It is to be expected that many of our citizen legislators approach their work in Topeka by using their own lived experiences — and those of their constituents — to determine the policies they’ll prioritize in a given session. I am a mom, and my experience in my kids’ school during the Sam Brownback administration has led me to advocate for our public schools. I am a daughter who lost her mother to breast cancer, which is why I fight for better access to health care. And I am a Christian, which I believe calls me to humbly pursue justice and mercy.
Reporting from the nonprofit Kansas Reflector over the past several weeks highlights that for leaders in the Kansas Republican Party, faith is a weapon to institutionalize harm against vulnerable Kansans whose own experiences do not fit into a narrow view of the world. As a leader in our state and as a Christian myself, I condemn the violent, extreme Christian nationalism rooted in white supremacy that has seeped into our statehouse. I call on my colleagues in leadership to do the same.
The Kansas Constitution clearly states that free government is founded on the authority inherent in people, and that it exists for equal protection and benefit. History shows many terrible examples of what happens when we use government to benefit some people, then bless and sanctify inequality by a religious justification. Kansas proudly rejected the lie that slavery based on race is ordained by God as the rightful estate of a few. Brown v. Board of Education marked the end of the lie that separate could ever be equal.
Faith that requires coercive political power to realize its own goals is faith built on violence. Following Jesus, who put away Peter’s sword and was executed as an enemy of the Roman state, and imagining violence as an acceptable way of cooperating with God’s kingdom leads to evils such as slavery, segregation, and death.
We have seen the latest iterations of these evils this session. Republicans in the Legislature have taken to heart the call to “create a hostile environment” for LGBTQ folks, food insecure families and the 59% of Kansans who rejected a constitutional amendment to give politicians power over private, personal decisions.
They suggest that Kansans who think or live differently from them are missing the right kind of Christian in their lives, and encourage the deputization of children in schools “to do the right thing.” They blame mental health and other systemic issues on “critical theory” or the degradation of the traditional family. And that’s not just behind closed doors: When I carried an amendment expanding the child care tax credit, one colleague stood in opposition because he believes the state should not encourage women and mothers working outside the home. That same colleague offered to convert a young Muslim woman and a Jewish woman to Christianity when they questioned whether his faith allowed him to adequately represent their religious views.
This rhetoric is deeply damaging to the individual Kansans it targets and to the social fabric of our state. But Christian nationalism also requires direct action, and it’s a call that has been heeded to disastrous ends before. When these extremists call on supporters to “take up arms in defense” and “guard our churches” from the latest scapegoat for problems in our community, they create a permission structure for supporters to assassinate abortion providers in their own churches or massacre families at a suburban Jewish community center. They fill supporters with hatred toward others and absolve them of their sins by declaring that they’ve got God on their side.
Today we need more people of faith who realize their highest calling is one of service. For us Christians, I think that looks like the kind of love that washes dirty feet and cares for widows and orphans. It is the kind of love that embraces others even when they are unlike us, understanding that each person is created in the divine image with inherent dignity.
The moment legislators assume they can act in ways that do not protect and benefit all Kansans equally, they make themselves liars and betrayers of the oath they made to support the U.S. and Kansas constitutions. And when they do so in the name of God, they make those Christians with a different perspective accomplices to the harm they inflict on our fellow Kansans.
About the author: Democratic Kansas Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes of Lenexa represents District 21.
