Wyoming GOP member lashes out at Christian nationalists infesting her state and church

In a column for the New York Times, a Wyoming Republican Party activist whose husband served in the Wyoming legislature for years, lashed out at Christian nationalists who have taken over the party structure in her state and have made frightening inroads into the evangelical church that she belongs to.

According to Susan Stubson, a professed conservative whose family goes back six generations in Wyoming, she has seen firsthand the ugly racism and violent rhetoric of the Christian nationalists that is moving to the forefront of the conservative movement.

In her column she wrote about an encounter with one local who freely used a racist slur when he met with her husband in 2016, with Stubson writing, "I now understand the ugliness I heard was part of a current of Christian nationalism fomenting beneath the surface. It had been there all the time."

"It was also an expression of solidarity with a candidate like Donald Trump who gave a name to a perceived enemy: people who do not look like us or share our beliefs. Immigrants are taking our guns. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. You are not safe in your home. Religious freedom is on the gallows. Vote for me," she wrote before adding, "The messages worked. And in large part, it’s my faith community — white, rural and conservative — that got them there."

"Rural states are particularly vulnerable to the promise of Christian nationalism. In Wyoming, we are white (more than 92 percent) and love God (71 percent identified as Christian in 2014, according to the Pew Research Center) and Mr. Trump (seven in 10 voters picked him in 2020)," she continued. "The result is bad church and bad law. 'God, guns and Trump' is an omnipresent bumper sticker here, the new trinity. The evangelical church has proved to be a supplicating audience for the Christian nationalist roadshow."

According to the longtime Wyoming resident, she has seen the ground shift beneath her and isn't sure if there is a place for her in her party and in her church.

"I am adrift in this unnamed sea, untethered from both my faith community and my political party as I try to reconcile evangelicals’ repeated endorsements of candidates who thumb their noses at the least of us. Christians are called to serve God, not a political party, to put our faith in a higher power, not in human beings. We’re taught not to bow to false idols. Yet idolatry is increasingly prominent and our foundational principles — humility, kindness and compassion — in short supply," she wrote.

Noting some conservative lawmakers are pushing back, she added, "This is the state I cannot quit. I rely on those gritty and courageous leaders who hold tight to our rural values. They are the Davids in the fight against the Philistines. They are our brother’s keeper."

You can read more here.