#Dominionist theology

[superbdonutpoetry]

Circular Prophecy, Fulfilment & Dispensational Boundaries

AD 70 was when the prophesied judgment of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in accordance with the following circular prophecy occurred: Luke 21:5-6And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, as for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown…

[margieargie]

From what I understand, the Second Coming and the beginning of the reign of Christ on Earth began in 1981 or 1982.

[noreligionisgood]

In 2022, a coalition of right-wing writers and leaders published a document called “National Conservatism: A Statement of Principles.” Its section on God and public religion states: “Where a Christian majority exists, public life should be rooted in Christianity and its moral vision, which should be honored by the state and other institutions both public and private.” That’s an extraordinary — and ominous — ideological statement, one that would immediately relegate non-Christians to second-class status. It’s utterly contrary to the First Amendment and would impose a form of compelled deference to Christianity on both religious minorities and the nonreligious.

But Christian nationalism isn’t just rooted in ideology; it’s also deeply rooted in identity, the belief that Christians should rule. This is the heart of the Seven Mountain Mandate, a dominionist movement emerging from American Pentecostalism that is, put bluntly, Christian identity politics on steroids. Paula White, Donald Trump’s closest spiritual adviser, is an adherent, and so is the chief justice of Alabama, Tom Parker, who wrote a concurring opinion in the court’s recent I.V.F. decision. The movement holds that Christians are called to rule seven key societal institutions: the family, the church, education, the media, the arts, business and the government.

One doesn’t have to go all the way into Seven Mountain theology, though, to find examples of Christian identity politics. The use of Christianity as an unofficial but necessary qualification for office is a routine part of politics in the most churchgoing parts of America. Moreover, one of the common red-America arguments for Trump is that he might not be devout himself but he’ll place lots of Christians in government.

But what is Christian identity politics but another form of Christian supremacy? How does Christian identity alone make any person a better candidate for office? After all, many of the worst actors in American politics are professed believers. Scandal and corruption are so pervasive in the church that when people say, “I’m a Christian,” it tells me almost nothing about their wisdom or virtue.

Finally, we can’t forget the intense emotion of Christian nationalism. Most believers don’t follow ideological and theological arguments particularly closely. In the words of the historian Thomas Kidd, “Actual Christian nationalism is more a visceral reaction than a rationally chosen stance.” It is tied, in other words, to a visceral sense that the fate of the church is closely tied to the outcome of any given political race.

That fervor can make believers gullible and potentially even dangerous. Its good-versus-evil dynamic can make Christians believe that their political opponents are capable of anything, including stealing an election. It artificially raises the stakes of elections to the point where a loss becomes an unthinkable catastrophe, with the fates of both church and state hanging in the balance. As we saw on Jan. 6, 2021, this belief invites violent action.

Committed Christian nationalists represent only 10 percent of the population, according to a 2023 PRRI/Brookings Christian Nationalism Survey. But even members of a minority that small can gain outsize power when they fold themselves into the larger Christian electorate, casting themselves as “just like you.” That’s why we cannot conflate Christian activism with Christian nationalism. One can welcome Christian participation in the public square while resisting domination, from any faith or creed

[lila-kriegerin]

*Christian fundamentalist cults

*who are often dominionists.

Most of the contemporary movements that are labeled dominion theology arose in the 1970s from religious movements asserting aspects of Christian nationalism. Roman Catholic integralism is also sometimes considered to fall under the dominionist umbrella, but the Catholic integralist movement is much older and theologically markedly different from Protestant dominionism since it is tied to the doctrine that the Catholic Church is the only true church.

Dominion theology, also known as dominionism, is a group of Christian political ideologies that seek to institute a nation governed by Christians and based on their understandings of biblical law. Extents of rule and ways of acquiring governing authority are varied. For example, dominion theology can include theonomy but does not necessarily involve advocacy of adherence to the Mosaic Law as the basis of government, because Christians do not want to be ruled by _Jewish laws_, but they do make their own western exegetical doctrines for life based on them in a completely different prescriptivistic way that they believe should be the basis of behaviours for everyone... whereas Jews only believe Jews have to follow Jewish law, and certain exceptions apply for gentiles in Jewish spaces.

