A Line Crossed: AP Demonizes Christian Conservatives
The nation this week commemorated the 78th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. On that day, June 6, 1944, allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in Operation Overlord – and thus changed the course of human history. In announcing the invasion to the American people President Franklin D. Roosevelt lead the nation in prayer saying our sons had set upon a “mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization.”
President Roosevelt’s prayer brought comfort to a nation which knew many lives would be lost in a highly risky mission. Had Roosevelt prayed that prayer today the formerly respected and once relatively unbiased Associated Press would likely label him a “Christian nationalist.”
In recent years the “AP” as Associated Press is known has unabashedly embraced the language of the Left in its reporting. Republican candidates are frequently termed “far Right,” but few Democrats are identified as being “far Left.” The slanted descriptions used by AP extend to issues. For example the abortion debate is framed as a battle over “abortion rights,” never of a fight to “protect the unborn.”
AP crossed the line recently with what can only be descripted as a hit piece on Christian conservatives. The article employed a variety of rhetorical devices all designed to present Christian conservatives – Christian Nationalists as they derisively call us – as some sort of radical fringe movement going so far as to quote one Left wing mouthpiece as saying “white Christian nationalism is really the threat.”
Threat to what exactly?
It is a threat to Socialism.
It is a basic precept of the socialist/communist/Marxist agenda that the state must replace religion. Therefore any injection of religion – especially Judeo/Christian religions – is a dagger to the heart of the socialist movement that has hijacked the Democratic Party. The Left has also unleashed a brutal assault on American history and culture euphemistically referring to it as a “transformation” of society with government dominating every aspect of our personal lives.
The starting point for the AP screed against Christian conservatives was state Senator Doug Mastriano’s unexpectedly large win over a crowded field of candidates in Pennsylvania’s recent gubernatorial primary. Mastriano frequently invokes scripture – his signature slogan “Walk as Free People” is biblically inspired, and (gasp) he ran afoul of Left-wing orthodoxy by actually quoting Scripture during his victory speech.
The AP ominously reported that Mastriano is “the most prominent example this election cycle of what some observers call a surge of Christian nationalism among Republican candidates.” Of course the “some observers” interviewed for the hit piece were a collection of Left-wing academics and special interest groups either ignorant of American history and/or anxious to re-write it to fit their socialist goals.
The legacy news media rarely, if ever, writes of Doug Mastriano without placing the “far Right” description before his name. Interestingly, the most far Left candidate ever nominated for a statewide office in Pennsylvania is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate John Fetterman, who is almost never identified as “far Left” candidate John Fetterman – even though he is an actual socialist.
As an example of Mastriano’s “far Right” beliefs cited by the AP is the fact the GOP gubernatorial nominee correctly called separation of church and state a “myth.” I defy anyone to find the words “separation of church and state” in the U.S. constitution. The Left mischaracterizes the First Amendment as having a separation clause when it fact it has an establishment clause prohibiting the naming of an official government religion.
In what apparently was news to AP the article again quotes the Left-wing intelligentsia saying: “Scholars generally define Christian nationalism as going beyond policy debates and championing a fusion of American and Christian values, symbols and identity.” Such has been the case since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. America was founded by various groups of individuals seeking to escape religious persecution by coming to the New World.
The “fusion of American and Christian values” has been invoked by Presidents from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to the previously referenced Franklin D. Roosevelt. Presidents end their oath of office with the words “so help me God,” our coins say “in God We Trust,” Presidential speeches frequently end with “God bless America.”
Christian values are inextricable woven into the fabric of our nation’s history and culture. That they are antithetical to the socialist movement is why they pose such a threat to the Left and its apologists in the news media. The fact they continue to portray those who wish to preserve our nation’s rich heritage in diabolical terms is proof positive they know they are failing in their effort to rewrite history.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal and American Radio Journal. His e-mail address is [email protected].)
Permission to reprint is granted provided author and affiliation are cited.
