That white Christian nationalism has become predominant in the Republican Party is nowhere more visible than on the state and local levels.

The current wave of school book bannings is happening mostly at the local school board level, and while it is making news, books about Black and queer people are disappearing from library shelves in many cases without being reported more than locally, if at all.

Florida's proposed "Don't Say Gay" law, which is expected to pass, would ban discussing gay or transgender people or issues in public elementary schools. While Florida is attempting this on the state level, it's a big local issue around the country. It's an explicitly Christian issue. Conservative Christians of the white nationalist ilk claim they have a right to demand that their children not learn about gay and transgender people and issues in school, because of their religion.

They don't seem to be able to articulate why children raised in a society where same-sex marriage is legal and civil rights for queer people are ordinary should not hear about these things. They will if pressed say the children aren't ready to hear about sex, but, obviously, discussing gay couples does not involve discussing sex. Not anymore than discussing straight couples involves discussing sex.

These bans really are all about enforcing religious practice in a secular society. White Christian nationalism.

I grew up with the presumption of white Christian nationalism, raised as the son of a Baptist minister in churches where people presumed the United States is specially blessed by God.

But I've never seen the ideology so widely promoted and accepted. I never dreamed that it would become mainstream like it has today, or that states would pass laws based on it.