The untimely end of ‘Christian nationalism’

The bastardization of the Christian faith commonly regarded as “Christian nationalism” may have breathed its last. It may not be obvious right now, but it’s clearly headed for the scrapheap of history.

I say that for two reasons.

One, many of its institutional supporters are — just as in the 1980s, with the TV evangelists — victims of scandal because they wouldn’t police themselves due to their drunkenness on power. Most recently, the pastor of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Mo. was revealed to have abused a number of younger female members of that congregation, which has supported the heretical “seven mountains of culture” doctrine that suggests — with no biblical support — that spiritual revival will come when Christian “take dominion” over those pillars of society.

The problem, of course, is that evangelism, character development and service, the things that grow people in the faith as well as congregations, take a back seat.

The “prophetic movement” in some charismatic circles as a rule has ignored this basic truth, focusing more on outlandish predictions than a scriptural understanding of God’s intent. That’s why it’s making fools of itself and God in doing so, especially in insisting that Donald Trump was a shoo-in for reelection four years ago; and, even now, saying that he’ll return to the White House in 2025.

Which leads to another complication: The SCOTUS’ Dobbs decision obliterating Roe v. Wade.

Much political evangelicalism has believed for decades that making abortion illegal would mark another step in such revival. It never considered, however, that the pro-choice side would mobilize as never before, with six states passing laws or even ballot referendums to keep abortion legal. And rather than Trump thundering about it, he’s gone on the record calling it a “mistake” but also that it should be a matter for the states to decide.

Well, which is it? his supporters are asking. That’s the point, because one thing Trump wants is worship and a continued focus on the abortion issue threatens that. He’s now sounding like of one those mealy-mouthed politicians talking out of both sides of his mouth — indeed, one of the reasons the Christian nationalists supported him in the first place is because they believed that his anti-abortion stance was genuine (even though he’s flip-flopped on the issue). And they clearly don’t have the votes in Congress to enact a nationwide ban on their own.

Yes, the theory of “Christian nationalism” is dangerous. But as a practical matter, it never had much chance of being implemented. And God Himself would see to that.

Is the MAGA movement collapsing?

That the Donald Trump-speared “Make America Great Again” movement, inspired by a Ku Klux Klan-inspired slogan in the early 20^th Century and every bit as dangerous, has been a driving force in his campaign to retake the White House after his 2020 loss isn’t a surprise. Indeed, in certain “swing states,” including my state of Pennsylvania, he and current President Joe Biden are running neck-and-neck.

But two recent situations lead me to believe that “Trump fever” might be breaking.

The first is his walking back on an anti-abortion stance that he adopted to get conservative “Christians” to vote for him — specifically, his vow to have the Supreme Court reverse Roe v. Wade. That has, however, since backfired as numerous states have strengthened their own laws permitting abortion, whether by legislation or voter referendum. Trump has since occasionally called its repeal “a mistake,” disappointing anti-abortion activists, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who were convinced — with no evidence — that he was truly on their side.

The other is tying aid to the war effort in Ukraine to more control of the border with Mexico — or, at least, the ruse of such. You may recall that congressional Republicans were stalling on military aid to Ukraine, which had been invaded by Russia two years ago, to get an immigration bill passed (something that then-President Obama had pleaded for a decade previously). Well, President Biden eventually was able to broker such a bill but Trump, running for the presidency again, said that Republicans shouldn’t vote it because he wanted to bludgeon Democrats with the issue during the campaign, effectively killing it.

Thing is, aid to Ukraine recently passed. Why? Well, Trump of late has been distracted with the “hush money” trial in New York state court involving his alleged one-night stand with adult-film star Stormy Daniels and thus couldn’t comment on its passing; we all know that Trump, when he was president, tried to pull the United States out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, rumored to be at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long sought to destroy that alliance because it crimps his imperialistic tendencies. (Keep in mind that paying off Daniels with $130,000 to keep quiet wasn’t itself illegal; it’s that he tried to charge that money to his campaign, thereby committing business fraud under state law.)

