There’s no proof that Kentucky Christians are being persecuted — and yet many seem determined to believe otherwise.
Here in Kentucky, we have reached a new low in white Christian nationalist politics.
In a Facebook video posted by The Family Foundation in late October, Adams tells Walls, “Over the last couple years, how many Twitter or YouTube videos have you seen of parents going to school board meetings and giving impassioned speeches and there’s no reply? It’s like talking to a blank wall … I believe educational freedom is the solution.” He also claims the guidelines he was given as a teacher meant “Christians aren’t welcome as public servants in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. We’ve got to really address that is a form of persecution.”
There’s no proof that Kentucky Christians are being persecuted or are not welcome as public servants — a truly ludicrous statement. Beshear’s re-election notwithstanding, Kentucky Republicans and their white Christian nationalist electorate maintain a supermajority in the state. Yet this angry, scared, organized mob won’t let that fact interfere with the charade of persecution — up to and including parading a teenage girl in front of a school board meeting.
As Bart Bonikowski, associate professor of sociology and politics at New York University, observed, “white Christian nationalists take advantage of preexisting societal cleavages to mobilize supporters, channeling their fears into resentments…” And social media makes it practically effortless for leaders who stoke fear and resentment to summon a mob.
All it took for a small town preacher was to urge his Facebook followers to pack a school board meeting under the guise of protecting children. It did not seem to matter to any of them, caught up as they were in their fears, resentments and grievances, that they were exploiting an innocent child in the process.