During my brief time in office, a fringe group of radical Islamic extremists pushed for various state legislatures to enact bills that would enforce Sharia Law. I signed a petition against it. Today, a fringe group of radical Christian extremists are pushing for similar legislation that would enshrine Christian principles as the standard for government law. As a private citizen, I signed a petition against it.
I’m neither anti-Muslim, nor anti-Christian. Rather, like our Founding Fathers, I am against any theocracy.
J. Basil Dannebohm
Heralded as “The Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon once noted, “To live for a political party is unworthy of a man who professes to be a Christian.”
Disheartened by the church
Having dedicated a large part of my life to ministry and public service, lately I find myself disheartened by what’s become of the church, particularly in the United States. It appears self-righteous narcissists have bastardized the gospel and hijacked Christianity, deforming it into an extreme political movement.
In an observation worthy of a Shrute Buck, actor Rainn Wilson observed on X (formerly Twitter), “The metamorphosis of Jesus Christ from a humble servant of the abject poor to a symbol that stands for gun rights, prosperity theology, anti-science, limited government (that neglects the destitute) and fierce nationalism is truly the strangest transformation in human history.”
“The only individuals stripping Americans of any rights are the very politicians who profess to believe in limited government.”
It should come as no surprise that the sudden rise in religious extremism directly corelates with the rise in political extremism; both are rooted in fear. For how long have we been told, “They’re coming for your rights”? Yet to date, as Wilson, an actor famous for his role on The Office, pointed out, the only individuals stripping Americans of any rights are the very politicians who profess to believe in limited government.
After growing disillusioned by both church and state, I spent the next decade of my career deliberately infiltrating religious and political extremist groups for the sole purpose of gathering intelligence on the movements.
One thing always proved consistent: the individual(s) who protested the loudest usually had the shadiest secrets hidden deep within their closet. Their repetitious lament about attacks against their values and beliefs were, without fail, deflections from their own evils. It always was far more convenient to cry foul than to face their own demons and clean up their own houses.
Is this to suggest that everybody who supports Christian nationalism is sinister? Certainly not. They’re sheeple. Like I said, they fester in fear. That’s how they become ensnared into the movement. The sheeple are merely the collateral damage of the narcissistic wolves who lead them.
Christianity ‘under attack’?
For years, they’ve been told by the wolves that Christianity is “under attack” in America and they’ve believed it without any measurable evidence. There’s a Christian church on practically every other street corner in this nation, yet the sheeple who have been suckered into Christian nationalism still maintain they are somehow being persecuted.
In fairness, the only time their freedom to worship has been compromised was during the pandemic when churches were ordered to close; ironically, by the very president many of them revere as a hero and defender of their movement.
Am I suggesting all the leaders in the Christian nationalist movement are sinister wolves? To confidently quote former Governor Sarah Palin, “You betcha.”
I can’t say this enough: The cult of personality tends to be especially dangerous, particularly in political and religious movements. A skilled narcissist with an authoritarian complex will capitalize off a movement’s desire for a figurehead, especially a movement that is rooted in fear (particularly fear of an unknown or uncontrollable factor of some sort). The natural, practically inevitable chain of events in such cults births terrorism in some form or another.
“By the time a follower realizes they’ve submitted to a golden calf, it’s almost always too late.”
By the time a follower realizes they’ve submitted to a golden calf, it’s almost always too late. Climbing out of such a rabbit hole can be an arduous, if not impossible task. This is especially true today.
What used to be red flags are now celebrated signals. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: In the 1970s, it was Jonestown. In the 1990s, it was Waco. Today, it is commonplace. We’ve normalized dysfunction.
Normalized extremism
Christian nationalism is just that: normalized extremism that almost certainly will lead to domestic terrorism. For a refresher on how this chain of events unfolds, I recommend reading Jeffrey Toobin’s book Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism.
Hardly Christian by even the loosest definition, extremism is extremism no matter how you attempt to package it. We need to call it what it is: evil.
