As the media pulpit for the MAGA religious right, Fox News once again promoted the bogus, white evangelical claim that America was founded as a Christian nation.
Such was the case on Sunday’s Fox & Friends during which a familiar Fox Christian propagandist, with a new identity and new clothes, preached the gospel according to Fox!
Uber Christian warrior Pete Hegseth framed the propaganda from the jump when he asked the question, “is the left trying to rewrite American history and, specifically, America’s Christian roots?” The banner below read “Rewriting History” – an ironic assertion given that the notion of America as a Christian nation is as fake as Revolutionary War airports!
Hegseth quoted those nasty, Jesus-hating liberals with his comment that “many in the media claiming America was never, a quote, Christian nation.” After asking, “What’s the real truth?” he introduced his panel – resident Fox's rabidly anti-gay, anti-Islamic and pro-Trump pastor, Robert Jeffress; an evangelical Christian apologist who has padded his biography, Ravi Zacharias; and – drum roll, please – former official Fox Catholic Church propaganidst and right-wing religious enabler Jonathan Morris, minus the prefix “Fr,” and the Roman Collar.
Hegseth tossed to Morris who, although no longer a priest, demonstrated he is still happy to pimp the propaganda. Hegseth asked if the Christian nation naysayers are right.
Morris said that although the Founders were Deists (belief in a non-interfering god), it is apparent that “their faith in the Christian god is so very clear.” A banner read: “America’s Foundation of Faith.”
After citing the Declaration of Independence as an example of the Founders’ belief in God, Hegseth moved on to Jeffress. As usual, he was full of pious baloney. He made the false claim that the Revolution, which was based on Enlightenment philosophical ideas and commercial interests, was instead based on “the immutable laws of God.”
Jeffress chuckled as he trashed the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation who “try to tell you that [OMG] America was founded by irreligious people” who wanted a state “free from any religious influence.” He vociferously claimed that this just isn’t true.
Jeffress either lied or betrayed his ignorance of history when he stated that this country has “always welcomed people of all faiths” when history informs us that Quakers (among others) did not fare well in colonial America. Given that Jeffress isn’t a fan of the Mormon faith, I guess that’s why he might not know about their persecution in 19th century America. He articulated the popular right wing myth that the country “was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.”
He cited a quote from John Adams which “has been juxtaposed to give a misleading impression of Adams’ meaning.” A quote that, not so coincidentally, appears in bogus “Christian” historian David Barton’s material.
Hegseth agreed as Jeffress droned on about how you can’t separate America from its Christian faith. Nobody mentioned this Adams quote: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
After citing another quote, Hegseth pontificated that “even the Constitution, which doesn’t explicitly talk about God, is based on principles informed by the Bible.”
Zacharias followed this inanity by babbling about how the “Judeo-Christian” worldview is the only faith that could sustain these views.
Hegseth proclaimed, “It was always freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.”
So Fox News wants you to know that this is a Christian nation and those who aren't Christian can just deal with it…
Watch the sermonizing below, from the Sunday, July 7, 2019 Fox & Friends.
Now if they extended the family just a little further and talked of the Abrahamic peoples, Muslims would also be part of their little club. It would be those damned Buddhists, Hindus and Taoists that would be getting all the blame.