Tag Archives: Christian nationalism

political news, State news

Is this young man the one?

For a good while I have been yammering about the need for the major political parties to rally around an unknown politician, someone who emerges suddenly with a fresh voice, spoken from a fresh perspective.

I believe the Texas Democratic Party has a chance to bring such a young man to the foreftont of the political stage.

If you haven’t heard the name James Talarico, my hunch is that you will quite soon. Talarico brings a perspective to Democratic politics one likely didn’t see coming. He’s a deeply devoted and faithful Christian. He leans heavily on New Testament Scripture to illustrate his policy stances. Talarico taught school in San Antonio. He now serves in the Texas House of Representatives and is standing for general Democratic principles while waging fights with his Republican colleagues.

I like this young man’s approach to problem solving. I like it a lot!

My former favorite for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate race in 2026 is former congressman Colin Allred, who boasted continually in 2024 about his strong polling against Sen. Ted Cruz … only to lose by double digits on Election Day. Allred is making another run at the U.S. Senate. I wish him well, but I am leaning heavily toward James Talarico.

I am not naive. It is going to take a monstrous effort by Talarico to overturn decades of GOP dominance in statewide elective public office. It seems to be his best course toward victory would be if Republicans nominate Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a man with more political wounds than any politician I have ever seen. He’s been attacked by his own AG staff, impeached by the Texas House, divorced by his wife because he cheated on her. This guy is seriously damaged.

I cannot find that kind of blemish on Talarico’s record. I do see a young man who is unafraid to proclaim his religious faith … but he doesn’t support the Christian nationalist agenda of melding religion into government policy. He wants to keep religion where it belongs, in houses of worship, and away from public schools, county courthouses and city halls.

He has jumped out of the tall grass and will seek to do the seemingly impossible in a state where Republicans stand tall over the political landscape. I am going to do what I can to help James Talarico advance his message.

political news, religious news

Perverts preaching Christian doctrine

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Jesus Christ would be appalled at what passes these days for teaching in his name.

There. I said out loud what has been gnawing at me for decades.

OK, I have to acknowledge that as a Christian, I must assume that Jesus knows what is happening. After all, the son of God, is … well, God, right? So he knows.

This notion of Christian nationalism, though, is beginning to bother me in the extreme. It presumes the nation’s founders created a nation steeped in Christian teaching, that the nation adheres to Christianity and that it ignores or dismisses the faith of others who happen to be devoted to a deity other than Jesus Christ.

I have read the New Testament since, oh, I was a little boy. That is more than 70 years! I don’t profess to know what every chapter and verse says. But I have learned that I am entitled to interpret it as narrowly or broadly as I choose.

On most matters, I take a broad view of what the Bible tells us.

These so-called Christian nationalists also seem to take an overly broad view of what Jesus taught us while he walked the Earth. He said his way was the only way to heaven. I get that part. What I cannot swallow is the notion of condemning others who do not follow Jesus’s teaching. That is what I hear the Christian nationalists doing.

Is that in keeping with what Jesus taught the world? No. It isn’t. Those who purport that it is have perverted the holy word to a level I do not — and cannot — recognize.

They inject their version of Christianity into our secular politics where, in my ever-so-humble view, it does not belong. I believe strongly that religion belongs exclusively in houses of worship, not on street corners or in campaign rallies.

medical news, national news, religious news

Court goes way beyond what is decent

The Alabama supreme court has issued a ruling that is going to reverberate all over the nation, as it endangers a medical practice that allows couples to welcome children into this deeply troubled world.

The court has ruled that embryos are “children,” and that the destruction of embryos that are not implanted into women’s bodies via in vitro fertilization theoretically could be construed as “murder.”

This despicable ruling is a nod by the court to the Christian nationalist movement in Alabama and it well could be — and should be — challenged as violating the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

This one hits many millions of Americans right where they live. Indeed, a member of my family gave birth some years ago to twins after she and her husband decided to seek an IVF procedure. Had the court ruling issued in Alabama had been in force in the state where they live, this couple could not have welcomed their son and daughter into the world.

The First Amendment declares that Congress must not enact any law that establishes a state religion. The Alabama high court has thumbed its nose at the amendment and declared that if Christian nationalists want to declare embryos to be children, then that’s all right. Let ’em have their say, the court has ruled.

This is crap. No, it’s worse than that. It is an evil intrusion into a couple’s most delicate decision-making process.

legal news, national news, political news

Statement causes chills

A declaration by a member of Congress didn’t receive nearly the attention it deserves; therefore, I will try to rectify it with this brief blog post.

U.S. Rep. What’s Her Name — aka Marjorie Taylor Greene — the Republican from Georgia, recently pronounced herself to be a “Christian nationalist.” I can’t recall the context of her comment or the venue in which she uttered it. All I can recall is her saying, “If you want to call me a Christian nationalist, then that’s what I am.”

That is a frightening thing to hear from a member of Congress.

I shall remind you once again that these individuals take an oath to “defend and protect the U.S. Constitution.” Indeed, I took such an oath in August 1968 when I was inducted into the U.S. Army, so I have some exposure to its meaning. I took it to mean, and I do so to this day, that I protect what the Constitution sets forth in its governing policy.

Rep. What’s Her Name needs to understand, too, what it means … but she ignores the obvious tenet of our nation’s government framework. It is that the Constitution establishes a secular government. It says in plain English in Article VI that there shall be “no religious test” required of anyone seeking public office.

The word “Christianity” is nowhere to be found in that document.

I know I have whipped this critter bloody already, but I will keep doing so until it sinks in. Christian nationalism seeks to turn the United States into a “Christian nation.” It isn’t. We are a nation with a population that comprises a strong majority of Christians as citizens. Our government was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and I am totally fine with that.

I am not fine with the notion that our Constitution somehow contains language that mandates our laws be faithful to New Testament scripture. So, for dipsh**s like Rep. What’s Her Name to suggest that it does reveals a remarkable level of ignorance about the very oath she took to uphold.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com