Christians Must Speak the Truth
Once again, a perfectly normal thing is being dubbed “racist,” and once again, weak evangelicals are falling for the charade. Just in time for Resurrection Sunday, a few right-wing Twitter trolls and their left-wing instigators accomplished the shockingly easy task of convincing evangelical Christians to abandon a core tenet of their theology in the name of not offending someone somewhere. “Christ is King,” is a phrase with obvious Biblical basis (Revelation 19:16, Isaiah 9:6-7, Ephesians 1:21-22, etc.), often uttered by those taking comfort in the fact that today’s ungodly political leaders will stand under God’s judgment, both in this life and after death. Laws promoting abortion, destroying the family, or allowing the genital mutilation of confused children will be one day made right because Christ is infinitely good and infinitely powerful. The problem is, “Christ is King,” is also uttered by Muslim Andrew Tate and openly anti-semitic Twitter trolls in Ben Shapiro’s comment section. How, then, are Christians to act?
“What we saw on Easter Sunday was a remarkable display of venom and hatred,” David French, never missing a chance to punch right, told MSNBC’s Mike Brezneski.
“It has become increasingly clear that Trumpism and the Trump ethic is really leaking into American Christianity itself. As we saw during Holy Week, Christians all over Twitter were posting ‘Christ is King’ specifically aimed at Jewish Americans, specifically aimed to assert religious dominance in a very gross and ugly way.”
The left has learned well that one need only find a few instances of a hobby, slogan, or aesthetic being used by various miscreants, accuse every enjoyer of said thing of bad intent, get higher profile bad actors to use the phrase in clickbait posts, and just like that the right has to run off guiltily for the crime of saying or doing a perfectly normal thing. They know that they can do this because the right is deathly afraid of being seen by their enemies as racist or sexist or homophobic, while the left laughs off conservative accusations of pedophilia, anti-American sentiment, or anti-white hatred.
The left has chosen “Christ is King” as its next target for a very simple reason. The phrase asserts precisely the political supremacy of Jesus. The sorts of conservatives who believe the “separation of church and state” is anything more than a made-up unconstitutional platitude are all too happy to cede this ground. French, for instance, has been ranting against “Christian Nationalism” as a loosely defined term encompassing figures as disparate as Nick Fuentes, Donald Trump, and Doug Wilson for some time now. “Christ is King” is merely the next linchpin for smearing Christians who misbehave politically. The point is to strip Christians of any meaningful political power by preying on their weakness for tolerance and policing their language to such an extent that more time is spent squabbling about how to assert a very true thing than is spent advancing that true thing in the so-called “marketplace of ideas.”
The hullabaloo over “Christ is King” came at just the right time for the language police, as the war in Gaza pulls a thousand anti-semitic trolls out of the woodwork to seemingly support the left’s theory that Christians are waging an all-out attack on Jewish people. Never mind that Christian evangelicals are a powerful voting bloc that has historically prioritized pro-Israel politicians over even such high-profile political goals as outlawing abortion or protecting traditional marriage. Republicans were quick to denounce Trump’s 2022 dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West, but the response against his recent statement in support of IVF will be lukewarm at best. Democrats, on the other hand, are constantly qualifying statements in support of Israel with statements condemning hate against Muslims, a thinly veiled nod of support towards Hamas defenders in their party. One would think the divide would place Republicans firmly on the high ground in regard to combatting Jew hatred, protecting them against accusations of anti-semitism. But the secular left and the Christian right are not playing by the same rules. Christians are screaming into the void, accusing liberals of failure to police the anti-semites and Hamas supporters in their own ranks, while liberals watch gleefully as Christians tie themselves into knots explaining how they are actually very liberal and open-minded in their political priorities. Abortion is bad primarily because it hurts women, transgenderism is bad primarily because of consent laws and the erasure of gay people, Ilhan Omar is primarily dangerous because she hates Jews, and the list goes on. Yet to the right’s frustration, the left simply doesn’t care. They are impervious to accusations that they do not play by their own rules because after all, the rules aren’t for everyone to follow, they are a means towards political domination.
