CNN appears not to have learned its lesson about maligning large swaths of the American public.
Having lost huge parts of its audience since President Donald Trump’s first term, when the network rode high on conspiracy theories about “Russia collusion” in the 2016 election, CNN has moved beyond simply antagonizing MAGA supporters to targeting Christians who bring their voice into the political sphere.
Fox News reported Monday that during the 2016 presidential campaign, CNN’s primetime lineup averaged 1.3 million viewers, which largely continued into his first year in office, when the number was approximately 1 million. Now its primetime viewership is 573,000.
Rather than tack back toward mainstream America, CNN is set to air an hour-long documentary this weekend about the supposed malevolent influence of Christian nationalists.
There was a push by liberals before the 2024 election to raise this bugaboo, to no avail, but now the network has taken up the banner, warning that Charlie Kirk’s assassination last fall was a galvanizing moment for the movement.
From the previews, it’s clear that the documentary isn’t going to be an even-handed look, from Brown’s patronizing generalizations to her choice of guest “expert.” Matthew Taylor is a visiting professor at Georgetown University and author of a book titled “The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy.”
In a promotion for the documentary, CNN host Pamela Brown says, “Christian nationalism is an ideology rooted in the belief that our country was founded as a Christian nation and that our laws and institutions should reflect Christian values.”
CNN’s Pamela Brown announces she’s been working on a “special project” warn against “Christian nationalism” and portrays them as a radicalized threat to the country.
She then launches into a report where she fears the assassination of Charlie Kirk uniting Christians and scoffs… pic.twitter.com/1J63ta6EIO
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 17, 2026
As I wrote about in my book “We Hold These Truths,” the influence of Christianity in American history is undeniable. The Declaration references God and his laws four times.
In his inaugural address in 1789, George Washington said, “[T]he propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.”
His language reflects the sentiments found in Psalm 33 in the Bible, which says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” and Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
In his famous Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln, declared in the midst of a bloody, destructive Civil War that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance as a reminder of what distinguishes the United States from totalitarian communist regimes.
Further, the former World War II general stated, “In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or in war.”
Speaking at a law enforcement conference in 1950, President Harry Truman said, “The fundamental basis of this Nation’s law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days.”
“If we don’t have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.”
What Truman said was true. Consider the Ten Commandments that Moses received on stone tablets written by God on Mount Sinai, according to the Bible. They recognize the right to life (“You shall not murder”) and the right to own property (“You shall not steal”). Both these are found in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment.
The commandment not to covet your neighbor’s house, or anything that is your neighbor’s is also an acknowledgement of the right to own property and a rebuke to the central tenet of socialism, namely, using the force of government to spread the wealth around.
Another commandment, “You shall not bear false witness,” creates the right not to be falsely accused of a crime (which, of course, would result in the loss of one’s life, liberty, or property). The right to due process of law, also found in the Constitution, is designed to protect the accused from false allegations.
The commandment to “honor your father and your mother” establishes the central role of family in society.
That’s the heritage CNN is targeting.
Just to make the viewpoint clear for CNN viewers, Brown closed a promotional video for her documentary by citing a comment by Taylor warning that the Christian nationalist movement’s influence “could be at the highest point it’s ever been throughout American history.”
Oh, my.
The tease for Brown’ “special project” to demonize American Christians continued with her expressing fear that “Kirk’s death happened at a moment of unprecedented alignment between Christian nationalists and the Trump administration.”
Taylor decried that Trump administration… pic.twitter.com/uvirf6k3Lu
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 17, 2026
Well, there is some truth in the notion that Christianity has gained in prominence in American culture in recent years.
In April, Barna Group — a polling firm that specializes in faith-oriented surveys — released findings that showed that “66 percent of all U.S. adults say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today. That marks a 12-percentage-point increase since 2021, when commitment levels reached their lowest in more than three decades of Barna tracking.”
“This shift is not only statistically significant — it may be the clearest indication of meaningful spiritual renewal in the United States.”
And that is a good thing, because Christianity has and continues to play a central role in America’s ongoing 250-year experiment in liberty.
Someone should break that news to CNN.
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