FRC scholar blasts declaration from ‘religious leaders’ denouncing ‘religious nationalism’

April 19, 2024

A scholar with the Family Research Council (FRC) is blasting a declaration by a group of Christian clergy, theologians and scholars that he says attempts to paint Bible-believing Christians as subversives.

The Christian Post reports that David Closson, who serves as director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at FRC, criticized the New Haven Declaration as a “trojan horse” being used to smuggle a progressive agenda into Christianity.

Closson told the Christian Post: “This is nothing new. Over the last couple of years, the boogeyman of Christian nationalism has been raised by folks on the progressive Left, from the Biden campaign to people like Bill Maher. I remember after the January 6 incident, they were trying to blame Christian nationalism.”

The group behind the New Haven Declaration, led by Bishop William J. Barber II, alleges that what it calls “Christian nationalism” is echoing the Third Reich and promoting “distorted religious nationalism.” The group claims that, “A well-funded, coordinated political movement has co-opted our faith tradition and is exploiting so-called ‘traditional values’ to undermine democracy and divide people across this land.”

The signers of the declaration do not elaborate on what is meant by “traditional values” and say they seek:  “to launch a season of preaching the moral issues of living wages and union rights, healthcare and ecological justice, an end to the spilling of innocent blood, a re-imagination of criminal justice, and the protection and expansion of voting rights and equal protection guarantees.”

Closson predicts that the debate will only intensify as the 2024 presidential election draws near, stating: “I think that the phrase and the allegations of Christian nationalism are only going to increase, and I really do think the goal behind that movement is to try to intimidate and silence conservative Evangelicals and Catholics from fully participating in the public square.”

Photo: top, Credit: Noam Galai/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative