During the rally, I heard the same messages I’d been hearing at Religious Right events since 1988: LGBTQ rights must be curbed. Because it is God’s plan for women to submit to men, husbands should run households. The Bible, which is to be read literally, provides answers to every issue we face. Contemporary culture mocks Christianity.

Christian nationalists’ tendency to blame enforcement of separation of religion and government in the face of mass shootings and national tragedies is nothing new. In the curious theology of many fundamentalist Christians, God apparently gets so upset over the lack of compulsory, government-sponsored prayer in public schools and other institutions that he occasionally lashes out with horrifying mass shootings, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, wars and other plagues.

Failed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee blamed the recent mass shootings on people who 'are utterly disconnected from any sense of identity with their Creator and with his love for them and his love for the people that they hate.'