The Secular Coalition for America needs your help on Lobby Day advocating for a bill that would address one of the biggest threats that Christian nationalism poses: motivating militias across the country and giving them a “permission structure” for violent anti-government actions in order to make this their version of a Christian nation. We don’t need to look any further than the attempted kidnapping of the governor of Michigan and the January 6th attack on the Capitol to know how real this threat is.
A bill just introduced by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) fills a gap in federal law by directly banning unauthorized private paramilitary activity and creating strong enforcement mechanisms to reinforce its prohibition. We hope you will join us in Washington on March 5th to tell your legislators how important this bill is.
Seventy-seven percent of the country thinks the nation is headed “in the wrong direction.” A survey last year found that 10 percent of Americans are Christian nationalism “adherents” and 19 percent are “sympathizers.” Nearly one in four people say political violence may be justified to “save” the country. There are some 200 militias in the United States. We cannot say all of them are filled with Christian nationalists but some, such as those in the Christian Patriot Movement, clearly are. The outcome of the election this year could be the spark that sets militias into motion.
This bill would prevent the following activities:
- Publicly patrolling, drilling, or engaging in harmful or deadly paramilitary techniques
- Interfering with or interrupting government proceedings
- Interfering with the exercise of someone else’s constitutional rights
- Falsely assuming the functions of law enforcement and asserting authority over others
- Training to engage in such behavior
You can read more about it here.
Join us March 5th to ask your legislators to support this important bill. We will be holding a reception the evening of March 4 and a full day of lobbying on March 5. No experience necessary: no one expects you to be a policy wonk or a legislative expert. You just explain why this is important to you as a constituent. We set up the meetings. You will be with other people from your state and we will have someone who has done this before in each group. You can find out more and register right here. (Don’t wait too long; our hotel price is only guaranteed through January 31st!)