Just a second ago, the left tried to deem working out racist and the masculine red pill right laughed it off. The accusation didn’t stick, much to their chagrin, because these men simply didn’t care what their enemies thought of them. It appears the very online “gym bros” have more political courage than modern Christians. If evangelical pastors are ever confused as to why young men are shunning another Hillsong worship night to binge-watch Andrew Tate videos, they have their answer. Christians have chosen the good graces of people who hate them over what they know to be the truth.
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Wilder is more engaged in framing and venting in this article. And in framing, she seems intent on spreading fear and inflaming fury among those who hold to her politics.
Wilder creates a straw man when she claims that the complaints about Christian Nationalism puts us fellow religiously conservative Christians in a bind between choosing Christian Nationalism or becoming politically voiceless. What outsiders are trying to point out to us is that Christianity should not impose its personal religious values on others. And in many cases they are right in saying so. Of course there are exceptions such as at the abortion issue. After all, abortion involves two distinct human lives.
As for French and others, are their concerns without merit? Did French not base them on what he had observed on twitter and other places? Is he not reporting back to us what some of our fellow religiously conservatives have been saying and even promoting? After all, some whose articles are posted on this website actually promote Christian Nationalism. Some whose articles are posted here are calling for a return of White Anglo Saxon Protestantism to dominance in our nation. Others want the 1st Table of the 10 Commandments to at least partially become law with their calls for the government to punish blasphemy and to reinstitute the Blue Laws. The same people are calling for the end of pluralism and for Christian Magistrates to replace democracy. Hasn’t Wilder been reading the articles on this website?
And is the left, meaning all those on the left, accusing all Christians of being actively or passively anti-Semitic while some religiously Conservative Christians conflate any kind of support for equality for the Palestinian people with Hamas and other terrorists? Does Wilder know that Palestinians are Semites too?
We should note that some of the American Jews who believe that religiously conservative Christians are anti-Semitic believe so for theological reasons. For some of the conservative Christian support for Israel is to hasten the 2nd Coming and then those same conservative Christians assert that, at the final judgment, all unbelieving Jews will be condemned to Hell. That is what some leftist Jews have said to me. Another perspective would say that the support for Pro-Israel policies by some conservative Christians has put Israel, and the Palestinians, in the place of experiencing military defeat and/or moral suicide in order to hasten the 2nd Coming. And, btw, there is leftist criticism of support for Hamas. One of the leading leftist icons, Noam Chomsky, has condemned both Israel’s Occupation and Hamas’s atrocities on Oct 7th and it previous terrorists attacks. Quite a few leftists, include some from Israel have been calling for either a Two State Solution or a democratic binational One State Solution. But the main obstacle to either solution is the Occupation. That is because under Israel’s Occupation of the Palestinian Territories are both the atrocities committed by many Jewish Settlers with the active or passive support of the IDF as well as the continued transfer of Palestinian land on the West Bank over to Israel by its government.
Wilder would do better to be more fair, objective, and thorough in her description of different people and groups, especially those with whom she disagrees.
Wow. What an unfair argument and slander you have committed against your brother in Christ, David French. His attack, if you had bothered to listen to the video you posted, was focused on Trump.
Are you defending Trump, who spent Easter posting a deranged all caps message targeting his enemies instead of celebrating the Lord, after he spent all week selling bibles?
French’s criticism was clearly focused on the people who intended “Christ is King” in an anti-semetic way. Why can’t you agree with him on that? Repent.
Christ is King. The fact that the left (including commenters here) are treasonous rebels who deny His crown rights do not take Christ off of His throne. Great article.
Andy,
What in my comment denied that Christ is King? I was only pointing out where Wilder did not accurately portray those whom she was criticizing. The same goes for David’s comment.
“Christianity should not impose its personal religious values on others.”
Andy,
What in the Gospels or in the rest of the New Testament tells us to impose our religious values on others? We are told to preach the Gospel. We are told to preach repentance. We are told to move on if people don’t accept our preaching. We are warned against lording it over others. And Paul talks about Jesus being Lord as the most basic parts of saving faith rather than a statement with political implications.
So why is my statement which you quoted a contradiction to saying Jesus is King?
Well said Curt!
Thank you David. I very much appreciate the comments you make on this website. I wish that I could be as concise as you are. We should always press those we disagree with to keep the discussion rational.
lol nice job troll