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‘A Bible-sized blind spot’: congressman sounds alarm on rising Christian nationalism
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
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United States | News & Politics
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How does that weaken his argument? Are atheists not allowed to have opinions on their government when it comes to religion?
Others we’re trying to convince are going to dismiss him as being “anti-God” or similar. He can have the best arguments possible (and probably does) but people are going to assume he blurs the line between arguments against ultranationalism where they likely agree with him and anti deism where it appears the vast majority of people do not.
I agree that a religious person would be handy to have in our corner. But I'm not super comfortable with the idea that political questions around religion need a Christian's opinion in order to have impact. It favors political expediency over principles. By doing that, you're slightly conceding that principles aren't important. At the same time, it devalues non-Christian voices on a topic that is most relevant to non-Christians. If Christians only care about the opinions of other Christians, I'm really not trying to play by their rules to win them over.
To be clear, I don't think you're trying to do all that. I also would bet most Christians would agree with this atheist. The minority of actual Christian nationalists aren't going to be convinced no matter what you do. I think a Christian coming out in support of this congressman would be a good show of solidarity across a religious divide. But I don't think this man's argument would be better coming from a Christian instead. It would be like hearing MLK's "I have a dream" speech and saying it would make more sense coming from a white guy because the majority won't listen to him otherwise.