No, Lt. Gov. Patrick, Christian nationalism, doom and gloom are not the ‘Texas way’
.JPG "Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/LM Otero)")
To hear Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tell it at CPAC, the national gathering of conservatives meeting in Dallas this week, the “Texas Way” isn’t low taxes, less regulation, robust jobs and an emphasis on personal freedom.
Patrick, speaking Thursday, instead described the Texas way in a disturbing, warped message of Christian nationalism, misinterpreting the Bible and reaching farther to the right than anything Donald Trump has said.
Confident and commanding, Patrick immediately established his bona fides by noting that he led Trump’s campaign for Texas.
“I know if he’s running, I’m all in,” he said. “But if he’s not running, [the Republican nominee] better take up the MAGA agenda because no one in the history of this country has done what he has in four years.”
This is disappointing — especially if the “MAGA agenda” includes arguing over the 2020 election years later — but Patrick had only just begun. He pivoted to a brief message of fear and doom before latching onto faith.
“We’re at the point where we can lose this great nation,” Patrick said of the upcoming midterms and 2024 presidential election. “Everything is on the line.”
Patrick then touted statistics that suggested more conservatives believe in God and that the farther left voters go, the less they believe in God. This is true in a broad sense and many conservatives, including me, and liberals believe families and society function better with an intact and robust religious faith.
But then Patrick went off the rails.
“We’re a nation founded upon the words of God,” he said. “He wrote the Constitution. He empowered them.” Patrick quoted verses about God’s plan and how God empowers his people. He rattled off a list of political stances, some tied to his faith, some more to traditional conservative values.
Finally, he said, “we need a God-healing in this country” and led the audience in his version of II Chronicles 7:14, wherein God tells Solomon that he will heal the Israelites and if they humble themselves and turn from their sin.
In many ways, the founding of the country is rooted in Judeo-Christian values But it is borne of classical liberalism. The Founding Fathers were clear to separate faith from the state because they didn’t want the state to establish a religion that forced people to worship. This is not only authoritarian but ruins the beauty of a personal relationship with God.
While Christians believe God calls his people to many fields, including politics, Patrick’s speech imploring the CPAC audience to pray aloud with him, not in the name of salvation or forgiveness but of politics and the reinstatement of MAGA, demonstrates a kind of Christian nationalism that’s harmful to everyone.
Trump was not a model in his personal life, nor does he demonstrate any grace or attributes of a person of faith now. Suggesting that his presidency is the right one or the best one in the eyes of God, or as a result of a forced prayer, contradicts the character of God.
According to Christianity, the heart of God and the premise of Scripture is that Jesus Christ offers atonement of sins through belief in the crucifixion, by faith alone through grace alone through Christ alone. There is no such thing as God’s politics: They are separate and only one is the product of a flawed human mind.
It’s one thing to be a person of faith who is also involved in politics. It’s another to suggest that the two must be intertwined to suggest God is somehow rooting for Republicans in an American election.
Loyalty to country or party is not the same as loyalty to God; the American flag is not imprinted with the word of Scripture; heaven is not in Texas. It’s wrong for Patrick to infuse patriotism and the GOP with Christianity and righteousness. One is of this world and one is of another.
