GOD’S COMMANDS ARE VERY PRACTICAL
Religion is nothing but a collection of totally meaningless, impractical, traditions. That is why God hates religion of all kinds — not just Christian Nationalism
Meaningless, impractical religious rules stand in stark contrast with God’s commands which are very practical and useful for everyday life — especially relationships. They teach us how to live at peace with one another. They teach us that when we follow God’s commands regarding human relationships, we will be at peace with God and one another. They teach a kinder, gentler way of doing government and everyday relationships at all levels.
Since the quality of our lives hinges on the quality of our relationships, there is nothing more practical than God’s commands. They impact every aspect of our daily lives — especially relationships. Religions are also about relationships — but only the relationships within each religion. Relationships outside the religion don’t matter except as candidates for conversion. For this and other reasons, religions are impractical and divisive.
Christian Nationalists’ primary relationships are people who subscribe to Christian Nationalist ideologies. These are the people who support leaders with praise, money and votes. All other relationships are unimportant except as targets for oppression. This creates an “us versus them” environment in which Christian Nationalists seek to control every aspect of the lives of people who are not like them.
Everyone who is not a member of the Christian Nationalist tribe is grist for their conversion/control mill that grinds out oppressive legislation that they believe will offset their fears and insecurities.
Problems arise when politicians, especially Christian Nationalists, and other religious leaders, especially Evangelical Pentecostals, do not obey the commands of the God they claim to love, follow and trust. Problems arise when politicians get ideas about how our daily lives and government laws should agree with their religious laws — which is something God never commanded. Problems arise, as they have in these recent times, when prideful, arrogant, fanatical, Christian Nationalists imagine that their religious ideas about how we should relate to one another should supersede God’s commands. That is rebellion against God.
Once they got off track regarding God’s commands, Christian Nationalists descended a slippery slope to anarchy with respect to God’s laws and America’s laws. As other like-minded Christians bought in to their ideas, they became bolder in believing that they could actually dominate the seven mountains of American culture. As smooth-talking politicians and religious leaders joined the movement, they came to believe their own lies and rhetoric about their God-given power and authority to dominate American culture. They got drunk on religious kool aid and served it to gullible followers who also did not understand that all their grievances would be resolved if everyone would obey God’s commands about how to relate to one another.
Early during the descent down the slippery slope, Christian Nationalists learned that followers did not value truth. All they wanted to hear was assurances that their chosen leaders would decisively allay their fears and insecurities by taking charge of government and the courts. That fact emboldened leader to employ lies more aggressively — at the expense of truth. As they told more lies and told them more often, they gained more followers who gave them more honor and money to pursue their goals.
Belief in grandiose lies became the glue that holds the movement together. That is why they always double down and circle the wagons whenever one of their lies is exposed. They know, at least subconsciously, that if they concede to any truth that challenges their lies, their movement would collapse. They are too proud to allow that to happen.
What we learn from this history is that the hearts of Christian Nationalists are so cold and hard that factual truth about their lies cannot penetrate their hearts — at least not yet. That would seem to be a sad conclusion except that the power of God’s word (i.e. truth) is more powerful than pride and lies. God’s truth is the only power that can break down pride and arrogance. God’s truth is the only power that can humble a hard, religious heart.
Clearly Christian Nationalists’ claims are lies. It is just as clear that people who support the claims of Christian Nationalists either don’t know that they lie or don’t care if they lie. Either way, they are part of the problem.
The only real solution to this problem is truth. Sadly, however, Christian Nationalists will not change their minds or rhetoric when their lies are challenged with truth. That fact should not dissuade anyone from telling truth that offsets lies, but it tells us that progress will be slow.
Truth is the antidote to lies. Americans who know and value truth are the key to solving the problem. Christian Nationalists tell many lies that need to be exposed and offset with truth. See the following links for truths that must be shared:
All of these truths come from the bible. Many are repeated with different words but they all say the same thing: Love God, love your neighbor, and do justice for others.
When God repeats commands, they deserve special attention. God’s commands are repeated so often that it should be impossible to miss them or ignore them. Nevertheless, Christian Nationalists conspicuously ignore them as though they had some special dispensation from God that permits them to do the opposite of what he has commanded.
Unlike most literal commands found in the bible, these commands are unique in that they can be interpreted literally and obeyed literally. They tell us how God relates to people and tell us how to relate to people. There is symbolism, of course, to the words, but the commandments can be understood and obeyed in their literal sense also.
