Hello my friends,

Today, I just wanted to reflect on some of the angry sentiments I heard from some pastors and Christian influencers after the midterms and the opportunity I believe we Christians in America have collectively moving forward.

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The season of Advent begins on November 29th this year. If you are looking for a daily devotional, I wrote one that takes you through until Christmas Day. It is an eBook that can be read on any device. If you'd like to find out more, you can do so below.

$20.00 Solace: The Birth of Hope in a Time of Longing This devotional is an ebook, crafted as a daily scripture readings and reflections that begin on the First Sunday of... Read more Get it now!

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What the Christian outrage over the midterms reveals once again.

After the election results began to be released this week, I saw several pastors and influencers with millions of followers online express some very troubling rhetoric. They called some of the Christians who won "heretics." They stoked fear about Muslims who were elected. They condemned Christians as "not real Christians" if they voted for democrats. They claimed that this outcome did not honor God.

It wasn't just major influencers though. Unfortunately, I have seen it so much online and on the news from everyday people as well.

It is heartbreaking to see so many who claim to follow Jesus spew so much hatred and fear-mongering towards Muslims being elected, falsely claiming that “Sharia law” is going to be legislated.

It is heartbreaking to see so many who claim to follow Jesus continue to spread lies and fear-mongering about immigrants, LGBT people, and women’s reproductive rights.

It is heartbreaking to see so much vitriolic rhetoric towards fellow Christians who were elected, calling them “heretics” and completely misrepresenting their political and religious beliefs, discarding them all as “evil.”

It is heartbreaking to see so many who claim to follow Jesus declare themselves as gatekeepers of who is allowed to be Christian and even who belongs to God because of who they voted for.

And yet still, so many who claim to follow Jesus still wonder and become outraged as to why Christianity is being objected to and even rejected in our country. Why wouldn’t it be if those who claim to be Christians continue to act this way?

This kind of discrimination, intolerance, and fear-mongering are all core tenets of what so many like myself have continued to try to point attention to: Christian nationalism.

Whenever I use that term, many will say that it is simply a made-up term used to condemn conservative Christians. To those who would respond that way, I want to say two things.

First, Christian nationalism isn't synonymous with Christian conservatives or Christians voting for things they believe in. Everyone, Christian or not, brings their values into the voting booth. When Christians do that, it isn't Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism is the distinct ideology that believes our country should be Christian and privilege Christianity in every sector of society, no matter the different beliefs of those who call our country home.

Secondly, I would want to ask, do you know who was the first to use that term in our country in an official capacity?

In 1943, a white supremacist by the name of Gerald L. K. Smith founded the “America First Party,” and he was their first presidential candidate in 1944. In 1947, he would go on to found the Christian Nationalist Party, which would eventually become the Christian Nationalist Crusade. This movement would eventually become the vehicle that made Christian Identity an organized political and religious movement, which still functions today.

Prior to Smith, Christian Identity was a popular ideology, which had a major societal influence in the 1930s through prominent figures such as Henry Ford and Adolf Hitler.​

Interestingly, if you look at the political cartoon written by Dr. Seuss at that time called “The Great U.S. Sideshow,” it showed a carnival showman pointing a crowd of people to two men on stage who had one single beard that joined them together. On the left stood a man with the phrase “America first” on his suit, while the other man on the right had a swastika on his suit.

Dr. Seuss’ caption read, "And on this platform, folks, those most perplexing people... the Lads with the Siamese Beard! Unrelated by blood, they are joined in a manner that mystifies the mightiest minds in the land!"

Gerald L. K. Smith’s far-right organizing explicitly combined Christianity, American national identity, antisemitism, racial segregation, and opposition to immigration. The Missouri State Historical Society's archival description documents that his organization promoted the preservation of America as a Christian nation while campaigning against racial integration, Jewish influence, and immigration.

In other words, the phrase “Christian nationalist” was already being used to describe an explicitly exclusionary, far-right political movement decades before today's debate even began.

Today, Christian nationalism still blurs the distinction between being American and being Christian. It can create a hierarchy where Christians, especially those on the right, are defined as the true, authentic Americans. Non-Christians and even left-leaning Christians may be tolerated but are not regarded as fully representative of the nation's or the religion's true identity.

People who challenge this nationalist understanding of Christianity are sometimes portrayed as enemies of America and Christianity as a whole.

Who Do We Want To Be?

The United States is constitutionally a country in which citizens have equal rights regardless of their religious beliefs. Christian nationalism constantly challenges that principle when it argues that only one religious identity, specifically a right-leaning version of Christianity, should define who truly belongs and how our laws are interpreted and enforced.

This is why democracy continues to be painted as a threat to both America and Christianity by Christian nationalism. Because you can’t have equal rights for all people when only a certain brand of Christianity is supposed to be privileged and in charge.

I truly believe that God has given us an opportunity for Christianity as a whole to repent from this legacy of nationalism in our country. To dig down deep and see why such vitriolic hatred is spewed towards those of differing religions, different Christian traditions, and even no religion at all from those who claim to follow Jesus in our country. This issue has continued to influence Christianity in our country since its founding.

This is an opportunity for Christianity as a whole to truthfully and courageously reckon with why so much fear-mongering, misinformation, bigotry, and lies are allowed to hold so much sway within Christian circles.

You cannot preach hatred, weaponize Christianity, and appoint yourself the gatekeeper of who belongs in the faith, then wonder why people reject your version of Christianity.

Instead of continuing this legacy of exclusion, intolerance, and fear-mongering, Christianity as a whole in our country would do well to follow the gospel that it preaches. Reckon with its own sins and repent.

Otherwise, we are just going to see this same pattern within American Christianity of repeating the same outrage, fear-mongering, bigotry, and bearing false witness against our neighbors over and over and over again.

To use Jesus’ words, may we take this moment collectively as Christians to stop pointing out the speck in our brothers’ and sisters’ eyes, and inspect the plank in our own.

My prayer is that we can move away from retributive Christianity and weaponized “us vs them” politics and begin to have hard and worthwhile conversations about complex issues that involve real people’s lives and work to find common ground for the common good of all people.

Now I'd like to hear from you! Did you find this helpful? What thoughts came to your mind as you read? Feel free to respond to this email and share your thoughts with me. I look forward to reading them. A 30 Day Day Devotional: I wrote a daily devotional for the season of Advent, which begins on November 29th this year. I wrote it in hopes to provide a companion for people seeking to follow Jesus through the season of we are currently navigating together. You can find out more below: $20.00 Solace: The Birth of Hope in a Time of Longing This devotional is an ebook, crafted as a daily scripture readings and reflections that begin on the First Sunday of... Read more Get it now! ​ Ways to support: If you'd like to support this project, you can do so through one-time-gift of any amount you feel is right. You can also subscribe through a $5/mo, $15/mo, or $25/mo. Several others have also asked for a recurring gift option that is different from the ones offered here, like this one. If you'd like me to set up a different option for you, please just send me an email with the word "support" in the subject line. As always, I really want to thank all of you for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every single week. I'm thankful for the ways we are building this together and hope it creates a lasting, positive change in our world along the way! I sincerely appreciate you all, Ben Remember, you can now view this and all previous newsletters as well as invite friends to join through this link: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/profile.

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