Christian Nationalism & The Judicial System

People often look towards the judicial system in America for guidance on what is right and wrong, or allowed and not allowed. The Christian right, or more specifically, Christian Nationalists, look at the judicial system as part of the moral problem in America, they see people in power in the court system as having allowed certain things to pass, like abortion and some gay rights, as a serious downturn in the morality of the country.
As much as people in the Chrisitan Nationalist movement hold rallys and speeches to get their message across, they are not really changing anything because certain laws and rights are still allowed although they may disagree and fight against it. The only way that they would really be able to change things is if one of them was in a position to change the laws or rights and disallow certain things from happening anymore. Many people have strong beliefs, Christian Nationalists just tend to make theirs a little more well known. It is believed that there were, "...two major triggers—the fallout from Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court decision that allowed abortions, and gay rights initiatives" that really made their problems with the courts known (Ramet 2005). As much as they may protest and try to convince people not to do certain things, like have an abortion, it is still legal, so they cannot truly prevent anyone from doing it. The strongest tool that Christian Nationalists have in their fight against these issues is fear and manipulation. They use these tools to convince people in earshot that they will suffer if they commit any of the acts that go against the Christian Nationalist beliefs.
Christian Nationalists want to have America adhere to their beliefs because they feel that this is a Christian country and that is the way it is meant to be. While they feel that they should be able to dictate the laws and decided what is and is not allowed, they, "...want both a Christian America and democratic life (as they understand it), in which there is a measure of religious
freedom" (Ramet 2005). It seems quite contradictory, they want to rule the roost, but at the same time, have some sort of freedom in terms of belief. They are well-versed in the political sphere, and if they keep striving, probably would not have much of a problem getting their members in positions of power in American courts. The big problem here is where does it end. If they do get into the courtrooms and are able to overturn certain rights that so many people fought so hard for, what good is that really going to do. In my opinion, it will only cause more harm than good. No one will ever fully agree on anything, there will always be opposiong beliefs and opinions and it is the way that people handle that and deal with the differences that is really important.



Ramet, Sabrina. "Fighting for the Chrisitian Nation" : The Christian Right and American
Politics". Journal of Human Rights 4.2 (2005): 431-42. Academic Search Premier. Web.
09 November 2009.