Grad student essay contest 2024 — 5th place: Asha Ivey

FFRF awarded Asha $1,500.

By Asha Ivey

Christian nationalism in America is directly tied to hate and intolerance. Christian nationalism is the belief that this is a Christian nation and that laws and societal expectations should be built on Christian values. I oppose the idea of one group’s opinions dictating the rest of society when they are justified by hypocritically cherry-picked rules that happen to be convenient for the historically oppressive majority. Christian nationalist beliefs are not truly rooted in morality, but instead aim to exert control on religious, racial and sexual minorities, as well as on women in ways that mainly benefit white Christians.

Christian nationalism is dangerous because it centers on a Western and white-centric perspective. Even though Christian nationalism looks like a religious issue on the surface, Americans have a history of racializing religious groups, resulting in dehumanizing and racist treatment. For example, after 9/11, Muslim Americans, people who spoke Arabic and people with brown skin who were perceived as Muslim faced harassment and prejudice.

Even though religion is not associated with any skin color or appearance, Christianity upholds Western ideals and played a part in white colonialism, whereas Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and so many other religions are associated with racial minorities. By excluding the desires of people with differing religious beliefs, or rejecting them as wrong or misguided, Christian nationalists are also rejecting the values and beliefs of racial and ethnic minorities.

America is a melting pot of languages, religions and cultures, so to enforce laws based on Christian beliefs is to further marginalize and even criminalize people who just want the freedom to live as they are without persecution.

Christian nationalism opposes the existence of LGBTQ people, insisting that same-sex attraction is immoral and reprehensible, despite studies backing the validity of same-sex attraction and the existence of same-sex-attracted animals in nature. Even though people are born with their sexuality and know from a young age whom they are attracted to, Christian nationalists reject the idea of two consenting adults of the same gender happily living together and receiving the same social and financial benefits that heterosexual couples receive. They want to deny people the right to inherit from their same-sex partners, receive Social Security or health care benefits in relation to their spouse, and receive tax benefits and lower insurance premiums, all in the name of moral good.

This is not an issue of the past either. In 2022, there were still many politicians against the legalization of same-sex marriage, an issue that is often tied to Christianity. When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 and the Respect for Marriage Act was proposed to codify same-sex and interracial marriage, 36 members of the Senate and 169 members of the House of Representatives voted against it. The LGBTQ community, especially the trans community, still faces many threats to its freedoms as a result of Republican Christian nationalism.

Another danger of Christian nationalism is the censoring of diverse and educational material and the opposition to sexual education. Christian parents have complained about world religion classes and Disney movies featuring LGBTQ characters, claiming schools are trying to indoctrinate their children. If Christian nationalists were to succeed in transforming America into a Christian nation, schools would be restricted from teaching kids about other cultures and LGBTQ identities, regardless of whether some of those kids belong to those communities. And to oppose sex ed in schools — when Republican politicians push back against access to contraception, birth control and abortions — will only create an increase in unsafe and traumatic experiences for women and assigned-female-at-birth individuals.

Enforcing beliefs on people who don’t or can’t adhere to them causes real harm. Where would Christian nationalism stop? Would LGBTQ people be encouraged to undergo conversion therapy or face criminal charges? Would religious minorities be forced to reject their beliefs? Will women be forced to carry unwanted children or face the death penalty, even in cases involving minors, incest or sexual assault?

All of those are possibilities in a Christian nationalist society. A complete rejection and censoring of differing religious views can easily become a case of ethnic cleansing. The characteristics resemble that of the Native American boarding schools, the forced detention of Uyghurs and Muslims in Chinese internment camps, and the Holocaust.

I do not want to find out how far Christian nationalists are willing to go to exert their control because, at the heart of it, Christian nationalism is all about controlling and oppressing racial, religious and sexual minorities to the benefit of a white, Christian majority.

Asha Ivey, 24, attends DePaul University and is working toward a degree in computer science.

“I am a software developer from the Chicago suburbs,” Asha writes. “My bachelor’s degree is in linguistics, as I also have a passion for language. I studied five years of Japanese throughout school and hope to one day become fluent in another language, whether that be Spanish, Mandarin or ASL.”