The dominionist label is therefore primarily (and nearly exclusively) applied to political groups of Christians in the United States who would seek hegemonic rule through this reconstructivist dominionist lens.

Prominent adherents of those ideologies include Calvinist Christian reconstructionism, Charismatic and Pentecostal Kingdom Now theology, and the New Apostolic Reformation. One shouldn't forget that the various Latter-Day Saints movements also have their own similar beliefs, and even went to war against the US government a few times before the most recent states were added to the union.

In the context of American evangelical efforts to penetrate and transform public life, the distinguishing mark of a dominionist is a commitment to defining and carrying out an approach to building society that is self-consciously defined as exclusively Christian, and dependent specifically on the work of Christians, rather than based on a broader consensus.

In the late 1980s, the sociologist Sara Diamond started to write about the intersection of dominion theology with the political activism of the Christian right. Diamond argued that "the primary importance of the [Christian reconstructionist] ideology is its role as a catalyst for what is loosely called 'dominion theology.'" According to Diamond, "Largely through the impact of Rushdoony's and North's writings, the concept that Christians are Biblically mandated to 'occupy' all secular institutions has become the central unifying ideology for the Christian Right" (emphasis in original) in the United States.

While acknowledging the small number of actual adherents, authors such as Diamond and Frederick Clarkson have argued that postmillennial Christian reconstructionism played a major role in pushing the primarily premillennial Christian right to adopt a more aggressive dominionist stance.

Reconstructionists have many more sympathizers who fall somewhere within the dominionist framework, but who are not card-carrying members.

If you don't know about this then you should definitely look up the following terms.

Generation Joshua

Patrick Henry College

The Home School Legal Defense Association

Michael Farris

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) [formerly the Alliance Defense Fund] — an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian religious liberties and practices within public schools and in government, outlaw abortion, and oppose LGBTQ rights

In recent decades since the 1968 presidential election, the Republican Party has consistently won a majority of the LDS vote in most national and state-level elections. As a result, Utah, a state with a majority LDS population, is also one of the most heavily Republican states in the country.

Anyway enough lame gifted kid discourse we are in our 20s. Let's talk about how homeschooling in america should be fucking illegal it's insane lol

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Peter Montgomery at RWW:

Tens of thousands of people answered the call from New Apostolic Reformation leaders to gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Saturday for what organizer Lou Engle called “a last stand for America.” Like the pro-Trump Courage Tour being led by NAR leader Lance Wallnau in swing states, the ten-hour gathering in DC mixed worship, spiritual warfare, and MAGA politics. The day ended with NAR apostle and political activist Ché Ahn talking about the demonic spirit of Jezebel supposedly working through politicians like Vice President Kamala Harris—and making an “apostolic decree” that Donald Trump would be elected in November.  The New Apostolic Reformation is a growing religious and political movement grounded in a theology of dominion—the idea that God wants certain kinds of Christians to take control of the government and every other important institution in society to transform nations and bring culture and laws into alignment with their right-wing biblical worldview. The NAR is also characterized by the idea of strategic level spiritual warfare—prayers and decrees meant to dislodge demonic spirits controlling geographical areas or institutions in “the natural.” 

In the U.S., NAR leaders reached new heights of influence during the Trump administration—thanks in part to having publicly declared during the 2016 campaign that Trump was anointed by God. NAR leaders acted as cheerleaders for Trump and prayed for God to “remove” Supreme Court justices to give him more opportunities to reshape the Court.  NAR leaders are still intimately connected with the MAGA movement and political power at the highest levels; House Speaker Mike Johnson��sent a message to the gathering that was read from the stage. Wallnau and Mario Murillo’s Courage Tour is working with MAGA movement groups Turning Point USA and the America First Policy Institute in what scholar Mathew Taylor has called “the most targeted and tactical voter mobilization effort done by Christian nationalists ever.”

