Former Alaska Sen. Joe Paskvan’s recent essay (Sept. 23) on the dangers of Christian nationalism was articulate and timely. He left the reader to connect the dots between the threat to democracy which he described and our current status, where 30% of the population believes they should have exclusive control over how to manage elections, to count and certify votes, thus rendering the “correct” outcome.
This is not a danger on the distant horizon. It’s here, now. Christian nationalism is a cancer on America, because adherents would choose to impose a theocrat and autocrat to lead them and the rest of us, even if it means disposing of democracy. Need proof? Ask them. They will say it out loud. I attended one of their meetings a few years ago, a rather significant public forum held at the Mat-Su Community College. They said it out loud.
Last week in Iran, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was taken into custody by the police for not wearing her hijab — head scarf — correctly, exposing too much hair. She died in custody after allegedly being tortured and beaten. Earlier this month, 36-year-old Nancy Davis of Louisiana was forced to travel to New York to terminate her pregnancy. Her fetus had no skull. In Louisiana, doctors performing such an operation would face 15 years in jail.
The events in Iran and Louisiana are connected. The common thread is zealotry, a minority imposing their fable-based morality on the rest of us. In Iran, people are finally pouring into the streets and erupting in protest, and 17 have been reported dead so far. That’s what a minority governing a majority looks like on the ground. Such governance always ends the same way.
Calls in Alaska for a constitutional convention are a step toward the dark world of zealotry, of unwinding what has served us so well for so long, the path toward the big hand of big government injecting itself into your private life where it’s not welcome. Educate yourself on the topic. This is the warm-up act to Christian nationalism’s messianic pox gathering in your community. To this I must say: Keep your hands off my constitution.
— Bob Lacher
Palmer
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