Politics
Politico reporter Heidi Przybyla recently criticized Christians who believe in God-given rights, claiming believing this amounts to “Christian nationalism.”
After creating a big controversy, Przybyla has now apologized.
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She Said That Believing You Have God-Given Rights Is ‘Christian Nationalism’
The Christian Post reports, “In a piece in Politico on Thursday, Przybyla addressed comments she made during an appearance on MSNBC’s ‘All in With Chris Hayes’ last week. She asserted on the cable news program that Christian nationalists ‘believe that our rights, as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority.”
That someone found this concept controversial or even sinister is bizarre.
The Post continued, “Przybyla added that based on this line of thinking, rights ‘don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court, they come from God.’ She further asserted that the ‘problem with that is that they are determining — man, men, and it is men — are determining what God is telling them.”
The story continued:
Przybyla also identified the concept of natural law as a “pillar of Catholicism” and suggested that while “it’s been used for good and social justice campaigns” such as the push for racial equality and civil rights, there is an “extremist element of conservative Christians who say that this applies specifically to issues including abortion [and] gay marriage.” She lamented that “it’s going much further than that, as you see, for instance, with a ruling in Alabama this week that judges connected to that Dominionist faction did.”
The Alabama Supreme Court decision mentioned by Przybyla ruled that embryos created through in-vitro fertilization are human beings protected by state law.
Przybyla’s comments about Christian nationalism on MSNBC invited a host of criticism, including from Bishop Robert Barron of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota. In a video posted to X last week, he condemned her remarks as “one of the most disturbing and frankly dangerous things I’ve ever seen in a political conversation.”
“It is exceptionally dangerous when we forget the principle that our rights come from God and not from a government,” Barron said. “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.”
“This is opening the door to totalitarianism,” he added.
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Is The Declaration of Independence An Example?
Przybyla apologized for her column after the backlash, saying, “Due to some clumsy words, I was interpreted by some people as making arguments that are quite different from what I believe. Reporters have a responsibility to use words and convey meaning with precision. I am sorry I fell short of this in my appearance.”
“Among the passages that caused confusion was my attempt to draw a distinction between Christians and the small set of these people who advocate Christian nationalism,” she added.
Przybyla added that “many people have views about our rights as Americans that would coincide with those of many of our nation’s Founders.” She cited the Declaration of Independence passage that all people “are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
The notion that our rights are God-given is as old as the West itself, and certainly within Christianity.
The Founding Fathers were explicit that the Constitution wasn’t granting rights to citizens, but an explicit acknowledgment that it would protect rights that are given by God, not man.
That this is remotely controversial to this alleged journalist says far more about the state of the modern media than Christianity or even actual nationalism.
