Bishop Robert Barron recently explained the dangers associated with the left’s attack on so-called “Christian nationalism.” A clip from MSNBC has circulated across the internet, depicting ex-NBC news reporter Heidi Pryzbyla criticizing the idea that rights are given from God rather than secular government.
“The one thing that unites all of them because there are many different groups orbiting Trump, but the thing that unites them as Christian nationalists, not Christians, by the way, because Christian nationalists is very different is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress. They don’t come to the Supreme Court. They come from God,” Przybyla said.
After viewing the clip, Barron posted a video response on X, where he described the “disturbing” and “dangerous” nature of Przybyla’s claims. The prominent Catholic pointed out the historical precedent set by the founding fathers of the United States, such as Thomas Jefferson, who proclaimed that our inalienable rights come from God himself.
“Everybody’s Bishop Baron, I want to share with you some reflections on a clip I saw I think it came out last night, Heidi Przybilla from political was on MSNBC. It was one of the most disturbing and frankly dangerous things I’ve ever seen in a political conversation. She’s going after what she calls Christian nationalism. But what she said was, there are these Christian nationalists out there who are claiming that our rights don’t come from any, you know, human authority. They come from God, and she specified you know, the, they’re claiming these weirdos that they’re coming, you know, not from the Supreme Court or from Congress,” he said. “Well, first of all, it was Thomas Jefferson, who made that claim. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that we’re endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.
The Bishop explained the danger of removing God from the political order in the United States, stating, “And they say everybody, it is exceptionally dangerous when we forget the principle that our rights come from God and not from a government, because the basic problem is if they come from the government or Congress or the Supreme Court, they can be taken away by those same people.”
Barron continued, suggesting placing secular authority over the rights of man could lead to a totalitarian government with no respect for God-given rights bestowed upon us. The Bishop explained that while liberals may claim to be attacking “Christian nationalism,” when you examine their argument they are actually denouncing the very foundations of America.
“This is opening the door to totalitarianism. This is not some kind of religious nationalism or sectarianism. It’s one of the sanest principles of our democratic governance, that our rights come from God. Yes. Government exists to secure these rights. The declaration says not to produce them. It is exceptionally dangerous to go down this road because as I say, we lose our groundedness in something transcendent and become therefore, by that very move victims of a potentially totalitarian state that can take away the same rights that they gave us in the first place. So can I just say, in their enthusiasm, I suppose you know, to go against so called Christian nationalism, they’re actually calling against the foundations of our democracy. And it’s a further evidence of this extreme hostility of the left now toward religion. No, no precisely as an America. I want to hold it my rights come not from something as vacillating and unreliable as Congress or the Supreme Court. They come from God,” he concluded.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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