Dear Christian Nationalists
You, of All People, Should Know how this Turns Out
“…now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king.
He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day." But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles."
When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. The LORD answered, "Listen to them and give them a king."
1 Samuel 8:5-7, 10-22
I don’t mean to brag (sense the sarcasm) but I’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover at least 3 dozen times. And I don’t mean I just skimmed the pages so I could say that I read it. I READ it. Studied it. Knew it. I took Bible classes, from a Bible college, and have a ministry and Bible degree. I went to a church that did expository teaching (meaning we went through various books of the Bible verse by verse). I mean…for over a year we went through the book of Leviticus. And I loved it.
I know there are those that are more qualified than me, who have gone deeper, know more, and have studied more. That’s not the point. My point is…when I say I read the Bible, I know it. And I know what it says. I know how things turned out.
And I know that this story that we are seeing in the United States right now—this one where Evangelicals want a leader to bring us back to being a “Christian nation” and who will make us great—the envy of the world—we all know how that story goes. …Right?
It’s only been in the last 8 years that I have begun to understand how deeply woven into each other my religious beliefs and nationalist ideals were. It wasn’t that I didn’t know about these things before, I just didn’t know that they were two different entities, braided together as one. But in the past 8 years, I’ve been able to see the history of these movements, its foundation, its purposes, its motivations, and how they were taught almost nonchalantly as “God’s plan and purpose”.
While I can’t say that if I had stayed in my religion of origin I would have been in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, I think it’s safe to say, I definitely wouldn’t have offered a hard line defense against it. (Or maybe I would have because my naturally curious and questioning personality maybe would have gotten the best of me by then!) Despite the overlaps of nationalism within my Christian faith, I knew, with all my heart, that putting my faith in a human would always have been considered idolatry.
I suppose this came in part because I was very familiar with the Biblical passage I cited above. I knew that when Israel removed their eyes from their God and begged God for a human ruler, it didn’t turn out well. That’s what we see in the Biblical accounts. King after king—some “good”, more “bad”, a nation constantly at war, displaced from their homeland, but most of all, never actually getting what they wanted.
They weren’t a super power nation with money and riches to show for it. They weren’t highly thought of by other countries. Sometimes they were the laughing stock, most of the time they were oppressed. All because they couldn’t trust in the promises their God had given to them—to be set apart, to let God be the one to take vengeance, and to trust that they would at some point on earth or in heaven, enter the Promised Land.
As a kid, I had a bit of an obsession with the Antichrist. I wanted to know who he would be; so I was always on the lookout. In my most rigid, fundie days, I thought the antichrist was Oprah Winfrey. (Oprah, on the very slim chance that you are reading this, I am SO sorry! My younger self is deeply embarrassed that I believed what others told me about you…my current day self is grateful for your contributions to the world!) Sometimes we would have discussions about the Antichrist around the family dinner table. Regardless of the names thrown out or where that person was from, it was always clear: this would be a person who would be obsessed with power and who’s message would be mesmerizing to millions who would willing pledge their allegiance to him.
When I began deconstructing my faith and eventually deconverting, my obsession with figuring out these Biblical mysteries went away. I learned that The Antichrist was really someone who was anti-Christ. But not just in a nonbeliever sort of way. It was the person(s) whose practices, rules, requirements for living, policies, and procedures were against the teachings of Christ. My view of the antichrist shifted from just a singular individual who would fulfill this role, to a recognition that this was, in some ways, a phenomenon that could occur.
I can still vividly remember the day, a handful of years ago now, where I started to recognize what was happening within the Religious Right politically. And how, despite their touted beliefs that they wanted dominion so that Christ could come back, their actions, values, and rhetoric were anything but Christlike. They were anti-christ. I sat in my kitchen stunned; I wondered how they could not see it.
And what made it more ironic is that they did have an actual leader that they were looking to, to try and rise in the ranks of power.
Many evangelical Christians believe that the nation of Israel is God’s chosen people (hence the reason they support what is happening in Palestine). And as born-again believers, they count themselves among God’s chosen people…especially if you’re a Calvinist who believes in predestination! When I was growing up, I believed that too. But God was my king, my savior, and my redeemer. I fully believed that anyone who came along that wasn’t speaking, preaching, or living according to the Biblical standards I had studied, was not someone worth following.
And despite leaving that faith, I really thought that this is what Christians had believed and would continue to believe. But, like the nation of Israel in the Biblical passage earlier in this post, they saw the people around them gaining fame, riches, celebrity, and power and began to believe that they were oppressed and persecuted. They wanted that same power—maybe in part to “get back” at those they believed were oppressing them but moreso, so that they could have not just a seat at the table, they wanted to own the table. They wanted to dictate who could sit at the table and where, and who was even invited to be there.
This didn’t happen overnight; in fact, the Religious Right has been playing the long-game for decades (if you want to hear more about it, you can check out the podcast I did with Brad Onishi on the history of Christian Nationalism). They began gaining political power about 45 years ago and have been slowly making gains ever since.
But it really wasn’t going to work the way they needed it to without a powerful, charismatic, bombastic leader. A king.
And so, it seems, that just like the God of the Israelites did in Biblical times, they got their king. Donald Trump. The unlikely, irreverent, unable-to-name-a-Bible-verse, unashamedly anti-christian, reality TV celebrity to turn their allegiance to.
But the thing is, we know how this ends. We’ve seen it before—historically and in the Bible. It doesn’t end well. It doesn’t end how they want. Because the illusion of power that is gained by hitching their wagon to a group of power-hungry individuals will not last. They are lauding and worshiping their “king” who, like the kings of Israel past, will only further oppress, enslave, and harm them. Because the kind’s vision is not for the people, it is for himself. It always has been. In the Bible and in present day.
The morning after the election, I sat in the front room of my house and listened to the rain coming down. I was reminded that the day after the election in 2016 was cold and rainy too. It was as if the earth was shedding her tears as I was shedding mine.
My heart feels the heaviness…the brokenness due to the results of the election. And to be clear, while I absolutely wanted Harris/Walz to win, I recognize that there was not and is not a perfect candidate. I didn’t think that Harris was going to save everything. But I believed that she genuinely loves and serves the American people. And I believe her policies are not intended to take away people’s rights, autonomy, and freedom to do, think, and believe how they deem fit for themselves. What I am broken over—more than Harris losing, more than Trump winning—is that this is not going to end well.
What we all tried to escape in high control religions, fundamentalism, Christian patriarchy and all of the beliefs and practices with it, is moving into mainstream culture. And it will not care who you voted for; it will only care that you do what you’re told.
Because it wasn’t about the good of America, it was always, ever, only, all about control.
Israel got their king. So did Christian Nationalists. We all know how this is going to end.