White "Christian" Nationalists

Yesterday I read an article by CNN called “An ‘Imposter Christianity Is Threatening American Democracy.” https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/24/us/white-christian-nationalism-blake-cec/index.html I was very upset by it because white “Christian” Nationalists are hijacking and abusing what it means to be a Christian.  To be Christian, it means one follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

These white “Christian” Nationalists do NOT follow his teachings.  They are more obsessed with the Old Testament and Revelation.  The Old Testament is important in that it gives us a history of the Jewish people, the Ten Commandments, and points in many verses to the coming of Jesus.  People who are not Christian believe that a Savior will come someday.  Christians believe that Jesus will come again. Faux Christian Nationalists think Jesus will return as a general leading their violent army,

Meanwhile, what are Jesus’ teachings that we’re supposed to live by if we are really Christian?  To love God foremost but to also love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  There are no ifs, ands or buts when it comes to the color of our skins, our sexual preferences or gender identities, our poverty or homelessness, or physical/mental challenges.  So: by loving one another, we have empathy toward each other.  We care for each other.  Translate that to universal health care, adequate housing, feeding hungry people, looking after the sick/elderly and so on.

But these white “Christian” nationalists don’t believe in those things and actively campaign against anything that would provide assistance to anyone in need – who isn’t a White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP).  There’s been a lot of admiration for one of the dictators they admire, Viktor Orban in Hungary that doesn’t want to “mix blood”.  These faux Christians in this country would like to get rid of anyone of color to make the US a white-only country.  After that, they’d probably work on getting rid of Catholics and Jewish people too.  The insurrectionists at the Capitol on January 6^th were made up of a large number of these fake Christians and they almost succeeded in their coup attempt.

They’re suffering from some major incorrect beliefs.  Chief among them is that they believe America is a Christian nation.  They think the Founding Fathers were evangelicals and that God intended a special role for America.  Where did they get that idea?  Some who wrote the Constitution were Christian, it’s true, but they weren’t evangelicals.  Many of the Founding Fathers were NOT Christian.  There’s no mention of the Bible or the Ten Commandments in the Constitution.  Maybe these white nationalists need to sit down and read it.  Better yet, they need some real history lessons about America.

The article says that the Jesus white Christian nationalists follow is from Revelation.  I am not as familiar with Revelation because I don’t like it.  It has a violent, warrior Jesus, much like the bloodthirsty insurrectionists we saw at the Capitol.  If we get to the point where we have an angry Jesus striking out against people, I’ll bet it will be against everyone who hurt children, allowed people to starve or die from lack of health care.  Here’s another point: they believe it’s okay for them to commit mayhem and violence but God forbid if another minority group did it.

Some of these people believe God handed us the 2^nd Amendment.  I swear, these people need to take history lessons.  God did not hand down the 2^nd Amendment.  That was just to preserve a militia in case of attack.  The 2^nd Amendment was written when guns were muskets.  Now these people think it covers AR-15s and other mass killing weapons.  If SCOTUS wants to follow the Constitution as it was originally written, they’d better reconsider their pro-mass killing weapons stances.

Faux Christians think a “Real American” is a WASP and no one is entitled to the same rights.  I am totally shaking my head in disgust and shame.  It’s 2022 and there are actual people who believe that shit, that it’s “us” and “them” (non-WASPs).  No wonder Jesus will be pissed when he returns.  What a perversion of his teaching.

What made me angriest was reading that ministers are becoming afraid to redirect their congregations and rethink what Jesus’ teachings actually mean.  Ministers are afraid to speak the truth?  They worry how their congregants might react?  In these days of people’s lives being threatened and reputations vilified by the right-wing extremists, politicians, faux Christians and other white supremacist terrorist, it’s no wonder a minister might be afraid.  But then why have a church or a minister if not to be saying and doing the right thing?

I am a Christian and I am white but I am not a faux “white Christian” nationalist.  I don’t believe in that shit.  The article mentioned a book I am going to check out to read:  Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez.  I would rather know what I’m dealing with than to have it sprung on me unawares.  Maybe everyone should read it.