In a recent interview on conservative talk radio, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick cast the policy debate over LGBTQ rights as a holy war. At the ten minute mark, Patrick said:
“If you can change your sex…well, then you play God…This is a battle of those who believe that they are God and have control over life and death and even their sex, and those who believe there is a Creator, who believe in God, believe in Jesus Christ.”
Framing opposition to LGBTQ equality as a religious “battle” is out of step with what people of faith believe in 2022. Respected, national polling shows that the majority of religious groups affirm LGBTQ equality. Commanding majorities of Catholics of color (87%); Jewish Americans (85%); Hindus (85%); white mainline Protestants (82%); white Catholics (80%); black Protestants (78%); and Muslims (75%) all support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ persons. Even six in ten white evangelical Protestants—historically the largest block of opposition to LGBTQ legal rights—now support nondiscrimination measures in jobs, public accommodations, and housing.
Framing a policy issue as a religious conflict also has serious constitutional implications. The Founding Fathers foresaw the day that elected officials would seek to amass greater power by rallying religious groups for electoral gain using the language of holy war. Fortunately, they protected us with the Religion Clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
Texas Impact’s primer, Equal Liberty, provides a history of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses; the landmark jurisprudence; and principles for the executive and legislative branches to apply so that their actions stay within those constitutional mandates.
Nationally and in Texas, many Christian leaders are increasingly concerned that “holy war” rhetoric is associated with Christian nationalism, which is defined as a political ideology that “seeks to merge Christian and American identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy.” People of all faiths should find it alarming that strains of Christian nationalism would underlie comments from an elected official.
Christian nationalist rhetoric from elected officials is nothing new in American political life. We see it every election cycle. However, we must remain vigilant against its divisive intent—for example, by bearing witness that LGBTQ persons have religious beliefs, and that most religious traditions affirm LGBTQ persons.
So long as “We The People” understand that religious freedom is not a zero-sum game, but an equal right each individual possesses, then we’ll be innoculated against un-American ideas like Christian nationalism. However, if we forget that separation of church and state protects the religious freedom of all, or that Free Exercise is equally shared by LGBTQ persons, then our constitutional norms may erode—and the truly unprecedented prospect of holy war or inquisition might become part of American history.