The Republican Party’s primary focus this year should be on making the political party one of Christian nationalism, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Saturday.
“We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists,” she said in an interview with the conservative Next News Network while attending the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Florida.
Greene, who is known for her vocal religious beliefs and for imposing them on others, said the Republican Party should conform to Christianity to make it easier to identify with and sway Christian voters.
“When Republicans learn to represent most of the people that vote for them, then we will be the party that continues to grow without having to chase down certain identities or chase down certain segments of people,” she said. “We just need to represent Americans and most Americans, no matter how they vote, really care about the same things and I want to see Republicans actually do their job.”
Greene has made similar comments before, saying of Christian nationalism on a podcast last week: “I think that’s an identity that we need to embrace, because those are the policies that serve every single American, no matter how they vote.”
Though most Republican voters identify as Christian today, not all Republicans are and the number who do identify with this religion has been decreasing over the last few decades, particularly among younger voters, according to the Pew Research Center.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for the constitutional separation between church and state, fired back at Greene last month for similar remarks she made, saying she is conflating the term “nationalism” with patriotism.
“Loving your country is not nationalism,” the foundation’s co-presidents said in a letter to her that was shared publicly. “Nationalism is what led Europe into centuries of endless wars over imagined borders and notions of national superiority. Like the unification of state and church, this is an embarrassing misstep in European history that Americans should be proud we have learned from. Nationalism is inherently divisive and dangerous.”
Greene’s advocacy of a religious-themed party comes amid nationwide discussions on the separation of church and state due to a recent spate of rulings by the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court.
These include rulings that allow prayer on a public school’s football field, taxpayer money going to religious schools in Maine, and the flying of a flag featuring a Christian cross at a government building.
The first clause in the Bill of Rights, the establishment clause, is widely seen as keeping religion and government separate as a means to prevent government officials from promoting any particular faith.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” it states.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), another conservative firebrand, advocated for abolishing that clause last month, saying “the church is supposed to direct the government” and that she’s “tired of this separation of church and state junk.”
Representatives with the Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Sunday.