This very long blog post began here with an Introduction followed by a two part post concerning Western Christian beliefs about who Jesus is and what “following” him entails.
This last part is mostly a compilation of articles and quotes that I we have been inundated with since January 6, 2021. All presented with the purpose of trying to understand the reality of what we are facing as a country – the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ll spare you all the details and offer the sources in case you’re someone, unlike me, that actually has a life.
Let’s begin with this article in Christianity Today:
Christian nationalism has little to do with personal religiosity and everything to do with acquiring and leveraging political power around key issues like Islam, immigration, abortion, patriarchy, militarism, gun control and sacrificial allegiance to the flag.
Christian nationalists, then, appeal to biblical justification to construct an “us” (i.e., “white” Christians) versus “them” (heathen) caste system, wherein immigrants, BIPOC, LGBTQ persons and women are subordinate. This segregated worldview attempts to monopolize power among white, native-born Protestants to control social and political institutions.
Christian nationalists, it turns out, are often religiously disconnected, lean toward heterodoxy, and are often at odds with biblical ethical values like hospitality, peace/justice, and neighborly love. One of the strangest realities of calling oneself a Christian…is that if you affirm the social teachings of Jesus (love of neighbors/enemies, inclusive table-fellowship, divestment of money, care for poor), you are called a “libtard” or a “snowflake.” But if you affirm the values of Christian nationalism (militarism, xenophobia, meritocracy), you are considered a good, Bible-believing Christian.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/scot-mcknight/2020/august/lets-talk-about-christian-nationalism.html
NPR: Militant Christian Nationalists Remain a Potent Force, Even After the Capitol Riot, by Tom Gjelten
The notion that God would take direct interest in a U.S. election is an expression of the ideology of Christian nationalism, says sociologist Andrew Whitehead. “Taken to an extreme that viewpoint can even be seen as justifying violence. It tends to draw on a framework of conquering outsiders and taking violent hold of what is rightfully yours.”
The founder of the OathKeepers militia group, Stewart Rhodes, hoped Trump would use the Insurrection Act to “drop the hammer” on his opponents. “He needs to know from you that you are with him, and that if he does not do it now, we’re going to have to do it ourselves later, in a much more desperate, much more bloody war.”
One of the leaders of the invasion of the Senate chamber, Jacob Chansley, actually asked the rioters to pause in their rampage and join him for a moment of prayer to God. “Thank you for allowing the United States to be reborn,” Chansley said, “We love you and we thank you. In Christ’s holy name, we pray.”
Eric Metaxas: author and radio host:
Metaxas said he did not care about the overwhelming odds against any effort to overturn the election of Joe Biden. “We need to fight to the death, to the last drop of blood, because it’s worth it.”
Metaxas was the emcee at the Jericho March in Washington, where he and others implored God to keep Trump in office. “We are here because we know he is the God who does real miracles when his remnant cries out to him in humility and love (my emphasis – added after I threw up!),” Metaxas said.
Metaxas has never shown himself as one who feels compelled to respond to criticism, especially when he feels he has heard directly from God on the matter. In his autobiography, Metaxas lists a whole series of miracles and messages from God — including one from a turtle in Central Park…(Nothing questionable here! While walking one day, Kermit the Frog jumped out of a tree in front of me! I kid you not! SCARED. ME. TO. DEATH. He told me God wanted me to buy that Hermes handbag Shilpa Shetty was spotted carrying. Yeah – my husband didn’t believe me either. Okay, fine, I don’t even know what a Hermes bag is, except that the cost of it would buy a kidney on the black market.)
Pastor Darryl Knappen was still denying reality and even declaring himself willing to take up arms to keep Donald Trump in office. “I was tempted to wear my black robe today and cover up my AR-15 beneath it.” In his Jan. 9 Facebook message, Knappen issued a call to arms, “There is a need in every one of our localities to have individuals, patriots, who are ready to arm up and be part of a citizen militia to protect our freedoms.”
Kristin du Mez, an historian at Calvin University and author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.
Evangelicals formed an idea of Christ from figures like John Wayne and Theodore Roosevelt. This Christ was a rugged warrior, willing to fight for the faith and the nation. For all their talk of being Bible-believing Christians, when it came to these guides on Christian manhood, there was a Bible verse sprinkled here or there, but it really wasn’t based on biblical teaching. Instead, it was based on Hollywood heroes, mythical warriors, soldiers and cowboys. Its good guys versus bad guys, using violence to achieve order, and the ends will justify the means. It’s violence for the sake of righteousness, violence to achieve order, violence to bring peace and security. There’s a willingness to do what needs to be done.
