When you ask a random sample of Americans what they think “Christian Nationalism” is, you’re going to get a handful of answers. The Left loves to wield this particular moniker as a weapon to paint Christians as theocrats who want to take away all freedoms. It’s the bogeyman used to keep the faithful silent.

This is not a new attack, and it’s becoming more pervasive as leftists try anything and everything to dissuade Christians from stating their views. Nothing depicts that better than a Politico article published earlier this week. Politico warns that “Christian nationalists” are seeking to place themselves in positions of prominence around former President Donald Trump should he win reelection this November. The article’s particular targets are Russell Vought, president of The Center for Renewing America think tank; William Wolfe, who worked in Trump’s previous administration; and former national security advisor Mike Flynn.

These men were given the label of “Christian nationalist” because they are Christians who believe in securing the border; are pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, and pro-family; and believe that there are only two sexes. In other words, they believe what most Christians who adhere to the teachings of the Bible believe.

Here, it should be noted that progressive Christians — ones that include President Joe Biden and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi — only view the Bible as a series of suggestions, not the revealed Word of God. This is seen in their politics as well. As our Nate Jackson aptly put it, “Leftists only care about the Constitution when they’re defending what’s not in it.”

How does Politico semi-define what makes a “Christian nationalist”? The article vaguely states, “Christian nationalists in America believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life.” This is where anyone who is even a mediocre student of U.S. history would say, “Yes, and?”

To quote House Speaker Mike Johnson: “Deep religious heritage and tradition is a big part of what it means to be an American. When the Founders set this system up, they wanted a vibrant expression of faith in the public square because they believed that a general moral consensus and virtue was necessary to maintain this grand experiment in self-governance that we created — a government of, by, and for the people. We don’t have a king in charge, we don’t have a middle man, so we’ve got to keep morality amongst us, so that we have accountability. And so they wanted faith to be a big part of that.”

What is unclear is if Politico is trying to deny the fact that the Founders set up the country in large part on the basis of Christian values. By failing to elaborate, the authors are either ignorant of U.S. history or are counting on the fact that perhaps their readers are.

Being imprecise seems to be the name of the game for this article. Throwing out words like “Christian nationalism” is purposely unclear; they don’t really define it at all. Lead pastor Michael Clary of Christ the King Church writes in The Federalist: “Leftists know that carefully defining ‘Christian nationalism’ would be counterproductive. Its ambiguity is its utility. It needs to be scary enough to make people afraid of it but vague enough so they don’t know what they actually fear.”

In other words, it’s another leftist example of rhetorical manipulation to put conservatives on the defensive.

Politico also defines natural law incorrectly: “Natural law is the belief that there are universal rules derived from God that can’t be superseded by government or judges.” As political pundit Michael Knowles points out on his podcast, this is not an accurate definition of natural law, and a cursory search on the Internet would have corrected them. Natural law, according to Britannica, is a “system of right or justice held to be common to all humans and derived from nature rather than from the rules of society, or positive law.” Knowles’s bigger point in calling out this mis-definition was to say that the Left has not only forgotten what natural rights and natural law are, but it has abandoned the very notion of any sort of universal morality in favor of moral relativism.

The overarching point of the Politico attack on conservative Christians is that Trump is going to be heavily influenced by them. As Not the Bee correctly observes: “As much as you do or do not want that to be true, remember that Donald Trump is a moderate — he doesn’t care about ending all abortion, he doesn’t care much about LGBT issues, and he’s not a big social politics guy. He’s shown no signs of repentance (actually saying he sees no need for it personally) or a declaration that he follows Jesus Christ (and dodges the question on faith whenever he is asked). He’s pretty much your normal freedom-loving American from 10 years ago.”

Yet Trump also promised yesterday to “fight even harder for Christians” in a second Trump administration.

The Left has no trouble running Christians and their values into the mud. It is those very values it has been seeking to undermine for generations. This article is just the latest in a series of attacks on normal conservative Christians. A soon-to-be-released documentary put out by atheist and leftist filmmaker Rob Reiner entitled “God and Country” targets so-called “Christian nationalists.” Additionally, David French, Russell Moore, and Curtis Chang have written a Bible study that seems to encourage Christians not to rock the political boat and be quiet.

These attacks do put conservative Christians on the defensive. However, take heart: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:10)