Paul Dykstra is a member of Donald Trump’s Iowa Faith Leader Coalition.
Dykstra is also the Iowa State Director of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, also known as the Iowa Prayer Caucus Network. These groups are Christian Nationalist organizations that are dedicated to the replacement of neutral democratic government in the United States with a Christian theocracy.
The Iowa Prayer Caucus Network claims to have the mission of promoting “faith, morality, and Judeo-Christian principles.”
If the Iowa Prayer Caucus Network is a Christian Nationalist organization, though, how come it claims to support Judeo-Christian principles?
“Judeo”, after all, refers to Jewish people and ideas. So what gives?
The big clue to what’s going on with Paul Dykstra’s language about “Judeo-Christian” principles is that the Iowa Prayer Caucus Network has never ever allowed Jewish Iowans to join. There has never been a single non-Christian member of the organization.
Ironically, the term “Judeo-Christian” is actually a dog whistle for antisemitism.
Christian Nationalists like Paul Dykstra use the “Judeo-Christian” term as a way to pretend that they are standing up for religion in general, when in fact, they are seeking to elevate Christianity above all other religions in the United States.
The Iowa Prayer Caucus Network has never consulted with a Jewish rabbi to come up with its “Judeo-Christian principles”. Only right wing Christian leaders have been involved.
A few months ago, Paul Dykstra appeared in the Iowa State Capitol to speak in opposition to allowing non-Christian religious displays to be placed in the Iowa State Capitol alongside Christian religious symbols. Dykstra believes that only Christians should have the power to place religious displays in government buildings.
Paul Dykstra and the Iowa Prayer Caucus Network are Christian supremacists. They want to use the power of big government to force all Americans to submit to the authority of Christianity.
To allow their Christian Nationalism to gain power over state and federal government would make Jews into second-class citizens. They seek to destroy America’s tradition of freedom of religion and replace it with Christian power.