In fight against Christian nationalism power grab, 2 Texas churches help lead way | Opinion
Churches in Arlington and Kennedale helped lead the way last week as a national Christian denomination came out flatly against using God to grab government control.
In one of the boldest declarations yet by a mainline Protestant church, the Indiana-based Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) passed a resolution opposing “Christian nationalism” and prophecy preachings that Christians must take over and “occupy” all government, maybe to trigger the coming of a messiah.
Galileo Church in Kennedale and the nearby Welcome Table Christian Church in Arlington were among 14 national co-sponsors of the courageous resolution defining Christian nationalism — a recent term — as “radically exclusionary” and “using Christian language and imagery to amass political power.”
That’s about the best definition yet for what used to be called Christian reconstructionism — the idea that a nation must be created that is governed only by Christians under biblical law.
Those promoting a “Christian nation” have become more harsh and aggressive and are “seizing power,” the Disciples’ resolution said, and using the name of Jesus Christ to undermine democracy and promote “hate, social hierarchy, fear of the ‘other’ and violence.”
“It passed without much argument,” said the Rev. Dr. Katie Hays, the 10-year pastor of Galileo Church and a former minister in Alabama and New York for the more conservative Churches of Christ.
“People can see that the political stakes have changed at state government, school boards, library boards,” the pastor said.
Galileo Church is particularly concerned about protecting public schools from political attacks, she said.
She lives in the Mansfield school district, where, she said, “hot-button social issues” such as LGBTQ student rights have been used to undermine the confidence in public schools and promote sending state money to parents to fund private school enrollment.
The attack on public education is “less explicit” today, she said.
“We don’t have people showing up in [Ku Klux] Klan regalia. ... But they are asking our institutions to uphold everything they believe and disallow everything they don’t believe.”
In Dallas, retired 33-year Baptist pastor George Mason wrote in a message: “The Disciples nailed it.”
“Christian nationalism is the greatest threat to democracy today,” he wrote.
“It is also the greatest threat to Christianity itself. Anytime Christianity and nationalism unite, the nation changes Christianity more than the other way around.”
Sure, the Christian (Disciples of Christ) church isn’t as big as it used to be.
But neither is any other mainline denomination in an age when worshippers seek extremes and absolutes, not tempered or nuanced messages of faith and love.
But the Disciples remain influential in the Midwest. In Fort Worth, the church founded TCU and retains a relationship with the secular liberal arts university through a Disciples seminary, Brite Divinity School. (Disclosure: I attended TCU two years and have donated to TCU and Brite.)
“Although the Disciples tend to fly under the radar, they have set the bar and leveled a challenge to every denomination,” Mason wrote. “This is a big thing and a good thing.”
Christian nationalism and the prophecy movement have roots here in Tarrant County.
A leading figure, Keller televangelist Lance Wallnau, spoke prominently last week in downtown Fort Worth at Eagle Mountain Lake televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s national conference.
For at least 30 years, Parker County author David Barton has traveled coast-to-coast claiming that America changed from a God-loving paradise to an urban cesspool after a 1962 Supreme Court decision ended the mandatory recitations of Christian prayers in school. He argues that conservative Christians should rise up and retake government control.
More recently, a Grapevine-based cellphone service reseller founded by Church of Christ members, Patriot Mobile, has teamed with Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon to promote voting only for “Christian conservative” candidates who “glorify God.”
The Disciples’ resolution declared that churches will denounce Christian nationalism as a “distortion” and will “speak out and act boldly” against the politicization of Christianity.
They already have.
This story was originally published August 4, 2023 at 12:25 PM.
