I’ve harped on the notion of Christian nationalism, specifically as sacrilege. Individuals and denominations trouble me. The Atlantic highlights a charismatic group in Tennessee, largely behind a paywall.
“Their version of the Kingdom mapped neatly onto the political goals of social conservatives, libertarians, and, more recently, the MAGA movement. The Kingdom would have limited government, free markets, two genders, one kind of marriage, and one kind of God. The ‘right now’ part, meanwhile, offered an urgent paradigm for mobilizing grassroots believers out of the Church and into electoral politics, government, education, and all other realms of life where they were to assert God’s dominion.
“New apostles and prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation spread these ideas through decentralized networks of churches, international prayer ministries, schools, revivals, and prayer rallies, attracting followers who could find a sense of power and purpose in building the Kingdom. Leaders spoke of believers as ‘warriors’ or ‘God’s army’ or even ‘special forces,’ and churches as ‘military bases,’ and certain apostles as “generals.” They believed that being a Christian meant being in a constant state of spiritual warfare.”
Separation of church and state
It is one thing for a church to believe this, as wrongheaded as I think it is. But I draw the line when representatives of the US federal government promulgate it. FOTUS sharing an AI-generated image on Truth Social depicting himself kissing a golden statue of Jesus Christ, with an American flag in the background, is truly gagworthy. It doesn’t take a religious scholar to compare the relic to the “golden calf” from Exodus, idolized while Moses was bringing the Ten Commandments.
However, I was more appalled by the Department of Defense regularly inserting Biblical messaging into the cheerleading for war.
The Rev. Benjamin Creamer has been a particularly insistent challenger of this attitude. This past weekend, “the official account of the DoD posted Isaiah 6:8, which reads, ‘Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me.’
Along with the post were images of soldiers and war machines that had the caption “send me” in the middle of them.
Creamer writes: “I found it ironic how they conveniently skipped Isaiah 2:4 where he writes about the Lord’s desires for the world: ‘Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.’
“If you will recall, the Department of Homeland Security did a recruitment video for ICE with the same exact passage. It was a video of Shia LaBeouf from the movie Fury quoting this passage from Isaiah.
“It shouldn’t matter our political affiliation; this should disturb every American.”
DoD head
This is not a recent trend with this regime. Baptist News noted: “On May 23, during a commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.,” and “while in France for the 82nd anniversary of D-Day,” Hegseth claimed the verse. “The Pentagon later released a video of Hegseth’s participation in D-Day commemorations titled ‘The Boys of D-Day Said: ‘Send Me.’’” It included not only his quotation of Isaiah 6:8 but an anti-immigrant screed.”
Creamer: Our military is meant to defend the Constitution, not the scriptures of a particular religion. Even scriptures we Christians hold deeply sacred and holy.
“It should also deeply disturb us Christians in the way the Bible is being used by departments like the Defense and Homeland Security. When they equate recruiting ICE agents and sending our military to war with answering the call of the Lord, and they are in charge of where those agents and our military are deployed, who then is ‘The Lord’ in that scenario? They are equating service to them as being the same as service to the Lord.
“That is heresy. That is idolatry. That is blasphemy. It is taking God’s name in vain…
“There is also a deep irony in using Isaiah 6:8 to encourage people to fight wars because Isaiah repeatedly warns against trusting military power.
Examples include Isaiah 2, which envisions a future in which, ‘They shall beat their swords into plowshares…” Isaiah 30 criticizes Judah for relying on military alliances instead of trusting God. Isaiah 31 specifically condemns reliance on horses and chariots from Egypt.
“A recurring message throughout Isaiah is to trust God, not military might.”
