image
(Photo/Tabby Fitzgerald of TheStatehouseFile.com)

To our readers:

Today is an important day in Indiana history.  Today is the first day of a new state administration.  Michael K. Braun, age 70, became our 52nd governor just after midnight. Indiana’s new lieutenant governor is Micah J. Beckwith, age 42, who has labelled himself a “Christian nationalist.”  Their team won a free and fair election overwhelmingly, belying two-thirds of one very prominent Republican’s prediction that Mr. Beckwith’s “nomination as Lt. Gov poses a serious threat to the Braun candidacy, election and administration.”

The oath they took committed them to “support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Indiana …” Their oath concluded with a request for God’s help, but not His orders.

As esteemed IU historian James H. Madison notes in a separate piece we’re publishing today– “One Hundred Years Ago Forerunners of Today’s Christian Nationalists Came to Power in Indiana” – 100 years ago almost to the day, Gov. Edward L. Jackson and Lt. Gov. F. Harold Van Orman were sworn in after receiving the active support of Hoosiers who called themselves “White Nationalists.” Prof. Madison, author of The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland, writes about the echoes he hears.

Distinguished Ball State economics professor Michael J. Hicks thinks Christian nationalism is inherently a misguided philosophy and a bad one for making effective economic policy.  He concludes in his “The Three Risks of Christian Nationalism” essay, “[A] more sluggish economy is a feature, not a bug, of the Christian nationalist movement.”

On January 8, 2001, Frank L. O’Bannon, also 70, was sworn in for his second term. He was 73 when he died in office on September 13, 2003, after suffering a massive stroke. Lt. Gov. Joseph E. Kernan, 57, became governor by operation of Article 5, Section 10 of the Indiana constitution.

So today, Hoosier Christian nationalists have a champion in the Statehouse who is literally one heartbeat away from becoming governor of Indiana.

But what are they planning to do with their newfound influence?

That’s the question The Indiana Citizen hopes to answer with the project we are launching today: “One Heartbeat Away: Do Christian nationalists have an agenda for Indiana?”

We are committing ourselves to tracking how the priorities of Christian nationalists evolve into proposed public policies; how words in the Bible get translated into words in draft legislation, like this timely example.

This project is not an attack on anyone’s beliefs. It’s our effort to monitor how beliefs are turned into policies.

Christian nationalists would use the law applicable to everyone to enact and enforce the Bible’s dictates.  But the United States and Indiana constitutions forbid it.  If given a choice between those two positions, it’s hard to imagine you could check “undecided.”

I’ll bet your own faith leader isn’t undecided.  If you don’t know their position, ask.

My favorite nephew is a Presbyterian minister and brilliant Taylor grad who truly “lives his faith” every day.  When I asked for his take on Christian nationalism, he summarized it in a way that represents the views of mainstream American faith leaders:

1) The Bible is not a textbook for how to govern a state.

2) Great care must be taken when Christians seek to interpret or apply the laws of scripture, recognizing that ceremonial and civil laws were given in the context of a theocracy, and we are not Old Testament Israel.

3) What people believe – their faith or lack of faith – inevitably informs all of their lives, public and private.

4) Christians can and should form convictions about how we live (privately and publicly) in relation to the Bible and their faith.

5) While Christians may have faith-rooted convictions about what laws are necessary for an orderly society – do not murder, is an easy example – since we live in a pluralistic culture with both freedom of religion and the separation of church and state, we should not make the public case for our laws from the basis of our faith.

Permit me to address directly some questions.

What is Christian Nationalism?

The country’s most prolific scholar of Christian nationalism is Andrew Whitehead, who was born and raised in rural Indiana, earned his bachelor’s degree at Purdue, did his graduate work at Baylor and is a full professor of sociology at IU-Indianapolis.  Prof. Whitehead’s most succinct definition of Christian nationalism is “an idea that many Americans hold that the United States should be distinctively Christian in its national identity, public policy and sacred symbols.”

For his part, Micah Beckwith has an expansive definition: “To me, Christian nationalism is being a steward of what God has given you,” he told public radio station WFYI in an extended interview.  “So, taking care of the nation, taking care of your community, being the hands and feet of Christ in your community. To me, Christianity is a good thing. Nationalism is a good thing, right? Like we want to serve our nation.”

The first part, we can understand: All of us should be good stewards of the gifts we’ve inherited in America and Indiana. But what does it mean to be the “hands and feet of Christ in your community?”

Would Christ point to specific Old Testament text to urge a public official to threaten Indiana University and its distinguished student newspaper because it printed criticism of Donald Trump uttered by his former associates?

Or, “strip away” funding from Westfield schools after claiming he was “disinvited” to appear at their high school?

Or, claim without evidence that an Indiana city is overrun with Haitian migrants?

Or, fire state employees who use pronouns in their email signatures?

Isn’t the bigger question whether Old (or New) Testament text should drive the formulation of public policy?  The drafters of the United States and Indiana constitutions would answer “no.”

Why the focus on Indiana Christian nationalists?

With a Christian nationalist in the second most important office in Indiana state government, our project hopes to keep a consistent, concerted focus on the movement’s agenda, and what it means for the rest of us.

