So are radical evangelicals
MSNBC ran the recording of “Why is this happening?” featuring Rachel Maddow over Thanksgiving weekend. Maddow spoke earlier in the month with host Chris Hayes about her new book, “Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism.” The rise of fascism in the U.S. now echoes the Depression-era movement by Americans who saw fascism as an attractive alternative to democracy.
During the discussion Hayes referenced the views of presidents Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt who felt there were elites destined to rule over others. In that sense they were not small-D democrats. He references debates at the time about what democracy is and whether it is good. Or whether rule by some group or some person is preferable. Our sense of consensus was perhaps an illusion, and disagreement was always there.
Hayes referencing FDR got me to look again at FDR’s speech decrying economic royalists.
“In 1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy—from the 18th century royalists who held special privileges from the crown,” FDR said. He decried economic royalists who “carved new dynasties” to perpetuate their hegemony. But both FDR and Hayes view the struggle from within the confines of American history.
Royalists are royalists. The yearning to be led and the faith of others that they are destined to rule everyone else goes much deeper and is much older than the American Revolution. As old as feudalism. Perhaps DNA-level, metaphorically at least.
Having arrived in the South when a Baptist church on every streetcorner was (again metaphorically) still the norm, it was not hard to notice that conservative Christians especially are raised from a young age to yearn for the Savior’s return. “This, this is Christ, the King,” congregations will sing again this Christmas season in memory of his arrival. More radical congregations drink deep the eschatology of Revelations and look for signs of the Second Coming. The Bible promises His Church will co-rule the Earth with their King. But after two millennia, and especially as they see their cultural dominance slipping and a multicultural America rising, they’ve grown tired of waiting. They want to rule now.
This is the impulse behind the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) that we’ve discussed plenty. A friend pointed yesterday to an upcoming book on the subject, “American Evangelicals for Trump Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times.” The book examines “the three main ideas inspiring NCP leaders who supported Trump in 2016 and 2020—Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and Eschatology (the End Times)—the book examines how these ideas have sustained the evangelicals close to U.S. political power in the Trump era.”
When you hear faith talk from Speaker Mike Johnson, this is where he’s coming from. The less religious on the right who have abandoned any pretense of democracy are secular royalists. They simply dream of a more feudal America in which they rule over you. Jesus-schmesus.