(RNS) — Over the previous week, my closest cousins and I’ve been exchanging greetings and greatest needs for holy observances. My cousins are Jewish and celebrating Passover, and I’m a Baptist minister having fun with Easter Monday right this moment. I as soon as wrote about my perception in opposition to an unique understanding of heaven, mentioning that if it didn’t embrace my Jewish cousins, I actually didn’t need to find yourself there.

I really feel the identical method about America. If this nation doesn’t present full rights for my Jewish cousins, I don’t need any a part of it. The identical goes for my buddies and neighbors from all totally different backgrounds and beliefs who will rejoice holidays this month — Ramadan, Vaisakhi and Holi, to call simply probably the most distinguished. The concurrent holy days kind a portrait of the religion lifetime of the USA as our founding fathers ordained it.

Sadly, not everybody sees it that method. Christian nationalism has been on a precipitous rise for the reason that late days of the Trump administration and has continued by final week, when his most fervent supporters likened his arraignment on fraud prices to Christ’s crucifixion. Adherents of this vitriolic ideology don’t share within the imaginative and prescient of affection and abundance frequent to so lots of the world’s faiths. Relatively, Christian nationalists search to impose their slender worldview on others, to the detriment of racial and spiritual minorities, LGBTQ+ folks and anybody else who dares to problem their bigotry. 

Christian nationalism is probably the most potent menace to this nation’s democracy and variety. However as Christ has taught us, love is extra highly effective than tyranny. We will defeat the tyranny of Christian nationalism by love for our siblings who reside and consider in another way than we do. It’s going to require a shared dedication to defending our proper to consider and the power of our neighbors to do the identical.

Many are already championing a path ahead right into a multi-faith future. One want look no additional than the Christians Towards Christian Nationalism marketing campaign, spearheaded by our buddies on the Baptist Joint Committee for Non secular Liberty; the advocacy of Rabbi Jonah Pesner, who has spoken concerning the custom of welcoming the stranger throughout Passover; the work of  Najeeba Syed, who spoke with me just lately concerning the significance of interfaith relationships throughout Ramadan; Hindus for Human Rights, who’re pushing for interfaith justice throughout Holi; the listing goes on.

Simply this previous weekend, my household and I went to Easter companies on the Washington Nationwide Cathedral, the place Bishop Mariann Budde preached concerning the worth of spiritual variety — a sentiment she additionally shared once I interviewed her this previous week.

Selling interfaith concord is in itself a strong act of resistance. Christian nationalists and their allies in workplace can proceed to spew hate. They will proceed to say that their imaginative and prescient of America is blessed by God. They will proceed to disclaim the reality that this nation, whereas by no means excellent, was based on the concept folks of all faiths and none have a divine proper to take part in our democracy. However they will’t take away our solidarity and our dedication to constructing a nation that works for all of us. 

When my sons ask me concerning the that means of Easter, I inform them it’s about God’s love. Jesus rose from the lifeless to remind us that there’s at all times hope and that God’s love is extra highly effective than any oppressive ruler or system. 

This straightforward message — that God is love and that every one of creation is a part of God’s Beloved Neighborhood and, subsequently, deserving of dignity and respect — is on the core of my religion. And it’s due to my religion, not despite it, that I’ll proceed to struggle for a rustic the place all of us have equal standing.

My model of Christianity means I consider that spiritual variety, the separation of church and state and spiritual freedom for all are foundational ideas of the American mission. We’re all welcome on this nation. We’re all afforded dignity. And all of us have a duty to face up for the rights of our neighbors throughout religion and place. 

(The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush is a Baptist minister and president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance. The views expressed on this commentary don’t essentially mirror these of Faith Information Service.)

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