Denouncing Christian Nationalism

USA Today is reporting, "Hundreds of Christian leaders and scholars nationwide are denouncing President Donald Trump’s administration and urging more active resistance among the faithful to the injustices and anti-democratic danger sweeping across the nation.”

“We are facing a cruel and oppressive government,” their collective statement begins. “In moments like this, silence is not neutrality ‒ it is an active choice to permit harm.”

And the so-called Christian Left is not silent about its righteous opposition to President Trump and those who agree with him.

Not only have they launched an effort to recruit Christians to sign the letter of opposition, but CNN has just released a documentary titled "The Rise of Christian Nationalism.”

It is miserably misguided.

This renewed effort by the Christian Left is something biblical Christians should be aware of and well-informed about.

Some churches will be promoting it from the pulpit, asking for your signature and support of the movement.

Others will remain silent.

Hopefully, many others will turn on the light of Truth regarding this misguided movement.

Be informed, not misled.

USA Today published this yesterday:

Titled “A Call to Christians in a Crisis of Faith and Democracy,” the letter says the nation is facing a profound moral, spiritual, and democratic emergency. Its release coincides with the start of the Christian season of Lent, a period of repentance, self-reflection, and resistance to temptation.

“We thought it was important to tie into a season where many Christians go deeper into their faith,” said Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, a Christian social justice organization. “Part of what we’re critiquing is the way in which many White evangelical Christians succumb to an unconditional support of the administration, despite the fact that its actions are completely antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.”

Leaders of all faiths have increasingly spoken out and participated in protests against the policies of the Trump administration, particularly aimed at what many see as overly aggressive efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants. Pastors have been arrested and struck with pepper balls during demonstrations.

The statement says Christians have a moral obligation to speak out against “citizens and immigrants being demonized, disappeared, and even killed; the erosion of hard-won rights and freedoms; and a calculated effort to reverse America’s growing racial and ethnic diversity – all of which are pushing us toward authoritarian and imperial rule.”

“This moment is a defining test of Christian discipleship and civic responsibility,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder and director of the Georgetown Center for Faith and Justice in Washington, DC. “Democratic freedoms are being taken away and the gospel is being distorted. The vulnerable people Jesus told us to stand with and defend are being targeted and assaulted.”

Who is leading this movement?

Wallis and Taylor organized the collective effort along with Barbara Williams-Skinner, president of Baltimore’s Skinner Institute, a faith leadership development organization

About 400 people initially signed the statement, representing a range of Christian denominations, leaders of Black, Asian, and Latino churches and associations, and Christian universities and institutions. Hundreds more have added their names since the letter’s Feb. 18 release, organizers say.

The Executive Office of the President of the United States, which includes the White House, did not respond to a request for comment on the statement.

The Christian leaders and scholars say, aside from the risks to democracy, they are troubled by “a Christian faith corrupted by the heretical ideology of White Christian nationalism.”

“People look at it as just a democratic crisis, but it’s not,” said the Rev. Cynthia Hale, pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Georgia, who was among those who signed the letter. “It’s a crisis of faith.”

Many other accusations are being made against evangelical Christians and pastors.

A summary:

• Christian nationalism, the idea that Christian people and biblical law should govern American life, has seeped into the highest levels of American government, with conservative evangelicals becoming a major political force with strong support of Trump. Evangelical pastor Doug Wilson, who has said women should neither vote nor hold religious or political leadership positions, was recently invited by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to conduct a service at the Pentagon.
• “Their religious leaders have been so unconditionally supportive that it’s almost branded this administration as being religious in the minds of many Americans, which is a distortion.”
• “They’ve confused proximity to political power with proximity to the power of God. They’re not the same.”
• Such conflation is“a form of idolatry,” and the Trump administration, in turn, has misused Christian language to support its activities, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruitment ads that quote scripture in their appeals. 
• "It’s corrupting the Christian faith to advance its own political agenda.”
• The letter concludes by tying a set of core theological convictions to actions the signers pledge to take to practice their faith and protect democracy, including defending voting rights, pursuing peace, and standing with unjustly targeted immigrants.
• The letter is clear. Defending "voting rights" means no voter IDs and a return to Joe Biden's open borders policy.
• “People in our communities are afraid to live out their faith because of the actions of our government.”

This effort aligns with CNN' S recently released documentary.

Pastor Allen Jackson has criticized CNN’s documentary on Christian nationalism, calling the program “misguided” and “functionally dishonest,” arguing that it misrepresents people of faith.

Jackson, senior pastor of World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, made the remarks during an interview on Fox News over the weekend, where he responded to CNN’s documentary titled “The Rise of Christian Nationalism.”

Jackson, who has served as senior pastor of World Outreach Church since 1989 and whose biblical messages have reached millions through his Allen Jackson Ministries, rejected the documentary’s framing and said it presents an inaccurate picture of religious Americans. He called the documentary “an intentionally dishonest piece.”

He says, "I think it's so misguided and, to be honest, it is just functionally dishonest," he said. "There is no question that our founding documents and our founders intended a Judeo-Christian worldview to shape our nation. We've never been uniquely Christian. It wasn't a requirement. We've never had a state-sponsored faith. But those Judeo-Christian values shaped our founding documents, our legal system, our educational system, our approach to business."

Jackson reminded that due to the Christian values that are behind public institutions, the U.S. is “dramatically different” from nations oriented towards Islam, Buddhism, or communism.

The program, he said, fails to reflect that many Americans are “coming back to church” and rediscovering faith communities in the United States.

A summary of the documentary.

• The Fox broadcast linked the trend of Americans returning to the Christian faith in part to the influence of conservative activist Charlie Kirk among younger audiences. Kirk’s campus events and outreach efforts encouraged greater interest in faith and conservative values among students.
• In the documentary, Brown cited "experts" to claim that Kirk's murder while speaking at a Utah university campus was a pivotal moment for the [Christian nationalism] movement, and an occasion where the tragedy of his loss unified Christian nationalists and the Trump administration as they honored him."
• One alleged expert claimed on the documentary that Kirk's memorial service "radicalized" many American Christians into believing they increasingly face hostility in their own country.

Takeaway

"You have to be seriously avoiding reality when Charlie Kirk was murdered and hunted in public to say that Christians try to fabricate the idea that they are being persecuted," Jackson said in response to the claim. "I think that is hard evidence, and I think we should pay attention... The Christian response to that assassination was dramatically different from some of the other public protests we have seen in recent months or years. I was grateful for that, but the hatred and intolerance toward Christianity, without question, is growing."

Jackson, whose church hosted Turning Point USA's Make Heaven Crowded tour event last month, said what Kirk promoted wasn’t radicalization but orthodox Christianity.

“We shouldn’t be surprised,” he said. “They said Jesus was a radical. They said the Apostle Paul was a radical. … So, if standing with Jesus and biblical principles makes us radical, I’ll get a T-shirt and stay gladly in that space.”

He said Gen Z has a “hunger for authenticity” and God, and “somehow, they are avoiding the propaganda that’s come through so much of education and academia.”

Indeed.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.