Justice correspondent of The Nation, Elie Mystal, accused Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert of having “fundamentalist Christian” beliefs that led to the “witch trials.”
Mystal joined MSNBC host Joy Reid on Monday, who pointed to the Supreme Court justices’ rulings reflecting the beliefs of “right-wing Christians” surrounding the issues of guns, abortion and prayer. Mystal said the idea that life begins at conception is a “fundamentally Christian belief” not shared by other faiths.
He warned that “fundamentalist Christian” beliefs can have dire, and sometimes fatal, consequences by pointing to the Salem Witch Trials of the late 17th century.
“We have tried doing the New World the way Lauren Boebert suggests. You know where that got us? To the witch trials. You know what happened? People died,” he said. “But with this Court, we are not far away from that again. We are not far away from one of these Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene type [of] people saying, ‘I saw goodie Mystal speaking with the devil and helping women across the border.’ That is where they are going with all of this.”
He said the Supreme Court’s rulings on a “slew of cases” endangers the separation of church and state, leading to a potential “Christian theocracy.”
“It’s not just Dobbs,” he said. “It is a slew of cases that they issued last term that pokes holes in the separation of church and state and allows for the government to establish Christian theocracy over all else.”
The Court’s overturning of the 1973 case Roe v. Wade in the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, currently hands abortion laws and regulations to the states. Reid and Mystal both accused the “Christian majority” Court of returning the country to the 18th century where women are classified as second-class citizens. (RELATED: The Last Time Liberals Freaked Out This Much, Hillary Lost Pennsylvania)
“Welp. The Christianist majority on the SCOTUS has made it clear that they intend to return this county to its 18th century state and they are accomplishing their goal,” Reid said. “We will now have free states for women, and states where women are returned to their 1700s status as property.”
“I’m trying to resist the urge to blame the people who didn’t care enough to keep the rage focused on the people who have been actively crusading to reduce women to second class status for a generation,” Mystal said. “I’m trying real hard, Ringo.”
The Court recently ruled in favor of former high school football coach Joseph Kennedy who had been fired by the Bremerton School District in Washington for openly praying on the 50-yard line at the end of the games. The Court ruled 6-3 in the case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District that Kennedy’s termination of employment on the grounds of religious practice violated the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment.
The Court also struck down a New York concealed carry law in the case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which only permitted a citizen “proper cause” to obtain a license to conceal carry a handgun. Justice Clarence Thomas, who authored the majority opinion, argued the law violated a citizen’s 14th Amendment right to practice their Second Amendment right to self-defense.