With our ongoing survey of Christian Nationalism, and specific emphasis upon the introduction to Stephen Wolfe’s book, A Case for Christian Nationalism, we saw how its entrance and embrace of the political realm is a veritable powder keg. By choosing to accept rather than distance themselves from the Christian Nationalism monicker, leaders and proponents of Christian Nationalism have inherently backed into a label that is extremely dangerous. To be clear, we’re not talking about taking the name of Christ upon you and being willing to suffer and die for the gospel. No, as we have and will see, leaders of this movement such as Stephen Wolfe and William Wolfe (no relation), make crystal clear this is a political theory. Yesterday, a headline caught my eye that highlights the point I was trying to make in a recent post on this subject.
MAGA and Christian nationalism: Bigger threat to America than Hamas could ever be | Salon.com
The article has little to nothing to do with Christian Nationalism, but the headlines are what make the news. The author begins by describing some of the congressional wranglings over funding Ukraine and highlights the present dangers of terrorism in light of the ongoing Israeli war. After framing the global issues, the article brings up new House Speaker Mike Johnson into the discussion by suggesting that he is a supporter of Putin. Then proceeds to label Johnson as follows:
Johnson and the MAGA wing of the Republican Party — which seems to have swallowed the evangelical movement while also embracing it (a T-1000 morphing into Sarah Connor is just about the right image) — is embracing the darkest verses of the Bible, apparently pushing for apocalypse with an enthusiasm only rivaled by Saul’s slaughter of Christians before he changed his name to Paul.
The House of Representatives, now run by Johnson, offers a discount version of the apocalyptic orgasm the holy rollers have dreamed of for years. They’ve renewed the Inquisition and seem determined to convert the U.S. into a theocracy run by people who will thump you with the Bible, but haven’t read much of it.Lord, how they love to preach fire and brimstone. But the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes? Forget it. Matthew 25:40: “Whatever you did it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”? Not a chance. They’ve embraced only the Old Testament angry God and the apocalyptic parts of Revelation brought on by ergot poisoning.
Brian Karem
They want no separation of church and state. They want an isolationist country surrounded by walls and dedicated to the proposition that the First Amendment guarantees them the right to worship any way they want — while forcing the rest of us to worship the way they choose.
What the author is describing clearly is not Christianity. And to be fair, it’s a quasi-caricature of Christian Nationalism. Following this he goes on to say that this MAGA wing of the Republican Party have their first, “Christian nationalist House speaker”. Here, we ought to pay special attention to what is going on and how it goes directly with the point that was made in the previous post. The liberal media wants to take every opportunity to merge Christianity with MAGA Republicanism to broaden their target, but they’re not doing it with genuine, gospel believing, Christ-exalting Christianity. They’re doing it with Christian Nationalism the way that they’ve framed it. As we saw last time, Stephen Wolfe recognizes the negative connotations that the name brings, even going so far to highlight how it was blamed for J6. Nevertheless, he and others offer unqualified embrace of the term. Christians should be distancing themselves from the term altogether and providing a corrective. As an aside, we also ought to pay attention to the fact that the House of Representatives elected a relatively unknown Speaker, who has ties with the ERLC (Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission), on the first vote at the precise time when Christian Nationalistic fervor is peak. This is heading somewhere and it’s not good.
In closing, I want to share a video from Todd Friel’s Wretched Radio broadcast. It is from two years ago, but again highlights the dangers of embracing this term and movement.