The NAR is not a denomination but functions as a collaborative network of leaders and ministries. Many of the movement’s top figures participated in the Oct. 12 rally. In addition to Engle and Ahn, they included Wallnau, Dutch Sheets, Cindy Jacobs, Mark Gonzales, Bill Johnson, and Jonathan Cahn. FlashPoint host Gene Bailey was interviewed on the event’s livestream. 

Engle has spent decades holding large-scale prayer rallies, often connected to specific political goals, like a presidential election or, in California in 2008, passage of an anti-marriage equality ballot initiative. For this event—which was billed specifically as a call to “A Million Women”—he teamed up with Jenny Donnelly, leader of the Her Voice Movement and its anti-LGBTQ “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” campaign. The event was also promoted by Intercessors for America, the Family Research Council, and the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Before Ahn gathered the apostles behind him to make his decree about Trump’s victory, spiritual warriors on stage had engaged in more concrete violence. With Engle urging them on, Cahn and others took sledgehammers to a representation of the altar of the goddess Ishtar, who is closely associated with the biblical figure of Jezebel. Another leader had previously asked people to turn around to look at the Washington Monument, declaring that the obelisk is America’s “Asherah pole”—Asherah is another name for Ishtar. The smashing of the altar, said Engle and Ahn, signified that the day’s prayers had stripped the evil goddess of her spiritual power over the U.S.

The rally was held on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Repentance on both a personal and national level was a major theme of the day. Speakers led prayers asking forgiveness for pornography, legal abortion, marriage equality, and schools that affirm transgender students. While speakers insisted that they “love the rainbow people,” they prayed that God would “break” the LGBTQ Pride movement and defeat the “demonic principality” they blame for the existence of trans people. Engle has had a dream prophesying that 100,000 “LGBTs” would be “saved.”  Speakers told victims of sexual assault to forgive their perpetrators and people who had been subjected to racism to forgive “all those who’ve betrayed us.” Speakers also asked forgiveness for historical Christian antisemitism and for the U.S. government not being sufficiently “unequivocal” in its support for Israel.  Blue and pink “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” flags—emphasizing two genders—were prominent. One activist held a banner with the same color scheme that called for a return to a patriarchal “Holy Order”—with a hierarchy of God, husband, wife, and children. 

This weekend, far-right anti-LGBTQ+/anti-abortion extremist group Don’t Mess With Our Kids, a project of Her Voice MVMT, had a gathering on the National Mall in DC.

[oldguardleatherdog]

From an op-ed in today's WaPo, February 22,2023, by Justin Dyer, professor of government at UT Austin:

“Too many thinkers are losing faith in the United States, and Americans remain ignorant of the moral foundations of their republic. ...[T]he task is to make the case anew for the wisdom of the U.S. founding, the theological basis of religious liberty, and the moral framework of private enterprise and limited, constitutional government.”

While Dyer writes from the POV of “political theology“ and the influence of natural law on the founding vision of America, this illuminates a root cause of the Christofascist rage sweeping US politics: the erosion and co-opting of American moral political practice by the hard right.

The Christian Nationalist and Dominionist influence in the current persecution of trans people, LGBTQ+ rights rollbacks, abortion prohibition, book bannings, civil rights abuses, police violence against Black communities, and the rapid deprecation of equal rights protections, has been made possible by a general and steep coarsening of our daily life interactions over the past eight years since MAGA came on the scene.

Exacerbated by Elon Musk's gleeful and enthusiastic restoration of thousands of hate accounts to Twitter and the putrid stinking toxic waste dump he has created, our daily discourse is sour, dour, and filled with tales of incredible and unnecessary misery brought on by the fools who are running things in today's world.

