The report is a good read and well documented. It also confirms something I've always felt was true about Jan 6, namely that while the big lie of the stolen election and Qanon certainly were factors in it all, the thread that tied all of it together was conservative Christian's refusal to consent to allow "others" to run the US. As Christianity declines and the population becomes increasingly ethnically diverse (i.e., less white), many evangelicals sense that their political power is waning, and Jan 6 was a backlash to that. They look around and see their kids and grandkids leaving the faith, minorities gaining affluence, LGBTQs living openly, and other things that indicate to them that the country is moving on from the days when the country was kind of an unofficial mini theocracy (when the country was run by white Christians, for white Christians). Some of them obviously feel threatened enough that they are willing to resort to violence against the government to try and reverse those trends.(RNS) — A team of scholars, faith leaders and advocates unveiled an exhaustive new report Wednesday (Feb. 9) that documents in painstaking detail the role Christian nationalism played in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and calling it an unsettling preview of things to come.
Christian nationalism was used to “bolster, justify and intensify the January 6 attack on the Capitol,” said Amanda Tyler, head of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which sponsored the report along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Tyler’s group is behind an initiative called Christians Against Christian Nationalism.
The organizations touted the report as “the most comprehensive account to date of Christian nationalism and its role in the January 6 insurrection,” compiled using “videos, statements, and images from the attack and its precursor events.”
As the saying goes, those in positions of power and privilege rarely give them up peacefully. Throw in religious fervor and things get very dangerous, very fast.