Freethought Caucus’ Huffman invites Christian nationalism critic to State of the Union
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Amanda Tyler, lead organizer of Christians Against Christian Nationalism, will attend the State of the Union address Thursday (March 7) as a guest of U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, co-founder of the Congressional Freethought Caucus.
Tyler has become one of the loudest voices in Washington and in the country speaking against the Christian nationalist movement, a decentralized but insistent collection of preachers, politicians and self-appointed champions of ideas that fuse church and state, with many often insisting that the United States is ordained by God to be governed by Christian principles with Christians in charge.
The executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, an organization that supports religious freedom, Tyler, a Texan who formerly worked for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, began opposing Christian nationalism even before she helped to found Christians Against Christian Nationalism in 2019. Since then she has testified to Congress repeatedly to raise concerns about the dangers of the movement, which she frames as destructive both to religious liberty and to American democracy.