I talked a lot about the New Apostalic Reformation (NAR) on this blog in recent years with good reason. Christian Nationalism is the biggest domestic threat to America and almost no one is publicly talking about it, let alone acknowledging it is a threat to Democracy.
Christian Fundamantalist movements have positioned people in key places at the Federal level to ensure regardless of who actually wins the 2024 :residental Election, a Democrat can’t be certified as the winner. The media isn’t talking about this–yet–and likely won’t until after the election.
I want to draw your attention to the flag largely out of frame outside of Speaker Johnson’s office in the first picture. You can see a clearer version of it in the second picture. The simple white flag with a single pine tree and the phrase “An Appeal to Heaven” or “Appeal to Heaven” actually dates back to the Revolutionary War. It was adopted by The First Continental Army led by General George Washington–later the first president of the U.S.–as a visual battlefield protest of the Church of England and by extension Theocracy as well as the idea of Divine Rule.
One of the oldest and most enduring myths championed by Evangelicals overall is America was founded as a Christian nation. That’s not true and this is made clear by 1/5th of the First Amendment which stresses the following:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
It’s worth noting The First Amendment starts that way and more is said about this than the other four things (Free Speech, Free Press, Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Petition). That’s because the founders wanted the strike a VERY hard balance. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamlton both pushed for the wording being like this specifically to protect people on both sides from having the levers of government weaponized against them. They would not have done this unless they sincerely believed someone would at least try otherwise.
When you take that into consideration, this leaves Christian Nationalist movements with no option other than to outright destroy the government and remake it to their liking. That’s exactly what’s going on as we speak with the current Republican Party.
By the way the Appeal to Heaven phrase is itself from a quote by the American philosopher John Locke. The quote is to the effect “When appealing to earthly power is not possible, all you can do is appeal to heaven.” I put the full text above but basically, the GOP has co-opted this idea cooked up by Christian National movements and the Sovereign Citizens movement to not recognize any government they don’t like or agree with.
…In other words they’re about anarchy, lawlessness and disorder.
The irony is the Bible actually does speak of a time to come in which some would seek to merge Church and State for the puroses of persecution. Such people would believe they’re doing what’s right or what’s best when they only want to weaponize the levers of government against others in the name of Christianity.
As I was writing this article, I caught wind of a grassroots organization called Christians Against Christian Nationalism. It wasd created in 2019–two years before the events of 1/6/2021–by a woman named Amanda Tyler. She was inspired by certain events during Trump’s time in office–most notably the incidents in Charlottesville, VA–to take a stand against these various Christian Nationalist movements working to take over the government at the local, state and federal levels.
I do think we are going to start to hear CACN in the media VERY soon. In an interview with TIME last December, correctly pointed out the roots these Christian Nationalist movements have with White Supremacy. Dominionsts like Mike Johnson are openly telling America and the world they are working to enact Minority Rule–Yes, they’re literally saying it THAT WAY–so that only “the chosen few” have all the power, rights and privilages.
This is also why Dominionists and their allies in the GOP have been working so hard to convince Christians in particular government assistance programs such as social security, SNAP/Food Stamps and Medicare/Medicaid, Universal Healthcare and Universal Basic Income are bad as well. Most evangelicals like to use 2 Thesselonians 3:10 to justify being opposed to not just these things but outright helping people in need unconditionally.
We’ve all heard this before or more often were told this by a preacher or some other faith leader at some point: “The Church is who people should be turning to for help people with these needs, not the government!” That’s true but the problem is it’s a fact Mega Churches are a uniquely American thing. We also know for a fact some pastors live in luxury at the expense of their congregations. This is of course to say nothing of hypocrites who demonize the LGBTQ+ Community or accuse Liberals of being Pedophiles who are then revealed to themselves have a digital stash of child porn or like to dress drag.
We also know many Christian Nationalist movements are working with White Nationalist movements and their mutual allies in the government to convince people in order for them to thrive, their neighbors must be in decline. When they say “Only lazy people who don’t want to work are on government assistance” they are WELL aware that there are many people who legit can’t work through no fault of their own either permanently or more commonly temporarily. Of course, they don’t dare say this to their audience because they need their audience to believe certain narratives about not government assistance but the people who receive those services.
History has already proven “Survival of the Fittest” is a bad ideology and even more so when religious ideologies are utilized to justify it as we are seeing in the U.S. right now. That brings me to Amanda Tyler’s final quote in her TIME interview: “To dismantle an ideology that’s so deeply seated will be a generational project but it’s one that’s urgent for our democracy and for the safety of the country.”
Like I noted earlier, the Bible does warn that there will come a time when some will seek to merge Church and State primarily for the purposes of pesecuting people. We are seeing the early stages of those efforts in plain sight which I have talked about quite a bit since at least 2019. The various Christian Nationalist Movements want to turn America into a Theocracy and they will likely succeed if nothing continues to be done.
The eyes of the world will be on the 2024 Presidental election. These could be the final 12 months of The American Experiment. That’s how serious things are at this point.
Mike Johnson being Speaker of the House ensures even if Biden wins the election, he will not be certified as the winner. Johnson recently made some comments to reinforce that: He affirmed during a press conference he puts his religious convictions before his duties as a an elected official and now Speaker of the House. That thinly veiled statement was meant for his fellow Dominionists to know “WE now control the House of Representatives”. I know I was talking about the 2024 presidental election but another government shutdown is also looming. We all saw how long it took for Johnson to become the new Speaker of the House so…yeah.
Now is the time for people to start preparing for harder times that will be coming for everyone in America who isn’t rich or living a privilaged life right now. A lot of the personal freedoms most Americans have long taken for granted will continue to be stripped away not by laws, proclaimation or ordinances but by how we’ve chosen to treat each other. In fact it’s already started for some in this country. I would urge folks to start stocking up on supplies weather you live in a rural, suburban or urban area.
All that said. There is yet another faction that has identified itself as yet another threat to the American Democracy but I’ll save that for a separate post. You probably won’t be surprised by it though.
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