Christianists are advocates of fundamentalist Christian beliefs. The word “Christianist” is an intentional analog to Islamist, which means advocacy of militant or fundamentalist Islamic beliefs. Modern Christian fundamentalism began in the 19th century in opposition to modernism, with roots in anti-enlightenment philosophies rejecting reason, science, and some freedoms. Instead Fundamentalism favored decisions based upon a literal interpretation of the bible.

Christianists differ from Christian fundamentalists in their desire to legislate, discriminate, manipulate, and at worst, resort to terrorism in support of their views. While I disagree with fundamentalism, I fully support religious freedom for people to have, express, and live by fundamentalist views, but Christianists are different. Like Islamists, Christianists are not merely expressing religious freedom. They are trying to impose their restrictive, discriminatory, and judgmental views on the rest of society. This has, sadly, become intertwined in modern conservative politics to the point that freedom is threatened by Republicans acting on the Christianist agenda continuously.

We need to call out Christianists on the lies that allow them to promote their agenda, and we need to do it every chance we get:

• People trying to legislate religion or interfere with education based upon religion are religious extremists. Christianist are sneakily trying to establish a theocracy or a Christian caliphate, while saying they just are practicing their faith. This is un-American, anti-Democracy, against the Constitution, and threat to all freedom and the future of our country.
• The views of Christianists are not the views of most mainstream Christians, but by playing the “Christian card”, they get support from other Christians. Christianists market the idea that America is a “Christian nation”, and this appeals to other Christians, however our founding fathers did not intend it to be a Christian nation, but a free nation. Our founding fathers were Christians, free masons, deists, and atheists; and none of them would have supported the merger between church and state that Christianists want.
• Discrimination is not religious freedom. We have rights, and we have laws to balance our rights with the rights and wellbeing of others. Absolute freedom is not democracy but anarchy.
• The argument that Christianists should be able the discriminate against LGBTQ people or women or other religion may sound like “religious freedom”, but the same argument could be made for murder. The bible says that people who work on the Sabbath should be stoned to death. If we let the Christianists have freedom to do whatever the bible says, then they should have the freedom to kill people by biblical law. That sounds ridiculous. It is. The discrimination argument is no more valid, but they have manipulated the public to believe it is.
• While Christian extremists have the right to live by their generally unpopular views because we have religious freedom, they are essentially attacking the very rights thatallow them to practice their extreme religion. In other words, they want religious freedom but only for themselves. That is not freedom; it is religious tyranny, which the Constitution is designed to prevent, not protect.
• Christianists cherry-pick the parts of the bible that they choose to enforce. The bible forbids eating shellfish and pork just as much as it forbids fornication, but you don’t see Christianists protesting Red Lobster and Hormel. They aren’t demanding that we outlaw these foods. Many of them eat these foods, and work on the Sabbath, and wear clothes made from blended fabrics – all things forbidden in the bible. Their worldview is inconsistent and self-serving, It is not the foundation for either morality or law.
• Insistence that the bible be read literally has created an anti-science and anti-education movement. It is making America dumber and less competitive globally. The bible says the Earth is flat. You can’t argue against science based upon the bible. People have for over a thousand years, and the bible always loses. If people want to reject modern society and everything science gives for us, they have the right to turn off their GPS and internet and go live in the woods, but they need to stop trying to interfere with progress, science, and education for the rest of us.
• At their worst, Christianists are terrorists. Bombing an abortion clinic based upon “Christian values” is no different than Muslims blowing things up based upon their religious values. We need to call it what it is: terrorism and religious extremism.
• We need to challenge Christian extremists on how Christian they really are. They seem to be unfamiliar with the words of Christ. Christ preached love, peace, and tolerance. Christ favored the poor. The behavior of Christianists, and the laws they argue for, are decidedly against the teachings of Christ. Their views draw more of Old Testament biblical law and the writings of Paul, which should be less important than the views of Christ himself, if you are going to call yourself a “Christian”.
• Christianists have thrown in with conservative groups like the neo-Nazi alt-right and Trump’s administration. These are groups selling hate and discrimination. What is Christian about that?

One of the great failures of freedom and liberalism since the eighties is that we have allowed Christianists to normalize the idea of legislating their religious views, and we have allowed them to infest every level of government with people more concerned with enforcing a narrow view of “Christian morality” than the good of the country, truth, or freedom. Call them out. Say, “This is not freedom. This is against the Constitution. And this is not even a good expression of the teachings of Christ”.