There is, however, a real War on Christianity. It’s just not coming from where we think it is.

[aubiefifty 16,833]

It does real damage when Sen. Wendy Rogers spews hate and claims to love Jesus

Tim Wright

Sat, March 19, 2022, 9:00 AM

Sen. Wendy Rogers may tweet that she 'loves Jesus,' but her actions don't mesh with that.

Every Christmas since I was a kid, warnings have been issued by certain segments of Christianity that Christmas is under attack.

Every year a call to arms is sounded to put Christ back into Christmas.

For all the fear, hand-wringing and warnings, Christmas is still freely celebrated by Christians as the birth of Jesus. And even non-Christian people celebrate the spirit of Jesus through gift-giving and the spreading of joy and glad tidings.

Over the years the war on Christmas has morphed into an apparent nonstop war on Christianity: Prayer banned from schools; plaques containing the Ten Commandments removed from some public courthouses; the occasional lawsuit to remove “under God” from the pledge or “In God we Trust” from our currency; and the perceived unraveling of Christian values and morals, the legalization of gay marriage being the tip of the iceberg for many.

 

There is, however, a real War on Christianity. It’s just not coming from where we think it is.

Rogers, Fuentes may call themselves Christians

Let me use an example from Arizona.

Recently, state Sen. Wendy Rogers spoke at the America First Political Action conference. America First was founded by Nick Fuentes, labeled a white nationalist.

Fuentes views societal change in the U.S. as the “bastardized Jewish subversion of the American creed. The Founders never intended for America to be a refugee camp for nonwhite people.”

Fuentes “jokingly” denied the Holocaust and compared Jews burned in concentration camps to cookies in an oven.

This is the person Arizona U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar calls a young conservative Christian man.

Wendy Rogers’ AFPAC speech, presented as Christian ideology, was littered with anti-Semitic statements. She called for her enemies (those who disagree with her) to be hanged on gallows. She praised white nationalists as patriots.

Under the threat of censure from some of her colleagues (who did censure her) she wrote on Twitter, “I stand with the Christians worldwide not the global bankers who are shoving godlessness and degeneracy in our face.”

And in another tweet: “I’m just a sweet grandma who loves Jesus and America.”

That's not what Jesus sounded like

But Wendy Rogers, Nick Fuentes and Paul Gosar sound nothing like Jesus.

Here’s what Jesus sounds like:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus didn’t condemn. He restored. Jesus didn’t vent hatred at the enemies of his people, the Jews. He treated them with dignity and respect. Jesus didn’t feed into the anger and grievances of people. He held up love and grace as alternatives.

Jesus didn’t come to break things but to put things back together. Jesus didn’t exclude. He built an inclusive tent. Jesus didn’t lie. He spoke grace and truth.

We must stand up to those who speak hate

The war against Christianity is not being waged by anti-Christian elites or the politically correct or the Woke crowd. It’s being waged by people vomiting hate-filled rhetoric in the name of Jesus and/or by people who wrap that hate-filled speech in Christian clothes and/or by far too many Christians who fail to stand up and say that this is not who Jesus is.

It’s not my job to say whether or not Wendy Rogers is a sweet grandma who loves Jesus, or if Nick Fuentes is a young conservative Christian man. I do believe that Jesus loves them. But they don’t seem to know it or believe it.

Because their words and actions not only do not represent Jesus, they are the destructive opposite of who Jesus is. And it’s this hatred in the name of Jesus, unchecked and unchallenged, that damages Christian goodwill in the U.S.

Just look at the numbers of young people walking away from the church and Christianity because the Jesus of people like Rogers and Fuentes and Gosar is of no interest to them. Nor should he be. Because that Jesus doesn’t exist.

If there is going to be a war on Christianity, then it should be a war against all forms of hate, violence, racism, anti-Semitism and nationalism done in the name of Jesus (or any other name, for that matter). This war should use the tools of Jesus: grace, unconditional love, uncompromising kindness, lavish generosity, transformative justice and radical forgiveness.

The cross of Jesus stands as the line in the sand. It says that hatred, violence or condemnation in the name of Jesus will not stand. Grace will have the final word, even in the lives of those who hate.

It’s time for Christians of all theological, political and ideological persuasions to stand on the side of Jesus, the side of grace and show our neighbors the real face of Christianity.

Tim Wright is pastor of Community of Grace Lutheran Church in Peoria. Reach him at Tim@boldrecklessgrace.org.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Wendy Rogers can't spew hate and claim to love Jesus

[homersapien 11,396]

There is no war on Christianity, there is a war on democracy waged by (evangelical) Christians, in the guise of "Christian Nationality":

 

‘Morning Joe’ shock over Ginni Thomas points to a hidden Jan. 6 truth

Buried in the explosive news that Virginia Thomas aggressively advocated for Donald Trump’s coup attempt is a choice revelation: The spouse of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas texted with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about Jesus Christ’s otherworldly role in delivering the election to Trump.

Meadows texted to Ginni Thomas that the “King of Kings” would ultimately “triumph” in the quest to overturn the election, which Meadows characterized as “a fight of good versus evil.” Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, replied: “Thank you!! Needed that!”

This sparked serious consternation on “Morning Joe,” with host Joe Scarborough delivering an emotional diatribe about it. “Think about the sickness of this,” Scarborough said Friday. “He summons the name of Jesus Christ for his help in overturning American democracy!”

