Do you doubt the choice is that stark? If so, read to the bottom of this guest opinion and then read again
and go to each link and read those documents as well.

Some of the troubling threads in today’s
political discourse, such as Christian Nationalism, are best understood with a
dive into history. To me, understanding
modern Christian Nationalism begins with assessing the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery, a papal bull issued in
1493 by Pope Alexander VI, “which claimed that any land, anywhere, not under
the flag of a sovereign Christian nation, could be taken by whoever
‘discovered’ it, and whatever indigenous people found there converted to
Christianity.” Not to be outdone in the
race to the New World, King Henry the VII, in 1496, issued a patent to John Cabot, which empowered him to
discover, claim and possess lands “which before this time were unknown to all
Christians.”

Together these decrees, in the name of
Christianity, gave the legal right to the explorers to subjugate or
enslave non-believers and take their lands, as well as to enslave African
people to bring to the New World. Notwithstanding the fact that in March 2023, Pope Francis repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, the
concepts by then had been deeply embedded in U.S. law as well as in the laws of
Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In
the United States, Thomas Jefferson, as secretary of State in 1792, claimed that the title
to the land held by England under the doctrine, now passed to this country as successor because of the victory in the Revolutionary War. This position was ratified by the U.S. Supreme
Court in 1823 in the Johnson vs McIntosh decision and came up as
recently as 2005 in the Sherril decision. There is clearly a streak of Christian
Nationalism in our history.

Modern proponents of Christian Nationalism
claim that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation. This claim, often unchallenged, clearly rests
on the shaky foundation of the now repudiated Doctrine of Discovery. The Constitution is a secular document; is
the supreme law of the land and makes no reference to Christianity or any other
religion. Many of the Founding Fathers,
including Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin and others were deists,
acknowledging a creator, but accepting no precepts of any organized
religion.

Thomas Jefferson went so far
as to cut and paste (literally using a razor and glue) the New Testament
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, into “The Life and Morals of Jesus”,
which removed mentions of miracles, the resurrection and passages that portray
Jesus as divine. This book is commonly
known as the Jefferson Bible. Jefferson
was clearly more in line with the principles of the Enlightenment and considered
himself to be a man of reason, rather than a member of any organized Christian
religion. He considered himself to be a
“sect of one”.

In fact, Jefferson and Madison together collaborated
between 1779 and 1786 in developing and eventually passing the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. This law formally disestablished the Church of England (also called
the Anglican Church) in Virginia and guaranteed freedom of religion to people
of all faiths. This was a watershed
moment in American history as it documented clearly the principle the Founding Fathers
held regarding the separation of church and dtate which was later enshrined in
the First Amendment establishment clause.

But perhaps no Founding Father had a more
deeply held philosophy of separation of church and state than Thomas Paine, as
laid out in the “Age of Reason.” Paine was a deist, quite critical of
organized Christianity in particular, who fiercely advocated for the personal
liberty to practice any religion (or no religion) and for a strong separation
between any church and the government.

And yet today, in many political races, we see
a majority of the Republican party captured by Christian Nationalists who not only do not
accept the separation of church and state, but also claim to have put on the so
called “full armor of God” to conduct “spiritual warfare” threatening our cherished
democratic republic with an authoritarian religious takeover.

Christian Nationalism can be seen not so much
as a more traditional political Christian movement but rather an authoritarian anti-democratic
movement within a religion.

There are a
number of umbrella organizations in open pursuit of these ideas such as
the Seven Mountain Mandate, the Patriot Academy and the New Apostolic Reform, which counts
Speaker Mike Johnson as a member and who flies the “Appeal to Heaven” banner,
adopted by the NAR outside his office in the U.S. Capitol. The same banner has flown over Justice Samuel
Alito’s residence and was carried by the insurrectionists who stormed the
Capitol on Jan. 6, 2020.

Proponents of
the Seven Mountain Mandate believe “that Christians are called to dominate
seven key spheres of society: government, media, education, business, arts and
entertainment, family, and religion.” The New York Times Magazine recently documented how right wing
Christian extremist billionaires in Texas have put significant sums of money
behind state and national candidates who are true believers in the Dominionist
ideologies like those of the NAR and Seven Mountain Mandates. Doug Mastriano, an outspoken anti-democratic
authoritarian Christian Nationalist garnered 40% of the vote in Pennsylvania
but fortunately lost, this time.

There is a significant pushback by some
Christian authors such as Rev. Jim Wallis, in his recent book “False White
Gospel” and theologian Andre Gagne. The United Methodist Council of Bishops have
publicly condemned Christian nationalism, claiming that it fundamentally
contradicts God’s love and prioritizes power over compassion. Even conservative Baptists argue against Christian
Nationalism. But Jim Wallis points out
that if the anti-democratic authoritarian Christians, who are seeking power by
distorting Jesus’ message of love, compassion and care for the immigrant
stranger, cannot be persuaded, then they must be defeated at the ballot box.

Here in Southern Arizona, we have the chance
to do just that. Kari Lake, running for
Senate, recently promised reporters she
would be their “worst fricking nightmare,” she also vowed that “we
will reform the media as well.” That comment is consistent with the Seven Mountain Mandate. Lake, who
denies the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election, has been compared to a
prophet in a recent charismatic post.

Juan Ciscomani, running in Arizona’s 6th Congressional
District, was a board member for 14 years of the Torch of Freedom, which
governs the Patriot Academy which not only wants a
national abortion ban, but also to rewrite the Constitution to eliminate the
separation between church and state. 

The
Patriot Academy, which trains young people as young as 11 in “spiritual
warfare” including the use of automatic weapons, is clearly an extreme Christian
Nationalist organization, but Ciscomani falsely claims to be a moderate
Republican. Beware the wolf masquerading
in sheepskin.

In this election, all Arizonans, regardless of
their personal religious beliefs, should vote to protect the separation of
church and state and our personal freedoms under threat from the anti-democratic
authoritarian candidates Kari Lake and Juan Ciscomani by voting for Ruben
Gallego and Kirsten Engel.