When we look at the things Christian Nationalists say and do, we see that nothing they say, or how they say it, and nothing they do satisfies God’s commands about how to relate to one another. Christian Nationalists fail to meet any of God’s standards of righteousness. All their claims of believing the bible and trusting God are lies because if they can’t get any of God’s clearly stated, often repeated, commands right, they obviously don’t know even know the literal words of the bible nor do they understand the spiritual meanings of those words.
When looking at God’s commands, however, we must be ready to evaluate ourselves also. Doing so is the essence of Jesus’ warning about judging one another and removing specs and logs from our eyes.
The significance of judging ourselves before judging others is critical to spiritual warfare. Whenever we see Christian Nationalists missing the mark regarding how to relate to others, it should be a reminder to look at ourselves and correct our own behaviors.
With respect to responding appropriately to the things Christian Nationalists do, we should consciously remind ourselves that we should not do those same things and check ourselves when we find ourselves doing them. We should also be evaluating others — especially politicians who identify as Christians — about things they say and do that miss the marks in God’s commands, and look for opportunities to share God’s commands, with them and gently correct them so that they might be mindful of their divisive behaviors in the future. These are the responsibilities of strategic truthtellers.
Truthtellers must think of Christian Nationalists as humans with wants, needs, concerns and fears like all other Americans — even though they act very proud and independent. If we are not sensitive to their human needs, we are not qualified to share truth with them. Moreover, if we don’t have compassion for the inner struggles that inspire them to think what they think and do what they do, they will pick up on our attitudes and respond to us in kind.
We never want to think of Christian Nationalists as demons, devils or wild-eyed crazies. If our only image of Christian Nationalists is what we saw in news reports of the Charlottesville, Virginia protest or the January 6, 2021, demonstration at the Capitol, we need to change our image. If we only see them as evil, scary, torch bearing, flag-waving, gun-toting radicals, we have already written them off as irredeemable losers, which means we lack confidence that truth can change their hearts and minds. And, if we see them as irredeemable, our negative attitude will interfere with our readiness to get close enough to share truth with them. Moreover, if we see them as irredeemable, we say that they will always be a destructive force in American culture and government. That kind of hopeless attitude is as destructive as Christian Nationalism.
Although it is not always easy to distinguish between Christian Nationalists from the rest of us, there are several topics that set them apart.
-
-
-
-
- Aversion to paying taxes.
- Opposition to open borders.
- Inclination to believe lies propagated in QAnon conspiracies.
- Aversion to public health management of diseases.
- Distrust of public schools.
- Affection for authoritarian leaders.
- Opposition to laws and regulations that limit how they do business and life –especially religion.
- Readiness to attend political rallies and religious events with like-minded people.
- Opposition to LGBTQ+ rights
- Willingness to consider violence as a means of gaining political power.
- Resistance to accept the facts about climate change.
- If they talk about the Constitution, it will probably be in the context of First Amendment rights to practice religion and Second Amendment rights to bear arms.
- See this post for an overview of legislation adopted and proposed by Christian Nationalist legislators.
-
-
-
Obviously, Christian Nationalists are not the only people who think like this and do these things. Because these are only clues that may help us identify and understand them, we should not assume that anyone who says or does any of these things is certifiably Christian Nationalist.
Christian Nationalists typically reveal their attitudes about these issues in their verbal speech, in their social media posts, in clothing, in bumper stickers and other not-so-subtle ways in which they advertise their membership in the Christian Nationalist tribe with words. They find it necessary to advertise their politics in these ways because they believe that their tribe is a shrinking minority sector of American culture. They say and do these things to create a tribal identify that gives them security and tells them they are not alone in their beliefs. They are no different from any other subgroup of American culture that is struggling to survive. The only real difference between them and other tribes is that they believe that the only way for them to achieve security is when they create insecurity for others.
Safety and security are good things that we all seek. Safety and security for all keeps American democracy strong. Whenever one sector of the country feels insecure, however, the entire country is weakened. The tricky part of this equation is ensuring that security for one sector does not compromise the security of another sector.
Christian Nationalists feel that their security was stolen, unjustly, without due process, by progressive, elite politicians and their supporters. Security which was stolen is seen as God-given rights to govern the Seven Mountains of American culture. They get this idea from the literal words of the bible. Therefore, they feel obligated to God to reclaim their rights any way they can — including the use of physical violence.
Everything Christian Nationalists do is designed to regain power and control over American culture as God’s agents. By their understanding of the literal words of the bible, they establish God’s kingdom on earth when their chosen leaders exercise political and administrative dominion over all of the Seven Mountains of American culture.
