Op-Ed: No, Michael Flynn's ReAwaken America Movement Is Not a 'Desecration' of Jesus
Few words in today’s political climate are likely to stir up a more dishonest and irrational response from a coalition of establishment hacks and controlled opposition pearl-clutchers than “Christian nationalism.”
Last week it was The Atlantic’s turn to trash what writer Peter Wehner describes as a “nationwide grassroots movement” of “Christian nationalists and MAGA ‘culture warriors’” spurred by individuals like retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn, entrepreneur Clay Clark and their ReAwaken America tour, which is exploiting a “mangled Christian faith” in the pursuit of “deranged political ideas.”
Wehner wildly claims that those in politics who most invoke the name of Christ for their political ends are the most “merciless and judgmental” and “consumed by rage and fear and vengeance.” Let that sink in.
It’s not the Jane’s Revenge death cultists vandalizing Roman Catholic churches and fire-bombing pro-life pregnancy centers, or the left-wing extremist who reportedly mowed down 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson because the perpetrator believed he was a Republican, or the anti-GOP thugs who just beat senseless a campaign canvasser for Sen. Marco Rubio, or the unhinged individual who ate pages of the Bible she’d just helped shred in protest of Matt Walsh’s appearance at the University of Wisconsin.
Instead, it’s Christians like Flynn and those who think like him in “MAGA world” whose views and sentiments are “malicious.”
According to Wehner, these “agents of antipathy” are promoting views and attitudes “that are antithetical to the life and teachings of Jesus” and, as such, desecrating the “actual Jesus.” This ostensibly authentic Jesus is crafted from a few decontextualized quotes and parables that reduce God the Redeemer, the second person of the Trinity, to a caricature — a chilled new-age guru who supposedly wants us to embrace our flaws as our superpowers.
Emphasizing the “Jesus of the Gospels, the Sermon on the Mount, and the parable of the Good Samaritan” smacks of the second-century heresy of Marcionism, which embraced the all-loving Jesus of the Gospels while rejecting the wrathful god of the Hebrew Bible. Christians have always rejected this false dichotomy.
The Christ who drove out demons and healed the sick is the one true God who parted the Red Sea, led the Israelites out of slavery, and gave the Law to Moses. One cannot fall in love with the Jesus of Galilee and reject the God on Sinai.
In any case, Wehner never articulates how exactly Flynn and the ReAwaken America crowd are denigrating this supposed “actual Jesus” and his teachings. He alludes to Jesus’ embrace of the forsaken and despised, and his warnings against the trappings of political power, but never elaborates on how these everyday MAGA deplorables, freedom lovers and faithful, pro-life Christians — the very Americans maligned as “semi-fascists” by their president and maliciously targeted by federal law enforcement — are falling short of the mark.
Wehner’s real beef seems to be that these MAGA “extremists,” along with somewhere between a third and a half of the country, question President Joe Biden’s legitimacy. Apparently, the refusal to recite the COVID creed in whose name businesses, churches and schools were closed for months, livelihoods were destroyed, children were muzzled, and unvaccinated Americans were forced out of work has likewise put his nose out of joint.
The conviction that personal repentance and the restoration of biblical Christianity to the public sphere is the only way to save America from the destructive neo-Marxist ideology that has infiltrated the republic is also a big no-no. And the will to reject this malfeasance at the ballot box and urge a better path for the nation is hugely problematic.
Wehner ridicules the language of spiritual warfare and points to C.S. Lewis’ caution against “making the world an end and faith a means.” However, Lewis also explains in “Mere Christianity” that because the God of Israel is good and righteous, Christianity is, metaphorically speaking, a “fighting religion.”
As Lewis understood it, “a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made, and God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.” He emphasizes that “looking forward to the eternal world is not a form of escapism or wishful thinking” and “does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is.” Indeed, throughout history, from the blessed apostles onward, “the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”
Providing we subordinate our human life to the divine life so that the former is always carried out in service of the latter, there’s nothing “toxic” about demanding election integrity, health freedom and a nation shaped by Judeo-Christian values. Nor is there anything fascist, idolatrous or blasphemous about using the democratic process to support communities, institutions, policies and candidates who respect God’s Law and prioritize the needs of the country and its people.
Biden acknowledged in his infamous “red sermon” that “Americans are in a battle for the soul of this country.” People like Flynn aren’t trying to win this fight by an authoritarian, top-down forcing of hands, but by a populist, bottom-up conversion of hearts.
The example to follow is not the so-called “actual” Jesus of this sermon or that parable or those verses, but the God of the Bible, the Savior of the World who, with his apostles, showed us how to submit to the divine will, spread the gospel message, and convert the nations: through peace, love and forgiveness, absolutely, but never by compromising truth, virtue and righteousness.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