[to be continued]

[chrysstevenson]

The Dominionists - Christofascism in Australia

I’ve been writing about the threat of Christian dominionism in Australia for over a decade now. Lately, there is quite a deal of ‘movement at the station’ and I think it’s time to renew my efforts. This is the first of what I hope will be a series of articles on the threat of Christofascism in Australia. This is long, so grab a cuppa and put your feet up. Dominion theology was popularised in the…

[whatisonthemoon]

A non-violent Book of Revelation and Hyung Jin’s confused and convenient ideas

For Hyung Jin Moon’s “dominionist” and “charismatic” interpretation of Unification theology, I think it is worth checking out other interpretations of the Book of Revelation and ideas around the apocalypse and “eschatology”. Hyung Jin is trying to fit new American evangelical eschatologies into Unification eschatology, which does not work, as the UC holds a postmillenial/amillenial orientation, whereas Hyung Jin seems to have a confused pre-millenial/post-millenial conception of the end times. He goes back and forth between highly allegorical readings of the Bible, to extremely literal, with very little reasoning other than it aligns with his own ideology. There is a lot of value in a non-violent interpretation of the Book of Revelation, an interpretation that has long been held by Christians: http://girardianlectionary.net/learn/nonviolence-book-revelation/

[noreligionisgood]

Years ago, I laughed at claims that Christian conservatives were dominionists in disguise, that we didn’t just want religious freedom, we wanted religious authority. Yet now, such claims are hardly laughable. Arguments for a “Christian nationalism” are increasingly prominent, with factions ranging from Catholic integralists to reformed Protestants to prophetic Pentecostals all seeking a new American social compact, one that explicitly puts Christians in charge.

The motivating force behind this transformation is a powerful sense of threat — the idea that the left is “coming after” you and your family. This mind-set sees the Christian use of power as inherently protective, and the desire to censor as an attempt to save children from dangerous ideas. The threat to the goodness of the church and the virtue of its members, in other words, comes primarily from outside its walls, from a culture and a world that is seen as worse in virtually every way. But one doesn’t have to look to national politics to see that threats can emanate from within the church as well as without. One of the most terrifying and poignant parts of the hit Amazon Prime documentary series “Shiny Happy People” was the story of Josh Duggar, a young man who was raised in a deeply religious family. He was protected from the corruption of the “outside world” in almost every way that could be devised. He was home-schooled and grew up in a house without a cable television and with limited access to media. And yet he was depraved enough to molest his own sisters.

…

My wife and I both grew up in a fundamentalist community that tried hard to protect the church from the world. Yet it turned out that my wife needed protection from the church. She’s a victim of child sex abuse. The perpetrator taught vacation Bible school.

This recent legacy of scandal and abuse should be more than enough evidence of the need for existential humility in any Christian political theology. This is not moral relativism. We still possess core convictions. But existential humility acknowledges the limits of our own wisdom and virtue. Existential humility renders liberty a necessity, not merely to safeguard our own beliefs but also to safeguard our access to other ideas and arguments that might help expose our own mistakes and shortcomings.

Who is wrong? I am wrong. We are wrong. Until the church can give that answer, its political idealism will meet a tragic and destructive end. The attempt to control others will not preserve our virtue, and it risks inflicting our own failures on the nation we seek to save.

[ms-cellanies]

^THIS^ explains a lot about how we’ve arrived at such a disturbing time in America and in our government.  The Power of Dominionists has increased dramatically in the last 20 - 30 years.  Here’s an article originally published in August, 2011.  In it Michele Bachman and Rick Perry (former governor of Texas and former Energy Secretary for Donald Trump) are discussed in this article:  https://www.thedailybeast.com/dominionism-michele-bachmann-and-rick-perrys-dangerous-religious-bond

@sirrah1940

[azspot]

Those involved in what’s become a major component of the evangelical right in the United States call themselves “dominionists.” They follow “dominion theology.” Pointing to the Bible, they emphasize that in it God gave humans “dominion” over the natural world and life in it. This, they believe, gives them license to exploit the earth. Further, the “dominionists” have expanded this to justify theocratic rule of society.

