Gilead Rising - Updated

It has been clear for some time that if the United States slides into fascism, it will be driven by Christian extremism (Christofascism). Several recent articles look at what's happening in the US and it's not pretty.

• How big Christian nationalism has come courting in North Idaho. Earlier this month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican, addressed the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, whose purview runs from this small resort city up along the Washington state border. Before she spoke, a local pastor and onetime Idaho state representative named Tim Remington, wearing an American flag-themed tie, revved up the crowd: “If we put God back in Idaho, then God will always protect Idaho.” 
• A long Twitter thread by the author of the article linked above that expands on some points raised in the article. "1. So, I recently took a trip out to North Idaho. I was tracking down rumors about Christian nationalism(s) rising in the region. But I wasn't prepared for just how *big* it'd become, how powerful it is in the state, and how it may impact the future GOP."
• How Montana Took a Hard Right Turn Toward Christian Nationalism. "“If you want to live here,” a chapter president of the Montana Federation of Republican Women said, “be a Christian.” 

There's a lot more out there to read, especially if you get into the crusade against trans and queer people and abortion. It's all tied together in s slimy morass of moral panic and misguided religious bigotry. Be very worried; this is looking a lot like Germany in the mid-1930s. And we know how that went.

Update: So just after I posted this, George Takei published a big article on Christian nationalism, which in the context of current events, is essentially the same as what I called Christian fascism. It is, of course, well worth reading. 

Separation of church and state. It’s a bedrock principle of our country, one which our founders emphasized would be critical to our future and hoped would endure the test of history.

Today we see, disturbingly, they were quite prescient in their concerns. 

Many on the right have openly embraced “Christian nationalism” as a goal, even though it is wholly anathema to our fundamental democratic values and cherished personal freedoms. 

How have we stumbled our way toward the Gilead America of The Handmaid’s Tale? And how do we fight back against it? 

That’s today’s subject in The Big Picture.