Heidi Przybyla went viral last week for characterizing Christian nationalists as an ‘extremist’ faction.
The leadership of two Christian nonprofits sent a letter to Politico on Wednesday, demanding an apology from the news outlet over one of its reporter’s recent comments disparaging “Christian nationalists,” which the letter described as a “smearing of the Christian faith.”
Politico national investigative correspondent Heidi Przybyla went viral during an MSNBC appearance last Thursday night for characterizing Christian nationalists as an “extremist” faction. Przybyla’s remarks stem from her reporting on how Christian nationalism would shape a second Trump administration.
In response, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins and CatholicVote president Brian Burch wrote that “Przybyla demonstrated a disqualifying lack of knowledge of the United States of America’s founding documents and a profoundly prejudicial view toward American religious groups.”
The two-page letter specifically criticizes Przybyla for casting Christian nationalists as extremist for believing that our “rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority” but come instead from God, as the Declaration of Independence states.
In its preamble, the founding document reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“It is deeply disturbing,” Perkins and Burch wrote, “that she appeared unaware of the opening of the Declaration of Independence or to its references of ‘the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.'”
“Equally concerning is Ms. Przybyla’s smearing of the Christian faith reflected in her comments,” the pair added. “Her statements constituted an attempt to spread misinformation about Christians by creating the perception that they hold unique beliefs that pose a distinct and, in her words ‘extremist,’ threat to our country.”
Furthermore, the Christian leaders go on to say that Przybyla intentionally tried to “demonize the Christian community and sow fear through propaganda” against religious groups as a whole. Such rhetoric can promote “violence against faith communities,” they argue, citing recent reports of hostile acts committed against places of worship.
Earlier this month, the Family Research Council found that there were over 400 “acts of hostility” against U.S. churches in 2023 — more than double the number that was reported the year before. Similarly, CatholicVote reported that there have been at least 400 attacks against Catholic churches in the U.S. since May 2020.
In addition to hostility against Christians, antisemitic incidents in the U.S., particularly on college campuses, have increased by 400 percent since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
A 20-second clip of the MSNBC interview circulated on social media, garnering 7.6 million views in the last week. Przybyla responded to the clip herself, saying the public misunderstood what she said and should watch the longer, two-minute clip.
“I said men are making their own policy interpretation of natural law. MLK did so [with] social justice,” she posted on X.
In the interview, Przybyla specified she thinks not all Christians are Christian nationalists.
“The thing that unites them as Christian nationalists — not Christians, by the way, because Christian nationalist is very different — is that 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 problem with that is that they are determining — man, men, it is men are determining what God is telling them,” said Przybyla.
“And in the past, that so-called natural law is, you know, it’s a pillar of Catholicism, for instance. It has been used for good in social justice campaigns, Martin Luther King evoked it in talking about civil rights, but now you have an extremist element of conservative Christians who say that this applies specifically to issues including abortion, gay marriage, and it’s going much further than that,” she continued.
The journalist then cited the Alabama supreme court’s recent ruling on in vitro fertilization as one of these issues that Christian nationalists are concerned about.
To remediate the pushback, Perkins and Burch suggest that Politico and Przybyla issue an apology to religious believers. “Politico must confirm that such offensive comments have no place within its organization,” they concluded.
Politico and Przybyla both responded to National Review’s requests for comment later Thursday by sending a reflective essay, in which the reporter defends her coverage of Christian nationalism but admits fault in her on-air comments.
“Due to some clumsy words, I was interpreted by some people as making arguments that are quite different from what I believe,” she wrote. “The confusion from my words was compounded when they were wrested from the full context of my appearance. Excerpts of what I said were promoted widely in some political circles by some activists whose primary objection, I feel sure, was not my television appearance but my coverage in POLITICO about the tactics and agenda of political activists who subscribe to a philosophy they call ‘Christian Nationalism.'”
“Reporters have a responsibility to use words and convey meaning with precision,” Przybyla added, “and I am sorry I fell short of this in my appearance.”