Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has appointed Reps. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) and Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania) to the House Intelligence Committee, giving them oversight of the entire U.S. intelligence community and access to the nation’s most sensitive foreign intelligence. This includes intelligence from the Navy, the Army, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, the Marine Corps, the Space Force, the CIA, the Defense Department, the State Department, the Department of Energy (which oversees information about nuclear weapons), the Treasury Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.

It is no wonder that Speaker Johnson appointed them to that committee. He and many others have stated that the Christian nationalist principles of the Seven Mountain Mandate guide them personally and professionally. An Appeal To Heaven flag, the Christian nationalist flag some people carried when they assaulted the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, hangs outside Johnson’s office. The Seven Mountain Mandate directs Christian nationalists to gain complete dominance over government, religion, family, business, education, arts and entertainment, and the media. Appointing two people who would help to gain dominance over the government was a foregone conclusion.

Jackson was Trump’s White House physician, and Trump endorsed Jackson when he ran for and won a seat in Congress in 2019. “In 2022, the U.S. Navy demoted him from admiral to captain after a 2021 report by the inspector general of the Defense Department showed he had ‘disparaged, belittled, bullied, and humiliated’ his staff and abused alcohol on at least two occasions when he was supposed to be providing medical care to government officials.”

Perry played an important role in planning to keep Trump in office after he lost the 2020 presidential election and was central to planning the Jan. 6 insurrection. According to published reports, he worked on the strategy of replacing electors, tried to install Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark as “’Acting’ Attorney General” to overturn the results, and then inquired about “preemptive” pardons.

The FBI investigated Perry for his part in attempting to overthrow the government, and Perry has complained bitterly about that. Now Perry will oversee the FBI! In a statement, Perry said: “I look forward to providing not only a fresh perspective but conducting actual oversight — not blind obedience to some facets of our Intel Community that all too often abuse their powers, resources, and authority to spy on the American People.”

General Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA, wrote: “That’s unbelievable. Both of them. Intelligence Committee? God help us.”

Christian nationalist ideals are embedded in the GOP platform, ideals they will unleash on the American public should they win the presidency in November. Says a former Christian nationalist who is now a professor of religion, “And we find many, many, many members of Congress from the GOP who support those principles.” I find it odd they call themselves Christians, as most Christians are repulsed by the Seven Mountain Mandate goals.

So, is Christian nationalism the only worldview in America’s future? A world view where women, people of color, immigrants, the LGBT community, liberals, and anyone who is not a Christian nationalist is a second-class citizen … or worse? A world view where same-sex marriages are illegal? A world where there is a national abortion ban and even on contraception? A vision where public schools, colleges, and universities cannot teach America’s true history? A world where these institutions must teach a white-washed version of history that glorifies straight, white Christian males? A world where discarding unused fertilized IVF embryos is murder because, as one Christian nationalist put it, “even before birth, all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory”?

Think it can’t happen? Think again. Right now, Florida schools cannot teach real American history, and Alabama physicians cannot discard frozen embryos.

President Biden’s speech at the D-Day commemorative ceremony included the warning that “The struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending” and “We’re living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since these beaches were stormed in 1944. In their generation, in their hour of trial, the Allied forces of D-Day did their duty.”

He asked, “Now, the question for us is: In our hour of trial, will we do ours? Will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against crushing brutality of the iron fist? Will we stand for freedom? Will we defend democracy? Will we stand together? My answer is yes. And it only can be yes.”

I ask you the same question. What is your answer?