(RNS) — The Democratic Countrywide Committee has handed a resolution condemning “white spiritual nationalism,” declaring that “theocracy is incompatible with democracy and spiritual independence.”
The resolution was approved over the weekend as Democratic Occasion officials collected in Philadelphia for their wintertime conference. The resolution, place forward by additional than 30 co-sponsors from throughout the state, linked forms of spiritual nationalism to racist ideologies, arguing that “one of quite a few heinous things of white nationalism is its perversion of religion to make their hateful message extra palatable.”
The authors famous that religion leaders from across the religious spectrum have condemned religious nationalism — notably Christian nationalism or white Christian nationalism — in current yrs. They stated its influence was seen for the duration of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“White religious nationalism has applied the protect of patriotism to foment and inflame despise by giving address for racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and islamophobia,” the resolution study in part.
The doc, initial claimed by the Helpful Atheist Substack newsletter, went on to draw connections between religious nationalism and the Republican Occasion. The resolution implicitly joined the ideology to a variety of conservative efforts, such as the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision last summer season by the Supreme Court.
Michael Bearfoot, a Democratic delegate from Minnesota who submitted the resolution, celebrated its passage.
“White religious nationalism has an close aim of a white spiritual state,” Bearfoot reported in a statement to Religion Information Company. “This has no position for me as a black pagan. This is why I was very pleased to introduce this resolution and was content that it passed.”
Sarah Levin, who co-chairs of the DNC Interfaith Council as a secular representative, also praised the document.
“Since he was elected, President Biden has been warning People in america about the threats to our democracy on a number of fronts,” Levin reported in a assertion. “White Christian nationalism should be at the leading of that checklist, and for the sake of our democracy, it is time to phone it what it is.”
She afterwards extra: “By recognizing the link concerning this movement and the wide-ranging assaults on almost all the things Democrats are combating for, this resolution puts those people of us who believe that in democracy, flexibility and spiritual pluralism in a much better place to be a part of forces.”
The resolution comes as voices supporting Christian nationalism have developed louder. Customarily expressed by a spectrum of ideologies, calls for a Christian country and for constraints on non-Christian groups look to have introduced together quite a few extremist teams.
Some variants, this kind of as the wide range trumpeted by Andrew Torba, head of the controversial conservative social media site Gab, have been commonly condemned as antisemitic.
The DNC’s issue comes months right after on the internet character and white nationalist Nick Fuentes was claimed to have dined with former President Donald Trump in the corporation of the rapper Ye, also regarded as Kanye West.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who spoke at a conference arranged by Fuentes previous yr, is amongst a handful of notable Republicans who brazenly determine with Christian nationalism. Greene has identified as for the GOP to develop into the “party of Christian nationalism.”
When RNS polled extra than 50 prominent Republicans to request if they had any response to Greene’s rhetoric past 12 months, only two — Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina — responded. The lawmakers, each of whom are Christian, appealed to the price of the separation of church and state.