Letters to the Editor: Christian nationalists’ agenda is a danger to American democracy
To the editor: Robin Abcarian’s piece artfully describes the push by Christian nationalists to turn back the clock on decades of American social progress. These “Christians” are pursuing a white supremacist ideology masquerading as a religion and Donald Trump is “their vessel and their wrecking ball.” In this zealous quest, they are being actively assisted by the conservative majority of the Roberts court. By seeking to push the country away from two of the most fervent aims of the Founders — the elimination of the trappings of monarchy and the escape from religious intolerance — they are returning America not to the 1950s, but to the 1760s.
Noel Johnson, Glendale
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To the editor: Thank you to Robin Abcarian for shining a light into the dark corners of the rapidly-expanding Christian Nationalist movement. Stories like this should be featured far more prominently in the mainstream media so that people are made aware of secretive, anti-democratic organizations like the innocuous-sounding Council for National Policy and their interconnectedness with other extreme conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation.
The Project 2025 document produced by the Heritage Foundation is horrifying in its goals of demolishing government and concentrating power in the hands of their hand-picked executive branch puppet — currently Donald Trump.
The president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, recently commented that the country is in the midst of a “second American revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be” and added that the group is “in the process of taking this country back.” Back to the dark ages, it seems.
Lynn Eames, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Reading Robin Abcarian’s column reinforced for me that the most important issue facing us in the upcoming election is that our democracy hinges on people understanding what is at stake and voting to preserve it.
The issue is not Biden vs. Trump and whether to replace either on the ballot — the horses in the race have been chosen. The Times would best serve its readers, democracy and itself by focusing on the elements in Project 2025, discussing one or two points every day. If you want to get into polling, forget the candidates, address the issues and how people stand on the elements of Project 2025. Cover their actions and proposals, not what they say.
If The Times did, they would be serving the people, the fourth estate and likely displace another paper as the nation’s paper of record.
Andrea Portenier, Oceanside
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To the editor: Robin Abcarian correctly describes Christian nationalism as “a white supremacist political ideology masquerading as religion.” It is precisely because its adherents are “pretend Christians” that they are able to embrace Mr. Trump.
I differ with Ms. Abcarian only in her dating the origin of the Christian nationalist movement back only 50-odd years. In fact, it dates back at least 150 years, to the pre-Civil War Know Nothing Party. Any candid description of the positions of the Know Nothing Party is eerily applicable to the MAGA folks.
People who wonder how such a large body of professed Christians could embrace an immoral fraudster need to understand that there is no conflict in the minds of those folks. They are not looking for or interested in a Christian leader. They are looking for someone to help them pull the nation back from centuries of struggle to realize its foundational ideals.
We may lack a uniformly shared ancestry, but we embrace a shared expectation that has proven capable of binding us together: The only thing special about America or Americans is the firm certainty that there is nothing more deserving or special, about any one religion, class or ancestry. The only thing America asks newcomers to leave behind is any insistence that they are more deserving than anyone else.
Jack Quirk, Porter Ranch
