By Steve Zmyewski
Houston, MN
If you believe America was founded on Christianity with principals built on biblical values, like stealing land from Native Americans and building this nation on the backs of 12 million slaves, you might be a Christian nationalist.
If you believe pastor Greg Locke of Mount Juliet, Tenn., when he says, “you cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation because they are God denying demons that butcher babies,” you might be a Christian nationalist.
If you believe pastor and January 6th promoter William “Dutch” Sheets when he portrays Donald Trump as an instrument of God with a divine purpose, you might be a Christian nationalist.
There is something happening on the hard religious right, something that prioritizes political power over compassion and kindness for the marginalized, something that contradicts the servant leadership of the humble, barefoot rabbi from the first century, something that makes themselves look like the “hypocrites” Jesus condemned. In a shameless abandon there is no rhetoric too appalling, no conspiracy theory too fictional, no lie too big to repeat, no relationship too shady and no biblical application too sacrilegious. The hard religious right is worshipping political power, economic power and social power in a desperate attempt to control America. Christian nationalism is on the rise in America and there is nothing Christian about it. It is a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth and a threat to democracy.
Whatever his political inclinations may have been in the early years of his ministry in 1981 Billy Graham warned evangelicals about their alliance with extreme conservatism, stating that: “the hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.”
In an extreme version we have seen Christian nationalism in past history. With white hoods covering their heads, an American flag and a burning cross the Ku Klux Klan persecuted immigrants, Catholics, Jews and African Americans baptizing their movement in the name of Christ with a nationwide Klan membership of over four million people including clergy, congressman, governors and senators.
Privately Adolph Hitler despised the Christian faith, publically he used Christianity to advance the Nazi party. In 1928 while his personal protection force and party militia “The Brown Shirts,” were intimidating political opponents and participating in anti-Jewish violence, Hitler was quoted as saying: “this is a Christian movement.” The fascist dictator coined the concept of the “big lie” in his 1925 book Mein Kampf, arguing that people are more likely to believe a massive, outrageous lie than a small one, particularly if it is repeated constantly.
It has been said that: “Fascism will find it’s way to America wrapped in a flag carried by a cross.” January 6 saw hundreds of Christian nationalists storm America’s Capitol serving as a warning. Unimaginable is Jesus rushing up the steps of the Capitol wearing a red baseball cap with the logo “Make Israel Great Again” while carrying a cross wrapped in a flag and chanting “hang Mike Pence.”
Incomprehensible is the thought that the second coming of Christ would take place in the Christian nation of America where upon arrival Jesus would face an aggressive militia of “Men in Brown Masks.” Without official documentation HE would surely find HIMSELF handcuffed and under arrest simply for HIS status as a stranger rather than any harm HE caused. “I was a stranger, but you did not welcome me.”
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Might these be the very words that Billy Graham, “America’s pastor,” stayed true too when he distanced himself from partisan politics, the religious right and shunned the moral majority.
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