Even more recently, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s strongest supporters, introduced a resolution to remove Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House for working with Democrats, which went nowhere in large part because Republicans noted — correctly, in my view — that they’re now being blamed for causing chaos but getting absolutely nothing done, thus giving more power to the Democrats. One GOP congressman even responded to Greene’s move with the sarcastic Southern saying “Bless her heart.” And it’s that chaos that Trump has always brought to the political scene that led Geoff Duncan, a former Georgia lieutenant governor, to write an endorsement of Biden in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

What I suspect we’re seeing is that Trump, who has always painted himself and been regarded as an “outsider,” with his response to the abortion issue turning against him, has been reduced to one of the mealy-mouthed politicians that he has always denounced in acerbic, insulting terms. To be honest, I didn’t entirely expect that the takedown of Roe would have this effect on the abortion-rights-supporting political left. But what we’re seeing now is a man trying desperately to save his own political skin by going back on his stated position because it’s now being used against him, which is why the approval of aid to Ukraine is also important

And that threatens MAGA ideology, because it has always wanted to dominate the political process by bullying its opponents into silence.

An inside job

Recently I’ve noticed a meme on Facebook noting that evangelical Christians had been warning about an “Antichrist” for decades that but when one actually appeared on the scene they ended up voting for him.

I am of course referring to the narcissistic, arrogant Donald Trump, whom exit polls reported in 2016 as receiving an astonishing 81 percent of the votes of white evangelicals for President of the United States despite his lengthy history of corrupt business practices, racism, abuse and denigration of women — and that’s just for starters. Another meme gave specific Bible verses as to the Antichrist’s conduct and how they lined up with Trump’s words and actions. (For what it’s worth, I don’t believe that the Bible teaches about a personal Antichrist, just a spirit of such.)

The obvious question is: How could so many believers be so blind?

I have an answer to that, and it isn’t pretty: These folks never considered that it might be an inside job.

For decades, certainly with the advent of the “religious right” in the 1970s, the focus of many parachurch ministries fighting the so-called culture war became rallying the troops to fight outsiders — most notably but not limited to the “gay lobby,” abortion-rights activists, “globalists” and diversity advocates — to preserve a form of Christian hegemony. (Which is why you have the heretical “seven mountains of culture” doctrine, which started around then.)

And on top of that, many of your conservative church bodies doubled down on their commitment to “orthodoxy,” the American Protestant Episcopal and Presbyterian churches splitting and the Southern Baptist Convention purging its ranks of “moderates” for the sake of what we might consider doctrinal purity.

The trouble with all that remains that the witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the heart of which has always been reconciliation, ended up being pushed aside — and that’s the one thing that the devil cannot imitate because the kind of forgiveness required to do that was never on his radar screen. And when you also consider that many Christians beginning in the 1980s ingested a steady diet of right-wing talk radio laced with bitterness and resentment toward certain targets, a couple of hours of Bible study and church attendance couldn’t compete with the hours of daily spiritual poison to which they subjected themselves.

All this led to the spirit of Antichrist mentioned in Revelation but which has slipped the consciousness of much of the church to a point to where the very words of Jesus, mentioned in especially the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 through 7, are regarded as “liberal talking points.” (And although I don’t have any empirical evidence of this, I suspect that it’s also behind much of the “deconstruction” going on today, with folks who grew up in conservative churches questioning the veracity of the Scriptures.)

Which is why, if we really want revival in this country, we Christians need to reject Trump openly — because, as things stand now, he’s in God’s way. But more importantly, we need to look inward and recognize how we got off-track because Satan almost never attacks openly, engineering small compromises so that eventually God’s intent is papered over for the sake of power.

And that is the spirit of Antichrist. 

‘Clean up your own back yard’

 When I was a child my parents had the album “O.C. Smith at Home,” which was released in 1969. One of the songs on that album was “Clean Up Your Own Back Yard,” two of its three verses referencing a so-called religious prophet “telling everybody how things oughta be” but still in bed on Sunday morning hung over from a night of drinking and a businessman who prided himself on integrity having an affair.

