Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis says he would have loved to hang out with Jesus and his disciples, and thinks America needs more God.
The 2024 presidential candidate, currently a double-digit distant second to Donald Trump, has been accused of being a “Christian-nationalist MAGA leader,” holding “‘White Christian Nationalist’ beliefs,” or “flirting” with Christian nationalism, yet he not only has ignored his accusers, he is increasingly embracing the concepts of Christian nationalism and telegraphing to Christian nationalist voters he is their guy.
DeSantis recently spoke with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody in an interview that aired on CBN’s “The 700 Club” Friday.
“How do you see the country from a Judeo-Christian standpoint?” Brody, a hard-right partisan, asked Gov. DeSantis. “How do you see that in terms of infusing that into public policy?”
“You know,” DeSantis replied, “this society, the United States of America, you know, was built on the foundation, you know, of what happened thousands of years ago in the Holy Land, and I think that the Judeo-Christian values undergird everything that the Founding Fathers did, some of it, you know, was just so embedded, they didn’t even need to think about it.”
“Of course, you know, those are the values that you had. And I think that’s one of the reasons why in the First Amendment, they have the free, free exercise of religion and making sure that that people had the ability to believe as they wanted to, because of course, in the old world, that wasn’t always the case. It was, you know, you’re prescribed to be this particular denomination, and they really understood that people had the right to be able to believe as they want, and I’ll tell you, you know, you had more flourishing of religion in America as a result of having that religious freedom protected,” DeSantis declared.
He did not allow for people who do not hold religious beliefs, or for people who are spiritual but not religious. And he agreed with Broody that America needs more God.
“So we need more God in society today?” Brody asked.
“Oh, absolutely. I mean, look, at the end of the day, there’s certain problems, economic problems, there’s, there’s problems at the border. There’s all very important, but you know, why are we here? Why are we free people?”
“We’re free because God has endowed us with inalienable rights. That’s why America was founded, our constitution was created, not to give us rights, but to protect the rights that God has already bestowed upon us,” he declared, as he has repeatedly before.
Back in February after DeSantis delivered similar remarks to Fox News, the Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote, “Our rights do not come from ‘God,’ Gov. DeSantis,” and explained that the Florida GOP governor had “missed the fact that the rebellious Founders didn’t only throw out the ‘divine right of kings,’ they threw out ‘divine rights’ altogether.”
DeSantis continued to share his biblical beliefs with Brody.
“And that’s just, I think that was the Founders’ central insight, because before them, it was thought, you know, the king has the power. So you may have rights as a subject of some kingdom, but it’s the courtesy of what the state is giving you. That’s not what our Founders believed. They said, God has endowed these for us. Yeah, we’ll give governments some power. we give them limited power, and we give them power primarily for the purpose of protecting these pre-existing rights.”
Over at CBN, Brody reports, “Ron DeSantis credits his Catholic faith for keeping him grounded in truth,” says the GOP presidential hopeful will “be spreading a 2024 campaign message of conservatism guided by faith,” yet claims, DeSantis “doesn’t publicly tout his faith.”
Except, he does.
Last year in March, DeSantis used the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation he had signed into law as the new flag of his bible-based anti-LGBTQ gubernatorial re-election campaign.
“Gird your loins for battle. We are going to fight. You put on the full armor of God,” the Florida Republican said in a video posted to social media, with the state flag behind him and a poster reading, “Keep Florida Free.”
“You take a stand against the Left’s schemes. Yeah, you’re gonna face flaming arrows, but if you stand for truth, you and we will prevail,” DeSantis added.
As NCRM reported at the time, the full biblical reference makes DeSantis’ remarks even more disturbing. It comes from Ephesians 6:11-18, which mentions the Devil and the spiritual forces of evil. It reads in part:
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. … In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
The Tampa Bay Times last year chastised the Florida governor over his “full armor of God” speech.
“Christian nationalism for many conservatives has become a political identity, and unlike conservative politicians in the past who used their faith to inform their arguments, DeSantis is more aggressive, using war imagery to describe the political debates as a battle over who will be the better American,” the paper wrote.
“The full armor of God passage is a favorite amongst certain types of Pentecostals who really do see the world in terms of spiritual warfare,” Yale University comparative-history sociologist Philip Gorski told the newspaper.
READ MORE: Watch: Ron DeSantis Travels to New Hampshire to Claim Kids Are Being ‘Forced’ to Choose Pronouns
Former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski, a former DeSantis administration official, at the time weighed in, writing: “Desantis gets sexual and biblical on the campaign trail.”
In September, the Miami Herald’s Editorial Board published a warning.
“DeSantis’ flirting with Christian nationalism — the belief that America is in God’s plan and was intended to be a Christian nation — as the Herald recently reported, is not new in GOP politics. But it shows where the governor’s mind is.”
Pointing to DeSantis’ “Christian nationalist shtick,” the Editorial Board added, “given the onslaught of religious talk in Florida — and the use of government to promote one conservative religious view — Democrats must find a better way to acknowledge the importance of religion and spirituality in people’s lives without crossing the line into proselytizing. If DeSantis is telling his followers to go fight to shape the nation to their religious liking, the counter-narrative should be that this rhetoric could not only incite violence, but it also undermines Christianity itself. For most Christians, religion doesn’t mean hostility toward your fellowmen and those who share different beliefs, as DeSantis makes it seem.”
Last year in November, DeSantis not only went biblical again, he posted what was seen as “blasphemy” – a “heretical,” according to some, re-election ode celebrating not God, but himself.
Indeed, the Tampa Bay Times in that same piece called DeSantis’ biblical reference a “recurring theme.”
“DeSantis has made the biblical references in numerous stump speeches. He did it at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando in February. Then, at the Florida Republican Party’s annual gathering in July. And again, in August, while campaigning alongside Doug Mastriano, a right-wing Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate who has promoted Christian power in America.”
In May, New York Times’ opinion writer Michelle Goldberg asked, “Whose Version of Christian Nationalism Will Win in 2024?”
“What’s not yet clear,” Goldberg said, “is what sort of Christian nationalism will prevail — the elite, doctrinaire variety of candidates like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida or the violently messianic version embodied by [Mike] Flynn and [Donald] Trump.”
“The issue isn’t whether the next Republican presidential candidate is going to be a Christian nationalist, meaning someone who rejects the separation of church and state and treats Christianity as the foundation of American identity and law,” Goldberg explained. “That’s a foregone conclusion in a party whose state lawmakers are falling over themselves to pass book bans, abortion prohibitions, anti-trans laws and, in Texas, bills authorizing school prayer and the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.”
Also in May, Newsweek warned, “Thousands of Christians signed an online petition condemning Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign, accusing him of ‘twisting religion’ for political gain.”
DeSantis does not appear to care.
“Our household is a Christ-centered household,” the governor told CBN’s Brody. “We’re raising our kids with those values. We think that that’s very important…It’s great for us when our kids are coming back from preschool or kindergarten, talking about David and Goliath and we’re like, thank you. So we’re very, very appreciative of being able to do that…My son, he was four for Christmas this year, he wanted a sling to be like David slaying Goliath and so that really warms our hearts when we see that.”
Watch the videos of DeSantis above or at this link.