When you think about it (and I do because I really have no life), the English language has a lot of words and phrases that come from combining two words or concepts. Some of them work, like “ginormous” which combines gigantic and enormous which are synonyms for “big.” Others, like “jumbo shrimp” or “House Intelligence Committee,” don’t work so well because they contradict each other.
This week the Left rolled out a new phrase to describe a threat they see underneath their beds, that being “Christian nationalist.” Whether this phrase is the next “ginormous” or “House Intelligence Committee” has yet to be seen, but I think it warrants a deep dive to give us a better perspective on this new turn of a phrase.
Christian nationalist
What the Left thinks it means – the newest threat to our democracy, conservatives who believe Christianity should be the primary inspiration for our government
What it really means – a turn of a phrase that shows the Left knows nothing about either
Although Christian nationalism has only recently come into focus, the concept has been around for a few years. In fact, the Leftists at the New York Times have linked it to the rise of Donald Trump, mainly because it seems the faithful and the nationalist in America flocked to his message. Which, of course in the hivemind of the Left, makes them domestic terrorists in training. In fact, if Christian nationalists aren’t stopped now, we could find ourselves in the midst of another rise of Hitler…or is the The Handmaid’s Tale this week? In either case, it’s bad.
Or is it?
I won’t pretend there isn’t the possibility of bad outcomes with Christian nationalism, mainly because there are people willing to twist Christian doctrine towards political ends because, let’s face it, there are some asshats out there. Having said that, I’m not sure Christian nationalism is as much of a threat as the Left would lead us to believe. Imagine that. Leftists overstating a problem to whip up hysteria and fear for political gains. Who would have thunk it?
Anyway, we need to look at both parts of the phrase to understand what the Left is trying to portray as a threat and whether the threat is credible. First, let’s look at Christianity as a whole. After all, nothing like pissing off as many people as possible, right?
Although individual faiths and mileage may vary, the Bible is pretty clear on matters of governance: governments are established by God’s will, as outlined in Romans 13:1-3:
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended
Notice something that’s missing in that passage? A reference to nationalism. Well, that, and a good meatloaf recipe, but that’s a discussion for another time.
Although God teaches us to follow the law, there is still an acknowledgement of the possibility of wicked men and women getting into positions of power and making laws that go against the Word. And, remember, this was before Las Vegas was built. As a result, Christians are also taught to focus not on the world of Man, but on the world of God because we are taught Man is sinful and imperfect. And anyone who has followed politics in the past few decades can attest to both being true.
So, where does nationalism come into play? As noted above, the Bible doesn’t mention nationalism, which puts it clearly in the world of Man. The best way to describe it is what you get when you inject steroids and PCP into patriotism. It goes beyond merely loving one’s country and into a belief the country itself is the best in the world under any and all circumstances. The only problem with this idea is it assumes the country cannot make mistakes and always does the right thing. Again, see the past few decades of American politics for proof this ain’t the case.
When you combine Christians and nationalism, you get…a confusing mess. On the one hand, the faithful are to accept the government we have because God put the elected officials there (that, and the dead voters in Chicago in Illinois Democrats’ cases) and Man is imperfect. On the other hand, nationalists believe the country we have is perfect and should be the model for everyone else to follow. Maybe it’s just my weird way of looking at things, but wouldn’t nationalism mean its proponents put the country, ruled by imperfect people, above God? And wouldn’t that make Christian nationalism contradictory?
Why, yes. Yes on both counts.
But the Left doesn’t want us to think that hard about it. Just accept Christian nationalists are super-duper dagnasty evil and be done with it. There’s a tiny problem with that, however, and it stems from how the Left sees religion as a whole.
The religious have been stereotyped in pop culture as being so uptight not even WD-40 could loosen them up. Oh, and that each one is a super goody-two-shoes who are also flaming hypocrites on any and all subjects. Of course, if you are a person of faith who just happens to vote straight-ticket Democrat, you’re doing right by your Lord and by your party. Hmmm…didn’t Jesus say something about not being able to serve two masters?
Why, yes. Yes He did. Matthew 6:24 for the people praying along at home:
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Although the verse specifically mentions money, the same principle applies to politics, which also involves money these days. Even so, the point remains. You cannot serve God and Man at the same time without running into the kind of theological and moral quandaries only Man could invent for ourselves. And you thought Elon Musk was clever!
However, this doesn’t prevent the Left from perpetuating the stereotypes they’ve spent decades perfecting. They rely on it to make any openly Christian politician look two-faced and phony, and it works for the most part thanks to tactics from what’s become a Bible of sorts to the Left, Rules for Radicals. One of the rules boils down to making your opponents live up to their own standards, which gives Leftists plenty of political fodder to use when the opponents don’t. By building the “Christians are moralizing hypocrites” strawman, the Left have an easy way to knock down people of faith.
Then, they put a little more English (that’s spin, not the language) onto it by lumping Christians in with nationalists to create a Frankenstein’s Strawman of undesirables. And linking it to Donald Trump? That’s your trifecta of fuckery there, kids!
Here’s the funny thing, though. The Left’s knowledge of Christianity and nationalism don’t go much beyond the stereotypes they build. I’m as shocked as you are to learn Leftists are lazy thinkers, but I think we can overcome the surprise and disappointment.
Christianity is much more than an ideology or a political faction. It is a way of life. The faithful take God’s Word to heart and try to live their lives in a Godly way while knowing they will fail. And it’s not a cult mentality, either. If you stop and get to know Christians, you’ll find they’re not that different from most regular people (which excludes Leftists since, well, they ain’t regular). They worry about the future of the country like we all do from time to time. They want to be able to put food on the table and roofs over their heads. And, yes, they want politicians to represent their interests in office.
But does that mean Christian nationalists are evil? Not really. Maybe confused or unclear about what the Bible teaches, but not evil..yet. There are Fred Phelps types out there who have no problem twisting the Bible into hateful rhetoric, and here’s the part Leftists don’t get: Christians are taught to look out for these types and not follow. And given the Westboro Baptist Church has fewer members than Republican hosts on MSNBC, I don’t think they’re as pervasive a force as they and the Left think they are.
Which leads us to question whether Christian nationalism is a problem. Well, this is going to shock you, but I’m going to say they aren’t. We’re not dealing with a massive movement that attracts people on a daily basis, but rather a few cranks who think their combination of Christian faith and nationalism is the only way to go.
And the Leftists who are giving them more attention than they warrant.
That’s right, kids. The Left has a vested interest in getting people to worry about Christian nationalists, and it boils down to money, power, and division. Just like with mass shootings, Leftists need there to be unrest caused by people they deem undesirable to gin up nightmare scenarios that never seem to come true. Remember, these are the same Leftists who told us Donald Trump would get us into a war with China. And as we found out recently, apparently that was Nancy Pelosi’s job.
Regardless of what, if any, faith you follow, it should concern you Leftists are working so hard to make you afraid of a theocracy that has been threatened for decades, but has yet to materialize in any way. What are they trying to hide or divert our attentions from, exactly?
Oh, yeah. Leftists suck at governing.
If your track record was as much of a flaming bag of dog shit as Joe Biden’s, wouldn’t you try to invent an enemy to bash?