It is an evangelical segment that Donald Trump has sought to attract. They constitute a significant portion of his so-called “base.”

[protoslacker]

For most of his life Pence had believed he was guided by God’s plan. He believed that the Lord intended for him to halt the erosion of religious conviction in the United States. And though he avoided stating it himself, many of his evangelical friends believed Pence’s ultimate purpose was to establish a government based on biblical law. That was what they called Christian Dominionism.

Michael D'Antonio and Peter Eisner quoted in an article by Karl Grossman in Counterpunch. A Theology of Power: Mike Pence and the Dominionists

THE SHADOW PRESIDENT: The Truth About Mike Pence by Michael D'Antonio and Peter Eisner

[grison-in-space]

*points* this is why I'm being pretty quiet right now, because this situation is quite fucked up enough without trying to stick my dick in it, too.

I make one exception, which is to flip off the British--because the mess surrounding the Balfour Declaration, in which within three fucking years the British promised the region to both Arab-nationalist groups within Palestine and to Jews and also, secretly, declared its own control over the area while partitioning up the Ottoman Empire with France. At no point did it actually tell any of these parties what they were doing or communicate directly about any of the others. Essentially, what it did was lie to Arab nationalist groups about its intentions to hand the region over to them in exchange for WWI support, secretly claim to a peer and ally that it intended to retain control over the region, and then seize on the area as a great place to stick all those inconvenient Jews without having to, like, keep or aid any of them itself.

I cannot emphasize enough how incredibly at fault the British Empire is for huge swathes of this mess as it relates directly to Palestine. (I also cannot emphasize enough how much the British Empire lying to other groups in similar ways when it was convenient to themselves outright created helpful little imbroglios like the Rwandan genocide later on. And that was in a region where there weren't hugely long-standing conflicts or massive bad feelings between various parties before the British Empire swanned on in.)

It's not so much that that fixes things now, you understand. It's not as if England the UK has exactly covered itself in geopolitical glory in the subsequent century or anything. But while we're arguing about who is colonializing whom and why, I do think it is incredibly important to understand and recognize that there is in fact a single group who took this incredible powderkeg of a situation and made it unspeakably worse as a direct function of their colonialist interests and project, and I think we should also be keeping that in mind. Decolonialization doesn't mean that we all just immediately forget about previous colonial occupation and let the literal colonial powers get off without comment.

(Also to the influence of American Dominionist conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists making absolutely everything worse in perpetuity, because it suits their apocalyptic vision of heavenly rapture to see Jews entangled in perpetual war in the Middle East. I am not joking about this, and this group has also been directly inflaming tensions in the region for decades.)

You know how they say, in a chaotic, tense situation, look for the helpers to understand what to do? Well, I think it is fair to insist that anyone who wants to declare the obvious answer to Israel/Palestine relations also look for the harm sources closer to home and start interrogating what we intend to do about those, too. If the solution to Israel and Palestine is so easy and clear, surely resolving Dominionist theology and its direct impacts at home should be equally clear and obvious. Right? Right?

Conversation between me, and another high educated Jewish women whose opinions I respect

Her: What's missing here are the facts. If we stuck to the facts there wouldn't be so much intensity surrounding this issue. Me: But you and I are both highly educated Jewish women, and we can't even agree on the facts regarding the history of Palestine as a place name, ethnic identifier, and nation. If we can't even agree on those facts, how on earth can facts help anyone move forward?

There's the question. Not just for Jews, but for everyone involved in, or concerned with this conflict. How do we move forward if multiple sides of the room dispute the veracity of such basic statements as:

-Jews are a globally oppressed minority ethnic group, the hatred of which is deeply embedded in Western thought and rhetoric.