The way Christian Nationalists see it, whatever power and control they have lost, liberals have gained. It’s a 0-sum game in which gains for liberals automatically result in losses for them. Whenever they win, God wins, and whenever they lose, God loses. It is a faulty theology that makes God’s kingdom dependent on their efforts, but they don’t see it that way.
Nevertheless, perception of threat of loss of power and control is very real and pressing on Christian Nationalists — even to the point of absolute fear by many. Because of this fear, Christian Nationalists are compelled to publicly announce/advertise their identity and presence so that others will fear them and surrender to their efforts to regain the control that they believe is rightfully theirs because God has empowered them to have dominion over America.
Existential fear of liberals, immigrants, communists, education elites, the media, loss of gun-possession rights and the LGBTQ+ community inspires them to act out to remind their enemies of their God-given political and physical power. Aggressive acting out is a defensive tactic employed by cornered animals, but Christian Nationalists use it as offense:
-
-
-
- Show their teeth
- Growl
- Bark loudly and incessantly
- Occasional charging lunges toward whatever threatens them
-
-
These have been effective strategies for many Christian Nationalists who have made offensive gains while keeping liberals who obstruct their efforts on their heels in defense. So far, liberals’ primary defense against this strategy has been to get down in the mud and fight dirty with words while occasionally deflecting voters’ attention to policy issues. Focusing on policy works for maybe half of American voters, but Christian Nationalists steadfastly resist talking policy — except to ridicule what liberals propose. Defeating liberals with words is their basic policy.
Campaigning about legislative policy is not a sound winning strategy for Christian Nationalists because their policies always cause hurt someone — especially poor, marginalized people. Their workaround for that handicap is to restrict voting rights and access for those who would be hurt by legislation Christian Nationalists hope to pass after they are elected.
The only time Christian Nationalists willingly talk policy is when they have legislative power to pass laws that advance their policies. After that, there is not much those who are hurt by their policies can do except sue the government. But lawsuits are not a reliably successful strategies for combating those policies for several reasons:
-
-
-
-
- Lawsuits require money.
- They take time during which people must endure the ill effects of the policies.
- Christian Nationalists have stacked so many courts in their favor.
-
-
-
In the meantime, progressive, liberal politicians work hard to get elected so they can pass legislation that thwarts Christian Nationalist policy advances. It’s a constant battle to fend off snipers who defame liberals who are trying to do the best they can to protect poor, marginalized people who are hurt by Christian Nationalist policies.
Elections in America have never been wholesome, virtuous exercises, but in the past few cycles they have become downright ugly. Candidates on both sides readily show their teeth, growl, bark, tell lies, exaggerate, and, in general, try to make themselves look good by making their opposition look bad.
Sadly, this has too often been an effective strategy because voters of all political persuasions tend to evaluate their candidates with respect to these uncivil, divisive, verbal behaviors. Thus, it is too often true that the most aggressive verbal bullies with the best rhetoric win. No responsible parents would tolerate the language of children who talk like political candidates, but voters don’t see the disconnect at election time.
Christian Nationalists have conveniently, and self-righteously, ignored scriptures that warn against argumentative, divisive, judgmental behavior. To be fair, it must also be said that others who call themselves Christians also ignore these scriptures and expand division with their own style of rhetoric. Someone needs to tell all politicians that their rhetoric, and the social media echo chambers and media that report it, share blame for the fact of division.
Division begins when partisans on both sides choose their champion politicians to snarl/growl/bark at the opposition on their behalf. On the sidelines, supporters cheer them on with votes and money needed to participate in this never-ending gladiatorial event. Even though they don’t admit it, spectators love to watch the bloody verbal battles and always vote “thumbs down” when their champion uses choice words designed to disable or discredit their opposition. This is what passes for democracy. Partisans on both sides complain about ugly elections but continue to support political gladiators who excel at using words as weapons.
Maybe there are voters who say, “enough is enough” and decide to stop supporting candidates who participate in a game with rules that discourage civility, honesty, good character, leadership and sound policies while rewarding lies, slander and vitriol. Steady increases in election spending, however, suggest that very few voters, if any, have actually stopped donating to elections because they don’t like how politicians conduct themselves or the division they cause.
It appears that partisan voters who decry a divided America don’t realize that donations to candidates who snarl, bark, lie, belittle, and humiliate their opposition actually encourage and enable these divisive behaviors. Who knows what would happen if voters withheld financial support from divisive candidates? Would they limit their campaign speeches to policies without condemning their opponents? We can only hope.
There is a quiet resignation among all Americans that this is the way politics works and there is nothing that can be done to change the system. This means that almost everybody lives with tension and uncertainty about America’s future. This cartoon confirms this attitude.
