By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News -
Comment made by National Security advisor to former president Donald Trump Michael Flynn during a speech at a conference raised eyebrows on Friday, when he appeared to suggest that the entire U.S. should adopt Christianity as its one and only religion.
During a San Antonio, Texas stop on the ReAwaken America tour, Flynn said “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.”
“All of us, working together. I don’t care what your ecumenical service is or what you are,” he added.
Flynn also called last week’s arrest of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon for contempt of court an “abuse of freedom of speech.”
His comments sparked immediate backlash, with some lawmakers and former government officials saying his suggestion that Americans adopt a singular religion is in direct contradiction to the First Amendment.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a far-left Muslim politician who has previously called for restrictions on free speech that she considers to be hate speech, tweeted “These people hate the US Constitution” in response to Flynn’s comments.
Speaking to CNN, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Flynn was “clearly unhinged.”
Journalist Carl Bernstein told CNN that Flynn was typical of the “knaves and fools and dangerous authority figures” that Trump leveraged as advisors during his administration.
But Bernstein acknowledged that Flynn had tapped into popular sentiment in the country.
“It should be no surprise to know that Michael Flynn is saying the kind of things that he is saying, but what’s most significant here is that much of the Republican party … something like 35 percent in exit polls said they favor Trump because Christianity is being taken away from them.
“So Michael Flynn is not that far away from huge numbers of people in this country.”
“To suggest that the United States of America, a nation founded on twin bedrocks of pluralism and the freedom to practice any religion, should ‘have one religion’ is anti-American, anti-democratic and downright dangerous,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.
But some have defended Flynn, arguing that his message is encouraging Americans to embrace unity and Judeo-Christian values, rather than a particular religion or Christian stream.
Josh Mandel, a Jewish Republican running for a senate seat in Ohio, wrote on Twitter that he supported Flynn.
“We stand with General Flynn. Freedom of religion ≠ freedom FROM religion,” Mandel tweeted on Sunday.
“America was not founded as a secular nation.”