-The Naqba was a period of ethnic cleansing in which the government and military of the new State of Israel expelled Palestinian Arabs from their homes and property; a dispossession and a series of events which continue to traumatize and negatively impact the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians.

-The Holocaust was a traumatic event in the history of the Jewish people, the legacy of which is embedded in the psyches, world views, and collective trauma of the Jewish people, and invariably impacts how this group views global issues.

-Palestinian Arabs had a full developed sense of identity and statehood before the British Empire fucked off, and made their discomfort with increasing Jewish emigration clear to the British before the outbreak of the Second World War.

-Jews had nowhere to go before, during, or really, after the Holocaust; and the governments of many Arab States ethnically cleaned their own ancient Jewish communities in retribution for the creation of the State of Israel.

-The State of Israel does not exist because the Holocaust happened, or as an "apology" for said event.

THIS POST COMPRISES A SERIES OF RHETORICAL QUESTIONS MEANT TO MAKE US APPRECIATE THE DEPTHS OF THE DISCURSIVE PROBLEMS HERE; NOT A POST FOR "DISCOURSE" AND HATEFUL, AGGRESSIVE SHIT.

If you feel you have to do that, copy & paste into your own separate post.

[normal-horoscopes]

You forgot about the Dominionists! Quiverfull movement, 19 kids and counting shit

Dominionists aren't a denomination, it's a theology. There are catholic dominionists and integralist dominionists and Calvinist dominionists etc

The Duggers are Evangelical Baptists.

[automatismoateo]

Christian Dominionists are the biggest threat to the liberty we enjoy under the US Constitution via /r/atheism

Submitted October 11, 2018 at 08:38PM by jkarovskaya (Via reddit https://ift.tt/2RFMVw1) Christian Dominionists are the biggest threat to the liberty we enjoy under the US Constitution

Dominionism as a movement is about 40-50 years old, depending on who you ask, but the bottom line is that its advocates believe the USA is a Christian country, and must be ruled by biblical principles.

And of course they are the only ones who decide what cherry picked verses are the basis of their own movement, including much of the Old Testament, from which they get the entire idea in the first place.

Bottom line: THEY WANT DOMINION OVER THE USA BY LAW, and BY FORCE, to recreate the USA as a militant Christian theocracy

In other words, we Atheists, agnostics, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and those who just don't care are all their enemies, and they feel aggrieved about it, and are working to impose their vision of a Handmaid's Tale society on all of us

People like Mike Pence, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Falwell Jr, Franklin Graham, and Tony Perkins have this Dominionist theology at the core of all they do. Trump is their puppet, who panders to this movement for votes and adulation in all his fecklessness

This is the reason behind the vicious and unyielding nature of their movement which blends politics, hard core religion, lust for governmental power into an unholy conflation of the like Jesus never mandated.

They literally don't believe this statement is relevant to their faith any more:

"My kingdom is not of this world" were the words of Jesus on this precise topic, [{ John 18:36}

They love power, politics, money, and are lusting to control every aspect of society.

We all must stand up, resist, and vote Christian Domionionists (mostly Republicans) out of power to ensure that their lust for theocracy never happens

[glittergummicandypeach]

Christian Right Claims to be ‘Above Politics’ Are Unbelievable | Religion Dispatches

Have you ever noticed that for hardline ideologues, only their opponents are “doing politics,” while they are simply “being objective”? In my last piece for RD I looked at the related ways in which even overtly political evangelicals often connect the notion of “the biblical worldview” to their political vision. For example, Tony Perkins, head of the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council, claims that if churches played down politics and simply instructed their congregants “better” in matters of theology, right-wing politics would naturally follow. What I also initially wanted to address in that piece but ultimately had to leave out is how claims that an action or belief is entirely “apolitical” can serve the same ends.

