The presidents of Catholic Vote and Family Research Council sent top Politico brass a letter demanding an apology from reporter Heidi Przybyla for her comments tying Christians to Christian nationalists last week.
The letter was sent to editor-in-chief John Harris, CEO Goli Sheikholeslami, and Jan Bayer, the deputy CEO of Politico’s parent Axel Springer, and it accused Przybyla of “smearing the Christian faith.”
The groups are seeking an apology from Przybyla and Politico, saying, “Rhetoric like Ms. Przybyla’s, which demonizes religious groups, is profoundly dangerous. It can motivate disturbed individuals who may be predisposed to commit violence against faith Communities. Ms. Przybyla owes people of faith an apology, as does her employer. Politico must confirm that such offensive comments have no place within its organization.”
On Sunday, Przybyla spoke on MSNBC about how Christian nationalists could play into a second Donald Trump presidency.
“The one thing that unites all of them, because there’s many different groups orbiting Trump, as Christian nationalists, not Christians, by the way, because Christian nationalists is very different,” Przybyla said on MSNBC. “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 groups argue that Przybyla neglected to mention that the United States’s understanding of rights comes from God, per the Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
Rhetoric such as Przybyla’s encourages violence toward religious communities, they groups wrote in the letter.
“In 2023, American places of worship experienced more than double the amount of violence than the year prior, according to a recent report on hostility against U.S. churches,” according to the letter. “Last year, a shooter targeted a Christian day school in Nashville, killing three nine-year-old students and three staff. Since May 2020, Catholic churches have endured more than 400 attacks.”
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In the letter, the groups also state Przybyla’s understanding that Christians hold this belief to be unique to their faith is also false. The letter points to Jews, who are “members of the same Judeo-Christian faith tradition that is central to our nation’s founding” and share this belief in the nation’s foundation for rights. The letter also points to increasing antisemitism nationwide, calling language such as Przybyla’s “threatening.”
“Antisemitism in the U.S., much like the anti-Christian sentiment espoused by Ms. Przybyla, is also fueled by false stereotypes and propaganda that seek to portray Jewish-Americans as a threat to our society,” the groups wrote.
