Hawley esposes the virtues of Christian Nationalism at conservative conference

Plus, a GOP candidate for the Wisconsin Senate continues to obscure her hardline perspective on abortion.

On Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) openly identified as a member and advocate for the Christian Nationalist movement — an ideology which maintains that American law and government should be filtered through the lens of Christianity. 

“Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian Nation. And so I am,” Hawley said during a speech at the National Conservative Conference in Washington D.C. “And some will say that I am advocating Christian Nationalism. And so I do.”

This is not the first time that Hawley has taken such a stance. In an essay penned for the right-wing theology magazine First Things, Hawley claimed that “Christianity is the electric current of our national life.” 

“We need to recover that common ground today. Why? Because America as we know it cannot survive without biblical Christianity,” Hawley wrote in February. “The rights we cherish, the freedoms we enjoy, the ideals we love together — all are rooted in and sustained by the tradition of the Bible.” 

Such beliefs would violate the Constitution because, as the think tank Political Research Associates describes, the underlying philosophy of the movement gives precedent to a specific interpretation of Christianity, a concept called dominionism.

“Dominionism promotes religious supremacy, insofar as it does not respect the equality of other religions, or even other versions of Christianity,” the group said in an analysis of Christian Nationalism.  

Wisconsin state Senate candidate Stacey Klein appears to have removed a trove of political essays that were originally published to her campaign website.

Klein, whose main political experience is her tenure on the Trempealeau County Board of Supervisors, came to prominence last year when she initially attempted to become the Republican nominee that could unseat Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D). She dropped out of the race in late March as the party coalesced around Eric Hovde and instead focused on the state Senate.

However, the 21 editorial pieces published by Klein were taken down after Heartland Signal published an article last week highlighting three of Klein’s essays — although direct links to the files are still active.

Much of Klein’s writing focused on attacking her then-opponent. Klein claimed, for example, that “the utter destruction of the American family seems to be the goal of Tammy and her pal's leftist agenda.” 

Abortion was one of the primary topics that Klein used to attack Baldwin’s record. In one post, Klein mocked Baldwin’s concern for victims of sexual violence that seek reproductive healthcare. 

“Less than 5% of all abortions are because of rape, incest or to save the mother's life, yet Tammy's leftist friends parade around stories that tug at your heart,” Klein explains. “These numbers tell us that instead of protecting women's health, Tammy's politics destroy over three hundred thousand baby girls every year, little women just getting started in their young lives.” 

Klein also consistently targeted Baldwin for her perceived ties to social justice movements centered around racial and gender inequality. 

“[The Left] movement favors policies that put filth in our classroom curriculum and classrooms instead of allowing parents to decide what books their kids should read,” Klein wrote. “They ask our daughters to change in front of and compete against biological boys and men rather than celebrating the uniqueness and amazing qualities that define what we women are.

“And while we're talking about women, I cannot understand how Tammy or the left can claim to be feminists yet build their identity around hating women? Let's ask Tammy to wiggle her way out of that!”

The strategy to remove the essays may be an effort to make Klein appear less partisan than she actually is. In Wisconsin, some 29% of Republicans and 42% of Democrats identify as “moderate.” Before removing the posts, Klein blamed “Democrats” for highlighting her articles and “cherry picking from an opinion piece to twist one of my stances-abortion.”