NOTE: Permission to display cartoon granted by ©RJ Matson, CQ Roll Call 2022
There are several lessons to be learned from this review and analysis:
-
-
-
-
- Divisive rancor has always been a staple in America’s politics.
- Right-leaning, conservative, Christian Nationalists are not solely responsible for division in America.
- Left-leaning, liberals share responsibility for division in America.
- Swing-voters and independents share responsibility for division in America.
- People who use social media to report divisive rhetoric share responsibility for division in America.
- Media platforms that insist on reporting all the gory details of the gladiatorial events share responsibility for division.
- The task of closing divisive gaps in American culture begins with kinder, gentler language in politics.
- Politicians who openly speak ill of others without shame or remorse reveal hard hearts that disqualify them for leadership.
-
-
-
Resigned acceptance of the divisive status quo has paralyzed Americans of all political persuasions to act like politics as usual is a fact that will never change. And indeed, the way we do politics and government will not change unless and until Americans are willing to sacrifice their personal right to engage in hurtful speech for the sake of unity. That is the tradeoff: Free speech or unity.
Christian Nationalists advocate loudly for freedom to practice religion in their rhetoric about freedom of speech. That argument sells well to hyper-religious people, but it comes with a cost: division. Curiously, Christian Nationalists do not see the disconnect between their divisive rhetoric and their mantra of One Nation Under God. If they could see this glaring disconnect, they would change their rhetoric from division to peace. Such a change would mean the end of Christian Nationalism and the beginning of liberty and justice for all.
To hasten that end, truthtellers are needed to remind Christian Nationalists about many other hypocritical disconnects between what they say they believe and what they do listed in these links:
-
-
-
- God’s Commands About Doing Justice for Others
- God’s Commands About How to Relate to Him and to One Another.
- Christian Nationalism Doctrines and Philosophy: Lies and Truth
- Dominionism Doctrines and Philosophy: Lies and Truth
- Seven Mountains Doctrines and Philosophy: Lies and Truth
- Verbal abuse is evidence of a hard heart.
- The only effective strategy for establishing God’s kingdom is to change hearts and minds.
- God’s kingdom is not the earthly kingdom of seven cultural mountains but is a spiritual kingdom found in the hearts of New Covenant disciples.
-
-
Until these truths settle into the hearts of Christian Nationalists, there is little consolation in the fact that freedom of political speech is guaranteed by the Constitution when that speech is used independent of conscious, intentional constraint to avoid hurting, offending, controlling and bullying other Americans. Until these truths are settled into the hearts of all Americans, scheming, affluent lawbreakers — including Christian Nationalists — will exploit the judicial system to create legal loopholes that absolve them from obedience to the spirit of the Constitution. Christian Nationalists have done this with respect to the Constitution just like they have created legal/philosophical workarounds to excuse them from obedience to God’s laws.
Even though the heart is the most reliable governor of the mind and body, it is still necessary to have Constitutional freedoms written on paper. But, until the weighty, spiritual intent of those abstract laws are written on the hearts of all Americans, those freedoms are only aspirations, not facts. Clearly, the intent of the Constitution is not written on the hearts of Christian Nationalists.
But this is not a shortcoming only in the hearts of Christian Nationalists. The Constitution is only an abstract concept of law until it is internalized in the heart. Because they have successfully eroded public education, especially in the area of civics and history, the majority of Americans are ignorant about how they are legally obligated to apply the principles of the Constitution in every aspect of their daily lives — including politics and religion.
Faithful application of the written Constitution happens only after the spiritual intent of the Constitution is written on the heart. But that won’t happen until those abstract Constitutional laws are purposely and intentionally taught to the minds of all Americans. Since we can’t depend on parents to teach these things to their children, just like we don’t depend on parents to teach other academic courses, the Constitution must be a constant subject taught in all schools. Obedience to the Constitution must be elevated to the same, or higher, level of importance as all other academics. If such education had been in place, Christian Nationalism might not have gained its foothold in America.
There is no guarantee, of course, that knowledge of the Constitution and Bill of Rights will produce law-abiding citizens. We can be sure, however, that intentional teaching of the law is a much more reliable way to establish law in the hearts of people than assuming they will learn it by social osmosis. The sooner Americans learn and understand the Constitution, the sooner Christian Nationalism’s threat to democracy will be overcome.
Until study of the Constitution becomes a staple subject in all American schools, all Americans would do well to take the initiative to study the Constitution and early American history. Only after all individuals understand their personal responsibility to use freedom of speech with restraint and respect for the freedoms of others will the goal of freedom and justice for all be achieved. This is another important topic for truthtellers to share.