Poland and Europe: Sacred Symbols, Righteous Resistance, Secular Movements

Summary

In this episode of American UnExceptionalism, we travel to Poland to explore how faith, nationalism, and LGBTQ+ resistance collide in one of Europe’s most religious countries. The story begins in 2019, when Polish activist Elżbieta Podleśna was arrested after distributing images of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa with a rainbow halo—a provocative act meant to challenge the growing scapegoating of LGBTQ+ communities by nationalist politicians. What followed was not just a legal battle, but a global moment of religious protest and solidarity, including support from the U.S. Episcopal Church.

Hosts Matthew Taylor and Susie Hayward speak with Joel Day (University of Notre Dame) and Gionathan Lo Mascolo (Faith in Democracy) to unpack the deep roots of Polish Catholic identity and how it has shaped modern politics. From the Black Madonna’s central role in Polish national mythology, to the rise of far-right Catholic movements, this episode traces how religious symbols have been mobilized to consolidate power, restrict minority rights, and inspire similar movements in the United States.

The conversation explores Poland as a real-world case study of what happens when religious nationalism gains political power: book bans, the removal of sex and gender education from schools, so-called “LGBT-free zones,” and the use of cultural fear narratives to prepare the ground for future crackdowns. At the same time, the episode highlights resistance movements, protests, and the global networks of solidarity pushing back. The lessons are clear: the fight for pluralism and democracy is deeply interconnected across borders, and the future of U.S. politics is tied to struggles already playing out across Europe.

Additional Resources:

• “Geneviève Zubrzycki (2025) Catholicism, National Mythology and Nationalism in Poland,” in Jeff Haynes (ed) Routledge Handbook on Nationalism.
• Joel Day. (2025). Christian Nationalism as a Social Practice: Prayer, Violence, and the Politics of Public Ritual. Terrorism and Political Violence, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2025.2555222
• Duffin, Michael. 2022. “Poland’s Evolving Violent Far-Right Landscape.” CTC Sentinel 15 (9).
• Żuk, Piotr, and Paweł Żuk. 2020. “‘Murderers of the Unborn’ and ‘sexual Degenerates’: Analysis of the ‘anti-Gender’ Discourse of the Catholic Church and the Nationalist Right in Poland.” Critical Discourse Studies 17 (5): 566–88.
• Żuk, Piotr, and Paweł Żuk. 2022. “The Independence Day as a Nationalist Ritual: Framework of the March of Independence in Poland.” Ethnography 23 (1): 14–37.

Joel Day: Managing Director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative. He is a scholar-practitioner who brings over 20 years of leadership experience in government, nonprofits, and political campaigns. In 2020, he was appointed Senior Advisor for COVID-19 Response and Recovery, helping stand up the nation’s largest emergency homeless shelter, coordinating regional public health policy, and managing continuity of operations for a workforce of 11,000. Day has also served as staff or advisor for numerous U.S. presidential, senatorial, and congressional campaigns, and as COO/CFO for an anti-trafficking nonprofit. Day most recently held the position of Senior Fellow and Director of Research at Princeton University's Bridging Divides Initiative, where he worked to count and counter events of political violence in the U.S.

Gionathan Lo Mascolo: Deputy Director of Faith in Democracy Inc. Lo Mascolo has worked for over a decade at the intersection of religion, politics, and extremism, supporting faith-based and secular NGOs, multilateral institutions, and progressive parties in Europe and beyond. As a Senior Project Manager, his work has focused on advocacy and on preventing and countering radicalization and violent extremism. Earlier, he worked as a journalist covering the Arab Spring and the Syrian War. He studied Intercultural Theology and Migration (BA, FIT Hermannsburg) and Terrorism, Security, and Society (MA, King’s College London). He is the editor of The Christian Right in Europe (2023), the first volume to analyze religiously motivated far-right networks across the continent.