I can’t believe this where we are. It’s madness. /end

His is a common misunderstanding. Secular institutions are not there to irradicate faith, they are there to protect individual conscience, including personal spirituality and faith. What he’s really advocating for is Crusade in the worst possible, join-us-or-die sense. /5

What Hegseth and others are pushing is a 400-year rollback to an era where those who held sovereign power also wielded religious authority or derived their power from it (see, Europe pre-17th c.)—for a quick reminder of what that looks like, try the opening minutes of “Elizabeth” (1998). Yeah. /4

“Secular” institutions are intended to help keep the peace and, to paraphrase Hume, to make sure a system of laws is put in place that is grounded in common understandings (killing people is bad) and not niche religious dogmas (killing *those* people is okay). /3

The Christian Nationalist movement propagates an ahistorical understanding of the U.S.’s foundations. The primary reason for the separation of Church and State was to keep various sects of Christians from persecuting *one another*—the fate that had driven many colonists from their home countries. /2

That’s the cartoon. The reality is much much more complicated.