Christian nationalists Ohio have just proposed a bill that would codify the unexplored, revisionist, “positive” view of Christianity, which not only leaves LGBTQia+ people from conversation, but also the first amendment that allows the teaching of the history of American Christianity.
Bill, Ohio House Bill 486 (HB 486) or “Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act”, states that “teaching the historical, positive influence of religion on America’s history is in line with the first amendment to the United States Constitution. The accurate and historical relationship about the influence of Christianity on freedom and freedom rooted in our culture is necessary to limit the ignorance of American history, hatred and violence in our society.”
Each mention of “religion” in HB 486 should be read as “Christianity.” On a long list of topics that can be taught in public schools (25!), There are no references to religion other than Christianity.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of the Act – and the pool of candidates for this honor is a crowded field – it is how uncritical and unexplored is the presentation of Christianity.
For example, one point is: “How religious influence has shaped civil rights and the Movement of Civil Rights by people such as Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others.”
Dr. King’s theology was free. God, whom we consistently meet in the Bible, is not a god who sits off the beaten track and is definitely not a god who supports the empire, nations and powerful. God appears in the Scriptures directly on the marginalized and oppressed side.
As a preacher, pastor and theologian, I could present a full argument for the view of the god of theology of liberation, which Dr. King also preached, but HB 486 writers did something here that deserves more time. They visited these leaders from their context, and thus prescribed the American Christian history and Christian theology.
Deeply embedded in the history of the United States, there is an appropriation of Christian doctrine to maintain powerful and prosperous power and further compress marginalized. We might not need a movement for civil rights, if it was not that the generations of Christian pastors and allegedly Christian leaders used the Bible to support slavery, and later the oppression of all colorful people.
Similarly, leaders in the whole story chose the Bible to refuse women the right to vote and limit their bodily autonomy to support the forced removal of native inhabitants in order to limit and marginalize LGBTQia+people, even to support the depopulation of immigrants in which the Bible is very clear that there is no pressure from immigrants and strangles.
It is not surprising that the Christian nationalist bill would not only skip other religions, but would also skip the Queer community. You were forgiven that you were excited, that we were omitted once. But despite all his well -documented rhetoric and spokescreening Queerphobic, Christianity has always been Queer, and the LGBTQIA+ community and people dividing our identity in other parts of history stood at significant times of Christian history. Evangelical Christian nationalists love to quote the version of the Bible of King James, usually without acknowledging that King James himself was well known in his life as male sexual partners. It is only one example among religion that still platforms both openly strangely and the closed clergy and leaders.
HB 486 is problematic at many levels. He breaks the wall between the church and the state. Removes the contribution of non -Christians throughout the history. This is largely a changed and uncritical approach to Christianity in the United States, while developing tired clues that are neither true nor particularly convincing. There are better ways to teach the history of America and religions involved in its long history.
Conservatives from Ohio, do you want to do it in the right way? Do you want to get involved in the process of education and historical interpretation in transparency and honesty? We can and should discuss how religion and faith influenced our nation, but this conversation must include all religions, as well as both the ways in which we are right, as well as the times in which we used our faith to promote historical sins. We also have to deal with the constant heritage of these sins. Neither the United States nor American Christianity is perfect, but we should be brave enough to learn from mistakes when we learn from success. Ding
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- Buckeye Flame’s 2025-2026 LGBTQ+ Guide is available here.
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