Illinois Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger compared his colleague, Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert, to the Taliban after she told a crowd of worshippers that she is "sick" of the separation of church and state.
Boebert made the remarks on Sunday, June 26, at the Cornerstone Christian Center in Basalt, Colorado, ahead of her primary election, which she ultimately won. She argued that “the government is not supposed to direct the church," adding she is "tired of this separation of church and state junk — that’s not in the Constitution."
Boebert went on to say that the notion of a separation between church and state is only "in a stinking letter and it means nothing like they say it does," ignoring that the concept is derived from the Establishment Clause in the Bill of Rights, which states that Congress "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
The letter she refers to was written by Thomas Jefferson, who would become the nation's third President, in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut in which he observed that the American public had built “a wall of separation between Church and State.”
Boebert's remarks worried Kinzinger, who warned his social media followers that there is "no difference" between Boebert's words and the rhetoric of the Taliban, which imposes an extremist interpretation of Islam on Afghanistan's population.
Kinzinger added that Americans must "opposed" [sic] the "Christian Taliban."
Others concurred with Kinzinger's concerns.
Boebert has in the past come under fire for her statements about other religions, perhaps most notably when she branded Minnesota Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, who is Muslim, a member of the "Jihad Squad," a reference to the “Squad,” a group of prominent House progressives of which Omar is a member.
Earlier this year, Boebert stunned a group of Jewish visitors to the United States Capitol after she asked them if they were conducting "reconnaissance" after she ran into them while they waited for an elevator.