To take a recent example from the current news cycle, witness racist Fox News host Tucker Carlson lambasting those who correctly draw connections between climate change and the massive fires here in the American West that continue to rage: “It took no time at all for the usual vultures and parasites to swoop in and try to make a political advantage.” Clearly, Carlson wants viewers to believe that he is not playing politics with his climate change denialism. No, you see, only their concerns are politics; our concern is truth.

It is thanks in large part to the often subtle but powerful influence of the dominionist ideology known as Christian Reconstructionism that the conservative, mostly white evangelical subculture has come to place so much emphasis on an all-encompassing Christian or “biblical” worldview as a source for “correct” action in every sphere of life. No one has done more to uncover and unpack this influence than University of North Florida Religious Studies Professor Julie Ingersoll, whose work carefully examines the ludicrous claims of Christian Reconstructionists that their drive for “dominion” is apolitical. Asked to comment for this piece, Ingersoll said:

“Christian Reconstructionists assert that God has delegated earthly authority to three institutions: the church, the family, and the civil government. For them, ‘politics’ pertains only to the realm of the civil government, while most aspects of life fall under the authority of the family. So, health care, reproductive rights, issues related to economics and property, etc., are all non-political.”

She added that Christian Reconstructionists consider all three of these “spheres” of authority to be “still accountable to God, so even the political, in their very limited usage, is religious.” Given the influence of this worldview on mainstream evangelicals it seems likely that there are echoes of this thinking in their claims to be apolitical even as they seek to impose their authority in such matters.

In any case, whether in more or less secular or overtly religious form, the rhetorical trick of grasping moral authority by claiming to be outside of or ‘above’ politics—as if any such thing were possible with respect to social issues and their accompanying human conflicts—works depressingly well for America’s right-wingers, who understand that many Americans will accept the claim. Further, in both its secular and religious incarnations, this type of rhetorical power play serves to uphold white supremacism.

While I am inclined to agree with Megan Goodwin’s claim that religion has “always been politics, full stop,” unfortunately, many otherwise savvy journalists and commentators forget that “the personal is political” when it comes to religion. They seem to sign on to a tacit agreement that anything Christians label “religious belief” shouldn’t be examined or criticized, regardless of the impact powerful conservative Christians’ politics have on those who don’t share conservative Christian beliefs. This is often accompanied by the nonsensical positing of a clear division between religion and politics that allows conservative Christians’ claims to be above politics to go essentially unchallenged, thus reinforcing the (white Protestant inflected) Christian supremacism that pervades American society. 

Notice, for example, how the New York Times’ Elizabeth Dias leaves unquestioned a claim that Christianity Today, the flagship “respectable” evangelical magazine, “is very apolitical,” despite its frequent discussion of such things as Supreme Court decisions, “religious freedom,” and other matters of concern to social conservatives.

The spread of campaign-style “Jesus 2020” yard signs around the country, which prompted me to think about this issue in this moment, might seem at first blush like a frivolous thing to pay attention to. But when such actions go viral, how we frame them matters. And in any case, the framing provided by Joyce Hubbard, a member of Sampey Memorial Baptist Church in Ramer, Alabama, who helped conceive the initiative with other women from her church, neatly illustrates how a claim to be promoting “apolitical” religion can function as a shrewd political move. By the same token, the way journalist Greg Garrison framed his write-up of the story for Al.com provides a neat illustration of how the media normalizes Christian supremacism and evangelical extremism by failing to unpack evangelical rhetoric.

To be sure, Garrison notes, “People have speculated about ulterior motives in attempting to affect the race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.” But instead of finding such people to talk to, or even adding a sentence or two regarding what reasons they might have for their suspicions, Garrison allows Hubbard to dismiss the concern. 

As he reports, “’We’re trying to keep politics out of this,’ she said. ‘Our focus is on Jesus.’” Good journalism—of which most religion journalism, frankly, is not—would press for what “focusing on Jesus” means in this context, including the voices of those who do not see Sampey Memorial Baptist Church’s project as apolitical. Instead, Garrison gives us only the hometown church’s celebratory perspective, leaving it to us to read between the lines of Hubbard’s rhetoric—or not.