It was the first time I ever heard that phrase, and I was the kind of kid who in those days took things quite literally. And yet I knew the point of the song.

Last week the Southern Baptist Convention released a report that noted that it had kept a secret list of leaders who had engaged in sexual misconduct. I won’t get into the details, but one of the concerns that top leadership had was that, had that list become known, the reputation of the association would have been damaged, compromising its evangelism efforts.

The sad part is that such leadership missed the point of evangelism in the first place — not merely to get people “saved” but to encourage them to live holy lives different from the world. And part of that is recognizing one’s own shortcomings, sins and struggles thanks to the “unholy trinity” of the world, the flesh and the devil.

Put another way, it didn’t appreciate the comprehensive nature of sin. Many of these churches were leading the “culture war” against abortion and gay rights, which generally take place outside the church, but likely never about the things that went on within it.

Of course, this is hardly news. Most of us got a glimpse of it in 1987-88 thanks to the TV evangelist scandals and it’s since been repeated in the Roman Catholic Church and with some “old order” Amish groups, so when it happened again in the SBC, it took virtually no one by surprise.

What’s the root of all this? I would say pride — a desire to appear respectable but on the inside, as Jesus said in Matthew 23:27, “full of the bones of the dead.” Let’s remember that God sees all and knows all — and, when things got out of hand, will tell all.

One thing that I appreciate about the Scripture is its honesty. A few years ago it dawned on me that virtually every major biblical character (except Jesus, of course) is recorded as falling into gross sin. That goes for Abraham, Noah, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Peter, Paul and a few others. And that should give us pause as to what we think we can accomplish — that is to say, if all these characters fell short in some major way, what makes us think that we’re more “spiritual” or “enlightened?”

I think some humility might be in order. Instead of shaking our finger at “sinners,” I say we should look at ourselves soberly and admit, “There but for the grace of God go I.” And not only that, but the Scripture tells us to confess our sins to each other because in doing so “we will be healed.”

In no way am I trying to minimize the emotional damage perpetrated on victims of sexual abuse in churches; if anything, I don’t think it can be emphasized enough. Nor am I trying to ignore the mercy of God through Jesus Christ. That being said, however, God is a God of justice Who in the end always gets His. That should fill us with holy dread but for some reason doesn’t always.

We can laicize or expel offending clergy all we want and certainly should do so. But doing so won’t address the real issue — that, even after conversion, we still have this bent away from God; as the hymn goes, “Prone to wander — LORD, I feel it / Prone to leave the God I love.” And that means that we have work to do in our own hearts, because if we can’t get that right our “evangelism” will have no effect.

And if Trump dies ... what then?

Over the past year, since Donald Trump was dethroned as president but has since expressed interest in returning to the White House, one of the questions on the lips of a lot of people, whether supporters or detractors, is “What are his chances of doing so, and what would happen if he succeeds or fails?” Should a run fail, some have suggested that a failed run would result in an incident that would make the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection look like — pardon the pun — a tea party.

But I think we need to consider another possibility: Suppose Trump doesn’t live that long. That isn’t beyond such a realm, since he isn’t a young man, in great physical shape and even, as we saw two years ago, wasn’t even immune to COVID-19, with reports that he was sicker than he let on. (For a while he defiantly refused to wear a mask, insisting that doing so made him look weak.)

And even if these weren’t the case, he’s a mortal like everyone else and his time on this earth is limited. What bothers me about Christians’ worship of Trump is that they almost assume that he is indeed immortal and thus not subject to the normal parameters of life. As I’ve written before, he’s seen quite ominously as a messianic figure who will remove power from the people they hate — that is, “liberals” — and restore things to the way they, shall we say, “used to be.” (Recall that was the misunderstanding of the original prophecy of the Messiah.)

That was the case with the two travelers on the road to Emmaus, recorded in Luke 24, who didn’t recognize Jesus, who by this time was resurrected, as He walked among them, but He opened the Scriptures to them — and then vanished. The travelers understood that they had completely missed the point — that he had come to redeem mankind, not just Israel.

