I love seeing progressive Christian leaders, writers, and laity expose the hypocrisy, harm, and ridiculousness of Christian Nationalist ideology which says that all good truly American families must be “White, heterosexual, male-dominated, “Christian,” and Republican without exception. This is not reality.
Rick Pidcock’s family is defying the ridiculous notion that all families must look and act the same as the traditional “Christian” family. My own family is not a traditional nuclear all white family. Even though my husband and I have been married for 30 years, we have multicultural, Neurodivergent, and LGBTQ+ young adult children and their spouses/partners. Rick Pidcock’s family, my family, and millions of American families defy the multi-generational notion that all families must think, act, and conform the same way.
The Christian Nationalist agenda is attempting to undo and destroy the many variations of the modern family we see today except the traditional nuclear family. In addition to the traditional nuclear family, we also have blended families, adoptive families, grandparents as serving as parents, single parent families, LGBTQ+ families, and other variations of the family. Society and religious communities must face the reality we are living today instead of insisting that everyone conform to the white, heterosexual, male-dominated, “Christian,” and Republican family. Although the traditional nuclear family is the minority now, it is still an equally-valid form of the family, but it’s one of many. As Presidential Historian Alan Lichtman says, “we are rapidly becoming a majority-minority country.”
All families regardless of structure and identity should be treated equally. People of goodwill, whether they are religious or not, need to provide equal opportunities for everyone. The more I expand my social lenses, and the more I see, the more I realize that inclusion of everyone is a safety issue, a right-to-life issue, a human dignity issue, and a loving our neighbor as ourselves issue.
To not treat all people and all variations of the modern family as equally-sacred is to place less value on some people than others. This is antithetical to the Gospel of Christ and the core teachings of every major world religion to love our neighbor as ourselves. To place less value on some than others is also to align with fascism (and even Nazism) which is a great danger to particularly LGBTQIA+ people and their families, most racial groups, various types of non-traditional families, religious minorities, and more. History will repeat itself if we don’t support democracy and religious freedom for all without exception.