public funds to private religious schools that indoctrinate and often discriminate – is also a hot topic in Pennsylvania with Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro voicing support for expanding Pennsylvania’s existing voucher program,” said Laser. “And a new program was proposed for the last two years and it narrowly did not get enough support in the legislature. Chaplain bills that are rapidly becoming laws in states like Florida, Texas, and Louisiana, they allow public schools to replace certified school counselors with chaplains.”
PA State Representative David Zimmerman proposed a similar bill earlier this year, but Laser said it hasn’t moved thus far.
AU has also seen efforts to allow public schools to teach creationism. “In West Virginia, they passed a law that is intended to pave the way for science teachers to teach creationism in science classes,” said Laser. “A Pennridge school board member this summer said she wants kids to be taught – both sides – about evolution and climate change during a curriculum meeting. So, both sides framing is code for creationism and intelligent design, neither of which should be taught in public schools.”
Pennridge District also made headlines in 2022 for promoting a religion-based tutoring program that would teach science from a biblical creationist perspective. AU weighed in and voiced their concerns at the time.
Religious displays in public schools are also a Christian nationalist campaign right now across the country. “We recently saw Louisiana pass into law a requirement that all public-school classrooms display one version of the 10 Commandments, something that legislators in Oklahoma and Texas have also proposed,” said Laser. “A Central Pennsylvania legislator, Representative Perry Stambaugh, proposed a bill this year to allow the display of In God We Trust in public schools. The bill hasn’t moved, but it’s another effort to signal that America is a Christian country and to impose one form of religion on all families and students.”
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In the realm of abortion bans and birth control, the Little Sisters of the Poor Supreme Court case upheld the Trump administration’s birth control rule, which allows lawyers and universities to cite religious beliefs to deny birth control access to workers and students. In the realm of foster care discrimination based on religion, in a case called Fulton vs. Philadelphia that the Supreme Court ruled on in 2021, Laser said the court allowed a tax funded foster care agency to reject LGBTQ+ parents, ruling on a technical clause in the contract, but allowing religious discrimination with taxpayer dollars.
“Project 2025 is a 900-page playbook for restructuring the federal government to advance the ultimate goals of Christian nationalists, overthrowing American democracy, and installing a form of theocracy that takes away our freedom,” said Laser. “Church state separation is the antidote that can stop this Project 2025 agenda from coming to fruition and stop Christian nationalists from taking power. That’s because church state separation prevents the government from codifying and giving favor to any one set of religious views over any others or over non-religious.”
Project 2025 was spearheaded largely by Christian nationalists working in tandem with far right activists and former Trump officials through the Heritage Foundation. One ultimate goal is to take away Americans’ freedom to live as themselves and believe as they choose.
In the realm of white Christian nationalism, Project 2025 would eliminate the Department of Education and divert public funds to private religious schools. “It would promote biblically based family structures and roll back the rights of LGBTQ+ people in employment, education, healthcare, and social services,” said Laser. “It would ban the most accessible form of abortion–medical abortion–and limit reproductive healthcare, including ramping up what it calls abortion surveillance.”
“It erects roadblocks to racial justice, including the government denying that American history has ever been racist and perversely using our anti-discrimination laws against those who are claiming racism,” said Laser. “And finally, the agenda would redefine religious freedom as a license to discriminate, approving of cases like what happened to our clients, Liz and Gabe Rutan-Ram in Tennessee, who were turned away from being able to work with their local taxpayer funded foster care agency because they’re Jewish.”
Those are just some of the aspects of this policy agenda in Project 2025, said Laser, but they’re in lockstep with Christian nationalist goals and with what is already happening in many parts of the country, including parts of Pennsylvania.
This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.
