How a proud Christian Nationalist preacher and ex-legislator's organization pushes 'biblical' bills

Preacher and former GOP Arkansas lawmaker, Jason Rapert's organization, the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) is leading the charge on influencing the enactment of laws that enforce Christian nationalist ideology in state legislatures across the country, Rolling Stone reports.

Per Rolling Stone, as the "first-of-its-kind organization" since the United States' inception, NACL specifically pushes "biblical" bills — legislation that cannot be identified as "mere stunts or messaging," but "dark, freedom-limiting bills that, in some cases, have become law."

Additionally, the former lawmaker noted that the organization is at "'the forefront of the battles to end abortion in the individual states' and also seeks to drive queer Americans back into the closet." He said, "for far too long, we have allowed one political party in our nation to hold up Sodom and Gomorrah as a goal to be achieved rather than a sin to be shunned."

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As Rapert confirmed to Rolling Stone, "NACL was the first and only para-legislative organization in the country to adopt the Texas methodology as a model law, and we promoted it to be passed in every state."

Rapert tweeted last year that "Sodom and Gomorrah idolized by the United States Government as directed by the #DEMOCRATS in control of our government. This is an embarrassment and defiles the history of our nation. I will never cease fighting to save our country from these mockers of all that is righteous."

Rolling Stone reports:

As a matter of policy, NACL members must pledge to 'uphold the sanctity of human life' from the 'moment of conception' to 'natural death'; to define marriage as the 'sacred union exclusively between one man and one woman'; and to oppose 'unhealthy influences such as alcohol abuse, drug addiction, pornography, prostitution, violence, gambling and crime.' Ironically, NACLs website is 'Powered by GoDaddy,' a web service firm that sells .sex and .porn domains.

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Additionally, the conservative preacher, according to Rolling Stone, has stated on his show, Save the Nation, he is a "'proud' Christian Nationalist," and "rejects that being a Christian Nationalist is somehow unseemly or wrong."

Andrew Whitehead, author of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, notes Christian nationalists "believe that this country was founded for Christians like them, generally natural-born citizens and white."

The Guardian reports recent national survey taken by the Public Research Institute and Brookings Institution "found that a majority of Republicans in the U.S. 'are sympathetic to' Christian nationalism."

Another survey also conducted by Politico and the University of Maryland discovered that "61 percent of Republicans would be in 'favor' of 'the United States officially declaring the United States to be a Christian nation.'"

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Likewise, Rapert believes the United States "was founded as a 'Judeo-Christian nation.'" Rolling Stone reports the minister also "believes the moment the founding fathers 'dedicated this nation to God' that 'Satan and his forces [have] put a target on the United States of America, trying to take us out.'"

Regarding the group's influence on nationwide legislation, NACL pushed the United StateSupreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade last year. According to Rolling Stone, organization member and GOP Texas lawmaker, Bryan Hughes, spearheaded "the bounty-hunter bill that all-but outlawed abortion in Texas by allowing private citizens to sue women who terminate pregnancies after six weeks, and their doctors, in civil court."

Rolling Stone reports:

By the time that bill passed in Texas in Sept. 2021, it had been adopted by NACL as model legislation. The reproductive rights group NARAL later tracked copycat legislation in more than a dozen states. Rapert takes substantial credit for that spread: 'NACL was the first and only para-legislative organization in the country to adopt the Texas methodology as a model law,' he tells Rolling Stone, 'and we promoted it to be passed in every state.'

READ MORE: Do right-wing evangelicals really want a 'Christian nation'?

Rapert's group boasts constituents in 31 states, in addition to "a dozen 'model laws'" members can push forward in their state legislatures.

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Rolling Stone's full report is available at this link (subscription required). The Guardian's report is here.