We would be foolish to expect something similar from Trump despite the prayers and singing of Christian songs before the riot of last Jan. 6. After all, we can be sure of this: When he dies, he will not be coming back.

 

Overturning Roe v. Wade — be careful what you wish for

American anti-abortionists are likely giddy over the Supreme Court’s tacit approval of Texas’ recently-passed draconian abortion law, one that banned it when a heartbeat could be detected and that contains the power of citizens’ arrest for anyone who assisted in procuring an abortion. They may be especially excited because of their commemoration later this month of Roe v. Wade, which removed most restrictions on abortion in 1973.

If they’re Christians and thus believe that abortion will simply end because they laid down the law so to speak, they will get a rude awakening.

This is for several reasons.

One, the linchpin of the entire modern conservative movement, especially the “religious right,” will have been eliminated. Republican candidates in states that have outlawed abortion will no longer be able to run against abortion, especially in “swing” states, and as a result, I suspect, a barrage of urban-based liberal political action in a way we’ve never seen before will result.

Because the “sanctity of human life,” despite what they might say, has never been the issue. It’s always been a pretext for bullying.

What most people don’t realize is that the “religious right” didn’t even start because of abortion — it added it only as moral cover for, in essence, segregation. In 1978 the Carter Administration removed tax exemptions for private Christian schools in the South founded to circumvent court-ordered public school desegregation — angering the likes of Jerry Falwell Sr., who founded Moral Majority with the help of secular conservatives. That should give you pause right there, because secular conservatives have never given a rip about God, faith or religion — except, as both Billy Graham and Barry Goldwater suggested, to manipulate religious people for the sake of power.

Another issue is that such secular conservatives subscribe to an anti-biblical worldview in that the second of Jesus’ two Great Commandments — “love your neighbor as yourself” — is at best abridged and at worst totally ignored or trashed. Sometimes doing what’s right means political action, the last thing secular conservatives want because it threatens their power. Oh, sure, they make allowances for a purely anti-abortion stance but only to sell a pro-industry and anti-poor agenda. That’s why they won’t support truly diaconal support for those women who really need help — they just don’t want the money to be spent.

Moreover, evangelicalism has placed an overemphasis on the “spiritual” aspect of abortion, which is never directly mentioned in the Bible. That is to say, many people and organizations have insisted, with no evidence, that once outlawed revival would result. (I do oppose it but did so before becoming a Christian as part of an overall “social justice” ideology.) On top of that, fighting abortion has built many an organization — and thus, what will happen when the money dries up, as it will?

This might be a case where Christians may be isolating themselves — not just from the greater society but even from the very movement that gave them power in the first place. Put another way, we may be winning this battle but ultimately losing the war for hearts and minds — and have nothing to show for it.

‘Let’s [not] go, Brandon!’

The raging bitterness and over last year’s presidential election is continuing to overflow and shows no signs of stopping. And now an apolitical NASCAR driver has become part of that campaign of anger.

You may have heard the chant “Let’s Go, Brandon” in certain inappropriate situations as code for “F___ Joe Biden” — even, at times, in churches.

For what it’s worth, Brandon Brown is a NASCAR driver who won his first race a few months ago, and while a sportscaster was interviewing him a group of fans was chanting that vulgar anti-Biden diatribe behind them. Perhaps in a diplomatic way, she said they were saying, “Let’s go, Brandon!”

Wrong. 

Clearly, we have a situation where folks can’t accept defeat graciously and work with opponents to make this country a better place. And since the epithet is “clean,” that will make it acceptable for Biden-hating Christians to express their unwillingness to bow to the inevitable.

But you best believe that God sees the heart, and if the heart is wrong so will the resultant actions be.

And for that matter, Brown, while he did vote for Donald Trump, said in a recent op-ed that he had no intention of being a focal point of the anti-Biden campaign. He said that he was interested only in winning his next race.

So “let’s not go, Brandon.”