And what does Hubbard have to say about the “Jesus 2020” signs? Firstly, that “We don’t see Jesus’ name out there,” a claim that anyone who has ever looked at billboards while driving through the South or the rural Midwest can immediately confirm is patently false. Hell, even here, in and around “secular” Portland, Oregon, I’m regularly bombarded with obnoxious billboard evangelism. 

Yet Hubbard still states, presumably without irony, “We’re trying to put Jesus out there so that people can see his name,” as if seeing Jesus’s name is not an everyday occurrence for, well, every American who doesn’t live under a rock. This disconnect from reality would seem to belie an insecurity related to white evangelicals’ persecution complex.

Meanwhile, Hubbard claims, “We want people to elect Jesus leader in their life. It’s not political, not denominational, we’re not trying to sway anyone’s votes.” But she also states, “We all have our personal beliefs and moral issues we’re standing for,” and adds, “Jesus is here for all the sinners.” 

Her statement about “personal beliefs and moral issues” is an example of a kind of convenient deliberate vagueness that’s become common among “respectable” evangelicals, but to anyone intimately familiar with white evangelical subculture, in context it’s instantly recognizable as a dog whistle gesturing toward anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion stances.

Meanwhile, the statement “Jesus is here for all the sinners” represents a faux-inclusive stance of the sort called out by Church Clarity, an organization that calls on churches to be unambiguous regarding whether or not they view LGBTQ identities as inherently sinful. In addition, in a pluralist society marked by Christian hegemony, “electing Jesus” can hardly be regarded as an apolitical statement by the non-religious and members of minority religions.

Any reporter who truly wanted to know how “apolitical” Sampey Memorial Baptist is should have pressed Hubbard for her and her church’s stance on abortion, LGBTQ acceptance, and religious freedom for atheists and members of minority religions. Instead, Garrison published a puff piece apparently based on a softball interview, which is an unfortunate pattern in religion journalism. 

So what of Hubbard’s claim that her initiative is not meant to sway votes? Well, perhaps there’s no need to try to influence votes directly if, as discussed above, one believes that a “Christian worldview” will automatically lead to “correct politics.” Indeed, some of Hubbard’s other statements give away the game. “There are a lot of things in the world that are disheartening. We know that Jesus is the answer. He can solve everything.” 

Here she echoes the long-time message of the late Billy Graham, often referred to as “America’s pastor.” Despite inconsistent attempts to avoid being seen as partisan, the anti-Communist Cold Warrior Graham was certainly engaged in politics. Although he’s often contrasted with his son Franklin, Billy Graham’s political efforts to sacralize American society and government, to place them “under God,” were massively influential in the formation of the Christian Right in which Franklin, who claims “I don’t speak on political views, unless they are moral issues,” now plays such a prominent role.

Not coincidentally, as Garrison reports, several members of Hubbard’s church “plan to attend a prayer march led by Franklin Graham in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 26, from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol building. Sampey Memorial Baptist and other churches plan to host prayer events that Saturday at 8 a.m.”

Hubbard says the members of her church are “praying for a revival in this country.” This is another obvious Christian nationalist dog whistle to those of us who were taught in our families, churches, homeschooling curricula, and/or Christian schools that for the nation to be blessed, we must be obedient to God, which, in this context, means banning abortion, putting officially sanctioned prayer back in public schools, and keeping LGBTQ folks from having equal rights.

At the end of the day, a flood of “Jesus 2020” yard signs is far from the worst thing Americans will face in the current election cycle. But to allow such an obvious expression of Christian supremacism to be painted as “apolitical” plays right into the hands of those who want an authoritarian version of Christianity to dominate every aspect of American life.

This content was originally published here.