Bluntly, one can roll a turd in powdered sugar, but that won’t make it a jelly donut. Similarly, you can wrap Christian nationalism in excerpts from the Bible, but it remains the antithesis of the gospel.
“One can roll a turd in powdered sugar, but that won’t make it a jelly donut.”
While you’ll hear a lot of noise about posting the Ten Commandments (which few of them follow), you’ll be hard pressed to find a Christian nationalist who encourages or better yet embraces the Beatitudes. To even the most milquetoast Christian, this should be a blatant warning sign that the movement is a pharisaical farce whose leaders’ motives are the opposite of Christ. Indeed, the end game for such snakes is, like the cult leaders and authoritarians before them, absolute control.
Fascist empires never have started with gas chambers or concentration camps. Throughout history, such regimes always have started with politicians dividing the people into “us vs. them,” with intolerance and hate speech.
The Beatitudes
Like our own time, the Beatitudes were nowhere to be found among the supposedly devout Christians who either supported such uprisings or stood idly by as they unfolded.
But let’s be honest. Sitting in a building for an hour each week doesn’t make someone a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes someone a Chevrolet. Judas Iscariot is proof that you can sit in a dynamic church with an amazing pastor and still become the devil’s stooge if your heart is not genuinely committed to the very Christ you claim to worship.
Silouan the Athonite wrote, “There is nothing better in the world than to love God and your neighbor. In this, the soul finds peace and joy. The love of God and the sweetness of the Holy Spirit make you completely forget the earth. When the mind is devoted to God, it forgets the world. He who has known the love of God loves the whole world. The fierier love is, the louder the prayer. The more perfect love is, the holier life is.”
“Within the Christian nationalist movement, you will find neither peace nor joy because it lacks even a shred of love toward anybody who opposes it.”
Within the Christian nationalist movement, you will find neither peace nor joy because it lacks even a shred of love toward anybody who opposes it. That’s simply not how Jesus operated.
Sadly, however, we’ve reached a point where people aren’t concerned about whether they can back up their religious convictions with the gospel. Rather, their feelings, desires and emotions override what Scripture says. In fact, they don’t follow Jesus; they worship themselves.
A better way
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church offers a starkly different Christian vision for our nation than the wolves and sheeple of the Christian nationalist movement. Curry writes:
Think and imagine a world where love is the way.
Imagine our homes and families when love is the way. Imagine our neighborhoods and communities where love is the way. Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when love is the way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way. When love is the way — unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive — when love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream, and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.
When love is the way, poverty would become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay our swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more. When love is the way, there’s plenty of room for all of God’s children. When love is the way, we actually treat each other, well, like we are actually family.
Indeed, love is the way of a true Christian walking in the light of God. Division and darkness come from the Father of Lies.
In his third homily on Asceticism, St. Basil of Caesarea wrote: “As God illumines all people equally with the light of the sun, so do those who desire to imitate God let shine an equal ray of love on all people. For wherever love disappears, hatred immediately appears in its place. And if God is love, then hatred is the devil. Therefore, as one who has love has God within himself, so he who has hatred within himself nurtures the devil within himself.”
Love, especially for the “least of these,” is a national movement I would be willing to wholeheartedly endorse. Bring me a petition rooted in love and I’ll pen my signature larger than that of John Hancock, who wanted to be certain the enemies of freedom could see his name.
But as for the fallacious notion of Christian nationalism? With the various denominations of Christians themselves incapable of agreeing on a standard set of morals, how can we possibly believe we are capable or qualified to push our beliefs on others?
For now, I pray for a day when Christians would genuinely embrace the Beatitudes with the same passion they have for political rhetoric and the American flag. Like Martin Luther King Jr., “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Yes, unconditional love will make Christianity great again.
J. Basil Dannebohm is a writer, speaker, consultant and former legislator. He resides in the Commonwealth of Virginia.