The Freedom From Religion Foundation is exposing the fact that the attempted bombing at the U.S. Capitol today was conducted by an apparent white Christian nationalist.
The state/church watchdog is also condemning as “highly irresponsible” U.S. Rep. Mo Brook’s minimizing response to the attempt, saying that he understands “citizenry anger.” Brooks, a six-term member, gave an incendiary speech at the Jan. 6 Save America rally near the Capitol, where he said: “Today is the day that American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.”
The would-be terrorist—whose name is deliberately omitted here—drove his black pickup truck from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., and parked it in front of the Library of Congress with a homemade bomb. He live-streamed several rants leading to a standoff with Capitol police before being taken into custody, proclaiming, “I was picked by the American people. . . . I love this land. I love God.”
In unhinged, threatening, and blame-shifting rants, he argued that if the bomb he made and drove to D.C. went off, it would be Joe Biden’s fault. A clear thread of Christian nationalism sprinkled his rhetoric and earlier social media posts. In one video, he said that he told his wife he’d “Be home Sunday, whichever home it is,” meaning he thought he would be going to Heaven. “I've cleared my conscience with God,” he added “I have no fear.”
He stated that he wanted to start “The Revolution” with a bomb and continue the work the mob started on Jan. 6. The bombing suspect can be heard talking to his viewers in another live streamnother live stream and made posts indicating he swallowed the Big Lie that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen. Other posts, as recent as Tuesday, suggest he thought Donald Trump would pardon him because his action would somehow make Trump president.
Just last Friday, the Homeland Security issued a heightened domestic terror threat for the remainder of 2021, specifically for “Racially- or ethnically-motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) and anti-government/anti-authority violent extremists.” The DHS threat announcement specifically singles out “domestic violent extremists, continue to introduce, amplify, and disseminate narratives online that promote violence, and have called for violence against elected officials, political representatives, government facilities, law enforcement, religious communities or commercial facilities, and perceived ideologically-opposed individuals.”
FFRF Director of Strategic Response Andrew L. Seidel, who wrote a book on the disinformation that feeds the Christian nationalist identity, explained that “Christian nationalism operates as a permission structure that justifies otherwise immoral acts by appealing to a higher power.”
Seidel adds: “He thinks of himself as chosen by the nation, chosen by his god, as an ‘American patriot.’”
“The Christian nationalism undergirding the Jan. 6 putsch must be exposed and defeated, or this kind of terrorism will escalate,” warns Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president.
Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Newsmax, and the rest bear some of the blame for continuing to stoke the fires of Christian nationalist terrorism, FFRF concludes.
