Texas Baptist Standard: Texas Lawmaker, Seminarian Opposes Christian Nationalism
There's a core group of Evangelicals, mostly those who have been sucked into the political extremist far right, who believe that voting for a Democrat is incompatible with being a Christian.
Not only are they wrong about that, at least, if they want to consider what Jesus said and taught and how that forms the basis for interpreting the writings of the Apostles in the New Testament, but I would turn that around, point to the character, not only of Trump, to whom they give unqualified support and with whom they share personal loyalty, but to all of the characteristics that identify his MAGA movement, and claim, in the words of right winger pastor Landon Schott, of Mercy Culture Church, that "you are not a Bible believing, Jesus following Christian if you support the godless, Romans 1 evil of the Democratic Party," changing those last two words to Donald Trump and the godless Republican party.
If Schott, who I will not call either "mister" or "pastor" wants to go that far in his judgmental assault on Democrats, it opens the door for me to go that far in pointing out that his support for Trump is evidence of what a godless hypocrite he is.
Jack Graham, pastor of the Prestonwood Baptist Church of Dallas, one of the largest Southern Baptist and Evangelical churches in the country, says he supports Trump because, "He is a warrior for us."
"He's standing for us and always has been representing the principles and precepts of God's word that we strongly believe," said Graham.
Which principles and precepts would those be? Having an affair with a porn star while his wife is pregnant with their child, and then, while she is at home caring for it? Or publicly shaming three wives to whom he was married, two of whom he divorced to marry the subsequent one, in public, in adulterous affairs that ended each marriage and earned him millions of entertainment dollars.
Was it the violence he advocated against the Capital and Washington D.C. police, and against the United States Congress on January 6th, which was responsible for 5 deaths and hundreds of injuries? Is that what these two Texas pastors stand for when they stand with a man whose pathological lying is duplicitous and immoral? Apparently, that's what they mean when one of them refers to Trump as a "warrior," though I'm having trouble finding where to find the principle or precept in the Bible related to starting insurrections against the civil government that are based on a lie.
Would it be his direct denial, to prominent Evangelical leaders, claiming that he has done nothing for which he requires God's forgiveness, an antichrist denial of the core principle of Christian conversion, a statement which makes it clear he is not spiritually one of them? Or is it the direct contradiction of Jesus' teaching to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," in the face of all of this talk about Trump being a "warrior" for Christians of Graham's ilk.
I'd like to know how one can be Christian, claiming to follow the teachings of Christian gospel, and advocate for any form of Christian nationalism, which is a godless, antichristian tyranny that claims it must establish itself through violence, bloodshed and murder. Can either Schott or Graham answer those questions? And how do they decide to choose a political leader, when given the choice with their vote, and their influence, who openly denies his need for Jesus as his savior, which the Apostle John calls an "antichrist" in the context of his words found in I John 4:1-3. It's pretty clear that Trump is not standing with Christians because he shares their convictions. It's because he needs their votes, and there's a limit on what he'll do to get them.
Compare and Contrast the Views of Texas Representative James Talarico
From an Evangelical perspective, the words of Jesus are not only authoritative because they were inspired and included in the New Testament, but because they come from a divine source, God himself, who was revealed in the flesh by Jesus. It does not take much reading, if we begin at Matthew 5, and run through a couple of chapters of the text, which is known as Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, to get this comparison.
Talarico sees Christian nationalism as a form of tyranny, and dangerous because "the tyrant thinks he is on a mission from God." And, according to the author of the piece posted above from the Texas Baptist Standard, "an unhealthy merger of religious and American identities that seeks special privileges for Christianity." That is somewhat of a "going back to the past" because Christianity once did receive special privileges because so many people in government were Christians.
One of Talarico's remarks that really did catch my eye was his distinction of the support of Christians for Harris from that of Christians who support Trump. Many Christians have tried to turn Trump into some messiah-like figure, or being referred to as "the chosen one." And since the assassination attempt, many of them have claimed divine intervention was present to "save" Trump for this purpose of becoming President again. If that was some kind of divine intervention, then they need to explain why God would have allowed the taking of the life of a 50 year old fireman in front of his children.
"The key difference," said Talarico, "Is that we're not worshipping Kamala Harris. We're just voting for her.
The video of his sermon on Christian Nationalism and its dangers is worth watching and can be accessed here.
Christianity is a Faith, Not a Political Party
The Republicans don't have a corner on the market when it comes to Christianity. It is not "the Christian party" and anyone who claims that one can't be Christian when they follow the "godless, evil" Democrats is ignoring a mountain of licentious, godless evil among Republicans, and their idolization of one of the most godless, evil politicians we've ever seen in the United States. Hypocrisy, indeed, knows no bounds, particularly among conservative, Evangelical Christians, many of their politically engaged pastors and churches, and among the Republican party.
There's a huge difference in both the sincerity of one's Christian faith, and the depth of understanding of that faith as the constitutions first amendment freedom of conscience, and separation of church and state have set it free from the political corruption of the state to be whatever God calls it to be. Jimmy Carter, more than any American politician that I can name, understood exactly what that meant, in terms of where the boundaries existed between his ability to do his job without compromising the values and beliefs of his very strong, conservative, Evangelical faith, and serving the American people without imposing religious restrictions that the government was forbidden to impose.
The manner in which Kamala Harris, a Baptist with a "born again" testimony similar to those in that faith tradition, and Tim Walz, raised Catholic and converted to the Lutheran church when he got married, avoid using their faith as a tool to get votes, balancing their own convictions with their obligation as public servants to represent all Americans and not just those who share their values, and not using their political position as a post from which to peddle their faith, reminds me a lot of Carter.
Christian conversions and adherence to principles that are the result of political influence, pressure, or legislation, are not sincere or authentic, and attempts by politicians to use their political office and the power that comes with it to command religious practice is tyranny. The founders who made sure that freedom of conscience was a first amendment right, and that the establishment clause did away with a state sponsored church, understood that completely.
American Evangelicals have fallen on some hard times over the past thirty years. Membership and attendance in their churches is declining, and while they are loathe to admit it, much of it can be traced to the uptick in political engagement brought on by leaders like Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority, and Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition. Time, resources and energy have gone into right wing politics, not evangelism, and as a result, the number of converts, especially among Gen X, the Millennial generation and now Gen Z, who have remained in church after they leave home is tiny.
And preachers like Jack Graham and Landon Schott have caused a lot of conservative Evangelicals to become disconnected entirely from the values and virtues of the Christian gospel taught and lived out by Jesus and his Apostles. Jesus said that one of the two greatest commandments was to "love your neighbor as yourself," and he used the example of a Samaritan, who was of a different race and ethnicity, and a different religion, despised and hated by his fellow Jews, to define the term "neighbor." In a modern context, that also means "evil Democrats," blacks, Latinos, Asians, gays, lesbians, transgendered persons, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews or Hottentots.
Jesus also said if someone slaps your right cheek, turn the left one to them also. He said to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you might be called children of God. But doing these things among the Evangelical community now will get labelled as being "woke." By dismissing or ignoring these clear teachings of the Christian gospel, directly from Jesus himself, these so-called "Christian nationalists" have revealed themselves as intruders and imposters, as defined by the Apostle Jude for the first century church. They're not "Christian" nationalists, they're white, racist nationalists, and their nationalism is based on the white race controlling the United States. Christianity is just a convenient tool to use to get there.
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