“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor, and
the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion,
or both to deceive and overawe the People.”
Eugene Victor Debs
“I was there, and I thought my faith was strong.
Authoritarianism is a lack of faith = Lack of faith is authoritarianism.”
Matthew Edward Hall,
“Social conservatism and neoconservatism have revived
authoritarian conservatism, and not for the better of conservatism or American
democracy. True conservatism is cautious and prudent. Authoritarianism is rash
and radical. American democracy has benefited from true conservatism, but
authoritarianism offers potentially serious trouble for any democracy.”
John W. Dean
My Kingdom is not of this world
Jesus
___________________________________________
Sometimes it is confusing to see people whom I know to be
Of normal intelligence and good of heart
People who would do anything to help a neighbor
No matter, in most cases
Who that neighbor is
Good, bad, or indifferent
To see people who say
With complete sincerity
God is love
And
Jesus saves
Become enmeshed with, and even worship
Power and dominion
Perhaps part of the problem is that the church has
Almost forever
Considered earthly power a thing to be grasped
God, the church says, is about domination
And if you follow God, then you get to have dominion too
After all, Jesus is King
King Jesus is all
“To be a representative of God is to have dominion.”
(actual quote).
And so, we have Project 2025, and worse (if there is such
a thing)
It is not that God is not over all
It is just that God’s dominion is not about coercive
power
It is about transformative love
If you think in terms of Jesus
How he lived and loved, what he taught,
Christian Nationalism is an oxymoron
Right up there with small giants
“If you want to be great in the Kingdom, you must be the
servant of all…
The first shall be last, and the last shall be first!”
What about that do we not understand?
“Yes,” the evangelicals say, “but that doesn't work
anymore. That's weak."
Here it seems is the problem. When you have an angry, coercive God, you
become angry and coercive.
When you have a strict, controlling, even cruel God, you
become strict, controlling, even cruel
But it goes deeper than that.
Most American Christians have been told that obedience is
everything
Not just obedience
Blind obedience
The Bible is literally inerrant. If the Bible says it, believe it,
No questions asked
No questions
No
Questions
Many Christians are taught not to question,
Not to think
Not to challenge
Obey God (not a bad thing, if your view of God is
healthy)
Obey the Church
Obey your pastor
Your husband
Your parents
Obey
Just trust and obey, for there is no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But they aren’t trusting and obeying Jesus
They are trusting in earthly power
And they are obeying earthly powers (obey authority)
They forget that Jesus said obey God, and no one else
And so when authoritarians emerge and (so often) claim
God
The people of “faith” go all in
They don’t question, don’t think, don’t challenge
Ever
They obey, blindly
And they believe disobedience should be punished
Severely
Obey Trump
Obey ICE
Even if what is happening is wrong, don’t resist
And if you do resist?
God will punish you, and we, God’s people, will help.
ICE will beat you, throw you to the ground, and handcuff
you.
Your car window will be broken out
You will be brutally incarcerated
The President (God save the King) will impose martial law
The legal system will punish you
The church will shun you
The programming is powerful, and the response automatic
“She should have obeyed.”
“She is a domestic terrorist.”
“They deserve it.”
If you disobey, you become less than human
And it means anything that happens to you
Is your fault, deserved
I do believe God is over all
But what does dominion look like, God style?
It looks like love, compassion, generosity, and kindness.
It is finding enough safety and strength from one’s
connection to God
That one has the ability not to control, not to coerce
Not to use power poorly
Domination looks like the cross.
Godly domination looks like Jesus on the cross
Saying “father forgive them”
Christ conquered sin and death by feeding, forgiving, and
healing
By loving
And by dying
We need to figure that out.
Now
Before it is too late