For those who predict our reporting will be biased, I would respectfully ask our readers to reserve judgment for a few months to determine whether our coverage is accurate.  In our four years as an award-winning platform for accountability journalism, we have ruffled the feathers of some powerful folks, but not one of them has ever challenged the accuracy of our reporting.

Whenever possible, we will let Christian nationalists speak for themselves. In that spirit, we will offer Lt. Gov. Beckwith space on our landing page to react to our coverage.

Isn’t the project itself the best evidence of your journalistic bias?  You wouldn’t be launching the project if you weren’t biased against Christian nationalists.

Do I have a personal bias?  Some Christian nationalists will certainly say I am biased because I am a Catholic.  However, is “biased” the right word to describe someone who has reached the conclusion – buttressed by the U.S. and Indiana constitutions and Supreme Court precedent – that the Bible should not be the primary source for determining public policy?

When I was sworn into the Indiana bar, I didn’t promise to use the power of the law to enforce biblical dictates.  Like Gov. Braun and Lt. Gov. Beckwith, I promised to “support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Indiana…” with their distinctions between church and state.

Does it really matter where an idea comes from?

If you spend more than a few minutes on the third floor of the Indiana Statehouse – where the Indiana General Assembly meets – you will quickly conclude the answer is “yes.”  Legislation doesn’t write itself. Every word of every bill or amendment can be traced back to an interest group, a legislator’s constituent or even a self-interested legislator.  “Who’s behind this?” becomes a more important question than “What does the bill do?” Indeed it is a favorite lobbying tactic to attack the source of an idea, rather than its substance.

Try convincing Republicans a policy first enacted in California is a good idea.  And watch the reaction of Democrats when you tell them a proposal comes from the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council.

If public policy was incubated in a sterile laboratory, the words should be more important than who drafted them.  Once enacted, the words control, especially in Indiana, which doesn’t delve into what’s called the “legislative history” of a bill.

So then why should we care whether a policy proposal is supported by Christian nationalists?

Search as you might, you won’t find altruism in the codified law, making it instructive to know the source of a proposal so its intent can be ascertained. Public policy is typically developed backwards from a goal.  Christian nationalists do the opposite: their starting point is a particular Bible passage and they draw a straight line to the Indiana Code.

So any policy proposal supported by Christian nationalists is automatically a bad one?  

Absolutely not. Those who identify themselves as Christian nationalists support and oppose a wide range of generalized, secular policies.  But using the Bible – or Torah or Koran or any sacred text – as the first draft of public policy is antithetical to the United States and Indiana constitutions. Carry your Bible in your heart and even into the Statehouse, but don’t carry it into the Legislative Services Agency with instructions to turn Leviticus 19:19  into a bill draft.

So you’re saying we have to choose sides?

A “wait-and-see” approach suggests waiting until you see how Bible text is translated into legislative language.  If the language sets forth a public policy with which you agree, great. If not, you might register your opposition and hope the bill fails. If it fails, no harm, no foul. If it passes anyway, does it really matter that the language started with a Bible passage?

Yes, it does, if you believe the U.S. and Indiana constitutions got it right in separating church and state.

Okay, but doesn’t all this get sorted out by the Indiana General Assembly in a public process?

Ideally. Ideally, Hoosier Christian nationalists will be extremely transparent in publicizing their policy aims, providing the bill numbers, draft regulations and other proposals that embody their goals.  Presumably their policy agenda will bear the imprimatur of Indiana’s most visible Christian nationalist, Lt. Gov. Beckwith, who will be presiding over the Indiana Senate. Ideally, he will guarantee the transparency of their efforts. Ideally, when the General Assembly adjourns, everyone will agree that such transparency ensured a thorough, very public airing of the legislation’s pros and cons.

Ideally?

We plan to identify and track legislation and policy proposals that contain language provided by Christian nationalists, in the hope they’ve been completely transparent. If they’re not transparent, we’ll still try to figure out the source.

And if the Bible-inspired language becomes law, what then?  Hoosiers’ elected representatives passed it into law, right?

Right. I don’t think Indiana’s gerrymandered legislative maps have resulted in a General Assembly that’s truly representative of the majority of Hoosiers’ priorities, but, yes, the language will have made it through the legislative process to Gov. Braun’s desk. No doubt he’ll receive plenty of legal advice on whether a bill that seeks to codify a Bible passage is constitutional.

How do you plan to staff this project?

Our partners at Franklin College’s TheStatehouseFile.com, under the direction of John Krull, will help us cover the legislature. Also, six undergraduate students at the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at IU, under the direction of Kathleen Johnston and Craig Lyons, will be providing additional reporting.

In addition, we are actively looking for another experienced journalist to join Editor Marilyn Odendahl on our Citizen team. Resumes can be sent me in strictest confidence at bill.moreau@indianacitizen.org.

What’s next?

Don’t hesitate to let us know how you think we’re doing or steer us toward something we might have missed. We operate under no deadline or competitive pressures to produce reporting so we won’t publish anything until it’s ready.

Bill Moreau, a retired lawyer, is president of the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc. and publisher of The Indiana Citizen.

 

Related Posts