I just finished reading du Mezes book and what she has uncovered is seriously frightening! She details the belief that this house of cards seems to be toppling. She says,
In the end, Doug Wilson, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, James Dobson, Doug Phillips, and John Eldredge all preached a mutually reinforcing vision of Christian masculinity—of patriarchy and submission, sex and power. It was a vision that promised protection for women but left women without defense, one that worshiped power and turned a blind eye to justice, and one that transformed the Jesus of the Gospels into an image of their own making. The militant Christian masculinity they practiced and preached did indelibly shape both family and nation. Masculine authority, militarism, and the sexual and spiritual subordination of women have simply been part of the air evangelicals breathe for decades.
That so many of their “leaders” have been accused of and indicted on charges of extreme sexual misconduct and many of those who continually hold them up as the victims of haters of Evangelicalism seems to be the tip of the iceberg and their names as likely as recognizable to you as they are to me. There is no way of knowing over all these many years how many young minds have been corrupted by the violence and hatred they teach and advocate for.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/19/958159202/militant-christian-nationalists-remain-a-potent-force
This is fun! A little light reading for you:
https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
https://www.isdglobal.org/our-mission/
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2021/01/22/capitol-insurrection-shows-how-trends-far-rights-fringe-have-become-mainstream
There’s this analysis in 2020 by the Department of Homeland Security – Violent Extremism in the United States:
Some U.S.-based violent extremists have capitalized on increased social and political tensions in 2020, which will drive an elevated threat environment at least through early 2021. Violent extremists will continue to target individuals or institutions that represent symbols of their grievances, as well as grievances based on political affiliation or perceived policy positions. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/2020_10_06_homeland-threat-assessment.pdf
Accelerationism in the White Power Movement:
What defines white supremacist accelerationists is their belief that violence is the only way to pursue their political goals. To put it most simply, accelerationists embrace terrorism. Accelerationists aren’t part of a new movement. They’re just an iteration more inclined toward terroristic violence than has existed in recent decades.
“We advocate political terror and murder against jews and politicians among other things. We have accepted that the (((system))) cannot be saved, rather it must be destroyed,” one group posted on Telegram in February. “In order to accelerate the inevitable collapse of the jewish nightmare society we must not follow the rules of the (((system))) but ACT against it.”
In December 2018, a man named Rinaldo Nazzaro purchased 30 acres of remote land in Republic, Washington, a city of roughly 1,000 people about an hour’s drive south of the Canadian border. The tract was meant to serve as a training ground for a terroristic white power group he founded earlier that year called The Base.
Where do we go from here?
In their minds, they are the heirs to a movement that began decades ago and are nobly carrying out the fight. They believe – not unlike many Americans all across the political spectrum – that we’ve arrived at a breaking point.
Scholars and pundits are actively questioning whether American democracy can withstand the threats being made against it….the far right is openly talking about the prospect of civil war. On the economic front, Americans continue to struggle to find stability and, on the political side, people believe not only trust in government, but in each other, is declining. Uncertainty like this provides fertile ground for extremists.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/06/23/there-no-political-solution-accelerationism-white-power-movement
Robert Wuthnow, Princeton sociologist of religion tells us, “On January 6, we did not witness the old Religious Right at the Capitol. Instead, we saw three streams of religion, forging a new alliance.”
And don’t think for a moment that you can exhale because Trump has left the building.
A recent article in the LA Times:
In the days following the Capitol riot, right-wing extremists who lost Parler accounts or were suspended from Facebook and Twitter migrated to Telegram and gained a following of tens of thousands of Trump supporters looking to vent anger and promote extremist views. The groups are competing for a surge of new users on alternative platforms while refocusing their messages on militant nationalism (and) white supremacy.“We want people who walk away from Trump and authoritarianism to join us,” Dunn said in an interview later. “Memes play a role on the younger generation and we are winning.”
Trump’s impeachment and the prosecution of rioters who attacked the Capitol have left the far right emboldened and potentially more dangerous, experts say. Some still rally around the former president. Others, like the militant Proud Boys, have distanced themselves from Trump, blaming him for disavowing the Capitol insurrection and betraying them by leaving office.
