Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Reader 1

Eleanor Brown

Reader 2

Ken Miller

Rights Information

© 2023 Elena K Monroe

Abstract

During his first year at Abilene Christian University, Matthew Kacsmaryk wrote an opinion piece for his school’s newspaper titled, “Republican platform stance on abortion clarified." After clarifying the GOP policies, he writes, "The Democratic Party's ability to condone the federally sanctioned eradication of innocent human life is indicative of the moral ambivalence undergirding this party… [T]he liberal Democratic Party… ha[s] facilitated the demise of America's Christian heritage…"2 Twenty-seven years later, Kacsmaryk takes a step towards actioning the policy he clarified as an undergraduate in his position as a federal judge in Amarillo, Texas. On April 7th, 2023, Judge Kacsmaryk ruled in favor of plaintiffs in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine et al. v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration et al., invalidating the FDA's 23-year-old approval of Mifepristone, the first half of the two-drug medication abortion regimen used in over half of the abortions in the United States.3 Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling is the latest example of a Christian nationalist undercurrent coming to the surface of America’s political, legal, and cultural institutions. It demonstrates the real danger that Christian nationalism poses to the United States and the democratic institutions that define them. My project seeks to draw attention to the genuine and tangible threat that Christian nationalism poses to America's institutions. In the following pages, I will explore how Christian nationalism undermines the American experiment and the values that define it. Using analyses of the country's founding, I will refute the most common claims made by Christian nationalism, ultimately arguing that, as an ideology, it is inherently un-American. I will then show Christian nationalist ideology at work in our political, cultural, and legal institutions to demonstrate the threat it poses to the values that define America, as they are enshrined in the Constitution and its amendments.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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