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A Democratic House candidate running in a battleground seat in southwestern Iowa linked faith to political violence while warning against religion in public life, according to unearthed audio reviewed by Fox News Digital.
“We have seen religion and political violence showing up more and more in our public spaces,” Democratic candidate Sarah Trone Garriott said in a 2023 speech at a Methodist church. “It’s something that is just very in our faces and something that we’re very concerned about, and something that feels very threatening right now at this time.”
Trone Garriott, a state legislator and Lutheran minister, is running to defeat Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, in November’s midterm elections. Prior to launching a House bid, Trone Garriott fashioned herself as a fierce opponent of Christian nationalism — a term some conservatives have argued that critics use to paint some Christians as prone to violence and hostile toward democracy.
In the speech, Trone Garriott said it was “a good thing to talk about religion and politics together” and spoke positively about living out one’s faith in their community. However, she repeatedly voiced discomfort about seeing public Christian displays and suggested it was something to be rooted out.
Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran pastor and former Iowa state senator, warned against a rise in public displays of faith in a 2023 speech. (Krysta Fauria/AP Photo)
AMERICA’S CHURCHES UNDER SIEGE AS VIOLENCE INCREASINGLY INVADES SACRED GROUND
An image of a woman holding a sign with the phrase “one nation under God, indivisible” found in the Pledge of Allegiance, according to Trone Garriott, was one of several “pretty uncomfortable ways that faith and political power have collided.” The Iowa Democrat also called attention to Christian displays at one of President Donald Trump’s rallies and during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“This is not a Christian nation. It’s a nation for all…
