A left-wing reporter who claimed that Americans who believe their rights come from God instead of government are “Christian nationalists” has walked back her comments as “clumsy.”
According to Fox News on Friday, Politico correspondent Heidi Przybyla wrote a piece attempting to explain her position and how she “fell short” during an appearance on MSNBC last week.
Yet despite issuing what Fox called a “mea culpa,” Przybyla didn’t exactly renounce the underlying beliefs that led to her claim.
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She wrote that she does not possess “bias against religion.” But she also claimed that those who espouse Christian beliefs do not have “unique insight” into God’s will.
As Fox recounted the episode, Przybyla was on MSNBC because of a piece she wrote asserting that former President Donald Trump’s allies would seek to make America a “Christian nationalist” nation if he wins in November.
During her comments, she said, “The thing that unites them as Christian nationalists – not Christians, by the way, because Christian nationalist is very different – is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court. They come from God. The problem with that is that they are determining – man, men, it is men are determining what God is telling them.”
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Fox noted that in response, two prominent Christian groups fired off a letter to Politico demanding that Przybyla apologize for her “deeply disturbing” remarks.
That apparently led to her explanatory column, which in some way blamed her critics for their own reaction.
“Due to some clumsy words, I was interpreted by some people as making arguments that are quite different from what I believe,” she wrote on Thursday.
Excerpts of what I said were promoted widely in some political circles by some activists whose primary objection, I feel sure, was not my television appearance but my coverage in POLITICO about the tactics and agenda of political activists who subscribe to a philosophy they call ‘Christian Nationalism.’ Christianity is a religion. Christian Nationalism is a political movement. As I said on air, there is a big difference between the two.”
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She added, “Reporters have a responsibility to use words and convey meaning with precision, and I am sorry I fell short of this in my appearance. To state the obvious, the above is not a good definition of Christian Nationalism.”
“Many people have views about our rights as Americans that would coincide with those of many of our nation’s founders,” she continued. “In my full remarks, I noted that many other individuals and groups on all sides of the political equation have cited natural law, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who invoked the concept in his fight for civil rights.”
“But, of course, the question of which policies and rights and values can be ascribed to natural law is in the eyes of the beholder,” Przybyla wrote.
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“Those who complain must recognize that in a pluralistic society, people on the other side of policy debates have religious or idealistic convictions every bit as sincere as their own. Neither side should try to assert that they have unique insight to represent God’s will, or that the other side is in opposition to that will.”
“No one gets to impose their wishes on others simply by asserting their confidence that heaven is on their side,” she added.
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