(LifeSiteNews) — A Politico journalist declared Friday on MSNBC that what unites “Christian nationalists” is their belief that human rights “come from God,” suggesting that such a belief is dangerous for the country.
“There are a lot of groups orbiting Trump, but the thing that unites them as Christian nationalists — not Christians, by the way, because Christian nationalists is very different — is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court, they come from God,” Heidi Przybyla told MSNBC’s Michael Steele.
“The problem is that… men are determining what God is telling them,” Przybyla added.
Her remarks were swiftly rebuked for ignoring the fact that the U.S. Declaration of Independence explicitly states, as one of the country’s founding principles: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
Ethics and public theology professor Andrew T. Walker slammed her statements on X as “a civics failure, a talent failure, an intelligence failure, a historical failure, an ethics failure.”
Believing rights come from God is now Christian Nationalism.
This is a civics failure, a talent failure, an intelligence failure, a historical failure, an ethics failure… shall I keep going?
Elites we will always have. But my heavens, we need better elites. https://t.co/4zf7YSKQVV
— Andrew T. Walker (@andrewtwalk) February 23, 2024
Bishop Robert Barron warned that Przybyla’s claim that human rights come from our government, and not God, “open(s) the door to totalitarianism.”
“It was one of the most disturbing and frankly dangerous things I’ve ever seen in a political conversation,” Bishop Barron said in a video address posted to X on Friday.
Friends, I wanted to share some reflections with you concerning a recent clip I saw from @MSNBC, which was one of the most disturbing and frankly dangerous things I’ve ever seen in a political conversation. @HeidiReports @politico pic.twitter.com/3KO9LY4eXh
— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) February 23, 2024
He explained that if human rights “come from the government, they can be taken away by those same people,” and pointed out that “government exists to secure these rights, not to produce them.”
“It’s further evidence of this extreme hostility on the left now toward religion. Precisely as an American I want to hold that my rights come not from something as vacillating and unreliable as Congress or the Supreme Court. They come from God,” Barron said.
At least a few commentators pointed out that Przybyla is trying to portray “normal” Americans and “mainstream” Christians as radicals. Wade Miller, the executive director of Citizens for Renewing America, remarked on X that in this conversation with the Politico journalist “MSNBC helpfully makes it clear their disdain for Christians in America.
Przybyla made clear during her MSNBC appearance that she further takes issue with so-called “Christian nationalists” because what she refers to as an “extremist element of Christian conservatives” argue that “issues like abortion, gay marriage,” and in vitro fertilization are founded on natural law.
In a Politico piece warning of presidential candidate Donald Trump’s intention to infuse “Christian nationalism” into his hopeful next administration, Przybyla noted that while the natural law “is a core pillar of Catholicism, in recent decades it’s been used to oppose abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and contraception.”
She further elaborated here on her conception of what defines Christian nationalism, although she admitted that the documents obtained from the the Center for Renewing America think tank, upon which her “warning” was based, “do not outline specific Christian nationalist policies.”
Przybyla emphasized that Russell Vought, “who is frequently cited as a potential chief of staff in a second Trump White House,” holds to the Christian and foundational American belief that “our rights and duties are understood to come from God.”
She further explained in her Politico article that Christian nationalists “believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life.”
On Friday, Przybyla posted to X a hit piece on the Alabama chief justice who affirmed that embryos are children. The HuffPost article claimed that Justice Tom Parker’s belief that “God created government” is “at odds with a functioning, pluralistic society.”