“This has been very energizing for far-right movements,” Lindsay Schubiner, program director at Portland, Ore.-based Western States Center, said of the Capitol attack. “The core of these movements is likely to become even more hardcore and violent.”
Schubiner, who tracks activity by right-wing extremists, said some have chosen to work within the political system, shifting their focus from disputing Trump’s loss to joining local races. “They are spreading bigotry to build political power”.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-27/
According to a CBS News poll released in January, more than half of all Americans say the greatest danger to America’s way of life comes from their fellow citizens. Before the election, another study illustrated that about one in five Republicans and Democrats believed that their political adversaries “lack the traits to be considered fully human.” Is it possible for Americans to achieve unity when they cannot agree on their common humanity?
https://www.dannyhayes.org/uploads/6/9/8/5/69858539/kalmoe___mason_ncapsa_2019_-_lethal_partisanship_-_final_lmedit.pdf
Militant Websites:
https://www.propublica.org/article/boogaloo-bois-military-training?emci=20437b9d-6d65-eb11-9889-00155d43c992&emdi=84d073e2-7465-eb11-9889-00155d43c992&ceid=200218
https://religionnews.com/2021/01/06/as-chaos-hits-capitol-two-forms-of-faith-on-display/
Perhaps this will lighten your emotional load a bit. In the aftermath of the violence that day, many faith leaders spoke out condemning it in no uncertain terms:
https://religionnews.com/2021/01/06/faith-leaders-react-to-mob-at-capitol-with-prayers-calls-for-end-to-violence/
So, where does all this leave us? Again, I can only speak for myself, but it has called me to reevaluate who I am, what I believe, and how I am called to act in such a toxic and hostile world. I had to go back pretty far to begin that process.
When I was growing up, Jesus wasn’t in the picture. I never heard him mentioned except in a parental fit of anger. So, he was just an expletive. God did show up occasionally disguised as a dysfunctional wild woman (my mother) and other times a man who sat numb in front of the T.V. every night while his family was being dismembered in the next room (my father).
If either of these images was reality it’s no wonder this god messed up his creation. I suppose in the planning stages it looked great to him on paper. According to the beliefs of Christians who adhere to an “us” vs “them” theology, that warns that you’re doomed to hell because you won’t buy into their “rules”. This god would have created an excess of people he would then turn around and damn to hell. Just for fun. Like playing the game whack-a-mole out of sheer boredom. It probably keeps him busy on those long winter nights when he is being totally ignored by humanity.
Anyway, God seemed crazy unpredictable and impossible to please. I wanted nothing to do with him. But, alas, my wretched soul was not totally, irreparably lost.
I am so grateful that nearly twenty years ago, right in the midst of my pain and confusion over just who this God was and who I was in relation to him, he showed up in a powerful way in the person of Jesus. I discovered how deeply God loved me in spite of myself and he offered Jesus as my guide. He would walk with me through this long, but necessary, journey with all its pitfalls and uncertainties. I could now accept that, although he would not help me get even with those who so deeply hurt me, he would not leave me alone either. I discovered for the first time that I was worthy of his love; that I mattered, and my life had a purpose.
So, to come back around to my original question:
In this current culture war the lines have been drawn by those on both sides of the struggle for power and significance. When we label those we disagree with “radical” it immediately conjures up a sense of “us” vs “them”, “right” vs “wrong”. It makes us enemies and instills hatred in our hearts leaving no room for Jesus.
So, consider this: If Jesus is the answer, then who do you say Jesus is – the Jesus of hate or the Jesus of love?
Many still believe it’s the Jesus who hates. A belief that has ushered in the violence and animus we witness on a continuous thread. So much so that many have become desensitized to it. It doesn’t seem so extreme any more. It becomes accepted by those who need to normalize their beliefs.
But, when everything un-Christ-like is stripped away: all the false beliefs, bad theology, and broken promises of our egocentric selves – the foundational, naked truth is revealed. It is there; in that deepest place where “radical” faith goes beyond our human understanding. It becomes a powerful, revolutionary force for God’s love! Which may now give us a better sense of this Jesus.
Now, that’s radical! So, take a deep breath, quite yourself before God, and trust that he will make all things new!
I feel an apology may be in order if you found this last post difficult to follow! Just think of how difficult it was for me to write and offer some grace to this old woman who now needs a serious nap!
God bless!
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PASSION, PURPOSE & POOPYHEADS 
