An MSNBC guest is getting absolutely dragged on social media after she said a main view of so-called Christian nationalism is a belief that our rights come from God.
During an appearance on MSNBC, Politico’s Heidi Przybyla said, “The one thing that unites all of them — because there’s many different groups orbiting Trump — but the thing that unites them as Christian nationalists — not Christians by the way because Christian nationalists [are] very different — is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly being.”
“They don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court. They come from God,” she added.
Wow. What a shocking and radical concept. It’s almost as radical as the Revolutionaries in 1776. This is such a dangerous, subversive concept.
Watch the video below:
Here @MSNBC helpfully makes it clear their disdain for Christians in America.
— Wade Miller (@WadeMiller_USMC) February 23, 2024
She says that if you believe that your rights come from God, you aren’t a Christian, you are a Christian nationalist.
Somehow they seem to not mention that our own founding documents make this… pic.twitter.com/WTLMqcqTzg
The comments sparked fierce backlash:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR with certain inalienable rights…To believe these words makes you a Christian Nationalist, Heidi Przybyla? I'm a Jew. You are an illiterate idiot. Shame on Politico. https://t.co/RJv7mZQ7jm
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) February 23, 2024
Let me see if I’m following: non-Christian nationalists believe slavery was A-okay until the government established the 13th Amendment? That women were inherently lesser than men until the 19th? I guess I’m a Christian nationalist if I believe the government was wrong until then. https://t.co/clIZGjyQau
— Tiana Lowe Doescher (@TianaTheFirst) February 23, 2024
It is difficult to overstate how helpful it is to the cause of hardcore Christian nationalists to have a braindead chattering class adopt positions like "Christian nationalism is when you believe human rights come from God, not the government" https://t.co/2KomU5KAl8
— Andrew Egger (@EggerDC) February 23, 2024
I guess those truths just aren't as self-evident as they used to be. https://t.co/ftOAtjXfel
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) February 23, 2024
Imagine believing your rights come “from Congress” https://t.co/xtAXZlZsYO
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) February 23, 2024
https://twitter.com/rachelbovard/status/1761044824847704109
So important to remember that Heidi here isn’t employed by Think Progress, Mother Jones, or some liberal dark money group (even though she might as well be).
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 23, 2024
She does this with a POLITICO byline.
She reports on our legal system but has no familiarity with founding documents. https://t.co/Xx9bPQQBjJ
Our Declaration of Independence, our entire system of government, is based on the principle that our rights don’t come from some “earthly authority” (like Congress or a king) but from God. Read the plain words of the Declaration: “We are endowed by our CREATOR with certain… https://t.co/bCFyaDFcHq
— Marc Thiessen 🇺🇸❤️🇺🇦🇹🇼🇮🇱 (@marcthiessen) February 23, 2024
Investigative reporter @heidireports forgot about this pretty consequential bit from the Declaration: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights"https://t.co/Yyz601RXD3
— Isaac Schorr (@isaac_schorr) February 23, 2024
You don't even have to be a Christian to know that we're endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. Anybody with even a little civic literacy should understand this. https://t.co/nRUJENy0WT
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) February 23, 2024
https://twitter.com/JoePerticone/status/1761047365325058084
Hey, @HeidiReports. Definitely not a Christian Nationalist, here.
— Jonathan Greenberg (@JGreenbergSez) February 23, 2024
Our rights absolutely come from God or nature or whatever supreme authority in the universe you believe in. That’s what *makes* them both natural and inalienable. You’re free to think my rights are a dispensation… https://t.co/B2IH7iA0EZ
It’s not just so-called Christian nationalists who believe our rights do not come from government or a king or even Congress, but from God. It is an idea enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. It is one of our country’s founding and guiding ideals.
So it is unclear what makes so-called Christian nationalists different from Christians — or even Jews for that matter — by that definition.
There are plenty of ideas other than one of the fundamental principles of our country that unite the people she is talking about. And those ideas deserve to be called out and criticized.
But when you have the media suggesting it is a Christian nationalist idea that our rights do not come from government, it smacks of a kind of anti-Christian, anti-Western bias in the press and intelligentsia.
At best, she just flubbed her explanation of what makes up Christian nationalists, a little worse option is that she’s historically illiterate, and perhaps worst is the option that she is rejecting one of the core principles of our system of government as radical, and suggesting, in fact, that our rights do in fact come from government.