House tenant Mike Johnson has three flags hanging in front of his office: the American flag, the Louisiana state flag, and a flag representing a movement that wants to make the United States a religious and Christian nation.
Normal stuff, you know?
The flag is white with a green evergreen tree in the middle and the phrase “A Call to Heaven” at the top. A report released Friday by rolling stone confirmed that the flag is in front of its district office in Washington.
The flag was originally used as a banner during the Revolutionary War, but over the past decade it has been adopted by a sect of Christianity called the New Apostolic ReformationOr NAR. A central tenet of the NAR belief system is that God wants Christians to take control of all aspects of American society – including education, arts and entertainment, media and business – in order to create a religious nation.
The NAR fully embraced Donald Trump when he announced he was running for office, supporting him from the start and helping endear him to others. Christian movements. As a result, the Appeal to Heaven flag became popular among Trump supporters.
The flag has appeared in photos of far-right politicians and election deniers, such as Doug Mastriano, the Trump-backed candidate for Pennsylvania governor. Mastriano lost to Democrat Josh Shapiro.
The flag was also everywhere during the January 6 insurrection. rolling stone It is estimated that there could have been hundreds of Call to Heaven flags in the crowd.
It should not be surprising that Johnson subscribes to the NAR belief system. It has a well documented history to oppose abortion access, LGBTQ rights, and environmental policy on the grounds that they are not Christian.
But it’s upsetting and deeply worrying that he’s able to accept it so openly without so much as a slap on the wrist. What else, rolling stoneThe revelation comes just days after the House of Representatives censorship Rashida Tlaib for her comments on Israel and Palestine.
Republicans have already harangued Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, for flying a plane palestinian flag in front of his district office. The GOP accused her of anti-Semitism for showing pride in his nationality.
But even if supporting Palestinian civilians was inherently anti-Semitic (it isn’t), it’s hard to see how that differs from what Johnson is doing. The creation of a Christian nation involves the elimination of all other religions. But somehow no one is censor Johnson for that.
