What happens when an atheist and a Mormon get together to talk about Christian Nationalism? Apparently they decide who is an is not a real Christian based on blatant misrepresentations of the views they oppose. On Wednesday’s radio program, Glenn Beck had on James Lindsay to discuss the culture war as it relates to “pride month.” The problem is that neither Lindsay nor Beck are authoritative on Christian orthodoxy. Moreover, the blatant lie were aired to hundreds of thousands.
I had the honor of joining Jon Harris on a Conversations That Matter Livestream discussing the old guard punching right on numerous fronts. Glenn Beck and James Lindsay teaming up is much the same story as Ted Cruz denouncing the biblical position on homosexuality and Jeremy Boreing denouncing the Christian reporter Ben Zeisloft, as Christians are under a sustained and mounting pressure to accept homosexuality. Whereas Ted Cruz is damaged goods from losing to Trump in 2016, Glenn Beck is a strange case of hypocrisy. After writing a book about the government contriving a national emergency to take away freedom, he peddled the Covid narrative hard. So when Glenn Beck addresses Christian Nationalism, the same lack of discernment is present.
James Lindsay boldly claims that Stephen Wolfe believes in a Christian Prince, but lies about the Christian Prince being a “Protestant Pope” in which one figure will rule over many nations.
Glenn Beck then declares Stephen Wolfe to neither be a Christian nor American based on his misrepresented views.
Jon Harris sets the record straight.
The reason Stephen uses the term “prince” is “because prince connotes a great man, not a bureaucrat or policy wonk.” The Case for Christian Nationalism (31). Stephen readily admits in his chapter on the Christian Prince that was he is actually talking about is “the role of civil government—a term that captures most of the civil roles and functions necessary for Christian nationalism.” (278) He even specifies he does not call “for a monarchical regime over every civil polity, and certainly not an autocracy.” (279) There’s nothing Stephen writes that indicates the character of a Christian prince is for any nation but the one in which he rules. Certainly not an international administration. Stephen also makes it abundantly clear that magisterial and ecclesiastical power are separate. He writes: “In my view, the visible church in itself—referring to things that materially conduce to a supernatural end (pastorship, profession of faith, preaching, Sacraments, exercising keys of the kingdom, etc.)—are outward manifestations of the spiritual kingdom of God. As such, these things are outside the prince’s (civil) jurisdiction.” (31-32)
Stephen Wolfe makes it clear he does not believe in conflating ecclesiastical authority with civil authority. But the lie will get more views than the truth.
James Lindsay ultimately argues that Christian Nationalism is a fedtrap that will someday be sprung on Christians. Glenn Beck goes full Hitler with a painfully inaccurate depiction of the Weimar Republic, ultimately arguing that the church was dead in Germany leading to the Nazis but at the same time the Christian Nationalists are the new Nazis.
Glenn Beck despite butchering history is actually the more rational mind on this issue. America is facing Weimar Republic issues such as the rise of degeneracy and the threat of Bolshevism, or Marxism. The Germans turned to Nazis to thwart this threat.
However, as America’s church is not nearly as dead as Weimar, the Evangelical voting bloc remains a bulwark that has and I argue will continue to supplant any white supremacist counter movement to Critical Race Theory’s anti-white ideology.
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Right now, the biggest trap I see is the republican party’s embrace and endorsement of homosexuality and transvestism, with a Biblically irrelevant distinction based on age. Untold numbers of professing Christians are now supporting, endorsing, and even celebrating abominable porneia, under the pretext of protecting the children. They are calling for acceptance and inclusion of the sexually immoral (pornos), when the Bible specifically instructs us not to associate with them and to turn away.
That’s a massive trap if I’ve ever seen one.
If I had a nickel for every post I’ve read saying “if you’re an adult, it’s fine” I could pay off my mortgage. It’s not fine – at any age.
Those who are more politically minded, such as Lindsay and Beck, who are more focused on winning elections than they are fidelity to scripture, are the very one’s setting that trap.
Give it another year or three, if we’re still here, the devil and his minions will turn around and say “you supported it!”
There’s only one way to avoid traps, and that is to put God first in all things, to not lean on our own understanding, and to remain faithful to scripture at all times, in all circumstances, no matter what the cost. Once you deviate, the devil’s got you right where he wants you.