The sentiment is understandable. But what this level of shock really indicates is this: We haven’t paid enough attention to the role of right-wing Christian nationalism in driving Trump’s effort to destroy our political order, and in the abandonment of democracy among some on the right more broadly.

In invoking Jesus’ support for Trump’s effort to overturn the election, Meadows — who handled evangelical outreach in the White House — was not merely making an offhand comment. He was speaking in a vein that has held wide currency among the Christian nationalist right throughout the Trump years, right through the insurrection attempt.

Sarah Posner, a scholar of the Christian right, has extensively documented the role of that movement in supporting and lending grass-roots energy to the effort to overturn the election procedurally, and even in fomenting the insurrection itself.

The rhetoric from the Christian right about Trump has long sounded very much like that exchange between Meadows and Thomas. In a piece tracing that rhetoric, Posner concludes that for many on the Christian right, Trump was “anointed” by God as “the fulfillment of a long-sought goal of restoring the United States as a Christian nation.”

In this narrative, Trump — despite his glaring and repugnant personal imperfections — became the vessel to carry out the struggle to defeat various godless and secularist infestations of the idealized Christian nation, from the woke to globalists to communists to the “deep state.”

This culminated with the effort to overturn the election and the lead-up to the Jan. 6 rally that morphed into the mob assault. As Posner documents, Christian-right activists developed a “bellicose Christian narrative in defense of Trump’s coup attempt,” investing it with biblical significance and casting it as “holy war against an illegitimate state.”

That illegitimate state, of course, is our democracy. And so, when Thomas and Meadows text about the religious dimensions of the coup attempt, they’re echoing much of what we’ve long heard from the Christian right about it.

“Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs,” Meadows texted to Thomas. “Do not grow weary.”

Thomas, who played a key role in trying to subvert Trump’s loss as a leader of a group that included various Christian-right elements, sounded similarly messianic tones in her texts. She invoked the need to “stand firm” with the “Great President,” whose might and glory were keeping America from plunging into “the precipice.”

“Meadows’s text to Thomas, and her grateful and enthusiastic reply, demonstrates how the pair saw themselves as soldiers in this spiritual battle from which they should never retreat,” Posner told me, adding that this is “representative of rhetoric” that has long “permeated Trump’s base.”

To be fair, some Christian voices roundly condemned the Jan. 6 violence. But on the day itself, there were many Christian symbols of various kinds visible throughout the “Stop the Steal” rally crowd, as Robert Jones, the founder and CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, has documented.

“The evidence for White Christian nationalism’s importance to the effort to overthrow the election was right before our eyes on Jan. 6,” Jones told me. “It was in the signs that were carried. It brought a veneer of divine blessing on the violence and the insurrection.”

Christian nationalism has at different times focused on varying enemies of its vision of a Christian nation. But the through line here is that multidenominational, multiracial democracy is producing a country that is unacceptable to the Christian nationalist vision, Jones notes.Which is why reckoning with the role of this movement in the turn against democracy is important. “It is a violent reclamation movement,” Jones told me. “If we’re going to move into the promise of a multireligious, multiethnic democracy, these forces are going to have to be confronted.”

In his diatribe about Meadows’s invocation of Jesus, Scarborough said: “He’s right — it was a fight between good and evil. He’s just got the jerseys mixed up.” Scarborough repeated that this is a “sickness.”

But this movement runs a whole lot deeper than Meadows and Thomas. And it isn’t going anywhere.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/25/joe-scarborough-ginni-thomas-mark-meadows-texts/

 

Well, this certainly explains the cultish nature of many Trump supporters - their love for Trump has become entwined in their religious beliefs.  Most cults have a strong religious component.

 

These folks are scary as hell.

Edited March 25, 2022 by homersapien

[SaltyTiger 7,825]

On 3/25/2022 at 4:22 PM, homersapien said:

Well, this certainly explains the cultish nature of many Trump supporters - their love for Trump has become entwined in their religious beliefs.  Most cults have a strong religious component.

 

These folks are scary as hell.

It explains the “cultish nature” of a very small number. Trump is much more “entwined” in your mind than any Christian organization. Seriously doubt that you are scared.

[homersapien 11,396]

13 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

It explains the “cultish nature” of a very small number. Trump is much more “entwined” in your mind than any Christian organization. Seriously doubt that you are scared.

Well, to be precise, I am more afraid for our country than I am for myself personally.  I am wealthy enough to actually benefit personally from Republican rule, even if Trump - or one of his acolytes - becomes POTUS. 

But Jesus will have had nothing to do with it.  

 

Edited March 28, 2022 by homersapien

[SaltyTiger 7,825]

1 hour ago, homersapien said:

Well, to be precise, I am more afraid for our country than I am for myself personally.  I am wealthy enough to actually benefit personally from Republican rule, even if Trump - or one of his acolytes - becomes POTUS. 

But Jesus will have had nothing to do with it.  

 

Did not think you were afraid personally. That’s good.

[homersapien 11,396]

On 3/27/2022 at 8:38 PM, SaltyTiger said:

It explains the “cultish nature” of a very small number. Trump is much more “entwined” in your mind than any Christian organization. Seriously doubt that you are scared.

What percentage of Republicans believe Trump actually won the election? 

Is that a "small number" in your mind?